Even though I knew no one else was in the room, I still looked around to see if the question was somehow directed at anyone else but me.

“You want me to decide what happens to her? Okay then, how about you let her go?”

Barbara nodded furiously. Her curly hair bobbed like a fishing line over the end of the table as she moved. “Yes, yes, please let me go.”

“You like that idea, Barbara?”

Cain crossed his arms and leaned against the table like he was contemplating the idea, but it was easy to see in his eyes that he was only playing a game. Again Barbara didn’t see it or didn’t want to—I wasn’t sure which, but to me, it was as clear as night and day.

“Yes, please. I’ll never tell anyone about this. Just let me go, and I’ll disappear.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Cain said and sighed.

Barbara made little whimpering noises. “Are you going to chain me up like her,” she asked.

Cain’s brow lifted in a sweeping arc that was way too seductive, considering he was teasing about killing someone.

“Like Sunshine? Oh no, I’m sorry, Barbara, but she is…” he paused as he tapped his chin, his eyes finding mine and making my heart rate spike again. “Unique,” he finally said.

“Why did you ask me what to do with her if you had no intention of doing what I say?”

Cain’s eyes flared with a sexual heat that stole the air right from my lungs. As if we were in the middle of an earthquake, my body trembled from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. It wasn’t fair. Why did I have to be attracted to this man?

“I asked you because I was curious what you’d say, Sunshine.”

He made his way over to the far wall and a small set of keys I’d never noticed hanging there. I felt like everything in here should have a chalk line around it. Nothing was safe once in his grasp. He wandered over to one of the locked drawers and pulled out a folded leather case.

“I thought you might say you’d like to see her die, maybe run your fingers through her blood or fuck me on her dying corpse.”

“What the fuck,” Barbara said and started to struggle again.

My mouth dropped open, not sure what the hell to say in response. “Why the hell would you think I’d ever say that?”