I hit what feels like pavement, and I almost sigh in relief. A road. I peer left and right, and the lights of the cars begin appearing both ways, burning my eyes. I squint and take a step back, debating which way to run. The road was behind the bridge, I believe, so I’ll go left, the way that leads away from him.

With bare feet, I start making my way down the road in a light jog. My legs are aching, and an awful tingly feeling is creeping its way up my body. My body is stiff and sore, and my head is pounding, but I don’t stop. Nothing can make me give up right now.

I don’t even want to consider how close Axel might be. I didn’t hear him yell. Maybe he thinks I didn’t surface.

Then I hear the rumbling of a Harley-Davidson, and my body stiffens. I slowly turn, and see one single light hammering toward me. With a scream, I leap off the road and begin running through the trees again, hitting them and scratching my body with their twigs. I see a light flash, and then I hear the sound of boots crunching. I pick up my pace, and end up running directly into a large, thick tree. I am launched backward with a scream, and blood spurts from my nose. I cry out loudly as I feel my body sink to the ground in shock.

Then I feel arms, wrapping around me and dragging me back out through the trees.

“Let me go,” I scream.

“That was fuckin’ stupid, but smart. You’re fuckin’ clever, you little shit,” Axel growls.

“My...n-n-n-nose...” I choke out, pressing my hands over it as Axel drags me.

When we step onto the road, Axel lets me go and flashes the light across my face.

“The fuck did you do?” he asks.

“I ran into a tree trying to escape you, you stupid fuck!”

He snorts, and then turns to his bike, opening the side panniers to get an old, oily slither of material. He lets me go for a split second, so I turn and attempt to launch my body back toward the shrubs. If I can run further, maybe a car will see me with blood all over my face, and stop.

Axel growls and runs after me, his boots crunching loudly on the gravel. He reaches me before I even have the chance to get fifty meters down the road.

My body is exhausted.

I’m exhausted.

His fingers curl around my arm, and he spins me towards him with a feral hiss. “Fight as you may, you will not escape me. I’m not going to be making such a stupid mistake again. You’re cluey, girl. Smarter than I’d thought. Your dad would be real proud.”

“How dare you?” I seethe, tugging my hands, but he’s got them firmly clasped in his.

He steps back, keeping one hand on the chain of my cuffs. He takes his shirt, and pulls it up, unhooking one arm before switching hands and unhooking the other. My eyes widen in shock at the sight of his excessively large, muscled body. Jesus. He walks toward me, and curls his fingers around the back of my head, pressing his shirt to my nose. I’m grateful he decided not to use the scrap of material, but the pain of him pressing it against my face has me crying out in agony.

“Stop fuckin’ movin’,” he orders. “I have to hold this here until the bleeding stops, because clearly you can’t hold it.”

He rattles my handcuffs, and I want to cock-punch him.

“You fucker,” I growl, but it comes out as a muffled sound that even I can’t understand.

“I can’t understand you,” Axel says, and his tone is amused. “But by all means, keep cursing me. I imagine that’s what you’re doing behind my shirt right now.”

Asshole.

He stands there for a solid ten minutes, neither of us speaking. When he’s satisfied the bleeding has stopped, he pulls the shirt away and tucks it into his jeans.

“On the bike. We’re goin’ back.”

“I hate you,” I mutter, gripping the bike seat and throwing my leg over it.

“If you gave me what I wanted, we wouldn’t be going through this constant ‘me cat you mouse’ bullshit.”

“I’m not giving you anything until you tell me everything,” I say defiantly.

“Ain’t nothin’ to tell.”

“That’s a lie, Axel, and you know it.”

He glares at me, but takes a helmet and shoves it toward me. I’m thankful, in that moment, that it’s an open-face helmet and not a closed-face one, or I’d be in a world of pain right now. I shiver as a gust of wind whips past me, causing my damp clothes to feel cool against my skin. Axel climbs on the bike in front of me, and then turns back, uncuffing my wrists and pulling them around his waist. Then he cuffs them again. He’s not stupid. Then, without warning, he pulls out onto the road.

I close my eyes, unable to stop myself, and breath in the fresh, crisp air. Being on a bike is like being free. There are no words to describe the intense feeling of joy that swells in your chest as you soar through the wind, nothing surrounding you, nothing holding you down. It’s just you and the bike. Or, in my case, you, the bike, and the biker. I concentrate on the moment of freedom, instead of focusing on the way my lips are trembling from the cold, or the fact that I’m cuffed to a man that despises me.

Worse I’m trying to ignore the feeling of his warm, hard skin against my hands.

By the time we get back to Axel’s compound, my nose is pounding, and my head feels heavy. Axel helps me off the bike, and leads me directly to his room where he spins me around and uncuffs me before taking the hem of my shirt, beginning to raise it. I screech loudly, and he snaps his hand back.

“What the fuck?” he growls.

“Don’t touch me!”

He narrows his eyes. “You want to stay here, in wet fuckin’ clothes?”

“No, but I don’t want you touching me.”

“Fine, I’ll go and get Cobra to do it. He did enjoy it last time.”

My mouth drops open, and I clench my fists. He knows he’s giving me a choice, and he knows I can’t refuse him. I’m cold, I’m wet, I don’t want to be in these clothes all night, and I certainly don’t want Cobra taking my clothes off again. God only knows what he did last time. Lowering my eyes, and clenching my jaw, I lift my arms.

Axel rolls his eyes angrily, as if my hesitation was stupid, and then he takes my shirt, lifting it over my head. I keep my eyes downturned as he moves his large body down mine, and grips my pants, lowering them too. I don’t want to look at him, or recognize that my body is having some sort of reaction to him being so close. My feelings for Axel confuse me, and I don’t know that I’ll ever begin to understand them.

When I’m in my underwear, he stands and tosses me a shirt. I pull it on, and it goes all the way down to my knees. It’s one of his. My heart stammers, and again, it makes no sense to me. He’s a monster to me, and yet my body is reacting every time he’s this near. I stand still as he chains me back up on the floor, and then he turns and I hear him ruffling around. A hand is shoved in front of my face a minute later, and I see he’s got some painkillers and a power bar. Shock fills my body as I reach out, and shakily take them.

Then he leaves the room without a word.

Just for something different.

* * *

The next few days are spent going over the same bullshit. He asks for the USB, I deny him, we get into an argument, and he storms out. By day four, I’m tired of the same crap. I’ve contemplated just giving it to him and leaving this place, but I’m not entirely convinced Axel will let me go once he gets what he wants. He’s a whole other person now. Someone I don’t know.

And yet he’s drawing me to him like a magnet. I want to know what went down. I want the story. I want answers. I need my closure. I don’t know what happened to Axel, or why he needs this USB, but I want to. I should hate him for killing my father, and part of me does, but part of me knows there’s so much more to it than I could ever imagine.

And until I can understand that, I don’t want to leave.

So I keep playing this silly little game. On the night of day four, I’m curled up in my little spot in the corner, ignoring the ache in my thighs and legs from sitting too long. Axel gets me up, and moves me around, but I spend most of my time here, chained up, as if I am a wild animal. He’s trying to break me. I’m not stupid. My wrists are chaffed from the cuffs, and my body is weak with dehydration. I feel exhausted, and yet sleep most nights is non-existent. Instead I listen to Axel sleep, and dream.

He dreams a lot.

I hear the door creak open, and I move my eyes up to see Axel walking in with those lazy, heavy eyes. I slowly lie down and close my eyes, once again too tired to deal with his shit. I hear him shuffle across the room, and then I hear him stop in front of me. I peek through my lashes to see him kneel, and stare down. His eyes hold something I’ve not seen before. It’s compassion. A certain level of gentle I didn’t think he had left.

God, what is he doing?

He leans down, stroking a finger across the hair covering my face. I try not to shiver. Why is he touching me like that? I swallow, and try to keep as still as possible. Axel leans over me and I hear him rattling the chains. He unbuckles them, and hooks his arms under me, lifting me off the ground. I barely have the strength to open my eyes, but I do, staring up at him. His are heavy and sleepy as he looks down at me.

“What’re you doing?”

He doesn’t answer me. He just walks me over to his bed and pulls back the covers, putting me in. He grips my wrists, unchaining them. My chest swells with hope until he takes my hand, and pulls a set of cuffs out of his beside table. He raises my hand above my head, and cuffs it to the bed. He leaves the other free. Then he moves down to my feet, and he untangles them from the chains.