by Debra Webb
The hiccupping of her sobs made the repulsive mouth still pressed against her cheek curve with triumph.
“First, I’ll sew your eyes shut.” Taunting fingers dragged across her blindfold. She shuddered. “It’ll be so much better that way. You can’t covet what you can’t see.”
Somebody please help me! The silent plea resonated through her soul...but no one would hear.
“The end result makes perfect sense.”
What made perfect sense? She didn’t understand. Why was this happening to her? Why couldn’t she remember how she got here? One minute she was walking...the next she woke up here. Cold, damp...and the smell. She shuddered. Like stagnant water.
The devil pressed closer, the heat from his vile body drawing hers even as she wanted to scramble away. To run. She was so cold. So very cold.
“Everyone will be so much happier,” the seemingly disembodied voice promised, its texture becoming velvety...soothing, almost. “You’ve been such a selfish girl...such a rotten snob. The Devil knows everything you do...and you’ve been so, so bad. Now it’s time to pay.”
Terror relit in her veins, igniting her need to escape. She shook with the force of it, jerked at her bindings. Let me go! God, please, please help me! Her screams rammed against her throat...the sound silenced by the tape over her mouth.
“I’ll do things to you...” his disgusting tongue flicked in her ear and she tried to draw away, “...that will make you understand just how toxic you’ve been.”
Warmth spread around her bottom as urine gushed free, The final humiliation. She had no control...she was completely helpless.
Defeat drained the last of her fight and the fear let go of her heart. The certainty that no one was coming...that she was going to die won the battle. One by one her muscles went lax. Her mind drifted from this awful place.
“Lastly,” he said gently, dragging her fleeing attention back to this dark, damp, evil place, “I’ll mark you as a sign to ensure that no one ever forgets how beauty can conceal such poison.” He hummed a satisfied sound. “Then, I’ll leave and you’ll die, cold and alone.”
The ruthless grip released her hair. Her head fell forward.
The scrape of steps on the cold stones faded as the devil walked away.
Her body twitched and she collapsed onto her side against the cold, hard rocks. Vomit surged into her mouth and nose, strangling her with its bitter burn.
No one was coming to save her.
Not even God.
She was going to die.
Tremors quaked her powerless body.
She didn’t want to die.
No. No. She didn’t want to die.
Find me. Please, God, just let them…come find me.
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About the Author
DEBRA WEBB is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 150 novels, including reader favorites the Faces of Evil, the Colby Agency and the Shades of Death series. She is the recipient of the prestigious Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense as well as numerous Reviewers Choice Awards. In 2012 Debra was honored as the first recipient of the esteemed L. A. Banks Warrior Woman Award for her courage, strength, and grace in the face of adversity. Recently Debra was awarded the distinguished Centennial Award for having achieved publication of her 100th novel. With this award Debra joined the ranks of a handful of authors like Nora Roberts and Carole Mortimer.
With more than four million books sold in numerous languages and countries, Debra’s love of storytelling goes back to her childhood when her mother bought her an old typewriter in a tag sale. Born in Alabama, Debra grew up on a farm and spent every available hour exploring the world around her and creating her stories. She wrote her first story at age nine and her first romance at thirteen. It wasn’t until she spent three years working for the Commanding General of the US Army in Berlin behind the Iron Curtain and a five-year stint in NASA’s Shuttle Program that she realized her true calling. A collision course between suspense and romance was set. Since then she has expanded her work into some of the darkest places the human psyche dares to go. Visit Debra at www.debrawebb.com.
