Read Dark Redemption (Broken Souls #1) Online
Authors: Sarah Marsh
Sofia came awake slowly to the smell of the pasta she’d had in the oven. She panicked thinking that she’d fallen asleep and forgotten to turn off the stove and tried to bolt up. When her limbs wouldn’t move, she opened her eyes in confusion, only to see a large, dark man looming over her with a frown on his vaguely familiar face.
“What’s going on?” she slowly asked, realizing she was sitting upright in a chair with her hands tied together behind her back. “Who are you―where am I?”
“I’d worry less about where you are, Miss Boon, and more about where your boyfriend Carl may be at this moment,” the frightening man said in a threatening voice. “If you tell me what I want to know, tomorrow you will wake up back in your apartment and this will all just have been a bad dream.”
Sofia tried to clear the cobwebs out of her head. She felt like she’d drank about four bottles of wine, but when she recalled going over to Carl’s to see if he was coming for dinner, she remembered who this stranger was supposed to be. She also realized he’d drugged her and that she was no longer in either of their apartments. Panic began to set in.
“What do you mean, boyfriend? Carl isn’t my boyfriend. I mean…we haven’t even had dinner yet! I just asked him out this morning!” Sofia answered in a full panic now. “Somebody help me!”
“You can yell all you want,” the man said as he walked over to the kitchen counter and unrolled what looked like a chef’s knife roll. “But you’d be shocked at what throwing a lot of money around can obtain you in sound proof and escape proof fetish living. There’s an entire community in this city that offers safe places to play or for…other things. No one will hear your screams here.”
Sofia looked frantically back at him and the counter, except instead of kitchen knives inside there was a horrifying collection of thin blades and other sharp objects she couldn’t even identify.
Oh God, I’m going to die!
she thought. She’d watched enough HBO to know that now she’d seen her assailant’s face and could identify him, he would surely kill her once he was done with the torture he was about to inflict on her.
“You’re going to kill me!” she wailed again as she started to hyperventilate. “Oh God, oh God, oh God…”
***
By the time Eitan took two steps back toward her, the woman was already gasping for air. She was in a full blown panic, clearly terrified by his display. That, at least, ruled out her being a professional spy, didn’t it? When he’d contacted his boss, Hays, he was told Sofia Boon was to be treated as Donovan’s accomplice and that he was to use extreme prejudice to get the information they needed out of her. He hadn’t seen anyone fake a panic attack like this, but maybe she was just new to this game. Hays must have had some information on Sofia if he was that confident about her connection to their mark. If Donovan had seduced her into working with him, Eitan highly doubted the bastard would’ve been honest about the possibilities of torture should she get caught. He pulled her head forward so he could look straight into her eyes and spoke calmly.
“I am not going to kill you, Sofia. If you answer my questions truthfully, I have an injection that will erase the memory of your time with me and you will go on living your life like this never happened,” he said slowly, watching her eyes blink and her breathing finally start to even out. “Do you understand me?”
When he released her head and took a step back, she was softly gasping, tears still falling down her face.
“Are you going to hurt me?” she finally asked, her breathing once again quickening when she looked back toward the tools on the counter.
Eitan sighed and rolled his tool kit back up. There was just no way this woman was a criminal. He needed to talk to Hays and find out what the hell was going on, but maybe he could bluff a little and get some info out of her. “As long as you tell me everything I need then I won’t need to hurt you, Sofia…but I will if I have to, so keep that in mind if you try to deceive me in any way.”
“Why would I deceive you? I don’t even know what you want!” she sobbed. “Please just let me go.”
“Where is the man you know as Carl Roberts, Sofia?” her captor asked as he placed a chair in front of her and sat down.
“I have no idea! Carl was supposed to have dinner at my place tonight and he didn’t show up at seven. That’s why I knocked on his door,” she said once again, then her eyes went even larger. “Oh my God, I left the oven on when I walked over there. The building is probably on fire by now!”
“I turned off the oven when I went to search your apartment after you passed out.”
Eitan studied her closely. She was genuinely relieved she didn’t have to worry about setting the building ablaze. Would a criminal worry about others living in her apartment building? None that he’d ever met would.
“Oh, thank God,” she answered and then looked back at him with narrowed eyes. “Why did you search my apartment?”
“To make certain I knew who you were before I began questioning you, and to make sure no one would notice that you’re missing for quite some time,” he answered ominously.
Eitan could see the wheels turning in her head, and she was most likely thinking about how long it would take for someone to notice she was missing. Most people did, after all, once they’d been abducted, and from the information he’d managed to grab out of her office and her computer, things weren’t looking very good for Miss Boon. Seems he had all the time in the world to make her crack.
Over and over again the man asked the same questions and Sofia gave him the exact same answers. She barely knew Carl Roberts. She hadn’t even been on one date with him. She didn’t even have his cell phone number, and she sure as hell didn’t know where he was right now. Thinking clearly had been next to impossible. She couldn’t stop thinking about the torture tools he’d had on the counter earlier. Horrible scenes played out behind her eyes over and over again. This was a very unfortunate time to have the rampant imagination of a writer, because the more she thought about what he could do to her, the more upset and manic she became. She’d been crying the entire time. The front of her shirt was soaked and her mouth was parched.
At least she finally believed this man wasn’t going to outright kill her now and dump her body in the river, which was a small relief, but still she didn’t know how long this would continue.
“Can I please have some water?” she finally asked, hoping he’d have a little pity on her.
“Yes, I’ll get you some.” He walked over to the fridge and pulled two bottles of water out. He opened one up and brought it to her lips so she could drink.
Just then his cell phone began to vibrate and he looked at the screen and walked toward the other side of the room.
“Sir,” he said in a low voice as he answered the call. “Yes, I have her…no, there wasn’t anything at her apartment. I went over it thoroughly…I really don’t think she’s an accomplice―why would he tell you that?…are you certain?…affirmative. I will continue until I have the location.”
Sofia didn’t get too much information from his side of the call, but it certainly sounded like she was still in a lot of trouble. Especially when he stepped back in front of her. The angry set of his eyes was terrifying and she could barely breathe thinking about what he may do to her.
“You haven’t been telling me the truth, Sofia.”
“What?” she answered quickly, eyes wide with renewed fear. “Yes, I have!”
“My employer has apprehended Carl Roberts and he says you’re in possession of the zip drive with the stolen information on it,” he replied, tangling his fingers in her long, dark hair and pulling her head back firmly so she had to look at him.
“I don’t know why Carl would say that,” she sobbed. “I don’t know anything about it.”
“Do you have any idea what he did to get his hands on that information? Any idea who you’ve gotten involved with, little girl?” he said in a low, furious tone, “He murdered a female CIA operative in cold blood for that drive. He slit her throat from ear to ear.”
Oh God
. Sofia almost gagged when he told her that. She broke out in a cold sweat thinking she’d invited that monster in to have dinner with her. She’d thought he was a nice guy! But she still didn’t know anything about the zip drive this maniac was going on about.
“Why won’t you believe me?” She was still a sobbing mess. “I don’t know where it is―he’s lying.”
“He wouldn’t be lying, little girl. He’s strapped up to a polygraph machine and the bastard is trying to make a deal for his freedom. The location of that zip drive is the only bargaining chip he has, and he can’t be allowed to see the light of day after what he did to that woman, so one way or another you’re going to tell me where that item is.”
He stormed out of the room, leaving her there to imagine the worst. Would he go back on his word not to hurt her? Sofia was deathly afraid of any kind of pain, and her heart began to thump in her chest just imagining what the tall man with the stone gray eyes would do to her.
***
Eitan was furious as he left the room, his boss was convinced this slip of a woman knew the location of the zip drive and he’d just been ordered to torture the information out of her. But he wasn’t convinced this tiny woman was even capable of hurting a fly, let alone aiding and abetting a complete sociopath. His instincts were telling him Sofia Boon wasn’t knowingly involved in this at all, but his boss was adamant she was. If Eitan outright refused to continue, then Hays would probably just send someone over to pick her up and continue her interrogation. But if she
was
innocent, that would mean he’d helped kidnap and torture an innocent woman, and he couldn’t let that happen.
That didn’t seem to be his only problem. He wasn’t as immune to her as he should have been. Sofia was just supposed to be another mark, just another faceless criminal…wasn’t she? Eitan had never let his emotions get in the way of his job before, but there was something about her big blue eyes that got to him. Those eyes that were now puffy and red as she’d been crying nonstop since she’d woken up tied to that chair. She was either one of the best liars he’d come across in a very long time or Donovan was somehow passing the polygraph while bullshitting his ass off. Which was possible, he supposed…after all, Ben Donovan was a con artist of the highest caliber; but why would he risk his only shot at freedom and lie about where the drive was? No. She had to have it. It was the only possibility; but there was a slim chance she didn’t
know
she had it.
Clearly, coming at her with threats of pain and violence wasn’t going to get him anywhere with this woman. He was going to have to use a different kind of persuasion. One he would enjoy a great deal more.
He needed to disarm her mentally and emotionally if he wanted to get more information out of her than the ‘I don’t know anything’ she’d been giving him for the last four hours. He could tell when a person’s limits were snapped and she’d already passed that level of rational thought. Now it was time to turn her perspective upside down and see what he could shake loose.
“You must be hungry. I’ll fix you a plate and then you can rest,” he said as he strolled back from the bedroom, seeming to have his anger back under control.
“Yes,” she said in a quiet voice. She didn’t want to set him off again.
Sofia was surprised when he went behind her and untied her hands. The blood rushed back as she bent them forward and stretched in relief.
“Go into the bedroom and I’ll bring your dinner,” he said, staring directly into her eyes as if he was daring her to disobey.
She’d spent the entire time while he was in the other room looking frantically around the apartment for a way to escape, but the windows didn’t open at all, and it was obvious they were high up enough from the view that she wouldn’t be climbing out onto any fire escape anyway. There was a complicated alarm pad beside the door that seemed to imply he was telling the truth about her not being able to leave that way either. Seems she really was trapped. Sofia certainly couldn’t take this man on in a fight. He was clearly well-trained and outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds. Without any real options, she followed his instructions and went into the bedroom, taking a seat on the bed, as it was the only thing to sit on.
A few minutes later, he arrived carrying a tray and set it down beside her. It was the full dinner she’d planned to serve Carl, right down to the tiramisu she’d made for dessert. Clearly the man had not only abducted her, but he’d raided her fridge as well.
“Like Italian food, do you?” she asked sarcastically before she remembered to curb her tongue.
He just looked at her for a moment and she wondered if he was going to punish her for her big mouth, then without a shred of humor, he replied as he handed her another bottle of water.
“I don’t like to waste food, especially when it looked and smelled that good.”
There was a tiny place deep inside of her that was pleased with the compliment, coming from such a dominant man. Sofia imagined he wasn’t one for false flattery, so if he said it, then he probably meant it. But the moment quickly came to an end when he retreated out of the room and she heard the click of the door locking behind him.
Sofia instantly jumped up and scoured the room and adjacent bathroom for some kind of exit or weapon she could use, but of course, the stranger made sure she didn’t find anything. Eventually, she gave up and returned to eat, as it had to be well past midnight by now and she was starving. When her belly was full, she curled up into a ball under the covers on the bed and cried herself softly to sleep.
***
Eitan checked the video monitors in the bedroom to make sure Sofia had eaten what he’d left for her. She tossed and turned for hours before she finally slipped into a deep, exhausted sleep and he set his alarm so he would wake up at dawn to prepare for the next stage in her interrogation.
The next morning he quietly entered the room and stared at the lump she made under the covers. He’d made certain to increase the temperature in the room before he slept last night…that way she would be less likely to notice when he began to draw down the sheet that was covering her.
He was amazed to see that she’d kept the covers on at all, really, as she was still fully clothed and sweating from the heat underneath. She sighed in her sleep as he pulled off the sheet and made room for her to extend her legs. She certainly was a sweet little package. Her curvy frame was padded in all the right places, and the more Eitan saw of her, the more his body was on board to begin what he had planned. He hadn’t been joking when he mentioned to her that this apartment was fully set up for full bondage play. The wrist and ankle restraints were built right into the wall above the bed and were adjustable enough that he was able to slowly draw her arms up and lock her wrists in without waking her. It was even clearer now that she couldn’t be a spy if she still hadn’t woken up with his presence in her bed.
When he had her bound, he took a small knife and carefully removed her skirt and blouse, revealing a sexy purple lingerie set underneath that set off her creamy skin perfectly. His dick immediately reacted when his fingers trailed over her soft skin. He didn’t want to imagine that bastard Donovan getting to touch her sweet little body. He could almost see through the delicate lace of her bra and panties and he was more than tempted to remove them as well.
But that would come later
, he thought as he felt her breathing begin to change. His little captive was beginning to finally wake, and his game of seduction and confusion would begin. Soon enough she would be doing anything to help him find the location of that zip drive, and Carl Roberts would be a distant memory. Eitan didn’t want to think about why that thought gave him so much satisfaction.