Chapter 2
I sat at the table in the basement for the next 16 hours trying to occupy myself until she woke up. If, she woke up. I'm beginning to think the tranquilizer in the arrow was too much for someone of her height and body weight. I searched her thoroughly in the first few minutes that she was out. Aside from a few hundred in her jacket pocket and a weirdly simple tattoo on her right side at her ribcage, there was nothing. I didn't know any more now, than I did before I shot her. She needs to wake up.
I grabbed a capsule of smelling salts, broke it open and stuck it under her nose. She inhaled deeply and I immediately moved to the outside of the circle I gauged to be her kick radius. She didn't wake up.
I sighed heavily. Patience is not my strong suit.
I pulled my father's book from the wooden box and opened it to show all the names written in his familiar handwriting. I was losing time, but I have to find out who she is and what she knows before I have to kill her.
The faint sound of the cuffs clanging against the steel beam I'd shackled her to had my head jerking in her direction. Now, I would get some answers.
"Good morning." I couldn't help but smile. She was going to be pissed off and I was wholly prepared for another round.
Her head snapped towards me at the sound of my voice and if looks could kill, she would have dropped me where I stood. "What have you done?" She screeched angrily.
"What I had to." I bent down, making sure that I was far outside her radius, but close enough so that I could see every detail of her flawlessly beautiful face.
"You've made a very big mistake." She narrowed her eyes at me, fixated and swallowed hard.
"I think it's you who has made the mistake." I gave her another look over, making sure there was no way she could get loose before I pissed her off even more. "Why are you following me?"
She smiled. She has an amazing smile. She looked up at her hands and jingled the cuffs a little before she looked back at me with a sultry stare, "Gee Casanova, the cuffs usually don't come out until the second date."
Cute. I rolled my eyes and stood up so that I could look down at her as I folded my arms across my chest. I guess I could shoot her again. "I think maybe you need another nap and when you wake up, you'll be a little more forthcoming with useful information." I turned to get my bow.
"No!" She yelped and the desperate sound had my head jerking back towards her.
That sound ripped through me and I nearly ran to her and unlocked the cuffs. How does she have this effect on me?
"No." She said, calmer this time. "I don't need another…" She paused. "nap." That word seemed foreign to her. "How long was I out anyway?" She asked as she sat up with her back against the beam now and her hands above her head and she looked up at me through long dark lashes that kissed her cheeks each time she blinked.
"16 hours." I said. "Give or take." I didn't want her to think I had been counting. I stepped back and sat on a low rolling stool, where I had spent at least 9 of the 16 hours, so I could stare at her while she was sleeping. But, I wasn't counting. "Ready to talk?"
"Sure." She smiled brightly and I braced myself for whatever unpredictable mess that was going to fly out of her mouth. "My name is Tristen." She annunciated each syllable and never stopped smiling, "I like long walks on the beach, lavender bubble baths and I spend all my extra time scrapbooking. It's my passion." And there it was. Scrapbooking, really?
I couldn't help but smile and laugh just a little, "At least you're telling the truth about the bubble baths." I could smell it even now. The crisp, tantalizing smell of lavender as it radiated off of her body in waves that made me want to revel in that amazing, pure smell that relaxed me from head to toe. I stood up and walked back to my computer.
"How do you know?" She asked, almost sweetly.
"I can smell it. Lavender." I pulled up surveillance on my next target as I talked to her. I had to get my head back in the game. She wasn't going to tell me anything without a fight and I wasn't sure if I was mad enough to fight her again, yet. I would find a way to make her talk, it wouldn't be easy, but I would find a way.
The cuffs jingled again and I heard her shuffling around. I really hope that the cuffs and the beam would hold her.
When I looked back at her, I could see blood seeping from the wounds on her wrists made from the sharp edges of the steel cuffs. "What are you doing?" If she dies from blood loss, I'll never get the answers I need. I walked over to her, but stayed outside the radius I had measured earlier. I looked down at her wrists and the blood that flowed almost freely. It almost hurt me to see her suffering like this. It hurt me to know that she was hurting. She looked up at me, studying my face and I knew then that I had been showing my concern. I might as well have turned over on my back and showed her my belly.
"I'd help you, but…" I killed my sympathetic look as I spoke to her this time.
"But what?" She asked coyly.
"I don't trust you." I returned her coy smile and walked away.
"The feeling is mutual!" She spat back at me. "You're a liar."
"Really?" Who the hell does she think she is? "How's that? You don't even know me."
"You said no weapons." She replied. "Yet, here I am," She jerked hard at the cuffs, clanging them against the steel beam with such ridiculous force I turned my head slightly to look at her, "cuffed to this thing because you couldn't play fair." I heard and saw the blood splatter on the floor again. Damn woman.
"You'd better cut it out before you make yourself pass out." I think her words bit me a little. I wonder if I could have beat her had I not shot her with a tranquilizer laced arrow. She is insanely fast. I kept my face serious as to not let on that I was actually concerned that she really was about to lose consciousness again, if she didn't quit being a stubborn ass.
She smiled arrogantly and let out a small laugh before she sucked in a hard breath and her eyes rolled back. She fell back against the beam, fighting it. I shook my head. Her knees went and she came down on them hard before falling back onto the floor.
"Told you." I couldn't help let a small smile pull my lips away from my teeth. At least it would be quiet again for a while, before I woke her up to try again. This time, I wouldn't be so nice.
