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Her captor caught her looking around and shook her like a rag doll

"Don’t be looking at ot nothin’ to do with you"

Black splotches swaht them away, determined to remain conscious She needed to see as ht consider thoughts of escape ridiculous in her current situation, but that didn’t stop Sid Situations could change People could grow lazy or co She wouldn’t need et her hands free

That thought had a deflating effect, and for the first tiht of her predicament Her shoulders slued her through the side door and into the house

The sturdy door and elaborate lock confirmed that this wasn’t an ordinary house, that it was probably used by drug dealers But Sid couldn’t iine what they’d ith her She’d done an article or two on the drug culture in Chicago, but that had been h attention to inconvenience anyone, h a filthy kitchen srease and old trash, however, she had a second, chilling thought Aden had wiped out the heart of the slave network, but he hadn’t caught the one vampire Sid was absolutely sure had been the driver behind the whole thing Carl Pinto And Kle dealings

She felt a tre her entire body before it was finished She wanted to attribute it to the drugs they’d given her, or to the adrenaline overload, but it was fear, pure and simple She’d seen what Pinto was capable of, his cruelty and callousness The wo but ht and sold, and if they weren’t profitable, they were crushed and throay

"That’s right, bitch," her captor said, reacting to her tre "The man’s lookin’ forward to takin’ care of you"

Sid couldn’t have responded to the taunt if she’d wanted to, not with the tape still covering herto stay on her feet, trying to come up with a scenario that didn’t end up with her dead or shipped off as a slave She was pretty sure she’d rather be dead

"Sidonie Reid," sorowled, and she looked up to find the very va leather chair, the only piece of furniture in the roo apart

Sid sed hard, her heart pounding so violently that it felt like it was crawling up her throat and had to be forced back to where it belonged

"You’ve caused irl A lot of trouble," he repeated thoughtfully, alot you now" He nodded to the guard holding her arm, and she was shoved forward and to her knees, so that she had to look up at Pinto as the tape was ripped off herdown at her with cold eyes "That’s where you belong, where all of you belong"

"All of us," Sid croaked, ignoring the voice inside her head that was telling her to shut up She knew that it would be so down fighting, even if all she had to fight ere her words "You mean all of us humans, or all of us woe fill his face seconds before he leaned over and backhanded her hard enough to spin her around and slam her to the floor He’d used his open hand, which was the only reason she was still alive He was a vath was several times that of a human A casual slap could break her jaw And that had been no casual slap Her ears were still ringing, and she was having trouble seeing straight

"Watch your mouth, whore, or I’ll put it to better use"

Sid lay on the floor, blinking, trying to coht, to confront this nity she had left

"Get up," Pinto demanded

Sid made the effort, but she’d been hit twice today, both ti longer for her to recover That her hands were still bound behind her back didn’t exactlyherself off the floor and nearlyto her side, unable to catch herself with her hands tied