The Secrets of Roan Island

26. Ruby

26

Ruby

C oming back to myself happens slowly, as if my body has been through a battle and is now pulling itself from the soil where I was buried. I stretch, every muscle rioting with overuse, then lick my dry lips and realize I’m parched.

From the biting.

The sex.

The pleasure.

I smile and open my eyes, expecting to see the replica library. Only that isn’t where I am. An artificial light hangs above a metal table in the center of the small, unfamiliar room. Four square metal doors with latches line a wall beyond the table. No windows.

I swallow but ignore the fear coalescing in my gut and instead sit up on a cot that creaks as I move. I’m naked underneath the thick blanket. Shivering, I pull it higher around my shoulders.

“Where the fuck am I?” I voice the question to the empty space, and it echoes without an answer.

Standing, my heart tripping with a doubtful rhythm, I pull the blanket tighter. The metal door opposite the cot seems vaguely familiar, though I can’t place it. The concrete floor is cold under my feet as I pass the narrow metal table, noticing the deep grooves and scratches in the surface. A sink sits at the end of the table, the annoying drip of water from the faucet plinking into it.

“Noah?” I call quietly, hating the timidity in my voice. Why isn’t he with me?

When I reach the door, I pull on the lever, but it doesn’t budge. Locked.

My heart plummets as if pushed from a cliff. What the hell?

“Noah!” I shout and smack my hands against the door. My pulse thunders so loud it blocks the sound of my fist hitting the door over and over. The room isn’t dark, but the corners of my vision grow black. Locked in. My airway closes as my breath moves in quick, painful bursts through my lungs. I’m back in the basement, in the dark, the door locked, David laughing from the otherside.

But it’s not David this time. It’s Noah. He tried to warn me that he wasn’t a good man, but I didn’t believe him. Shame douses me as if a bucket’s dumped freezing water over my head. The cold creeps all the way down to my bones.

I close my eyes and take slow deep breaths. I’m stronger than this. I survived David. I can survive whatever game Noah’s playing. He’s probably on the other side of the door enjoying my screams for help, just like David.

But I can’t picture it.

All I can picture is Noah’s teeth sinking into David’s neck. The fire in his eyes when he caught David trying to hurt me. How gentle he was when he brought me something to eat and drink last night. The way he didn’t just take. He gave.

My eyes fly open.

Noah wouldn’t do this.

I shake my head.

He wouldn’t.

Jafeth? Shemaiah? Mrs. Darning?

Hammish, maybe. He’s capable of it, I’m sure.

But if any of them did this, they’d have to get through Noah. A new panic sets me beating on the door again. What if something happened to Noah?

I need to get out of here.

“Help! Noah!” Heedless of the blanket falling, I pummel my fists against the door. “Let me out!”

No one answers. No one comes.

My hands throb. My arms ache. My throat goes dry.

Still, nothing.

I swallow, shut my eyes, and lean my forehead against the cold metal of the door. “Noah,” I whimper, the fight going out of me. The latch clicks. I jump out of the way as the door swings open. Noah. I fling myself at him. “You found me.”

His arms wrap around me, holding me tightly, and the fear melts out of my body. “Shh, you’re okay.” He slides his hands over my skin. “You’re cold.”

I shiver.

He walks me back into the room to retrieve the blanket from the floor and wraps it around my shoulders. “I’ll bring you your clothes. But for now, you need to eat.” He pulls away and grabs a tray from a table just on the other side of the metal door. He brings it back into the room, then herds me toward the cot.

I balk. “I can eat out there.” I glance over his shoulder at the open door.

“It’s safer here,” he says, his hand curled around the back of my neck. “Sit with me.” But he doesn’t sit, waiting for me.

I freeze as his words hit me. “You knew I was here?” I look up, hurt slamming into me like a punch to the gut.

“You think I’d let you go anywhere without my knowledge?” His expression softens, and he tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. “You’re mine, Ruby. I protect what’s mine.”

I open my mouth to protest, shaking my head, but an uncontrollable, soft shudder at his touch gives me away. There’s something mystifying that draws me to Noah. Some part of me that wants to belong to him, wants him to belong to me, which goes against every ingrained belief in me. My logical brain is vying for attention, yelling at me to put up more of a fight.

I take a deep breath and ask the question I don’t want to ask. “Did you lock me in here?”

He doesn’t hedge, doesn’t shy away. In true Noah fashion, he says simply, “Yes,” and gently pushes me toward the cot.

Fine. This is fine. I might be jumping to conclusions. Maybe he just wanted to keep me somewhere safe while he went to get food. I don’t know how much time has passed, and his brothers might still be crazed with new moon hunger. That’s it. I’m sure it was just a momentary thing.

But I need to be certain.

I maneuver out of his hold and take a step toward the door. “I’ll just go put some clothes on and then we can eat. Why don’t you bring the food–”

There’s a smack of metal on metal, and Noah’s in front of me faster than I can take a second step. “You can’t leave.” His eyes are black as night.

I hate that the sight of his predator makes my sex clench with need.

I shake my head and attempt to step around him. “I’m not staying here.”

He blocks me with a step and lifts his nose as if catching a new scent. He smiles, revealing his fangs. “Yes, you are.”

“You can’t just lock me up, Noah. I’m not your prisoner.” Tears leap to my eyes, and I sniff to keep them contained. I don’t want to feel weak. Not right now. Then I realize I know his secret, his family’s secret. My eyes jump to his face. “I won’t tell anyone. You have my word.”

“This isn’t about that.” He stalks forward, forcing me backward until I bump up against the little doors that line the far wall. A latch digs into my shoulder blades. He leans forward, his nose in the crook of my neck, his warm breath a promise of what could happen if he bites me. I’m suddenly very aware that I’m not wearing a shred of clothing beneath this blanket. My body heats, and I grow wet with needy anticipation. But now, it just makes me angry.

“You’re not going anywhere, Professor. You do something to me I can’t explain. You quench a thirst you gave me. I’m desperate for you. Ruined for all others. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I can’t do my damn work. All I think about is you. All I want is your cunt around my cock and my teeth in your veins.”

He’s so close I can feel his breath on my lips. His hips against mine. He’s solid. Imposing. Taking up the space in a way that steals my breath for more reasons than one.

He growls. “I can smell you, Professor. You like when I play the big bad wolf, the monster in the dark.”

I shouldn’t. “I don’t.”

He laughs. “Valiant effort.”

Shaking with anger, with lust, with frustration, I pull back and slap his face as hard as I can.

But he just smiles, grabs my wrist, and pins it to the metal behind me as the blanket falls to pool around my feet.

“You want it rough?” He grips my other wrist and brings it to meet the one above my head, holding them in one large hand while his other slides down my side. “I’m more than happy to oblige.” His hips rock against mine.

“Get. Off. Me.”

He immediately pulls back, brow wrinkled. “What? Why?”

A manic laugh leaps from my lips. “You locked me in a cell! You kidnapped me!”

He shakes his head, drops my hands, and steps back.

I scramble for the blanket, pulling it up to cover my nudity. When I look at Noah, he looks as if I’ve plunged a knife into his heart.

“I’m protecting you,” he says, then swallows. “I thought we were having fun.”

My jumbled emotions explode in tears and laughter. “Protecting me? Protecting me!”

“Yes!” he shouts. “My father will end you.”

“So you’re locking me up?”

“Yes!” He shoves a hand into his dark hair.

“And this is the only thing you could think to do?” I turn away, unable to look at him, all the fight going out of me in a puff of breath as I realize the hopelessness of my situation. He’s stronger, faster, tougher. And I’m at his mercy. “You’re no better than David.”

He spins me, gripping my chin, eyes narrowing. “I may be a monster, but I’m nothing like that low-life filth. I would never hurt you , Ruby.”

The shattered pieces of my heart thump in my throat. I take a deep breath and return his stare, putting on a braver face than I feel. “You are exactly like him.”

Noah recoils, dropping my chin like it burns. Without a word, he tears out of the room, slams the door, and locks the latch.

In a fit of rage, I search the room for something to throw, see the tray, and hurl it at the door. It crashes and breaks. How could I have been so wrong about Noah? I can’t believe I trusted him, gave myself to him.

Despite my wounded heart, my will is just as strong. I need a way out. My eyes land on the little metal doors I bumped into moments before. Perhaps they lead somewhere. They’re just big enough that I could crawl through. Or maybe there’s something in there I can use.

I open the one closest to me.

Look inside.

And scream.