Binds by Rebecca Espinoza Page A

as this murderer, I’m going to show as much displeasure at my predicament as possible.
    He stands up and dusts himself off with his hands and then starts pacing in front of me. “Hmm, how to explain?” he questions himself. I can feel his eyes on me but I am staring out at the horizon. I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of active listening.
    Before he can even come up with his explanation, I have broken my vow of silence. “You just murdered innocent people.” I point back towards the site. My statement is obvious, but I am still in shock and it’s about the most coherent speech I can come up with in the instant.
    “Yes, they are all dead,” he agrees. “But, I didn’t do it alone. We did it, the resistors. If you will allow me to show you why we did it, you might not think those men so innocent.”
    “Don’t throw around the royal ‘we’ with me. I heard you plan it with Jinx. He said to be at the spot at ten for the show. I also heard you use a Bind right before the place exploded. It’s your fault that this happened!”
    “There are Mages planted all around this area. Where do you think your savior Reece and his little lap dog Cass are right now? This was a coordinated and planned out attack against the New World Order. The Bind I used was only to protect us from the blast. And yes, I smiled about it; I can close my eyes right now, imagine it is happening all over again and smile once more. Do you know why?”
    I can do no more than shake my head as a tear makes a trail through the dust down my cheek. Reece and Cass can’t be somewhere down there. I was just getting to know them, but I thought they were two of the good guys. Then again, I willingly married Donovan Brand. I am obviously not the person you can count on to be a good judge of character
    “No, I don’t imagine you would, Princess,” he acquiesces.
    There is a tense silence between us and I am not sure what he will do next. I feel depleted. To escape one monster, only to become ensnared by another; it’s just as Reece said the night he took me.
    Spencer paces over to the berm and picks up my jacket. Then he comes back over to me and drops it in my lap. “Come on, I could try to explain this until I’m blue in the face, but it wouldn’t have the same impact as seeing it for yourself.”
    He makes to walk back to the car, but I stay immobile. My mother always told me that if I was in a situation where a dangerous man was trying to get me in his car I should fight like hell. Once you are in the car, you have barely any chance at all of coming out of your situation alive. If you try to get away, you might still die, but at least you’ll go down fighting and not duct-taped and zip-tied in the back of some psycho’s trunk. Instead of attempting to escape again and failing, I decide to try to bargain with him. I open my mouth to start adlibbing a reason for him to let me go and…
    “Nope.” He lets the word pop, bursting my idealistic bubble. “You are going to come with me now. I told you that you will have a choice on whether you join us or not, and you are going to know everything before you make that choice. Going our separate ways at this point is not an option.”
    I close my mouth, incensed, but I still don’t move. What’s he going to do, drag me back to his car?
    In a flash, he has moved over me, picked me up, and thrown me over his shoulder. I can’t believe it; this fucktard is carrying me as if I am a twenty-pound sack of dog food he just picked up from the store.
    I wiggle and squirm around yelling for him to put me down and he does, right next to the passenger side door. We are nose to nose, and mine is exhaling like a mare on a cold winter morning, the corners curled up and no doubt red with irritation. He is mirroring me in both posture and expression. What does he have to be mad about? Nobody was manhandling him.
    “I get it, you have issues with trust,” he fumes. “You gave your heart and trust to the