Katarina POV Inside a shipping container in an unknown place
My mouth was dry. My head throbbed like it had been split with a sledgehammer.
I blinked once. Then again.
Dark.
Too dark.
My wrists were tied behind my back with something sharp and tight. Rope? Wire? I couldn’t tell. My legs were numb. My body ached like I’d been thrown off a cliff.
No windows. No breeze. Just rust. Heat. And bad intentions.
The walls were metal, sweating in the heat. I could hear the slow hum of a generator outside. The distant thud of footsteps. And something else—panting. Not mine.
It smelled like rust and sweat and something dead.
No light except the flickering orange glow from a bulb that buzzed like it hated its job.
I shifted and felt pain rip through my shoulder. A bruise. A fresh one.
My m
