Laura’s POV
He led me down a flight of steps into a basement. My legs hardly obeyed; every step felt like walking into a deeper nightmare. When we reached the bottom, I wished with everything in me that I had never followed.
The cellar was a room of cruelty — a place designed to punish. Tools lined the walls in rows, racks of implements for hurting people hung like trophies, and dark stains marked the floor. The metallic tang of blood hung in the air. My stomach flipped. My throat closed.
“Come on.” His hand at my elbow was iron as he dragged me forward.
I wanted to step back. He didn’t let me. We stopped in front of three bodies suspended from heavy chains — two men and a woman. They were naked, their chests rising and falling shallowly. Their skin was really bloody and raw in patches
