CHAPTER 16
Maddie fought her impulse to struggle against the duct tape wrapped around her wrists. The smothering blackness pressed in on her, like a stifling sheet full of static electricity, and the strip across her mouth made it hard to breathe. The chair Dart had pressed her into didn’t have arms, and he hadn’t secured her hands to it, either by design or oversight. She simply raised her taped hands to her mouth and pulled off the gummy strip, gasping at the pain. Much worse than ripping off a band-aid. If Dart had taped her mouth as another test of her obedience, she had failed again and knew he’d punish her for it.
If she were still here when he returned.
Darkness. And silence so loud it hurt her ears. She forced herself to pull in three deep lungfuls of air and focused on letting
