After a brief but aggressive confrontation, where a little blood might have been shed and furniture broken, Skeletor gained the upper hand and threw Cordray face-first to the floor. Stars and Tweety Birds broke free in her vision. Good thing she couldn’t feel anything or this could be one fucking ugly sitch.
“Calm the fuck down,” he barked, driving his knee into the center of her back as he yanked her arms behind her. “This is just a little courtesy call.” He was using a modulator to disguise his voice.
“If this were a courtesy call, asshole, you could have simply picked up the phone. Or, better yet, hacked into my computer again.”
He wrapped a pair of flex cuffs around her wrists and tugged the ends to tighten the bands before jerking her off the floor and shoving her into the club chair by the window.
She glared up at him as he paced to the side, head turned toward her. Today, he wore a grey and black mask that looked like something out of one of the war games her kids played on their PS4.
But she could still make out his eyes through the dark-grey screens of the eye holes. Those intense, grey-blue eyes that reminded her of slate were like beacons, even shielded as they were.
“Listen to me.” He bent forward and pointed a finger at her.
She spat at him.
He pulled back, and an air of exasperation and frustration fell over him.
Trying to worm her way inside his head, she met with a wall of black. Nothing. He gave her nothing, his mind sealed more tightly than Area 51.
He chuckled. “Nope. You’re not getting in there, sweetheart. Too many things I don’t want you to see.”
“I’ll bet.” She glared at him.
He glared back, unmoving and rigid.
“What do you want?” she bit out, pulling against her restraints.
“I want you to back off. Way off. My beef with Micah Black”—he said Micah’s name as if it were a curse—“doesn’t concern you.”
“It concerns me now, dick face. You’ve broken into my home. You’ve endangered my kids. Don’t expect me to let this go.”
He blew out a derisive breath. “You’ve got bigger problems here than me.”
Cold dread rained down her back. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He pulled a bundle of thin blue rope from one of the pockets in his cargo pants and began to uncoil it. “You’re not the only one who knows how to do research.” He knelt in front of her. “But if you want to know what I found out, stop helping Micah. Stop searching for me in that little computer of yours. And stop trying to track me. And then I’ll tell you what’s really endangering your kids. And trust me, honey, it’s not me.”
“It is if you don’t tell me.”
He stood, grabbed the front of her shirt, and yanked her out of the chair. “I’ll tell you after you drop your manhunt. Then we’ll both be happy.”
“Then we’re at a stalemate.”
He remained motionless for what felt like an eternity. “So we are.” He gruffly spun her around and lassoed her with the rope.
Ten minutes later, she lay on her bed, secured with a series of Shibari knots intricate enough to make Micah drool. It looked like Skeletor had gone to the same school of Domination and submission as Micah, but instead of fire and floggers, ol’ Skellie got off on Japanese rope tying.
“Think about my offer, Cordray” he said, straightening and tilting his head to the side as if admiring his work. “I’ll be in touch in a couple of days to see if you’ve changed your mind.”
“Don’t count on it.”
“We’ll see. Until next time . . .” He opened her bedroom door and disappeared like a wraith into the hall.
Cordray shouted after him. “Do you know which portal the ankh opens?” It was a desperate move to see if she could learn anything else about him, but seeing that she was tied up and all, she was in a desperate position.
A moment later, Skeletor took the bait and backed into the doorway. “You are a smart one, aren’t you? I’m impressed.”
“Do you?” She glared up at him, praying he would give her something. A clue. Anything that would help her find him once she got free of these fucking knots.
The way the outside corners of his eyes turned up behind the screens in the eye holes, she imagined he was grinning. He raised his index finger and waggled it back and forth. “Stop looking for me, Cordray. And stop working outside your pay grade.”
“Or what? What will you do?”
His demeanor turned stony. “I’ll tell the world who you really are.” He paused as if he knew he’d gained the upper hand. “You wouldn’t want that, would you? To ruin your precious brother and his saintly reputation.”
What in the hell did this guy have against her brother?
It didn’t really matter. The fact that he knew she and Bain were related was enough to catapult her pulse into the stratosphere. “How do you know that?”
He chuckled. With the modulator, it made him sound like a demon, which was perfect, given the mask he wore. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” He winked at her. Winked! Then he was gone.
And all Cordray could do was lie there like a fucking human origami.