The face I was staring into was one I hadn’t seen before. Not from Nate. My heart hammered in my chest as I felt at his mercy. His hand pushed my right wrist into the brick but it was the hand on my hip that hurt. Wincing, I tried to move but it was hard even to bring my left arm to rest on his.

“Nate…please…you’re hurting me…”

“You aren’t strong enough to fight me, are you?”

His words made me swallow hard. They were deep, angry and threatening. The problem was that they ...