All or Nothing Read Online Free PDF Page B

standing and could remain upright.
    Now to see what that noise was.
    Gingerly she walked across the room, aware that she could see nothing and that she might collide with something sooner rather than later. Her hands moved out in front of her, instinctively feeling the way. They didn’t take long to find a wooden surface, her fingertips detecting splinters and a doorknob. It took even less time to find out the door was ajar and a good few feet of gap was between the door and its frame. However, it took Kathryn even longer to think about going through the opening.
    Hesitation had set in early. Kathryn wasn’t a stupid person. She was methodical, cautious, liked to think things through and act only when appropriate. Who knew what stood beyond that doorway? She had been put in this room for a reason, and whoever put her there didn’t want her escaping.
    Or did they?
    If she was a prisoner, why did the door open?
    This made her even more suspicious.
    The open door was like bait, a trick, a human sized Venus fly trap. Someone did want her to escape. Whoever it was wanted her to go through that door and walk straight into a trap.
    Maybe she was paranoid, maybe she wasn’t.
    But she wasn’t stupid.
    Kathryn Cox was staying put.
     
    ***
     
    The second man cursed his monitor on the desk in front of him. He stood up and circled his luxurious office, only parts of the interior visible from the solitary light on the desk. Shadows bounced across the room and the desk and the floor. The man took a seat and tapped his keyboard. The camera zoomed in to show the woman sitting on her bunk. Minutes before she had been at the door, about to leave the room. Now she had come back to sit down again. Not moving, staying put.
    Bitch!
    Get out of there! I'm already three minutes behind everyone else!
    His cool attitude had gone now, his face a mask of anger. Sweat beaded his brow and his hair was dishevelled, as his fingers ran through it.
    That little bitch had no idea what was at stake. Only he knew what was riding on this. And as it stood, the odds were severely stacked against him.
    He rubbed his face, wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand.
    Then he smiled.
    He tapped a button on the keyboard, which brought up a red bar on the screen. It read thirty five out of one hundred. He tapped another key and the number rose to forty five, then fifty.
    Feel the heat, bitch!

SIX
     
     
     
    Heather Mason was concerned.
    Concerned and confused. And a little sick.
    It'd been three minutes since she'd stepped through the door that rendered her a prisoner. Thirty seconds of that had been taken up with her finding the end of the dark tunnel that led to her previous temporary home. Another door had greeted her, which meant the tunnel had been a little less than double the size of her cell. The second door had been shut, but not locked.
    Opening it had brought her to her current situation.
    It took a full minute for her eyes to adjust to the light that welcomed her. In fact, she had to shut her eyes and use her hands as a shield while her eyes focused on the light. It was like staring at the sun, it burned at first. At one point she even turned away. Once she had prepared herself, she turned back to the room in front of her.
    And looked down.
    Her clothes!
    When she went to work (today, yesterday, last week?), she had been dressed in a two-piece pinstripe grey trouser suit. The trousers were snug around her butt and thighs, and finished neatly just above her ankle. Her ankles had been hidden that day by black leather boots, newly polished and immaculate. She liked to polish her shoes regularly, appearances meant everything in her job. Looking good got you places, it meant you were paid more and sometimes it meant the boss might want to fuck you, and smooth the way towards rapid promotion - not that Heather was interested in such perks. Heather just liked to look good, because it made her feel good, and it helped her forget the bad memories