Scared by Sarah Masters Read Free Book Online Page B

shelves. He lifted the lid and looked inside. Meat feast.
    Stomach griping, the sound loud in the cavernous kitchen, Stephen pulled the box out and placed it on a centre island topped with black marble. He searched the cupboards underneath until he found a plate then laid three large slices on it. He put the box back in the fridge.
    While waiting for the pizza to heat in the microwave, he browsed the room, taking in the stark white cupboards and the black tiled floor. Everything was so neat and tidy. So clean. Nothing homely about it, all pristine and perfect like some fucking show house. He puffed out a laugh. Mum had been right. If you were rich, you could have anything. Do anything.
    Including abducting people and fucking their arse whenever you damn well please.
    The microwave dinged. Stephen took his plate out and settled gingerly on a cafe stool at the breakfast bar that spanned the far end of the room furthest from the door. He glanced to his left out one of the windows, through the black slatted blinds, seeing nothing but a great expanse of grass and a small forest at the bottom. He shuddered at the thought of people like Jonathan and Kevin standing guard down there in the shadows. Guns at the ready.
    He saw no dogs.
    A faint sun struggled to shine in the murky grey-blue. Would be ages before it changed places with the moon. A long day ahead.
    Stephen sighed and returned his attention to his plate. He picked up a slice of pizza and bit into it, waiting for his stomach to clench, rebel. When it didn't, he chewed slowly then swallowed. Waited a few moments in case the pizza wanted back out. It didn't.
    Stephen ate the whole slice before a yell came from behind a door to his right. Why hadn't he noticed that there before? He stared at it, noted a keyhole beneath the brass handle, but no key. Was that where the “guests” were? Behind there?
    Getting off the stool, he approached the door and dared to try the handle. He lowered it slowly, but the door didn't budge. Like it would have been unlocked. Frost wasn't stupid enough to do that knowing Stephen had the run of the house. Another yell came, and, like the last, wasn't one of pain but of anger. Like someone was frustrated as hell and needed to shout to release some tension.
    What was going on?
    The yells had been muffled. As though far away.
    Curious, yet scared shitless in case Jonathan or Kevin came into the kitchen any minute, Stephen lowered to his haunches, ignoring the burn of his arsehole. He peered through the keyhole.
    A long corridor, lit by spotlights recessed in the ceiling.
    Several plain white doors on either side, spaced out like each room was maybe eleven by eleven.
    One door at the end, different from the rest, mahogany, studded with carved squares.
    Someone yelled again. Angry. Violent.
    Another voice came, plaintive, heart-wrenching. “Mum! I want me mum!"
    "Oh, fuck,” Stephen whispered.
    They have someone else in there? They abducted someone else?
    He stood and went back to his seat. Sat there and stared at the cooling pizza, unable to eat another bite. What the hell kind of place had he been brought to? Bile zipped up into his mouth, burned his tongue. He swallowed, desperate for a glass of water. Almost running to the centre island, he opened doors, trying to remember where he'd seen the glasses. Finding them, he took a crystal tumbler from one shelf and staggered over to the sink, praying he wouldn't be sick. He filled the glass, gulping down the cool liquid, standing stock-still, waiting for it to come back up.
    It did, in a torrent, splashing up the sides of the white sink.
    Frantic, petrified he'd be caught making a mess, he ran the tap and cleaned up, thankful the pizza had stayed down. Another yell came, this time one of pain, chilling Stephen to the bone. What were they doing to whoever had cried out like that? Who was doing it? Frost? One of his men?
    Shutting out the questions, Stephen retrieved his plate and dumped the pizza in the