Page 91 of Keeping Kara

In her peripheral vision, she saw him turn his head.

“We’re here,” he said triumphantly. “Home sweet home, at least for a while. Until I think you’ve learned your lesson and I decide to kill you.”

He said the words so nonchalantly, it scared the shit out of Kara. She even allowed some of the fear coursing through her veins to come out in her voice when she struggled to speak. “What’re you going to do?”

He laughed. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

Then Nolan got out of the car and walked to the front before stretching exaggeratedly, a grin on his face.

The bastard had to know how stiff and sore she was. He was already trying to break her in this petty little way.

Fuck him. She wasn’t going to break.

She might pretend to be intimidated, but inside she was swearing a blue streak at Nolan Colins. Calling him every bad name she could think of. Picturing him getting gang raped in prison.

Eventually, he walked around to her side of the car and opened the door.

“Are you going to behave?” he asked.

“Yes,” Kara said without hesitation.

“Doesn’t matter if you do or don’t, you aren’t escaping again. I’ve made sure of that. Even if a flood comes by and takes this house away too, you’ll drown before you’ll be able to escape.” He laughed, a sound that made every hair on Kara’s arms stand up.

He reached in and untied the cord around her neck, and for a split second, Kara could take in her first full breath in hours. But that didn’t last. As soon as he unwrapped it from the headrest, he pulled it tight around her neck once more.

He pulled her out of the car by the cord and threw her to the ground. She landed on her side, resisting the urge to reach for her neck. There was no way she’d be able to loosen the long cord, all she could do was try to not have him pull on it, thus tightening it even more.

“Heel, bitch,” he said, with another one of those evil laughs, then began walking toward the cabin.

Kara was thankful for the clothes she’d changed into, thinking she’d be tromping through trees and high grass looking for Fred, because the pants protected her knees from being scraped all to hell as she scrambled after Nolan like the dog he was pretending to walk.

The urge to stand up and bum rush him was strong, but she stayed on the ground. She wasn’t going to be able to outrun him here, and he’d wrapped the cord around his wrist several times anyway, so even if she was able to tackle him, she doubted that would cause him to drop the “leash.” Then she’d be in a worse situation than she was now.

He pulled her up the stairs and into the cabin. There was dirt and dust covering every surface, and moss growing on a wooden table next to what was once probably an adorably rustic kitchen. The place smelled awful, as if an animal—or two or three—had died inside recently. Kara even saw a mouse dart into a small crack in the wall, as it was startled by their appearance in what had probably been his quiet and peaceful home for quite a while.

There were no bedrooms as far as Kara could see, but then again, it wasn’t as if Nolan was giving her the grand tour. He pulled her over to one side of the cabin and grabbed her arm, forcing her to her feet. He slammed her back against the wall, making Kara gasp in pain as her head made contact with the sturdy wooden slats.

He then unwound the cord on his wrist and grabbed her hands. He wrapped the rough rope around her wrists several times, then wound it around her waist, securing her hands together against her body, before reaching above her head with what was left of the rope.

She wanted to lift her head to see what he was doing, but the restraint was too tight.

“There,” he said in satisfaction, taking a step back to check out his handiwork. “You won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, that’s for sure. You need to piss, you’ll do it standing up. And if you fall asleep? You’ll hang yourself.” He laughed. “I’m gonna enjoy this.”

He turned his back on her and headed into the kitchen. When he reentered her line of sight, he had a bag in his hand. He took out a pillow, a blanket, and bunch of MREs, the kind of meals military members ate while on missions.

“It’s not the Hilton, but it’ll do for a few nights. Here’s the deal, honey—I’m not going to kill you.”

Kara blinked. Wait…what?

“You’re going to kill yourself.”

He laughed again, hard, as she gaped at him.

“It’ll be interesting to see how long you can stay awake. I’m sure you’ll do fine at first, but eventually your body will give in to the need to sleep, and when it does…” He made a choking sound and let his tongue fall out of his mouth.

“It’ll probably wake you up immediately. But it’ll happen again, then again and again. You’ll shit yourself, pee, maybe want to puke—but I don’t recommend it, as you’ll have to swallow that shit, since the rope around your neck is too tight for you to expel anything. And I’m going to sit here and watch every single second of your misery.”

“Why?” Kara asked.