Page 43 of Dancing With Doubt

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Lincoln

Lincoln was hungry. Cold and then hot. And fuck, if his mouth wasn’t a desert full of sticky cotton. He was certain he’d lost some skin on his tongue because it kept sticking to his cheeks or the roof of his mouth. He had a fever, but he wasn’t sure why. Stress, perhaps. Could thirst cause a fever?

There’d never been a need for him to find out if it could. He’d been in actual deserts before with more water than could be found in this shitty little room of nothing. If he weren’t so weak, he’d get up and pace, but he was drooping from hunger and dehydration. It was best to save his energy for when Nathan came back. Not that he needed much energy for a battle of wits against that asshole.

What had Roxie ever seen in him, he had to wonder, his knees pulled up so he could rest his wrists on them. He’d taken off his suit jacket long ago and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt. A shower would be a beautiful thing right now, but that wasn’t the biggest worry he had.

He wasn’t even overly worried about dehydration. He was worried about Roxie and what she might be about to do. She was either trying to mount a rescue or extremely pissed off that he’d vanished on her. Either one was a definite possibility. He hoped she was doing neither.

Nathan was unstable and would do anything to get what he wanted, which made him a different kind of dangerous. Brute force, revenge, hate, these were things Lincoln could deal with. A man out of his mind on drugs, terrified of the fate he’d brought down on himself, willing to do anything to escape that fate but too high to keep his thoughts straight was a whole new level of hell Lincoln had no clue how to deal with.

The car came back, the shutter opened, and Nathan walked in with his bandaged hand wrapped around a plastic bag. Lincoln’s mouth hoped it was water.

“Stay there,” Nathan said, pointing a gun at Lincoln. “Don’t move.”

Lincoln watched him, noting how the bags under Nathan’s eyes were bigger, his mouth drawn down in a frown that was more inability to control his facial muscles than anything. The hand holding the gun shook so badly Lincoln had to look away.

Nathan was either in need of more drugs or about to fall over. Lincoln watched, pondering how awful it must be to need a drug so badly you’d kill yourself for it. Pity made Lincoln calm, but anger diluted the pity. Yeah, okay, the guy was beyond help but that didn’t mean he had to hurt other people. That’s where the pity stopped, when the man’s addiction intruded into the lives of others in a damaging way.

“You can have this once I leave.” Nathan croaked after a long moment of staring at Lincoln, as if trying to figure out why the man was in the room. “I’m waiting to hear from Roxie. Once I do, I’ll bring a phone and you can arrange to get me the rest of the money you owe me.”

Lincoln didn’t point out that he didn’t owe Nathan a damn thing, he just kept his mouth shut. He needed the drink that was making the bag in Nathan’s arm wet. It must be cold to do that, and Lincoln was certain that if he had the extra moisture in his body his mouth would be watering.

Lincoln nodded agreement when Nathan’s right eyebrow perked up over his eye. “Yeah, I’ll get you whatever you want, Nathan.”

“Cool.” Nathan mouthed but he didn’t actually speak.

“You know it’s going to take a while to get that kind of money together, right?” Lincoln couldn’t remember if they’d had this discussion already. His brain was fuzzy from the physical stress he was under. Or it could be that even his brain was drying up.

“Yeah, man, I know.” Nathan shrugged and looked away, uninterested.

“Why are you doing this to me? I haven’t done anything to you.” Lincoln prodded, trying to get some kind of information out of the man.

Later, once he’d had some water, he’d think about wringing the man’s neck out like a washcloth. He needed water first.

“You took Roxie from me, first of all,” Nathan answered, anger flaring briefly to life in his eyes.

Lincoln would have reminded him that he’d left Roxie long before Lincoln came to town, but he knew that would go over the man’s head. He’d have pointed out that he also destroyed Roxie’s apartment and assaulted her twice but didn’t. What was the point? There would be no logical answers from Nathan, everything would be twisted, even the things Nathan had done.

“Fuck it, I’m out. You can have this shit once I’m gone. Don’t waste it.” Nathan put the bag down carefully, keeping the gun on Lincoln, even though his hand still shook like crazy.

Nathan backed up out of the room, his eyes still on Lincoln. Once the shutter was down and Lincoln heard the rattle of the padlock being closed, he moved to grab the bag. Two bottles of water, a plain hotdog in a bun, and a few candy bars. It was something anyway.

Lincoln drank half of the first 64oz bottle before he dug the hotdog out and ate it. A sigh broke from his lips, even if the hotdog was cold. His belly had food in it and water was making its way into his system. He’d be able to think better now, and maybe deal with this punk when he visited next.

Hours passed and Lincoln figured out he’d lost track of time. He didn’t know if the sun had gone down or if it was about to come up. In the end, it didn’t matter really. Had it been two days or three that he’d been locked up like this?

Another guzzle of water finished the first bottle, but there was one more. That one would have to last. For now, sleep was on his mind. The air in the room was colder but he didn’t put his jacket back on. That was his pillow. Rolling down his sleeves, Lincoln lay back down and closed his eyes.

If he got out of this, he’d take Roxie back to Cambodia. They were happiest there of anywhere they’d been together so far. He’d give up his business or put it in the hands of someone that could run it for him, and he’d devote his life to making her smile every single day.

Kai would find out eventually who the men were that took her parents from her and would have the problem dealt with. And if Roxie was in Cambodia with him, there’d be no reason to worry anymore. She’d be free of all of her worries and would be able to spend her days as she pleased.

He knew she’d miss dancing, but maybe she could teach ballet if he built her a studio there. He doubted many of the women in the village would want to learn exotic dancing, but then again, women from all walks of life had joined her classes. She’d have whatever she wanted, and she could do whatever she wanted just as long as she was safe.

His eyes opened for a moment but closed again. There’d been a noise outside, another car passing by. It wasn’t Nathan because the car kept going past his prison.