Page 10 of Dancing With Redemption

5

Roxie

“Where the fuck am I?” Roxie demanded to know as soon as the gag was removed, but a bottle of water was shoved into her mouth right away, cutting off her words with sharp pain. The lid of the bottle pushed her lip into her teeth and she tasted blood with the water. Asshole.

But she only thought the word at the guy, without actually saying it. They wore black balaclavas, black clothes, and kept their faces turned away as often as possible. She knew they were the two that had snuck up on her because she could smell the gallons of cheap cologne one of them had on. It was so awful it nearly took her breath away, but at least the rag they’d tied around her head was gone now.

She’d nearly gagged when she woke up to find her mouth filled with cloth, but the terror had soon replaced the sick feeling. One minute she’d been looking around at the cemetery, the next she smelled that horrible cologne and felt something pierce her skin. They’d drugged her with something to knock her out. She knew that because she’d woken up in the back of a van moving down the road.

When the van stopped, the two men opened the doors, one with a gun trained on her while the other dragged her out of the back. That guy had thrown her over his shoulder to carry her to a chair. He’d tied her to that chair with twists of rope around her body, down to where he’d wrapped the rope not around the back of the chair, but the chair legs. She wasn’t getting out of all that rope easily.

Everything was kind of jumbled together now, and her cheeks were bruised. She’d tried to ask questions, but every question had resulted in a slap that stung and made her ears ring. She’d stopped asking after a while, but had hoped they’d mellowed a little as time passed. Obviously not.

She was afraid but would be damned if she’d show it. She’d looked around the empty apartment, but it was empty. Just bare white walls, a few strips of pine here and there, on the floor and the baseboards, but otherwise, no color. At least it was still sunny, so she could see what was going on. Though, as high up as it seemed they were, she didn’t see a lot. Just the sky changing as the hours passed.

There were probably things she should say, that Lincoln would kill them all, or he’d pay them any ransom they wanted. That she didn’t know what they wanted but she’d figure out how to get it to them. She didn’t even know if their plan was ransom. They might be about to sell her to the highest bidder, for all she knew.

The two men, both over six feet tall, hadn’t said a single word in her presence. They just glared at her questions, after one of them slapped her, of course, and kept their lips sealed.

She’d wanted to know who they were, who they worked for, and what they wanted, but there’d been no answers, only violence. A phone chirped on one of the duo and the not-stinky guy pulled it out to read the message. He showed it to the other guy, who looked over at her with a malicious smile.

Roxie’s blood went cold and if she hadn’t been so securely tied to the chair she might have started to shake. The circulation to her hands and feet was cut off, she was tied so tightly. Still, fear replaced her bravado of a moment ago, when she tried to ask another question and got a busted lip for it.

“Stop. You don’t want to do anything to hurt me.” She tried to implore them with her eyes, but they weren’t looking at her. They were too busy untying the yards of rope they’d wrapped her in. Which could only mean they were about to move her. Why? Were they planning to kill her? The stinky guy had the gun, it was in a shoulder holster.

If she could get her hands free, she might be able to grab the gun. Distract them. Questions seemed to piss them off, that would do the trick.

“Come on, guys. I know a lot of rich people. Tell me what you want, what I’ve done, how I can make whatever is wrong right, and I’ll do what I can, really.” She paused when the stinky guy stopped to glower at her. “Seriously now, dude. What have I done to you? Do you want money? I can get you money, just give me a phone, and I’ll get you all the money you want.”

Her answer was another slap, this one spun her head off to the right and she felt her bottom lip split. She gave a short scream of pain, but shut up after that. They weren’t in charge, that was clear from that text message and what they were doing now, but she didn’t want to die. Were they taking her off to kill her?

The not-stinky guy yanked her up, threw her over his shoulder, and carried her into a dark room. Mr. Stinky held up a flashlight to a length of chain that was secured to the wall. Her hands were tied in front of her so when not-stinky guy looped the chain around her waist she had to hold her hands up. The chain didn’t hurt, it just added a weight she didn’t want to feel. She could see from the length of the rope that she could walk around the room, and knew she wasn’t leaving it when Mr. Stinky turned the beam of the flashlight to a bucket in a corner of the room.

Horror filled her as she realized what it was for, but she tried to look around, to find a way to escape. There was nothing in the room that could help her save herself though, not that she could see. Just a chain and a bucket.

The two men left her, with one of them patting her on the ass before they left. That made her skin crawl, but she was used to the unwanted touches of assholes like these two. She ignored the touch, as she had so many before. Before, she’d needed her job, so she hadn’t broken the assholes’ fingers. Now, she was tied up, she wouldn’t be breaking anyone’s anything.

Not-stinky guy came back in with a case of bottled water, put it just within her reach, then left. She heard the lock on the door click, much like the padlock they’d locked the chain around her waist with. Dammit.

There was no food, but her stomach was in so much turmoil she wasn’t worried about food anyway. There’d been so many lean days in the past, days when she’d put off meals so that Lily could have new shoes, or take a trip with her school, that going without food wasn’t a big deal to her. She’d learned last summer about some diet thing called intermittent fasting, which was basically what she’d been doing all these years. Even when times had been a little better, she’d often gone without so that she could send Lily a nice outfit, or to help Aunt Katie with the power bills during the cold months.

When she’d learned about the benefits of fasting, she’d decided she was ahead of the times, that’s all. Now, she just had to prepare her mind for no food, but a lot of water. Not even broth, just plain old water. She could do this, she knew she could.

An outer door slammed, leaving Roxie to wonder if she’d been left alone, or if someone had come in. There was no new noise outside the room, so she believed she’d been left alone.

The plastic wrapped around the water bottles was a pain in the ass, especially when her hands were tied, but she managed to get one bottle free. Taking the bottle with her, Roxie went to the wall and slid down it to the floor. How had she ended up here?

Her thoughts flew back to that night, to the flames and the pain that had nearly destroyed her when she learned her parents were dead. It had been a relief to find out Aunt Katie was still alive, she’d forgotten for a little while that Aunt Katie had taken that night off, but still. She’d gone into a deep depression that only her pregnancy had been able to relieve.

Her thoughts came forward, spinning through each success in her career, the awards she’d received, the piles of cash she’d made and spent. Then the fire at Elmo’s, the way things had turned out with her ex-boyfriend. The insanity that had taken place over the last few months, over her whole life, hadn’t prepared her for sitting in the dark with a bucket for a toilet.

Lincoln’s face flashed in her mind. So many impressions of him had imprinted on her brain. The way he sighed and his face relaxed when he slid into her. The way he smiled at her when she ate the pancakes he brought as a treat for her. Then, many different images, from a pleased smile, to relief during their time in Cambodia, their stolen nights there, in her tent. The anger on his face when he’d confronted her about Lily. The coldness as he’d told her he was taking custody of her daughter away.

The uncertainty she thought she’d caught a glimpse of when he’d shown up to confront Nick. That had confused her, but now, she wondered if he’d been unsure about his decisions.

She could only hope that he was already looking for her. That she hadn’t burned the bridge with him entirely, and that he hadn’t washed his hands of her.

“Please, let Lincoln be looking for me,” Roxie said out loud, just to break the silence. And just in case it made it more meaningful to whoever might be listening. “And also, if I die, please don’t let my daughter hurt too much. Don’t let her live her life with the pain I’ve had to endure. And don’t let my death be horrific either, please. Not for me, but for her.”