Page 7
“Where are you taking me?” I question, but don’t get a response. “What is the plan? He won’t come for me.”
“Do I need to gag you? Or do you want to ride in the trunk?”
“Are you sure you know how to open it?” The words slip out before I can stop them.
“Funny,” he says coldly. “Let’s see if you’re still laughing by the end of this day.”
His words scare me enough to stay quiet for the rest of the drive. We pull up to a rectangular building with a tin roof. I’m guessing it took us about an hour to get here, and for the last ten minutes, I haven’t seen another house.
He parks, gets out of the car, and comes to my side so he can pull me out. The sky is clear, and though it’s in the middle of the night, there is enough light to see my surroundings. Besides the house and the dirt road we came on, there is no sign of civilization.
I’m so fucked.
I’m beyond scared when he drags me inside the house and walks me into a bedroom. He shoves me onto the bed, and I immediately scramble up and scoot backward.
“Stay on the bed, and for your own sake, keep your mouth shut,” he warns.
“Can you please take these off?” I beg, holding out my hands. “It’s really tight.”
“You’ll survive,” he counters. “For now, at least.”
He turns to leave, but before he makes it to the hallway, I blurt out, “I have to pee.”
“Hold it.”
“Please, I seriously have to go.” It’s not a complete lie. I really do have to go pee now that I think about it, but mainly I’m asking so he will take off these damn zip ties currently cutting off the circulation to my hands.
“God, you’re annoying,” he huffs, but steps aside, waving his arm toward the door. “Go. It’s across the hall. You have ninety seconds.”
“What about these?” I look at my wrists.
“They stay,” he states.
“But—”
“Eighty-five seconds.”
“Okay, okay!” I get up on my feet and rush past him to the bathroom, where I close the door behind me. Unfortunately, there is no lock to secure me inside. Not that he couldn’t easily kick in the flimsy wood door.
While I struggle to pull my pants down with my hands tied, I scope out the small bathroom. I don’t see anything I could use as a weapon, but there is a small window above the bathtub. I hastily use the toilet and pull my jeans back up. I already wasted so much time peeing, I won’t have a big head start. Still, I have to try.
I flush the toilet and turn the faucet on to make it seem like I’m washing my hands, but instead I climb onto the edge of the bathtub and unlock the window. I slide it open and climb onto it headfirst, until my stomach is on the windowsill and my upper body is dangling out. I look down at the ground a few feet away from my face. “This is probably going to hurt.”
Just as I’m about to shift my weight to drop into the dirt, the bathroom door swings open, slamming against the wall with such force that the window slides down and hits my back.
“Ow!” I yelp, more in surprise than in pain.
A strong hand wraps around my ankle and pulls me backward, but I’m trapped under the window. A string of curse words booms through the bathroom before he pushes the window up to free me. Then he grabs my hips and pulls me back inside.
“Next time, you’re gonna have to piss yourself, ’cause this was your only chance,” he tells me, dragging me back to the bedroom before shoving me so hard I fall to the floor. My knees slam onto the hard surface painfully, and tears fill my eyes, but I blink them away.
The door shuts with a loud bang, followed by the sound of the lock engaging. I scramble to my feet and look around the sparsely decorated room. There is a queen-size bed, a nightstand, and a dresser. No window. Nothing hanging on the walls.
As quietly as I can, I walk over to the dresser and slowly open each drawer. All empty. Discouraged, I sit down on the mattress.
My hands are completely numb now, the thin plastic cutting into my skin with each movement. I look around the room, desperately trying to think of a way out of this, because once my kidnapper realizes I was telling the truth and Mr. Handsome Pants is not coming for me, I’m going to be in a whole lot of trouble.
Chapter Four
