Chapter 32

Juliana

 

 

The sun was starting to rise beyond the grimy window, but I still didn’t know where I was. All I could see outside was the beginnings of what looked to be another cloudless summer day. My back and butt ached from being in the same position for so long, because, despite the fact that there was a perfectly good bed right there, Dreadlocks hadn’t come to untie me.

My entire body felt sore and stiff, while my insides were burning up in a nauseating mixture of fury and fear. I’d rubbed my wrists raw trying to get free before I’d fallen into a restless, uncomfortable sleep.

I remembered seeing a show once that showed how to loosen tape over your face. At the time, I wouldn’t in my wildest dreams have imagined I’d ever have to try it, but at some indeterminable hour in the morning, after what felt like an eternity of licking, and forcing my face into a smile again and again, I finally managed to get the tape loose and spat out the rag.

Now that I could breathe easier again, I took a few deep gulps of air to calm my thoughts and kept working at the restraints on my arms. It took what felt like hours, but my wrists, raw as they were, definitely felt looser in their bonds.

My left wrist could even turn. It hurt like hell, and I had to grind my teeth together to keep from crying out, but after a few more minutes of straining against the rope and rolling my wrist, I finally managed to tug it free.

My arm was numb from having been bound in place and pain seared through my shoulder as I brought my wrist forward to survey the damage. It felt a lot worse than it looked. The skin had a red band running around it, with moisture seeping out where it was raw, but it wasn’t that bad. Stung like hell, but I would keep the limb.

Ignoring my shoulder’s protests, I swung my free arm back until my fingertips grazed the rough rope that still bound my other arm. I dug my fails into the knot started on working it free. I didn’t know how long it took me, but I finally felt the knot give, and relief swept through my belly.

The sun was a flaming ball sitting with its bottom on top of the horizon by the time I cradled my wrists in my hands, wincing when my fingers touched the red bits. I shook my arms out for a little while, nearly crying out in pain when the life started coming back to them in a searing assault of pins and needles that set my teeth on edge.

Feeling returned to my fingers slowly, painfully, but finally, the pain retreated, and while my hands felt hot and swollen, I could move them properly. I wasted no time with the restraints around my ankles, clumsily tugging and pulling until they were both free.

I would’ve fist-pumped the air, but I was far from free. Jogging in place after stretching out my legs, I wondered how I was going to get out of there. There were only two immediate options: out the door or out the window.

Walking over to the window to assess its viability as a point of escape, I saw that I was on the second story of some old farmhouse. As Dreadlocks had promised, we were surrounded by miles of green farmland and tall trees. There wasn’t another house in sight.

I wasn’t giving up hope, though. Step one had been getting out of my restraints; step two was getting out of this godforsaken room. I would have to make the rest up as I went along.

Dreadlocks had shut the door behind him when he left, but I hadn’t heard it lock. I crept over to it, very, very slowly turning the knob. Holding my breath, I pulled back on it just enough to peek through the crack.

Shit!

The door opened right off a landing and a wide staircase with a living room below, where Dreadlocks and several other guys were milling around. My stomach grumbled at the sight of the cereal bowl resting on the lap of one of the men. I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch the day before. All I’d had were a few sips of water that a man who looked as zonked as Dreadlocks came to feed me before I’d passed out.

There was no way I was getting past them all without anyone noticing; they were spaced out, not blind. Closing the door with a soft click, I paced around the room, finally going back to the window. Second story or no, I was ready to risk the roof. I would find a way off of it or break something trying.

The roof wasn’t high enough that the drop would kill me, surely. The lever to open the window was jammed and refused to budge for a couple of minutes, but I managed to spring it free eventually.

All that was left to do now was to actually get the window open. I braced my hands flat on it and pushed softly, but nothing happened. Damn it. Placing my palms on the wooden frame, I pushed harder, but the window remained firmly shut.

I took a deep, fortifying breath and returned my hands to frame, pushing with my palms at the stuck corner. It took all my strength, but it finally started to give. I was going to do it; I was going to get free.

Creaaaaaak. The window complained when I pushed it all the way open. My blood froze in my veins, and my eyes snapped to the door. Seconds later, Dreadlocks came crashing through the door; his expression was of pure rage.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” he snapped, his shoulders locked as he stalked forward. “How did you get free?”

I barely managed to breathe, let alone scream or answer him. My muscles were bound in fear, and I was shaking like a leaf during a hurricane, but I knew that this was it. This was my one chance to fight. To break free.

Dreadlocks yanked on my arm and tried to drag me back to my chair, but I dug my heels in and fought against him. “Let me go!”

He sneered at me as I spun my body around, my elbow hitting him in the stomach. He grunted, but smiled evilly, tightening his hold on my arm. My wrist burned where his hand was closed over it, the raw skin throbbing under his touch.

“Give it up, bitch. You’re not getting out of here until I’m good and ready to let you go.” He grunted, pulling me towards the chair.

I jerked my wrist free and tried to push him away, but he barely stumbled backward before he launched himself at me again, his arms binding around my waist. I kicked out, one of my feet connecting with his shin.

“Fuck!” he yelled, but it didn’t slow him down.

My fingernails bit into my palms from the tightness of my fist, but I kept raining punches down on his shoulders, his back. I pulled his hair and tried to knee him in the balls, all the while yelling out. “Help! Please, somebody. Anybody! Heeeeeeeeelp!”

He brought a hand up and clamped it over my mouth. “Shut the fuck up!”

I tried to bite down on his fingers, but the exact same time, his fist jammed into my stomach, knocking the wind right out of me. I gulped for air and tried to clear my vision, but then he shoved me back into the chair and reached for the rag I’d spat out.

He tried to jam it back into my mouth, but this time my teeth found purchase on his fingers, and I bit down. Hard. He roared in pain and raised his free hand to slap me across the face, cursing. “Fuck you, stupid fucking bitch!”

My cheek stung, and my ears were ringing, heat blooming from where he’d connected with my skin. My eyes watered, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

“Let’s see you try to get free now,” he barked, retying my wrists so much tighter than before. The rope chafed against the already raw skin, sending bolts of pain up my arms. I gasped against the searing agony, and he grinned from where he’d knelt to retie my ankles with a sadistic smile.

“I underestimated you before, I’m not doing that again,” he said, his eyes gleaming with malice as he crossed the ends of the rope into a knot and tied it so tightly around my ankle that the leg of the chair was digging into the bone.

When he was done tying me up, he jammed the rag into my mouth using the plastic covering of the roll of tape from the day before, the cold plastic hitting against my teeth. He taped the rag into my mouth again, but this time he wrapped the tape all the way around my head, over my hair.

It was going to hurt badly when he eventually had to undo it, but I was already in so much pain that I doubted some hair pulling would even register. My stomach, wrists, ankles, and jaw ached, and I was starting to feel lightheaded.

But I couldn’t succumb to the blackness that was beckoning to me from the edges of my vision. Whether it was fear, shock, or pain causing it, I didn’t know, but I was fighting it with everything I had in me.

“You’d better calm yourself down in here, girlie. Your boy has a few hours left before his time runs out, but I’m not holding my breath that I’m going to get that money from him,” he sneered, loathing and contempt shining brightly in his eyes.

My protests were muffled moans that he ignored. “I hope you’ve been thinking, but I know that I have. I’ll be back in a few hours with instructions, and you’d better have calmed the fuck down enough to remember them, because tomorrow morning, you and I are robbing your bank.”