by William Oday
But nothing obvious was nearby.
She glanced at her bag on the kitchen counter. Donny had rummaged through it earlier in the day and the contents lay scattered everywhere. He’d even found her room key with the room number written on the back. She’d thought writing the number on it had been a smart move in case they forgot. It felt differently when he flashed in front of their faces, talking about visiting the room later.
There was nothing in the bag that would help because he’d taken her pocket knife.
So, it had to be his gun.
She had to get it.
She edged forward and made it to the chair. The rank stink of his sour sweat overpowering at this distance. She brought her knees forward and straightened up. She reached toward the crease where the gun had to be.
Donny’s eyes snapped open. He kicked out and caught her in the chest before she could react.
She tumbled backward and smacked her head on the carpet.
He grabbed the gun and jumped up. “What are you doing? What are you doing?” He jabbed the gun at her. “You think I won’t kill you? You think I won’t do it? I will put a hole in your head! I will leave you dying in a gutter!”
But he didn’t shoot.
She was his way out. She was the merchandise and she wasn’t worth anything dead.
“Were you trying to get my gun? You little whore!”
Lily pushed up and shook her head. “No, I was trying to wake you up. I kept telling you to wake up, but you wouldn’t.”
His suspicious eyes didn’t soften. “Why were you doing that?”
“We need to pee. We’ve been holding it all day.”
It was true and the best lies always had a bit of truth in them.
He scowled. “I should just let you piss your pants.”
“Do you want to take us to Jax smelling like urine?”
He glared at her. “Don’t be trying to tell me how to run my business!”
“I’m not, but I do have to pee.”
He made a face, but waved the gun toward the slider door to the backyard. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll take you one at a time.”
Lily pointed at the zip ties pinning her ankles together. “I’m not going to be able to pee like this. Girls squat, in case you didn’t know.”
“Shut up, smartass!” He pulled out a pocketknife and whipped the blade open.
Lily leaned back and pushed her feet out.
“You go last. Piss yourself for all I care.”
He went over to Piper and cut her ankles free. He yanked her up and marched her out to the backyard. He stood in the entrance, his eyes bouncing from the backyard to the living room to keep tabs on both of them. A minute later, Piper returned.
“Do we have to do the ankle ones? They hurt and my swollen feet are killing me.”
“They hurt,” he said in a baby voice. “Wah. Cry me a river.” He dragged her to the couch and threw her down. He cinched down another three zip ties around her ankles and she winced.
“You don’t want it to cut her ankles up,” Lily said. “Jax won’t like it if we have skin peeling off.”
Donny shoved Piper’s feet away and grinned like a shark. “Jax ain’t going to be checking out that part of your body.”
Her belly squirmed with fear and disgust. He didn’t say which parts were going to be checked out.
But he didn’t have to.
39
Donny sliced the zip ties off Lily’s ankles. He wasn’t the least bit careful about it and nicked the thin skin on the bone in the process.
She forced herself to not react. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
He yanked her up, nearly pulling her shoulder out of the socket. He shoved her outside and made a face. “Let’s go, Spice. Do your business and make it quick.”
Lily looked around for a way out. A six foot stockade fence surrounded a small yard. Half the yard was taken up by a small rectangular pool. No water except for the scummy water in the deep end. The odor from the pool hit her and she gagged.
It was an open sewer.
Donny laughed. “This ain’t no five star hotel, princess. Just hang your butt off the edge and get it over with.”
Lily shot him a look and then searched for a better option. Anything would qualify. There was a round plastic table and chairs. The kind every cheap hotel had out by the pool. The kind that didn’t matter much if they got stolen.
Which was probably how these ended up here.
“Are you going to stand there and watch?”
Donny grinned and the look confirmed he was going to do exactly that.
“You’re sick.”
“You don’t know the half of it. But maybe you’ll find out.”
She walked around the table and flipped it on its side. She squatted down behind it and did her business. She really did have to pee. But she also took the opportunity to continue searching for a way out.
There was a gate on the side of the house. But an interior door had been nailed across it to seal it shut.
“Spice is feeling bashful all of a sudden. How cute. Now finish up or I’ll drag you back inside with pee running down your legs!”
She’d already finished.
There was no easy way out. She was going to have to jump the fence. If she ran to the corner, she could put a left foot on the lower rail, hook her bound hands over the top, push off the opposite corner with her right foot and hopefully scramble over before he could stop her.
It would mean leaving Piper behind. But if she didn’t try to escape, neither of them had a chance. She had no doubt that she could outrun Donny. Running fifty feet would probably send him into spasms of coughing. All she had to do was get over the fence and run.
“Hey!” Donny yelled and started over.
She took off at a sprint.
Leaped into position, left foot on the rail and hands grabbing hold of the pointed top, right foot to the side to get traction off the corner.
And her shoe went straight through the rotten wood.
Instead of vaulting over the top, she slammed into the fence and bounced off with her leg caught at the knee in the fence. She yanked it out and was about to try again, but was too late.
Her head snapped back.
She screamed for help as loud as she could.
Donny had a fistful of her hair. He jerked again and she fell over backward. He kicked her in the stomach.
A flash of pain shot through her middle. She groaned and doubled over on her side.
Donny pulled back for another kick but stopped. “You try something like that again and I will kill you! Forget the money! Forget it all! I will gut you like a pig. I will pull out your intestines and shove them in your mouth until you choke to death!”
He stood over her, screaming with rage. The screaming went on a little longer, until he ran out of breath or threats to make. There clearly was no one within shouting distance that would help them. Or else he wouldn’t have carried on that loud and that long.
And then he went quiet and it got worse.
He unzipped his pants. He stood above her, fondling himself. After a minute, he cursed and zipped back up. “You’re so damn ugly I can’t even get hard.” He spat on her.
Fury and humiliation burned in her chest. She never would’ve believed anyone could treat another person like that. It was then that she started to lose hope. Not all of it and not all at once. But that was the first moment where real doubt stabbed like a splinter into her heart.
What if she and Piper didn’t get away?
What if their future was one she couldn’t imagine living?
Donny dragged her up. He shoved her toward the slider door. “Not feeling so Spicy now, are you?”
He pushed her inside and threw her down next to Piper. He zip tied her ankles together, making sure they pinched tight, then went to the kitchen.
“What happened?”
Lily didn’t answer. She didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to be. She shook her head and pulled her kne
es into her chest. She wanted to curl up like a rollie pollie and leave only a hard shell facing the outside world.
But she couldn’t.
So she dropped her head and tried to disappear into the mildewy cushions.
40
Minutes dragged by and each one dragged Lily deeper into a hole of misery. After Donny finally nodded off, Piper whispered to her asking if she was okay. She didn’t answer.
She wasn’t okay.
None of this was okay.
If it wasn’t so horribly real, she would’ve pinched herself and struggled to awake from the nightmare. Surely, she was in bed in the Mandalay. She’d wake up and the sun would be shining in the window with the promise of an extravagant all-you-can-eat buffet downstairs. They’d eat themselves into a stupor, gorge until the last fork full of pancake was stuffed down. Then they’d tour the aquariums because they hadn’t done it yet and that had been the whole point of staying there.
Piper claimed to love sea life. She did. It was true. She just loved it on the other side of a thick pane of safety glass. She’d gone to Miami with her family last year and posted a zillion gorgeous pictures of the beaches and blue water. Her posts went on and on about the ocean and how amazing it was. You never would’ve known from the posts that she never once dipped a single toe in the water. She didn’t even like to walk on the wet sand after the tide sucked back into the sea.
There were too many squishy things that got left behind.
None of that mattered though because this wasn’t a dream and so waking up wasn’t an option.
The sound of a car engine grew louder, louder still as headlights flashed through the dark room. It didn’t pass by this time. The garage door clanked and rolled open.
The noise jolted Donny awake. He jumped up and peeked behind the sheet to see out the front window. “Zeke, that better be you, man.”
He hustled to the kitchen and hid behind the fridge. He aimed his gun at the door to the garage and waited. “Zeke,” he muttered, but the rest was too low to make out.
The garage door clanged and banged shut. A few seconds later, the door to the kitchen door creaked and started to open.
A gunshot split the air.
The door slammed shut.
“Jesus!” Zeke yelled from the garage. “It’s me, man!”
“Zeke?”
“Yes, you idiot!”
Donny opened the door, still holding the pistol and flashlight in front. The beam hit Zeke right in the face.
He covered up with an arm. “It’s me already!” He pushed Donny to the side and stomped into the kitchen. “You could’ve killed me! What the hell is wrong with you?”
“It was an accident. Come on. I’m sorry. You took so long I was thinking it didn’t go well. Like, what if Jax didn’t like the offer and cut off your nuts and made you give up our address? That could’ve been a squad of trained assassins coming to take me out, man!”
Zeke ran a hand over his face. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
“A squad of trained assassins?”
“It could happen.”
“You think Jax believes it would take a squad of trained assassins to kill you?”
“Whatever, man! Don’t get stuck on the details. My God. The point is that it could’ve been someone here to kill me. That’s why I was jumpy.”
Zeke tossed the keys on the counter and brushed past. Tried to, rather, because Donny grabbed his jacket and spun him around.
“So?”
“We got any beer?”
“Don’t give me that. What did he think of my offer?”
“Your offer? Don’t you mean our offer?”
“Yeah, of course. Damn, you’re touchy tonight.”
“Well, you nearly killed me and then half-blinded me with that stupid flashlight. And that’s after I had to wait all day long to finally get a two minute meeting with Jax. So, yeah. I’m cranky.” He grabbed inside the beer carton and came up empty. “You drank all the beer?”
“What did Jax say? Do we have a deal or not?”
Zeke’s scowl melted into a grin. “He’s interested. He said the girls better be worth it or else he’ll cut both our nuts off and bury us alive in the desert.” He swallowed hard. “He wasn’t bluffing.”
“I told you about the nuts part! Didn’t I?”
“That doesn’t mean you were right about the assassins.”
Piper scooted closer to Lily. Her body trembled and she was crying quietly.
Lily found her hand and squeezed. It was all the reassurance she had to offer and even that was fake. Being talked about like possessions, like goods to be bought and sold, had her standing on the edge of a cliff with a bottomless, black void below.
And with every passing minute, she inched closer to falling in.
Donny passed Zeke a mostly empty bottle of booze. “So when’s the meeting and where?”
Zeke took a few gulps of the clear liquid and then hissed from the burn. “Tomorrow evening at the compound.”
“You mean his personal place?”
Zeke nodded.
“Seriously?”
“Yep.”
Donny leaped up and clapped. “Yes! This is it! This is where it all begins. I told you, buddy. We’re going big time, baby. No more nickel and dime crap. See what I mean? Think big and big things happen.”
“Yeah, I just hope that big thing isn’t us getting killed.”
Donny slapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t be such a downer. He’s not going to whack people in his own house. That would attract unwanted attention. He’s smart. That’s why he wants to do business with us.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am right! I’ve been right this whole time! Hey, did you get a little something to celebrate?”
Zeke’s brow arched. “What are you talking about?”
Donny grabbed at his jacket pockets, but Zeke pulled away.
“He gave us some on the house. He said it was a goodwill gesture for business partners.” Zeke pulled a baggie out of his pocket and dangled it in front of Donny’s face.
Donny got the pipe and lighter and they were both cranked up a few minutes later.
Lily squeezed her eyes shut. She’d seen enough. She’d seen too much.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a bad dream and she couldn’t wake up to make it go away.
41
The end of the day had finally arrived and Sam couldn’t wait to get off her feet. She’d spent a good ten hours helping out at the retirement home because most of the staff hadn’t shown up for work. She was used to hard work. Being a fifth grade teacher wasn’t exactly a cake walk. Especially not with new budget cuts constantly chipping away at the school’s finances. Annual fundraising had become almost as big a part of her job as teaching the kids.
But helping elderly people all day long was in another league entirely. For starters, they were a lot bigger than fifth graders and some of them needed a lot more help.
She wouldn’t forget the bed pans. Not for a long time.
She crossed her arms behind her back and squeezed. A cascade of satisfying cracks pulsed along her spine. She blew out an exhale of relief. Her back muscles were going to be hurting tomorrow. Ice packs would’ve been nice, but they were needed to help keep the freezer cold overnight. With no power and the generator shut down until morning, keeping the freezer at the correct temperature until morning was vital. Losing hundreds of dollars worth of groceries wasn’t an option.
Especially since she hadn’t been able to go shopping again that day. If this was an EMP and other people understood the situation, the local grocery stores were going to be wiped out in no time. She’d have to go in the morning and add to their pantry of non-perishables.
As part of his dedication to being prepared, Cade had long ago stocked up months of emergency rations. Along with a large amount of non-perishables in the pantry, they would be better off than most.
Still, if this was an EMP attack, they
were going to need more. The way Cade had described the aftermath of such an attack was almost too terrifying to believe. He’d probably overstated the danger so she wouldn’t complain about him spending what little extra money they had on being prepared.
She’d hounded him about it any number of times. She regretted doing that now. If this was the real deal, they were going to need every bit of food and gear to survive the months ahead.
But first, her family needed to get home. She hadn’t heard from Lily or Cade and so had no idea where they were or how they were doing. The worry ate her up inside. That had been the one blessing of working so hard all day long. She’d been too busy to think about anything else.
She went around the house with a flashlight, making sure that the doors and windows were locked. She paused at Ethan’s closed door. Light seeped into the hallway from the crack underneath. She started to knock but stopped herself.
She wanted to apologize. Needed to after coming down too hard on him at dinner. But it wasn’t all her fault. She’d had a rough day and was in no mood for attitude about helping out. He probably needed more time to cool down. She decided to give him some space and extend an olive branch before going to bed.
She descended the half-set of stairs and checked the front door. The kitchen and garage next. She checked and locked the sliding door to the backyard and was closing the blinds when she remembered the generator outside.
Gary had come by earlier that day and told Ethan about another neighbor having their generator stolen right out of their backyard.
What was happening to their neighborhood? It had always been such a safe and friendly place. Now with burglaries, a home invasion and stolen property? She couldn’t risk leaving the generator outside overnight.
Sam trudged outside and grabbed the handle and started back. She went about a foot and then jerked to an abrupt stop. “What the…” She pointed the flashlight around and noticed a bike chain around the frame with the other end secured around a water spigot. It was a combination one. Ethan must’ve done it.
Smart kid.
When he was being a smart aleck.