by Zoey Parker
“Give me your gun!” I yelled to Marlo.
Marlo reached into his jacket and pulled out a small handgun. He veered his bike closer to mine until I could reach out and pluck the metal gun from his grasp. I nodded my thanks, then sped up.
Things were about to get ugly, but if it resulted in getting Katia away from Ryan, then that was for the best.
“I can’t wait much longer!” I yelled to Marlo. “My bike’s almost outta gas! This guy has to stop soon!”
Marlo nodded. I wondered again why Ryan hadn’t filled the van up at the last service station. My stomach clenched into a fearful knot when I realized that it was probably because he’d been too busy with Katia in the back. But she’s alive, I reminded myself as my bike zoomed around a sharp curve in the road. She’s alive, and she’s still screaming. That’s what counts. Everything’s going to be okay; she’s going to live right through this and maybe even laugh about it someday. She’s going to come out of this smelling like a rose.
Finally, the van braked. The red tail lights were an alien sight, and I gasped as they flashed brightly before my eyes. As quickly as I could, I slowed my bike and tried to stay out of sight of the side-view mirror.
I heard the van’s engine rattling as Ryan guided the van over to a shoulder of the road again. There was another service station only a few hundred feet again. A rush of victorious energy spilled into my body. Yes! He’s going to get gas! He’s going to leave the van, and then I can go get Katia!
Ryan slowed the van to a stop. I slowed my bike and touched my boots to the ground about twenty feet back. It was still dark, but the sky was beginning to show streaks of pink and orange. I knew that soon dawn would break and my cover would be blown.
I knew this was my last chance to save Katia on my own or risk losing her forever.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Katia
When I felt the van slow to a stop, I started screaming with all the air left in my lungs. My chest ached as little black and red spots danced in front of my eyes, but I kept screaming even after my throat was raw.
“Shut up!” Ryan howled. He climbed out of the driver’s seat and held up the Taser in one hand. “Shut the fuck up! Do you want someone to fucking hear you?”
“Yes!” I sobbed. “Yes, I want someone to hear me. Help me!” I shrieked as loudly as I could. “Help! Please! Someone!”
Ryan backhanded me across the face. I tasted blood. Spitting on the floor of the van, I stared at him defiantly.
“You think you’re doing something good,” I said calmly. “But you’re ruining my life, and yours too if you keep doing this, Mr. Winter.” I shuddered. I hated calling him that.
Ryan grinned broadly. He jabbed the Taser into my thigh and laughed, shrieking hysterically as he watched me jerk and twist on the floor of the utility van.
“I don’t give a shit what you think is right and wrong,” Ryan snarled out. “You’re a pretentious little cunt, and I want to teach you a lesson.”
My heart thudded in my chest as he advanced on me. Was this it? Was Ryan finally going to do the thing I’d always been afraid of?
Rape, a nasty little voice from the back of my head piped up. He’s going to rape you, Katia. He knows that you know it, and he’s going to enjoy it. He might even do it more than once. He might even rape you up the ass. And you’re going to have to take it because he has a gun and a Taser. By the time it’s over, you’ll probably be bleeding from the head and lying naked in a ditch somewhere.
A cold wave of fear washed over me. For a moment, I was afraid I was going to be sick. The wound on my head had begun to bleed again after I’d smacked my head into the wall of the van during a dangerous curve, and I’d swallowed so much blood from a cut in my mouth that I felt nauseous.
“Please,” I begged softly. “Please let me go, Ryan.”
Ryan sneered. “I can’t. I’ve already got you, and I haven’t even gotten what I wanted.”
I licked my dry lips, tasting blood. “Yes, you have. Mr. Winter, you said you wanted to teach me a lesson about rejecting you. And you have. I know better now.” I lowered my eyes, trying to act as demure as I possibly could. “Ryan, I wouldn’t ever reject anyone like you again.”
Ryan shook his head. “That’s not good enough. I’m not through.” He raised his hand into the air, and I cowered, waiting for the blow.
When a few seconds had passed, and he hadn’t struck me, I cautiously glanced up.
“Maybe you are learning something,” Ryan said. He crossed his stocky arms over his barrel chest. “And that makeup makes you look like a whore,” he added. “But we all knew you were a little slut, Katia.”
My cheeks burned, but I forced myself to look down at the floor of the van. I knew that I had to submit before Ryan and make him think that I was nothing but a sedate little girl.
“Ryan, please,” I whimpered softly. “Please let me go.”
“Uh-uh,” Ryan said in a nasty tone. He reached down. The shock that penetrated my body was the strongest yet, and my limbs twitched and spasmed as I hit the floor of the van. Crying out in pain as the bump on my head hit the floor, I started sobbing and curled up in a little ball.
“Please Mr. Winter,” I begged. Mascara tears were dripping down from my cheeks, and I sniffled, feeling snot leaking from my nose. “Please, if you let me go, you won’t get in trouble,” I said softly. “If you let me go, I won’t tell anyone about this.”
Ryan’s lips curled into a nasty smile. “Unfortunately, someone already knows,” he said smoothly. “Besides, I didn’t spend weeks planning this only to see it fall apart.” He smirked. “Katia, I spent weeks planning so you could be mine. I spent weeks planning, so I could take you and keep you. You know what they say: if she’s worth catching, she’s worth keeping!”
I couldn’t even force myself to meet Ryan’s eyes. Even though he’d barely touched me with his hands, every inch of my body felt violated. I felt like Ryan had somehow managed to turn me inside out, to expose my guts and my thoughts and my nerves.
I’d always thought I was stronger than this.
As Ryan climbed back towards the front seat of the van, I sighed. I knew I should be relieved that he’d left me alone for now. And besides, I had to start thinking of a plan. If he made good on his threat to take me across the Mexican border, I was really going to have to make a fuss. I wondered if the border officials would search the car. I wondered if I’d be able to scream, to let a cop know that I was there, hidden in the back of the utility van like a sack of cargo.
Ryan was coming towards me again, with something shiny and made of rubber in his hands. He held it up and grinned.
“You ever worn a ball-gag before, baby?”
Panic seized me. I’m not sure what it was about the sight of the gag that set me off, but something inside of me snapped, and I started screaming and thrashing and kicking around as soon as I saw the device clutched in Ryan’s hand.
“Come here,” Ryan said in a menacing voice. “Come the fuck over here!”
“No!” I screamed. Ryan came straight at me. He dived towards me, pinning me to the floor of the van. As I felt his hands wrap around my wrists and pin them over my head, I shrieked and twisted under his soft, lumpy body. The foul scent of tuna and sweat washed over me, and I gagged as Ryan pushed me down to the floor with all of his weight.
Ryan clipped me on the jaw, and my head snapped back on my neck, bouncing painfully on the floor of the van. I cried out in pain as blackness momentarily overtook my vision. As Ryan pinned my arms down with his body, I tried to buck my hips and throw him off. But he was stronger, and he shoved the gag in my mouth and buckled it around the back of my head. It was so tight that I could barely breathe and I moaned softly as the foul-tasting ball of rubber wedged over my tongue and under my top row of teeth.
“That should keep you quiet for a while,” Ryan said. He was sweating, and his chest was heaving with the effort of knocking me to the floor and pinning me down. I wanted to
knee him between the legs, but he rolled off of me and got to his knees.
Just then, he grinned. The same fire inside of me that had sparked when Ryan had first come at me with the gag returned. Before I knew what I was doing, I’d rolled to my knees and raged towards Ryan with my nails extended. I hadn’t had a fill in weeks, but the acrylic was still strong. As I scratched Ryan’s face, aiming for his eyes, he let out a cry of anguish. I savored the sensation of the skin under his eyes ripping. Thin lines of blood appeared on his cheeks, and he screamed in pain as I raked my nails down his face.
“You fucking bitch!” Ryan screamed. “You’re a fucking bitch, do you know that?” He lurched towards me, falling on his hands and knees. For a moment, I thought he was going to shock me again. Instead, Ryan lifted his hands to his face and held his mauled skin. I hadn’t managed to scratch his eye out, but he was bleeding profusely. I could tell the cuts were shallow, but Ryan seemed truly enraged by what I’d done.
“You’re a fucking cunt! That’s fucking it!”
I cowered on the floor of the van and put my hands over my face, trying to keep myself protected. The ball-gag was making me drool everywhere, and a tooth towards the back of my mouth throbbed; I wondered if Ryan had broken it when he’d hit me before. Ryan made his way back to the driver’s seat and turned the key in the ignition. The van roared to life, and I shrieked as my body rolled across the floor, slamming into the side of the van’s wall.
I could tell that Ryan was now driving faster than ever before.
Please, Dante, I begged silently. Please hurry.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dante
By the way Ryan was driving the van again, something bad had happened in the back. I’d winced, listening to Katia’s screams. It sounded like they’d had a fight, and the sides of the van had actually rocked back and forth on the pavement. For a moment, it had come dangerously close to tipping over. But now Ryan was gunning the van off towards the south, faster than ever before, and I was struggling to keep up.
The sun was peeking through a hazy layer of early morning clouds, and I knew that I had to act fast or else Ryan would know he had three very angry bikers chasing after him. Gritting my teeth, I gripped my handlebars and forced my bike forwards on the road. I knew he couldn’t see me, but it was damn frustrating trying to outrun someone who didn’t even know that he had a captive audience.
I leaned forward, lowering my head and trying to break the wind resistance. As I pulled alongside Ryan’s van, I managed to speed up until I was alongside the driver’s side.
“Hey!” I screamed. “Pull the fuck over!”
The time had come and gone for intervention without violence. I’d been tailing Ryan’s van for hours now, and unless I did something drastic, that asshole was going to drive off with Katia. She’d be lost to me forever.
I knew what I had to do.
Speeding up as fast as my bike could go, I drove alongside the van and finally pulled in front. Ryan honked. I wasn’t sure whether or not he recognized me, but I knew that I had to try. Gritting my teeth, I swung my bike out in front of the van and braked to a stop.
If Ryan stopped, Marlo and Tristan could grab Katia from the back of the van.
If Ryan didn’t stop, well, it had been a real nice time on Earth that I’d had. I’d even gotten to sleep with a beauty queen, and I don’t think that’s something most people can say.
The brakes on the utility van squealed as Ryan slowed to a stop. I saw his beady eyes through the tinted windshield and his fat frame driving the van. He scowled at me from behind the wheel.
I know you hate me, I thought as I stared right at him. But trust me, you asshole. You don’t hate me nearly as much as I hate you.
Finally, the van skidded to a complete stop. I heard Katia’s muffled screams coming from the back of the van, and Ryan’s loud curses through the thick glass of the windshield.
It was over. I’d done it. I’d saved Katia.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Katia
When the van stopped again so soon after taking off, I knew something was wrong. For one, Ryan had killed the radio, and the only sound I could hear besides my own heartbeat was the sound of his furious, angry cursing. He skidded to a stop, making the tires screech, and soon, my nose was filled with the odor of burning rubber.
I gagged, feeling my nausea return. The slimy ball-gag was sliding around in my mouth, and I groaned, reaching behind me and trying to fumble with the buckle. Now that the van was stopped, I was finally able to get a grasp of one of the fake leather straps. I yanked hard, and the gag shot out of my mouth, bouncing over the floor of the back of the van.
I screamed when the doors to the back of the van burst open. Two men were standing in front of me that I’d never seen before. One of them was tall and bald, the other was short with brown hair and a scruffy chin who looked almost like a younger version of Dante.
“Help,” I whispered.
That’s when I saw him. Dante. Walking towards me, slowly. He was wearing a T-shirt I’d never seen and had big dark circles under both of his eyes. As I watched him approach, my body shook. I was still sitting in the back of the van. But the closer he got, the more I realized that I wanted to be in his arms, safe and happy.
I sprinted out of the van. My legs were weak and shaky, but I made myself run on the pavement until I reached Dante. I couldn’t even look at him as I threw my arms around his neck and pulled myself close to his body.
“You’re safe now,” Dante whispered. To the guys, he said: “Keep her safe.”
Dante pulled away from me. I watched in horror as he pulled a gun out of his pocket and aimed it towards the front of the van.
“Dante, please, don’t shoot him,” I begged. “Please let the cops get him. Please make sure he goes to jail!”
Dante smirked. “I ain’t gonna shoot him. I just gotta make sure he does what I want him to.”
I watched silently as Dante walked along the pavement to the front of the van. There was still no sign of Ryan. I was almost surprised that he hadn’t leaped out of the van and tried to make a run for it.
Dante rapped the driver’s side door with the gun in his hand. The two guys holding me back were watching with just as much rapt interest as I was.
Ryan didn’t open the door. Dante growled, then wrapped his hand around the metal door handle and yanked it open. Ryan tumbled out to the pavement with a grunt. The way Ryan looked next to Dante made me almost embarrassed about the way I’d begged and pleaded for my life. He looked so worthless like the loser he really was.
“You.” Dante snarled. He grabbed his gun and jammed the barrel against Ryan’s neck. “Get the fuck up. Walk. Come on, porky,” he added when Ryan failed to move. Dante kicked Ryan, and I felt such satisfaction at his groan of pain. I was clenching my hands into fists so tightly that I felt tiny cuts on my palms from my manicured nails.
Dante grabbed Ryan by the scruff of his neck and dragged him to his feet. Standing next to Dante, Ryan looked so short and harmless that I almost laughed. His face was ashen white against the bloody claw marks that marred his face, and he looked like he was going to be sick. I saw him trembling from where I stood, twenty feet away.
“My gun,” Dante growled out. “Give me my fucking gun.”
Ryan whimpered and sniveled. “I don’t have it. I mean, I don’t have your gun!”
“Bullshit!” Dante roared. He grabbed Ryan by the scruff of the neck. “If you keep lying to me, I’m gonna fucking kill you!”
Ryan made a sound that sounded halfway between a grunt and a sob. He reached down into his pockets and grabbed two small guns, then tossed them to the ground. Glaring up at Dante, he narrowed his tiny piggy eyes into slits.
“You fuck. You fucking ruined everything. You ruined my plan.” Ryan moaned. He covered his face with his hands when he saw me. “I had everything worked out!”
“I bet,” Dante said dryly. “Marlo, Tristan! Over here!”
The tw
o bikers standing next to me gently released my arms from their grip and walked towards Dante and Ryan. Marlo and Tristan each grabbed one of Ryan’s arms and tugged him towards me.
“Are you gonna say anything?” Dante asked, still snarling. “Because I think you owe Miss Reynolds an apology.”
“I don’t want to hear it,” I said firmly. I turned away from the men and rubbed my face until my fingers were covered in the cheap makeup Ryan had forced me to wear.