Exponential
Page 50
Chapter 20
It was a real pup getting around. He couldn’t believe the damage that creep of a cop did to his foot. It was black and blue and hurt like heck, but at least it wasn’t broken. It made the regular job chores of stealing another car and switching plates a bit tougher.
Now he sat hunched in front seat in the twilight outside the dumpy motel and waited a moment before going to her door. ‘Let her get settled first’ he thought to himself.
After a moment he made his way to the door. Before knocking, he checked once more to be sure he had all of the materials he would need. The one consolation to the pain in his foot was that he was really looking forward to this. He never had to do a good looking young girl before. He rapped on the door and pasted a most sincere smile on his face.
Mara’s first thought was, ‘Dell!” However, getting bashed around a few times tended to make one rather wary. She cautiously approached the door, made sure at least that the flimsy chain lock was set and asked “Yes?”
“Miss Chandler?” Came the reply.
It definitely wasn’t Dell. Since no one else knew she was staying here, the air on the back of her neck stood up. This could not be a good thing, she told herself. How could anyone know that ‘Miss Chandler’ was staying here? Even at the front desk, she paid in advance with cash and used an alias. Her pulse quickened further as her mind raced with possibilities. Unfortunately, her mind came up with none. She looked around for a weapon, but could really see nothing useful.
“Excuse me, Miss Chandler? It’s very important that I get you out of here. I was sent by… ah, Dell.”
She felt foolish yelling through the door. “Why didn’t Dell come himself?”
Enrique shouted back, “He was working on a case today and was injured, quite badly I’m afraid. He felt you were in grave danger and wanted me to get you out of here.” Enrique was getting nervous that someone might hear the conversation, but he didn’t notice anyone around and there didn’t seem to be many cars. There was a little sports car parked in the lot, but not much else.
“Who are you?” Mara yelled to the door. She felt nauseous thinking about Dell. Was he ok? Was he hurt working on this case? Where was he? In a hospital?
“My name is Emmanuel LaSolla. I work with Dell. If you want, just peek through the door and I will show my badge.”
She debated a moment, but could think of no other course of action but to at least verify the story she was hearing. At this point nothing would surprise her and she felt even somehow responsible and sorry for Dell knowing he probably was suffering now due to her problems. She undid the main latch but left the chain lock engaged. She put her face by the edge of the door and cracked it open slightly.
The door had barely opened a crack when it exploded inward. The base of the cheap chain lock easily splintered the wood frame of the door and she was caught full force in the cheek and chest with Enrique’s kick. She sprawled backward, stumbled across the bottom corner of the bed and toppled over landing hard with her back to the floor and her legs still up on the bed. The kick and the fall took their toll and she was fighting for breath with the wind being knocked right out of her.
Enrique was glad that it was his left foot that was bruised. He wouldn’t have been able to do such a superb job of dispatching the door if he couldn’t use his right foot. He entered the room and swung the door shut behind him. He turned and strode across the room to Mara and looked down on her dazed expression. “What a ditz” He mumbled. “I guess that’s what happens when you bleach your hair blond, you get even dumber!”
He roughly kicked her legs off the bed and demanded she get off the floor. He got a glimpse of the full length of her bare legs and slender figure as the robe she was wearing landed haphazardly and felt a surge of excitement.
Her chest and face hurt and she was still gasping to get her breath. She rolled onto her hands and knees and Enrique stepped up and straddled her back. He paused for a moment as he pulled the damp rag out of the plastic bag in his pocket. He bent down and roughly jammed it into Mara’s face and firmly held it there.
Since she still struggling for breath, the anesthetic wasn’t acting as fast as it normally would have. He was sitting on her like a horse and she simply couldn’t get up. She managed to make a Herculean effort to get one of her hands up to frantically claw at his hand. In absolute terror she was trying to claw his skin right off his hand if it was possible. It caused him to loosen the pressure just enough for her to manage to sink her teeth into the spot where his thumb connected to his palm.
He howled and from behind, swung hard with his left hand into the side of her face. She buckled under his weight and was feeling the world swimming from the effects of the drug. The absolute fear was pumping enough adrenaline to keep her going, but he landed squarely on her side, yanked her head back by the hair and jammed the soaked cloth over her mouth and nose.