Out of Place (14 page)

Chapter 24

Zack
rolled to his side and reached up to his chest. He didn’t feel any blood. The bullets hadn’t penetrated the steel plate, but it damn sure hurt like crazy. It knocked the wind right out of him and that made it even harder to play dead.

At least part of the plan worked. He wasn’t dead,
and that was good. He was very excited at not being dead. But Emily was gone and he didn’t know if she was alive. He had to bank on his hunch that she was. After catching his breath, he ran outside, giving chase. But the ATV was already far away and outpaced him quickly. He could see the red taillights disappear out of sight.

Zack
kept chasing the sound, and following the fresh tire tracks. He didn’t know for sure where Harry was taking her, but he was fairly certain they’d go back to the cabin. But he had to stop them from getting into that car. If they got on the road, he’d never see Emily again.

The trail opened up a bit and turned into a
smooth open driveway type path. It made it a lot easier for him to run, so he picked up the pace. Before long, he was at his fastest longer distance speed. He didn’t know how many miles he could stick at this pace. He’d once run a half marathon a few years ago, but that was only thirteen miles, and he didn’t even come close to winning. Nor did he make it the whole way without walking a few times. But he knew if he could run and walk, mix it up when he needed a break, he could probably go pretty far and get back to that cabin.

After a long
while, Zack stopped running; his lungs were burning and he was tired. He’d run out in such a hurry he’d forgotten the backpack and he had no water. Luckily, they’d just eaten before Harry arrived. But he sure would like a sip of water right about now.

After a breather,
he started his run again until he came to a fork in the road and stopped. He looked to the left, then right. It was too dark to see which way the ATV had gone. Squatting down, he touched the dirt, feeling for the tracks. He touched them hand over hand until he was able to determine which way the quad had gone. They’d gone right. He followed.

***

Emily shuddered at the sight of the cabin coming into view. The rain started again. Harry pulled out a large knife and cut the zip-ties. He yanked her off the ATV and dragged her around the backside of the cabin. “Until you learn how to behave like a lady, I’m going to treat you like a dog.”

Harry ripped open the steel doors that led to a basement. She hesitated, but he was way too strong and pulled her. She nearly fell down the steps, but he lifted her by
the arm and swung her over to a small cot, where he shackled her to a heavy steel chain that went on her ankle and fastened to a large hoop in the floor.

On the other side of the room
, he turned on an oil lamp, and then went back to her. He slapped her face again. “You will learn!” He took hold of her chin, stared into her eyes. “Did you like running away with that guy? Huh? What did you do with him? Did you have sex with him? Did you play the little whore and try to impress him?”

Emily tried to stop the tears but they flowed. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Let me hear you say you’re sorry.”

Refusal would get her nowhere
, but for some reason she couldn’t say it.

He squeezed her chin so hard it hurt her jaw. “Say it!”

She sniffled. “I’m sorry.”

He let go of her face
. “Fine. But you’re still not to be trusted for now. In this house, you have to earn things. I do not give away respect or privileges and you’re damn well going to learn that.” He looked her up and down. “Now turn around!”

She didn’t want to turn her back on him. But he raised up
the knife and put it to her face. “Turn around now!”

She bit
the inside of her lip to stop the tears and closed her eyes. He grabbed the back of her neck, pushing her face down into the small cot. Then he smacked her on the ass, hard. “You will obey me.” He then smacked it a few more times and pushed her onto the bed.

He turned away and walked out of the basement.

Emily sat there, perplexed and afraid. She had no idea what to make of this. A grown man just spanked her, and not in a playful way. The last time she’d been spanked was probably when she was five and spilled her mother’s nail polish all over the couch and carpet, and then tried to clean it up with her father’s favorite suede jacket.

She sat with her back to the wall and pulled her knees up to her chest.
Inspecting the shackle on her ankle killed any hope that she might be able to get out of here without a key of some kind. The steel was thick and heavy and didn’t appear to have a weakness.

Maybe her only
move here was to play along. If she could become what Harry wanted, she could earn his trust and then exploit it someday down the road. She shuddered at the thought of what it might take to earn his trust.

He might have called her a whore
, but the truth was she’d only had sex with one guy, and only a few times. It was not her practice to just give it away. Her and Bobby dated almost a year before they went there. She definitely didn’t want to have to do that with Harry, the concept of it made her want to puke. Of course, if he wanted it, he could take it by force and that scared her more.

Lying on her side
, she curled up into a ball and wished for peaceful rest. But the way her brain was racing, she knew it was all but impossible. So many thoughts fell over themselves in her head. She didn’t even know who to mourn. Asking Harry if her family was really dead seemed like a risky move. Maybe he would tell the truth, maybe not.

She missed Ren. Whenever things had gotten tough in life, Ren was always there. The idea of going on without her to lean on really didn’t make sense.
Emily loved her and already missed her but it hadn’t quite hit her that Ren would never be there again.

Zack’s plan might have worked
. She’d seen him taking the piece of steel and tucking it into his jacket, but never wanted him to do it. All she could think of was the scene from
Back to the Future
where Marty McFly used the stove door to stop the bullet. In this case, what Zack used looked far too thin. She might never know if it worked. Zack could be lying on the floor of that old millhouse, bleeding to death. That thought really hurt, and it surprised her how much it did.

Everything she thought she’d known about life was wrong. None of the things that mattered before
seemed to matter anymore. An overwhelming need to rethink her entire life seemed to wash over her. But maybe it was a moot point. The chances of getting out of this alive seemed very slim. Maybe this was her new life and that’s why such things were popping into her head.

The weirdest thing of all was that out of everything she missed, she missed being with
Zack the most. That sounded absolutely ridiculous to the rational part of her brain. It made her think she was suffering from some sort of psychological disorder or syndrome like post-traumatic stress disorder or Stockholm Syndrome. But she knew what they both were and neither one applied. Whatever it was, she didn’t know what it was, but it was.

Chapter 25

Zack
got up to the crest of the hill, and looked down at the cabin. The moonlight provided the only ambient light around him, but he could see a dim glow inside one of the windows.

From what he knew
, it was just a single room cabin with a bathroom. So somewhere, Emily was likely under close watch if she was there at all. The woods were mostly quiet; a few birds chirped somewhere from their nighttime nests.

Judging by the station of the moon
, it was still a good few hours from sunrise. The cover of darkness would work to his benefit.

He got to his feet and took hold of the only weapon he could find.
Fingers wrapped around the large stick, he took measure of it’s length and weight. It was something between a hockey stick and a baseball bat. It could definitely inflict serious damage at close range.

Carefully
, he walked down the small hill, trying not to make any sound. There was nothing in that house like a television to distract the occupants, so any sound he made would probably carry straight into suspicious ears.

Once on the level with the cabin,
Zack looked left to right, getting a full scope of the land. Creeping up to the side window, he wasn’t able to see inside, the windows were too tall. But there was a five-gallon bucket filled with dirt. He flipped the bucket upside down and stood atop to look into the cabin. He didn’t see anyone at first, but then he saw Harry on the bed, sleeping. A small oil lamp glowed in the far corner of the room, but Emily was nowhere in sight.

He climbed back off the bucket to ground level.
A slight moment of worry hit him that this psycho already killed her. That had to shake off quick because he wasn’t accepting thoughts like that as reality.

He slid over to the classic Mustang parked on the side and wondered where the k
eys might be. Taking a chance to open the door and check would be far too risky. Running his hands under the wheel-well just in case there was one of those spare key things seemed like a reasonable risk. But there was nothing there. It did give him an idea. It was another risky move, but would be worth it. He just had to be silent as possible.

***

Zack wandered around the property, looking for another location where Emily could be captive. As he got around back, he saw the commonly familiar steel double-doors of an underground basement or bunker.

Wrapping his fingers around the handle
, he pulled, expecting the doors to be locked, but they were open. He saw the flicker of an oil lamp and eased down the steps. His heart did a little dance when he saw Emily, curled up on a cot. Her blonde hair was like a beacon of sunshine in the darkest of rooms as the throbbing light made it shimmer in a lemon color.

Zack
didn’t know what he was feeling, but something inside him was soaring. He was amazed at how much he’d missed her. This moment in time seemed too perfect—he didn’t want it to end because he knew what lay ahead.

B
reaking his frozen gaze, he went over to the bed and touched her arm. She didn’t wake up at first. He moved some of her hair from her face, her eyes eased open and widened.

Zack
put his finger to his lips, urging her to be quiet. She nodded and sat up quietly. Then she threw her arms around his neck and whispered into his ear, “I’m so happy to see you.”

He hugged her tight. She showed him the heavy cuff around her ankle and his heart sank. Inspecting it, it didn’t seem like it would be an easy pick
and impossible to break. It was a tumbler lock with a skeleton type key. He could pick it if he had some tools, but he didn’t have anything. He’d picked her cuffs earlier when they first met by smashing it open with two rocks. But those were flimsy security guard type cuffs. This was some sort of old-fashioned iron chain.

He got up and started looking around the room
. There were some old toolboxes, but they were empty. There was a dresser, but again, the drawers were empty. Some heavy noises went off above his head. Distinct footsteps clumped on the floor and Zack quickly stopped what he was doing.

Going b
ack to the basement doors, Zack closed them quietly and went back down to Emily. He sat next to her on the bed and whispered, “Are you okay?”

She nodded.

The noises upstairs became more hurried. They could hear the front door open, the stairs. A car door opened and closed. Harry appeared to make several trips to his car.

Then the basement doors opened.
Zack had no good place to ambush him down here. It was too open; there was nothing to hide behind and get the drop on him. He kissed Emily on the cheek and dropped to the floor to slide under the bed. He hoped he’d get another chance.

Harry came down the steps and stood in front of Emily. “Get up
,” he said. “We’re leaving.”

Zack
stayed silent. Hearing Emily being yanked around against her will was breaking his heart. He wanted to jump out and pummel this guy right now. But that wasn’t a smart play from this position. If he had a gun, yeah—he’d do it. But with a stick, he was going to need a much more sure shot. Unlike the movies, hitting a man with a stick didn’t always knock him out, or even down. And Harry was a big guy. He was probably two-hundred plus pounds, and men that big didn’t just drop when you hit them with a stick, unless it was an open headshot.

Emily’s ankle bracelet dropped to the floor and he pulled her out of the basement.

Zack waited a beat before he slid out. When he did, he tried to interpret the sounds he was hearing. He didn’t quite know what it was. There were several noises, which he couldn’t place. Waiting for another chance might be a bad idea, but he had to make sure Harry wasn’t around when he popped out of this basement.

He heard the car start and the smell of gasoline became apparent. But it was more gas than he should have smelled.

Starting up the stairs
, an explosion rocked the cabin with a thud, shaking the entire floor above his head, knocking him down onto his backside. He scrambled to his feet as a huge beam above split and fell, part of it crashed at his feet.

Orange droplets of fire started to spill around him
, and in almost no time, the basement was filled with fire. The blinding heat threatened to engulf him within seconds if he couldn’t find his way past the maze of fallen beams and flames.