Chapter 16 #2
Pyro managed to lift his useless leg over the side of the trunk before standing on his good leg, but the nausea he’d been holding back returned with a vengeance at the movement, and he quickly turned his head and puked up what was left of the lunch he’d had hours earlier.
The men who’d kidnapped them laughed even harder.
“What’s going to happen to us?” he asked weakly, as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
“We’re taking you inside, and you’ll have a big dinner and the best room available. You’ll get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow, you’ll be taking a little trip.”
They were fucking with him, and it just pissed Pyro off even more.
“More like you’ll be going to the basement, where you’ll stay until the couriers come to get you in the morning,” Bat Guy snickered.
“Where are we going?” Pyro asked, stalling for as much time as he could get.
He needed to get his equilibrium back, gather his strength just to get into the large house that sat before them.
It was actually a nice-looking place, a two-story home that looked like any other vacation house on the beach.
And they were on a beach. He didn’t know which one, but could see lights across the water.
They hadn’t been in the trunk that long, so he didn’t think they were too far outside the Norfolk area.
Which would make it easier for his friends to find them.
“The hospital,” the first man said, with an evil glint in his eye. “Gotta get that leg looked at.”
“Thank God! I think it’s broken,” Pyro said, playing along with the asshole. “Can my daughter stay with me? She’s scared.”
Bowie took his cue and pressed herself against his side—his good side—and buried her head in his shirt. He figured she was only half acting, because she was most certainly afraid.
“Yeah, yeah. She’ll go to a hospital too. Our buddies will pick you up. But you won’t be traveling together.”
That didn’t sound good. The countdown clock was ticking, and it was obscenely loud in Pyro’s head. He had to get them out of his fucked-up situation.
Doubt did its best to creep into his head, but Pyro refused to let it take hold.
“Why not?” he whined, trying to sound extra pathetic. He hunched his shoulders, attempting to make himself look smaller. Like less of a threat. So far it seemed to be working. The men looked downright relaxed. Probably because they knew he obviously wasn’t about to run off, not with his broken leg.
“You need a specialist,” the guy with the bat said, smirking. “Our friends will take you both to the specific doctors you need to see.”
“Why not go now?”
Pyro knew why—because they weren’t going to the fucking hospital.
At some point they’d probably be drugged, taken to an airstrip, and flown straight to people for whom money was no object.
People who wanted to do awful, unspeakable things to a beautiful, helpless little girl and exert their power over a grown man.
He desperately wanted those details so he could pass them along to Tex, and the man could shut down the entire trafficking operation.
But first things first…he needed to get Bowie the hell away from here.
Without trying to seem obvious, Pyro did his best to get the lay of the land.
There were trees all around the house so he couldn’t see much of the area, but he could smell the ocean and see those lights across the way.
The late afternoon was quiet, except for the sound of music coming from his left.
It sounded far off, but if there was music, that meant there were people.
And people meant a phone.
“Because,” the first man barked. “Enough talk. Move,” he ordered, stepping toward them threateningly.
Pyro put his arm around Bowie and hugged her closer, more for her protection than anything else, and did his best to do as the man asked.
The first step was agony. Pressure on his leg sent shooting pains throughout his body and took his breath away.
Amazingly, on his second step, he could feel Bowie doing her best to brace him. She was a tiny thing, had been fucking kidnapped, yet she was doing what she could to help him walk.
Pyro was humbled, and his determination to get them out of this tripled.
It was slow going, and Pyro continued to scope out the area as they made their way toward the house. The men behind him talked in low voices, but Pyro’s ears were ringing and pain was making it hard to hear anything other than the pounding of his own heart.
They finally made it into the house, and the man with the bat pushed past him toward a door in the wall. He pushed a button, and the familiar ding of an elevator sounded almost loud in the empty foyer.
“Only the best for the two of you,” the man joked, then shoved Pyro again, making him and Bowie stumble and practically fall into the elevator.
“Fancy rental houses with elevators are all the rage,” he snorted, as he hit the B button on the console.
Pyro didn’t speak. He was actually more than grateful for the fucking elevator, because there was no way he could’ve gone up or down even one damn step.
The door opened to a completely different space than they’d just left. It was definitely a stereotypical basement—dark, damp, and complete with the smell of mold. The concrete floor was cracked in places and there were a few boxes here and there, but it was otherwise empty.
Bat Guy grabbed hold of Pyro’s upper arm and marched him to a chair that sat near the back of the room. He threw him into it, making Pyro’s vision go dark for a moment.
That was long enough for the man to pull out a pair of handcuffs.
He wrenched Pyro’s hands behind his back, shoved them between different slats in the chair, and shackled them together.
Then he tied his legs to the chair as well, pulling the rope tight.
The rope digging into his broken shin made Pyro gasp with pain, but he fought against passing out, just barely succeeding.
Bowie was still clinging to Pyro’s side as best she could as he was restrained.
When the man’s gaze swung to her, Pyro channeled the pain coursing through his body and let a few tears flow. “Please, there’s no need to tie me up. I need a doctor! Don’t leave me here!”
As he suspected, his kidnappers enjoyed seeing him so broken.
They merely laughed, told him to behave, then said they’d see him in the morning before heading back to the elevator. The relief he felt that they hadn’t also tied up Bowie was immense.
“Don’t even think about trying to use the elevator to get out of here,” the car driver warned.
“Even if you could get out of that chair, it wouldn’t do you any good.
We’re gonna shut off the power to the elevator as soon as we’re back upstairs.
You and Helen Keller can stay down here and be glad we didn’t leave you to sleep in the trunk. ”
“Thank you, thank you,” Pyro immediately said, pretending to be grateful to the assholes.
“Sleep well. Tomorrow’s a new day!” Bat Guy crowed.
“Yup. The day we get rich,” his buddy muttered with a laugh.
Then they were gone.
Pyro immediately stopped crying and his shoulders relaxed a fraction. He and Bowie were still in deep shit, but he’d much prefer being alone to having to fend off whatever their kidnappers might do.
“Kylo-Pyro? Are you okay?” Bowie whispered. Her hand came up to his face, and she tried to wipe away his tears.
“I’m good, Bowie-Bear. You did great.”
“I did what you said. Pretended I wasn’t scared. But I really am. It’s cold and it smells down here.”
“I know. But we’re together, and we’re going to be okay.”
He had no idea if what he was saying was true, but he’d be damned if he said anything to scare Bowie more than she was already.
“Who’s Helen Keller?”
Pyro blinked, completely surprised by the question.
He searched his mind for what he knew about the woman.
“She was a deaf and blind woman, the first person with her disabilities to earn a bachelor’s degree in the United States.
She wrote a lot of books, and she worked really hard to make life better for people who were deaf and blind, and had other disabilities. ”
“Oh. Why did the man call me that? I’m blind, not deaf.”
Pyro took a deep breath. There were a lot of things he wanted to say, all derogatory about the fucker who’d just left, but he did his best to stay calm.
“He was trying to be mean. He obviously doesn’t have a lot of respect for the woman who managed to do such great things while not being able to see or hear. ”
He could see Bowie thinking about that. Then she said, “I can’t imagine how hard that would be. My hearing really helps me.”
“I know, Bowie-Bear. And I’m so proud of you.
You’re amazing. Thank you for helping me walk.
Without you there, I don’t know that I could’ve made it.
” He wasn’t blowing smoke up her ass either.
There was no way the little girl could’ve kept him upright if he fell, but she gave him just enough support that he’d been able to limp his way into the house.
Pyro still felt nauseous and would kill for some morphine right about now, but he had bigger problems. The clock was ticking, and if he didn’t find a way to get out of this basement, he and Bowie would be shipped off in the morning to meet a grisly fate.
Thoughts of Penny tried to slip into his mind, but Pyro ruthlessly pushed them down deep. He couldn’t think about what she was going through or how worried she was. He had to stay focused on the here and now. On getting Bowie out of this basement.
He’d come to the realization when the elevator door opened that he wasn’t going to be able to save them.
Not in his condition. He was going to have to rely on Bowie.
But as much as she impressed him on a daily basis with how well she navigated the world without sight, this was a completely different thing.
Still…they had no choice. Bowie was going to have to save the day. Or at least attempt to. Pyro couldn’t wait for someone to find them. They didn’t have time.
Escape could wait though. For night to fall.
For the men upstairs to let down their guard and go to sleep, secure in the knowledge that their captives were stuck in the basement.
Pyro didn’t know if they owned this house or were simply renting it.
In the end, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting the hell out before their buddies showed up in the morning.
But first…he could use a snuggle.
“Climb up here,” he told Bowie. “In my lap.”
Without hesitation, she did as he asked, climbing onto his lap and putting her arms around his neck. Pyro hated that he couldn’t hug her back, but he closed his eyes, loving the warmth and weight of her little body against his own.
“Love you, Bowie-Bear. We’re going to be okay. When we get out of here, we’re going to eat ice cream for a week straight. And all the chicken nuggets we want. Hear me?”
She nodded, but she didn’t lift her head or respond. She was probably exhausted. Lord knew Pyro was. He wasn’t tempted in the least to sleep, but they had time for Bowie to take a nap. She was going to need her rest.
Pyro spent the next few hours counting Bowie’s breaths as she slept. Coming up with a plan. Ways to bolster the little girl’s confidence enough to give her the strength to do what needed to be done.
Because no doubt about it, what he was going to ask of her would be monumentally scary. But if it saved her life, he wouldn’t regret it. He just hoped her mother would forgive him someday for the position he was going to put her daughter in later that night.