Chapter 19 #3
Her captor shrugged. “Carmen gets what Carmen wants. And if she wants hotshot Night Stalker dick, she’ll get it. One way or another.”
Zita was living in another dimension. This was unbelievable. People like Silas and Carmen should only exist in stories and nightmares. And yet, here she was, smack dab in the middle of this insane plot.
“Make things easy for yourself and walk across on your own. You don’t want me to knock you out again.”
No, she didn’t. She really didn’t. Zita was shaking from head to toe, but she somehow managed to walk across the board and through the hatch in the side of the huge ship without slipping and falling into the water below.
She was no expert, but she guessed they were in a large drydock facility.
The ship was obviously decommissioned and likely going to be dismantled for scrap or something.
But given all the rust, it had obviously been sitting there for who knew how long, waiting for its fate… much as she was.
Silas might not be willing to kill her, but she wasn’t going to let her guard down, because he could change his mind any second. The feel of his hands around her throat as he held her down in the trunk flashed into her mind. It would be extremely easy for him to strangle her if he wanted to.
With his free hand, Silas clicked on a flashlight he must’ve had in one of the pockets of his black cargo pants.
The interior of the ship was pitch dark and eerie as hell.
Creaks and groans echoed around them as they walked.
Zita was soon completely lost in all the long corridors and passageways.
But once again, Silas seemed to know exactly where he was going.
“Have you been here before?”
“Yup. Used to be a security guard here. My buddies and I would play hide-and-go-seek inside the empty boats and ships. I was always the winner.”
Good God, the man was bragging about winning a kids’ game. Zita’s head spun.
“There are lots of good places to bring women, to do whatever you want with them. It’s not as if anyone can hear them scream.”
He chuckled darkly at his own words, and horror once more rose within Zita. Was he going to sexually assault her too?
She’d thought her situation couldn’t get worse; she’d been wrong.
“This is the biggest ship here. It’s an old aircraft carrier. Has thousands of rooms, hundreds of nooks and crannies. It’s the perfect place to stash you. And it’s slated to be towed out to sea next week. To be sunk and made into an artificial reef or some bullshit.”
Zita closed her eyes as he dragged her down yet another narrow set of metal stairs.
Silas was a monster. He might tell himself that he wasn’t a killer, but everything he’d done, from stalking, to hitting her, to kidnapping, to choking her, to working with Carmen, and now this…
was clearly evidence that he was a psychopath.
The plan to leave her in this abandoned ship to drown when it sank at sea was simply icing on the shit cake he was serving her.
After what she guessed was about twenty minutes, Silas stopped in front of a door. One of many that looked just like it in the long hallway. He pushed it open and abruptly shoved Zita inside. She went sprawling on the hard metal floor, but forced herself to immediately get up and face her captor.
Except he wasn’t coming into the room after her. He slammed the door with a loud bang.
Zita ran toward it and grabbed the handle. It didn’t budge.
She pulled with all her might, then pushed. Nothing.
“Silas! Don’t do this! Let me out!”
She heard nothing but the creaking of the ship around her. She couldn’t see anything either. It was completely black. He hadn’t left her a light. Zita couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face.
Her breathing increased. She was on the verge of a panic attack. She hurt all over, and she’d been left here to die. She knew that was Silas’s plan. Carmen’s too.
Anger hit hard and fast at the thought of the actress.
The bitch actually thought she could fly into town and sleep with Sage when he was vulnerable?
Not happening. The man she knew had way more honor than Carmen thought.
He also wasn’t stupid. He’d know in a heartbeat something was wrong.
He’d turn over every rock in town to find her.
But will there be enough time?
Zita did her best to ignore that small voice.
With her arms in front of her so she didn’t hit her head on something, on top of all the other hurts she had, Zita did her best to explore the room.
It was completely empty as far as she could tell, except for two metal bunks built into the wall.
No sink. No toilet. No bedding. Nothing but metal all around her.
Whoever was in charge of dismantling the ship and prepping it to be sunk had done an exceptional job of removing anything and everything that could contaminate the ocean.
Moving slowly, as her muscles were screaming in pain and shaking from the adrenaline rush she’d experienced, Zita sat on the bottom bunk. The chilly metal immediately soaked through her pants. She shivered. But not entirely with the cold.
She was scared. Really scared.
But she wasn’t dead.
If there was anyone who could find her, she knew it was Sage.
Memories of the hug he’d given her just that morning filled her head, making her feel warmer, even if it was all in her mind. Sage wouldn’t give up on her. He’d find her.
He had to.
He had one week.
Seven days before she’d disappear forever beneath the waves, and no one would ever know what had happened to her.
Lying down, Zita refused to cry. Instead, she’d wait. And hope.