Chapter 12
Twelve
Trembling all over, Zoe Carpenter stared at the man’s back as he walked around her.
He’d said nothing since arriving, as if he enjoyed making her wait for his next move.
The heavy smell of his sweat filled the room and crept up Zoe’s nostrils, choking her.
Trapped with a vicious lunatic, she couldn’t think straight.
What would happen to her now? She couldn’t take much more of his sadistic torture.
Would he kill her soon? Anything would be better than a slow death by him or the rats nibbling at her toes and crawling all over her when he left her alone.
Swallowing a sob, she dropped her head, making her face throb harder.
After spending the last two years working on ranches, Zoe figured she’d gained enough good sense to keep herself safe, and then she’d made a stupid mistake.
Her teeth chattered as fear shook her at the memory.
When a group of hands had announced they were going to drop a few people at the bus station, and would be hanging around town for a short while, she’d jumped at the chance to go with them and purchase a few things she needed.
They’d scattered in town arranging to meet up later, but when she got to the meeting place, they were nowhere to be seen.
She’d waited until it was almost dark before she had headed along the highway.
Walking miles in the dark was her only option, but when the flashlight on her phone died, fear gripped her with the implications of what she’d done.
In the middle of nowhere, with no street lights, knowing that at any second a bear could rush out of the forest and kill her, she was so scared she could hardly breathe.
All sense of self-preservation had flown when she’d seen a Lawson’s Ridge truck pull up ahead of her, and she’d breathed a sigh of relief.
The door had opened and she’d run toward it, thankful for a ride, but the moment she’d climbed into the front seat, he’d struck like a snake.
Pain shot through her head and the world had gone black.
She’d come around in a world of pain, tied naked to a chair in an old shed.
She’d screamed until her throat ached. He’d just watched her, saying nothing, and then wrapped gaffer tape around her mouth.
She couldn’t breathe, her nose broken and clogged with blood.
As she suffocated, the room faded away, but she’d screamed in agony as he’d dragged off the tape, ripping out her hair, and then he’d beaten her until she spat blood.
Much later, when he’d opened the cabin door to leave, weak dawn sunlight poured through the door, but she didn’t see open fields.
Outside, thick forest closed in around her for as far as the eye could see.
Beaten and head swimming, Zoe had waited for a long time and then, eyes swollen and nose dripping blood, she’d tried to escape.
The chair he’d strapped her to had been bolted to the floor.
Nothing she could do would move it. She tried rocking back and forth, but her efforts stripped the skin from her wrists and ankles as the heavy ropes tying her cut deep.
Convinced she would die, she gave up and sat there waiting.
He would come back, she knew it. He’d gotten enjoyment from hitting her, but what made him creepier was the camera aimed at her.
Had he been watching her from afar all day, enjoying seeing her struggle?
Terrified as he came around the front of the chair, Zoe quickly averted her gaze and stared at his boots.
Mud had splashed the well-worn brown leather as if he constantly walked in dirt.
If she’d gotten away and run to the sheriff, but she couldn’t identify him, he could be any one of the hands working at Lawson’s Ridge.
They all had the same sweaty smell from hours of working.
Most were around the same size but this man kept his face covered with a balaclava, and his clothes with coveralls.
The only way she could recognize him would be by his boots, but she’d seen at least ten pairs similar to his at the ranch.
She bit back a sob. No one would find her here, no matter how loud she screamed.
Would anyone even report her missing? As a seasonal worker, she didn’t know the other people very well. She tried to swallow. Her head throbbed in agony. Exhausted, thirsty, and so tired, she gathered as much courage as she could, and lifted her head. “Water, please. Water.”
“Why should I waste it on you?” He stood in front of her, with his fists balled at his waist. “Give me a reason why I don’t kill you right now?”
Zoe leveled her gaze on the two dark eyes peering through the slits in his balaclava.
Her voice croaked so bad she could hardly recognize it.
Trying to reason with him was her only choice.
“Why do you want to kill me? What have I ever done to you? I don’t know you and I don’t believe I’ve even met you before.
Why don’t you just let me go and I’ll forget all about it. ”
“Sure, you will.” He barked a laugh and shook his head.
“I’ve been watching you. Don’t you know that women were put on this earth to serve men?
And there you were, expecting men to drop everything to help you.
Batting those long eyelashes and trying to emasculate us.
So now you’re here to be punished. I’m not responsible for this decision.
Don’t you know that right after Eve tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden, that God punished women by causing their pain in childbirth?
” He leaned down closer. “I’m doing God’s work by punishing women. ”
Staring at this deranged man, Zoe sucked in a trembling breath. “I believe in a merciful God.”
“Well then, scream for mercy.” He lifted her chin. “The louder the better.”