Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Kelli inhaled sharply when the manhole cover above their heads shut out every scrap of light.
She wasn’t usually scared of the dark, but this was…
all-encompassing. She couldn’t see anything.
She immediately began to shake. It started with her arms, then her legs, and before she knew it, her entire body was trembling.
She’d never been so scared in her entire life.
And now they were…what? Being held for ransom? It was ridiculous and unbelievable, and yet here they were.
Her head throbbed where the guy had hit her, and she could feel the blood still oozing from the back of her head, down her neck, soaking into the coverup she was wearing.
A small whimper left her mouth involuntarily.
“Kelli?”
She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t answer Flash. She felt paralyzed with fear and disbelief.
“Where are—ow, fuck! I’m coming, hang on, sweetheart.”
The touch on her shoulder startled Kelli so bad, she literally gasped and wrenched away. Before her brain could process that it was Flash who’d touched her, and not the boogie man in the dark, she was in his arms.
Closing her eyes—not that it mattered, she couldn’t see anything with them open—Kelli held onto Flash with both arms and squeezed him as hard as she could.
“It’s okay. We’re all right. We’re going to get out of here. I give you my word.”
That made her feel better, even if a part of her deep down knew he couldn’t promise any such thing. They’d been buried alive, and it was terrifying.
“Come on, I want to look at your head.”
She couldn’t help it. She snorted. “Look at it?” she mumbled against his chest.
“Yeah, bad choice of words. But we need to stop the bleeding. Head wounds bleed like motherfuckers…Um, sorry. I tend to use more swear words when I’m stressed.”
At that, Kelli’s head came up. She couldn’t let go of the man she was clinging to as if she were a spider monkey, but out of instinct, she tried to look at him. “You’re stressed?” she asked.
It was his turn to snort. “Yeah. Stressed. Pissed off. Confused as fuck. Angry. Worried. Furious. All the adjectives you can think of. Come on, let’s sit here.”
Kelli wanted to ask where, but before she could, Flash was lowering her down onto something metal.
“It’s one of the wheel humps,” Flash told her, as if he could read the confusion in her body language. “I need you to let go of me for just a second. I’m not going anywhere, I’m right here. I’d never leave you alone. Understand? We’re sticking together. Period.”
Swallowing hard, Kelli forced herself to drop her arms from around Flash’s body.
One hand still gripped the edge of his T-shirt.
Even though there was no place for him to go, she still needed to keep contact with him.
She couldn’t even imagine what she’d be thinking or doing if she’d been dumped in here alone.
“Does it hurt? Your head? Sorry, don’t answer that—of course it does. Motherfucker clocked you good.” She felt his fingers in her hair, gently probing. “Yeah, it’s still bleeding. Damn, I wish I had my KA-BAR. I’m not sure I can rip my shirt without a knife or something.”
Kelli felt Flash’s large hand cup the back of her head.
It hurt for a moment, but then she leaned into his touch.
Intellectually, she knew he was putting pressure on the gash, but feeling him cradle her head so intimately was incredibly soothing.
He pulled her forward until her forehead was resting against her chest, as he did his best to stop the bleeding of her wound.
Her arms went back around him, and she inhaled deeply.
He smelled…sweaty. With a slight tang of river water.
He definitely wasn’t fresh and clean, but neither was she.
And it wasn’t as if they had any way of getting any cleaner.
Their situation was beginning to sink in.
They were in big trouble. Buried alive in a swath of jungle in the wilds of Jamaica.
No one was going to notice a random manhole cover that was completely out of place in the middle of the woods.
She was going to die here, which sucked.
But all Kelli could think was that at least she wasn’t alone.
“We aren’t dying here,” Flash said, startling Kelli.
“Stop reading my mind,” she complained, mumbling against his chest .
“Not hard to know what you’re thinking,” he told her.
“There’s no chance in hell my friends won’t come to Jamaica to look for me when they get that fucking ransom request. Our kidnappers will find out who I am soon enough, when they open my wallet and find my Navy ID card.
They’ll think they hit the jackpot, that they might be able to get the government to pay for my return, but that’s not going to happen.
Everyone knows the US doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, and while Heckle and Jeckle might think they’ve covered their tracks and no one will find us—they’re wrong. ”
He sounded so sure of himself. So positive that someone would find them. But Kelli wasn’t nearly so confident.
“We might need to be here a few days, but trust me when I tell you that we’ll be out of here as soon as my friends can arrange it.”
Kelli nodded. Even if she didn’t believe it, she wasn’t going to disagree with him. “Heckle and Jeckle?” She asked the first thing that popped into her head.
Flash chuckled, and Kelli could feel the laugh rumble through his body.
“Yeah, they’re cartoon magpies who cause problems for others and for themselves by their crazy actions. They’re supposed to be funny, but I found the cartoon to be fairly violent. Then again, I guess that’s kind of the nature of some of those older cartoons.”
He kept talking about his favorite episodes of the cartoon, and to her amazement, Kelli found his chatter about something so inane helped her relax.
“I think the bleeding has slowed down. How do you feel? Are you dizzy? Nauseous? Have a headache? ”
It took Kelli a moment to realize that Flash had stopped talking about Heckle and Jeckle and was asking her questions. “I’m okay,” she told him. She wasn’t, but what was she supposed to say? It wasn’t as if he had some painkillers in his pocket or he could get her to a doctor.
“Right.”
Then he shocked the hell out of her by putting both hands on either side of her head and tilting it back.
She felt his lips against her forehead, then he simply held her for a moment.
She imagined he was staring at her, and if they had light, he’d be searching her eyes and facial expression to try to ferret out her true thoughts.
“Thank you.”
“For what?” Kelli asked, confused.
“For not making that fucked-up situation worse.”
She couldn’t help it. She laughed. “I don’t think it could’ve gotten any worse.”
“Of course it could’ve been worse,” Flash said calmly.
“You could’ve screamed, freaked out Heckle and Jeckle, and they might’ve shot one or both of us.
They could’ve beaten the hell out of us, or killed one of us in the jungle, leaving the other in here alone.
You did exactly what you should’ve done. Kept quiet and followed directions.”
“I thought it was always better to fight,” Kelli said softly. “I’ve watched a few of those crime shows that are super popular on TV these days, and they always say that if you let someone take you somewhere in a car, that’s the worst thing you can do. That you should fight.”
She felt Flash shrug. It was almost weird how, without sight, her other senses became so much sharper.
“That’s not always true. Every situation is different.
Fighting an attacker or kidnapper could result in them killing you while trying to subdue you.
Other times, fighting is your only chance of survival. ”
“How do you know which is more appropriate?” Kelli asked.
“Intuition.”
“Is that why you didn’t do anything to take that gun away from the guy? I have a feeling you could’ve done it without too much issue.”
“Yeah, pretty much. The main thing was, while I could’ve taken that gun away from Jeckle, I didn’t know what Heckle would do.
I had no idea if he had a weapon as well, and concentrating on Jeckle would have left you vulnerable.
And my fears were right. Heckle did have a gun.
He could’ve shot us both while I was subduing his partner. ”
Kelli shivered.
“Besides, I have confidence in my team. They’ll find us, Kelli. We just have to stay alive until they can get here.”
She wanted to ask how long it would take for his friends to find them, but it was a stupid question. Flash didn’t know that. So she kept her mouth shut.
In the eerie silence of their tomb, her stomach suddenly growled loud enough to almost echo off the sides of the metal vehicle they were in. She could feel her cheeks getting hot and was briefly thankful that it was so dark.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
“Don’t be. I’m hungry too,” Flash told her. “Maybe they left something for us to eat.”
The possibility perked Kelli up, but she quickly sagged again. “I didn’t exactly see crates of supplies before they shut us in. ”
“No, but there is a box in the corner. I saw it…before.”
“A box?” Kelli didn’t remember a box, but then again, she’d been freaking out and looking up at the hole, and then Flash as he’d dropped down next to her.
“Yeah. From what I can tell, we’re in a stripped-down bus.
At least that’s what it looked like in the short glimpse I got before they turned out the lights.
No seats, just the humps of the wheel wells.
Even the steering wheel is gone. They took out the emergency exit in the roof and somehow replaced it with the manhole cover.
I think we can probably reach it if I put you on my shoulders, but I want to make sure Heckle and Jeckle are far away from here before we try to mess with it.
Just in case they’re up there watching.”
“This bus is much taller than usual, isn’t it?” she asked. “I mean, I don’t remember the bus from middle school being this tall.”