Chapter Forty
Raven woke with a start, feeling as if she’d been partying all night and had gone way too far.
Crushing dizziness forced her eyes to remain closed, while her stomach dealt with the sickening nausea.
Sensing she wasn’t alone, she tried to remember what had happened only to come up blank.
Suddenly, her brain sent signals that she’d been tied up, left sprawled on the living room rug, and was helpless.
Struggling, she realized she could move her legs but not much else. Groans built up and flowed into the tense space around her, bringing forth chuckles of satisfaction close by.
“Aha! My lady is awake. Finally. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you to join the living? We have some partying to do, you and me, bitch. And I’ve waited long enough to get you where I want you… now haven’t I?”
“Dale. What the hell have you done? Let me go.”
“Not gonna happen, slut. You’re the reason I’ve got bug bites all over my body that still haven’t healed. And it’s because of you’re meddling that I have every police officer in the vicinity willing to shoot first and ask questions later.”
Jesus… Lord help me.
Her heart began to thump… the heavy beating making her afraid that she’d upchuck and soil herself. Unable to ignore the hate in his voice or the loathing in his heartless, black eyes, she tried to wrench her hands free from the plastic strips that confined them behind her back.
Voice edgy with the fear she tried to control, she pleaded for his sanity. “You don’t want to do this, dude. I’m FBI. Have you any idea how they deal with men who attack agents? You won’t like it, trust me. Let me go, and we’ll talk.”
Appealing to his intelligence failed, her imploring words only made him laugh.
Strutting around the room, he threw his head back and bellowed with joy.
Looking like the madman he was, he circled and even danced, his features distorted with glee.
Settling down, he turned to her and crouched nearby.
“Oh, you and me… we’re gonna have such a good time, baby.
You’re going to be real nice to little ole Dale.
” His voice unexpectedly turned hurtful, bursting with the meanness of an empty soul.
Then he whispered, “Or I’ll kill you slow, slow, slowww…
and make the pain a hundred times worse. You understand?”
She didn’t say a word. Just stared at the fucker who had control.
All she could think of was that thankfully, he hadn’t tied her legs together.
Likely because he intended on getting between them.
Raven knew that his coming attack might be her last chance to stop his vile intentions, and as scared as she felt, she stiffened with anticipation.
Giggling like a sicko, he slowly began to unzip his hoody to reveal a grubby, graying, sleeveless undershirt that had seen better days.
Without the outer garment, his muscled arms appeared, revealing the inflamed sores and bruises of his past struggles.
“Do you know what the riverbank muck tastes like, honeybun? No? Well, I do. Hid in the fucking shit for hours while your men combed the area to find me. Your fault. Then I got chewed up by bugs, worms, even a mean ole snake had his turn on my arm. Yep. Your fault.”
His voice rose. “Oh, hey, can’t forget the fucking mosquitoes.
They loved me and made every inch of my body burn with bites and blisters.
Again, your fault. And while the cold water soaked me till I thought I would die from hypothermia, I had to breathe in all the shit to stay alive. Swallowed lots too. Your fault.”
“Stop! You can’t blame me for your bad choices. I didn’t kill anybody. You did. Nor did I hold folks hostage… no, you did that.”
His voice roared with anger. “Shut the fuck up. I don’t want you to talk, hear me? I’m in charge now.”
“Look, Dale. Hurting me isn’t going to help you. Just leave. By the time I get free, you can be long gone.”
Her words seemed to tickle him mightily.
“Yo, princess,” He laughed again, “My dream of having you at my mercy is the only thing that kept me alive these past weeks. Now stop talking. I want to remember this moment and make it last.” He swung away to the table.
“Dale’s going to get another drink, and then it’s time to have some fun.
” He lifted his whiskey bottle and let the alcohol pour into his throat.
Booze slopping down his face, he wiped his mouth with his arm and dropped the bottle down hard.
Obviously knowing she had one, he called out to her Alexa device and demanded a loud, hard-rock tune.
Music with a thudding beat that ripped through her tense body and made the nightmare much worse filled the room and her head with every wicked beat.
Circling the furniture, dancing and humming along, he stopped for another long slug from his whiskey, holding off the coming nightmare for seconds before he turned her way.
Grinning like a cat who swallowed the canary, he crouched down and reached for her legs.
That’s when she kicked out, catching him on the side of the head.
Realizing the asshole had removed her shoes, she soon understood she had nothing solid to use as a weapon.
The memory of her martial arts instructor’s voice from Quantico suddenly sounded in her memory.
“Get his neck in a hold between your legs and squeeze hard and twist fast.”
She tried. But he seemed to know exactly what she intended and kept her from moving by using the weight of his own body, sitting on top of them to hold her in place. Then he could hit her without her being able to do a thing.
Not only did he slap her face hard, first one side and then the other, he watched her reaction like a scientist with a specimen.
And while she swallowed the blood from the cut that opened from the force – choking and recoiling from the pain – he smiled, revealing discolored teeth with the added stink of filth and whiskey that made her gag.
Taking his time, he wrenched at the buttons on her blouse and bit her neck, ripping at her skin as if he wanted to eat her flesh. His giggles turned to groans of glee as his hands snatched at her bra.
That’s when all hope fled. Raven wanted to die rather than have to bear this assault by a madman. Hate consumed her… black and breathtaking. Cries held back finally escaped and they goaded him on to forcing his disgusting mouth over hers.
***
And that was the moment Cane broke into the room and attacked.
Crazed with anger, he lifted the animal off her like he weighed nothing, and when Dale turned, he drove his fist into the asshole’s belly like a pro fighter with a punching bag. Once Dale’s legs sagged, Cane punched him in the face and following him to the ground, he hit him again… and again.
Blood poured from Dale’s nose and mouth, but inflamed and wanting to kill the monster, Cane seemed to lose all control.
It was Noah who hauled him off the fucker, held back his arm, and yelled loud enough to be heard.
“Enough. We don’t want the attorneys to get him off because of excessive police violence. ”
Dropping Dale like the sack of garbage he was, Cane staggered to his feet and left the bastard cowering on the floor while he reached in his pocket for his knife. He rushed toward Raven to cut the plastic bands off her wrists and gather her close.
Noah, after calling in the incident, bent over to grab at Dale and try lifting him to his feet in order to secure his arms. Shocking everyone, the sneaky bastard grabbed for Noah’s gun. And with an unexpected jerk, he swung it free and aimed it at Raven.
***
As if she sensed what was coming, at the same second that Dale made his move, Raven opened her eyes.
If Dale hadn’t of stumbled, she’d have lost. But those few precious seconds enabled her hand to reach for the weapon she’d seen Cane thrust back into his underarm holster – the one he’d unlocked when they’d first arrived.
Adrenaline throbbed inside her body – created from the most terrifying moment she’d ever faced – and became her driving force.
Drawing from that enormous power, she took aim and shot the armed prick in his head just seconds before he pulled the trigger.
The sound of the bullet mingling with the wild, deranged music didn’t even register.
That’s the same moment a crazy thought popped into her head. A smile hovered but it hurt too much to form. Son of a bitch… she’d gotten payback using Dale’s own style of assassination.
Then she dropped the gun and fainted.