Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
K athy moved her jaw slowly; the filthy rag that had gagged her was on her lap, and the madman who’d walked into her bedroom was pacing at the cave’s opening. She looked around her. It wasn’t really a cave. More like a depression in one of the many plateaus in the area. Her foot hurt but had stopped bleeding, which didn’t matter because her hands and feet were tied with a wire that was so tight it was cutting her skin and bleeding around the bare metal.
“Why didn’t he ask?” the man muttered as he took the battery out of the phone. Kathy studied the man. His teeth were rotted, his hair was matted, and she swore he had lice crawling in his hair when he shoved the phone at her. He reeked. A stench she couldn’t describe, but it was so repugnant she gagged at the thought of it .
She drew a shaky breath. He needed to see her as a person. That was what all the documentaries she saw about hostages said. “The wires are making me bleed.”
He swiveled and stalked over to her, backhanding her when he reached her, which made her topple back from the black rubber storage bin where he’d put her. Her cheek erupted in pain, and her vision exploded in red and black patches. “If you don’t want to die now, you’ll shut up, bitch!”
Kathy gasped when he grabbed her arm and jerked her back up onto the bin. Blood oozed from her wrist. She swallowed hard, gagging at his smell. “You are bait. Dead bait.”
Kathy gagged. She couldn’t stop the reaction. He grabbed her face, squeezed her jaw, forcing her to open her mouth, and then spit into her mouth. Her stomach lurched and heaved, emptying her stomach.
He laughed as she choked on the bile. He didn’t let her move her head, and she strangled on her own vomit. She couldn’t breathe, and her vision tunneled.
The sound of the man talking was the first thing she heard. Kathy blinked and opened her eyes. She’d fallen next to the dirt wall in the small space between it and the black bin. Her throat and nose burned, but she didn’t move. She couldn’t see him, but she could hear him.
He muttered something, and she heard a faint click. Then, what sounded like another person was talking.
A man’s voice panted. “I’m hurt bad. The attack was a surprise. It wasn’t supposed to happen. Not what the intel told us. Everyone is fucked up or dead, I think. I heard choppers.”
“It’s never supposed to happen,” the man in the cave said.
“If someone finds my shit, my phone. Send it to my brother. Jackson. He’s my only family.”
“I got it, man. I got it.” That voice, she knew. It was the man in the cave with her.
“Jackson, man … I thought Marks saw me. He looked straight at me, but …” There was a long pause as the man coughed and moaned. “I asked him to help me. I think the last chopper has flown out. I’m under some of the building. If I’m found … fuck.” The man started coughing again. “I’m dying. I can see my intestines, and I got shrapnel. Lots of issues, man.”
Kathy listened as the man moaned in pain.
“I know he saw me. They’ll come back for me. Marks will tell them. Got to have faith.”
“Fuck faith!” the man in the cave yelled, causing her to jump. She held her breath, praying he didn’t realize she’d moved.
“Jack … I’m cold. I’m so cold. I want Mom, man.”
Kathy cried silently as she listened to the man die. His breathing, ragged and tortured, ended with a rattle and a wheeze as he asked for his mom again.
“He’ll pay today. He’ll pay.” The man, Jackson, drew a deep breath, and then there was nothing but silence.
Kathy wept silently. What was Barry going to do? She moved her wrist. The blood seemed to loosen the constraints. That was when she felt her watch. Her running watch with the GPS. The one she was going to take off for the night as soon as she’d finished dressing. She closed her eyes and prayed Kate would tell Barry about the watch. If they could find her before it was too late.
She prayed hard, harder than she’d prayed in a long time. She prayed for the man who was holding her, but most of all, she prayed for Barry and herself. For time together, for time to love, and time to live. She didn’t want riches, success, or any of the world's trappings. She wanted the man she loved and time to be with him.
The man walked up to her and kicked her leg. She groaned, and he jerked her back up on the box. Her dress caught and ripped on the lip of the box.
“Time to call Loverboy and give him the first set of coordinates.” The man snapped her battery into her phone.