Chapter Twenty-Nine
MARLEY
THE DULL sound of a hammer echoes through my brain, but it feels like the hammer is hitting my head. Something is wrong. I feel cold.
Damn it, my head hurts.
Squeezing my eyes, I try to rub my face, but my hands are bound.
My eyes fly open, but the room is mostly dark.
My hands are tied together in front of me and I’m on my side on what feels like a camping cot.
Like the old green burlap cots we keep in the stables for when we need to be in there overnight.
My heart immediately starts to beat against my ribcage, and the increase in my blood pressure is making my head hurt worse. The beat of my heart is syncing up with the throbbing pain swirling around my head.
Wiggling my toes, my ankle bones press together as I move my feet. My boots are gone, and my toes are cold in my thin socks. Whatever is binding my ankles is digging into the skin over my bone.
My last memory is of Jax looking at me. The mask of calm he was using to try to reassure me and keep me calm slipped, and the rage was on full display before everything went black. That asshole must have knocked me out.
Taking a deep breath as a wave of nausea bubbles through my middle, I roll my head on the burlap onto my forehead, so my face is pointing down to take a few measured breaths through my nose.
“Marley?” Hallie’s scared voice is in the room somewhere.
Lifting my head and shoulders to push myself up on the cot and immediately regretting it, I lower onto my bound hands tucked up to my chest, and set my forehead back on the rough fabric. I fight the urge to vomit as the pain in my head radiates in waves with my erratic heartbeat.
“Marley, are you okay?” Hallie whispers.
“MmHm.” I mumble while focusing on letting deep, measured breaths soothe the nausea.
“I’m sorry, Marley. I’m so sorry.” She whimpers.
“Hallie, I love you and believe me when I say I don’t blame any of this on you. But please be quiet just for a minute.” My breaths become shaky as I think about Jax and Mason. How are they going to find me? Just my eyes stinging makes my head hurt worse.
I can’t break down right now.
Thankfully, Hallie does as I ask and silence hangs on the cool, damp air around us.
Are we in a basement? It smells musty, like a basement.
Oh, God, I need to get a grip. If I don’t get ahold of myself, I’m not only going to vomit but I’m also going to lose my shit and break down right here in a musty, moldy room on a crappy cot, with a splitting headache.
Wishing with everything in me I was still wrapped in Jax’s arms like I was this morning. I would love to smell leather and soap instead of must and mold and dampness right now.
“Do you know where we are?” I ask, my voice muffled.
“No, they had a cloth over my head, but I think we might be in one of the warehouses by the Port of Catoosa.”
A little bit of hope eases my fear. If it’s true, I’m not that far from home. “How long do you think we were driving? Could it have been thirty minutes?”
“Uhm, maybe. Give or take.”
I take another deep breath and slowly separate my forehead from the rough burlap, my head hanging as I slowly lift myself. Something cool touches the underside of my chin and I extend my finger to touch the little horseshoe tapping against my skin.
Pushing myself up to lean on my hands and hip, I take my first good look around and see a small, dark window close to the top of a cinder-block wall. Dim illumination from outside lights is shining through, offering a little bit of light. “Do you know how long we’ve been here?”
“It’s been hours. I was starting to worry about you since you’ve been out so long.” A small sniffle comes from behind me to my left. “I thought maybe he hurt you real bad.”
My mouth feels like cotton, and I would give anything for a glass of water right now. Clearing my throat that feels a little raw, I ask, “Do you know who’s warehouse and why do you think we’re in Catoosa?”
Another sniffle. “One time, D had to meet some people, and he took me with him. When they slid the big door open, and the sound of the echoes as they talked after we got inside, it reminded me of that warehouse. Also, I keep hearing a whistle, like the ones they use for the ships on the river.”
This is good. If she’s right, then we are close to home still. “Do you remember anything about what’s upstairs? Is there a phone?”
“I don’t, sorry.”
Damn.
Moving my hands, I test to see how tight the bounds are around my wrist, I think it’s a zip tie. They’re pretty secure. “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
Another sniffle. I can barely see her, she’s sitting up on her cot leaning against the wall, her knees pulled up to her chest. “Not any more than usual. I’ve been more worried about you.”
“Did they say anything before they left? Are they coming back tonight?”
“I heard someone tell D that he shouldn’t have brought you here, but D said he needed you for leverage. I don’t think they’re happy with him.”
The sound of voices echoing somewhere far away makes the hair on my arms stand up and fear skitters up my spine. “Do you know how many are here?”
“They didn’t take the sack off my head until we were in here, but I heard two different men talk to D, but there were other voices in the background. I don’t know how many.”
“Ok, that’s good, Hallie.” The voices are getting louder. They are definitely in a warehouse, the echo is undeniable, and it sounds like they’ve been walking a long time as their voices get louder, so it’s big.
It feels like it’s happening in slow motion. Voices, footsteps on stairs, louder voices in a hallway, and then the door opens.
Dim light from the hallway spills in and I can see that the room is small, and it’s made up of cinder blocks. The two cots we are sitting on are the only things in this room. Well, except for a bucket in the corner, and I really don’t want to have to use that.
I hope I don’t have to use that. They’d have to unbind my feet first.
“Well, well, look who’s awake.” D says. He takes up most of the doorway and I can’t see him very well.
The light is brighter behind his head and hurts my eyes, which is making my head hurt worse, so I stop trying to see him and keep my gaze on his feet. There is another set of feet behind him, but I’m not going to try to see who it is.
D walks over to Hallie and cuts the binding on her feet and jerks her up to standing by her arm. “Come on, pussycat, we’ve got some lost time to make up for.”
She yelps in pain and starts to fall. “Stop jerking her like that.” I bark. “Her feet are asleep.”
D stops and looks at me, humor on his face. “So, you do have a voice. I was starting to think you were a mute.” He chuckles and starts to walk slash pull Hallie to the door. “Don’t worry, she’s in good hands.”
The fast beat of my heart seems to make my body shake with each bu-bump and I shakily say, “Hallie?”
She looks over her shoulder as she goes through the door. “Don’t worry about me, Marley. I’m okay.”
The light from the hall shines on her face and I can see the tear streaks on her cheeks and her red eyes. She’s not okay.
“Where are you taking her? Why can’t she stay here with me?” I ask.
D doesn’t answer me, I didn’t expect him to, but I just felt like I needed to stall them, so I said the first thing to come to mind. I don’t want to be here alone.
Hallie disappears around the corner with D and I get my first look at the person who was in the hall behind him. The long, angry cut up his cheek freezes my insides, and I suck in a breath.
I’m not sure what’s uglier, the leer he has on his face as he looks down at me, or the cut on his cheek. I’m pretty sure he blames me for that cut, and that thought has my heart jumping in my chest as my stomach lurches.
He’s smiling at me, but the look in his eye makes me recoil into the wall behind me, pulling my knees up to my chest. His steps are slow as he walks across the room, that disgusting smile on his face.
Every move on his part seems to be calculated, but when he pulls a knife out of his pocket, panic grips my spine.
“I told you I’d do some damage to that pretty face of yours.” He leans over the cot, getting close enough that I can see the beads of sweat on his forehead.
My back and head are flush against the wall and I lower my eyes, not wanting to look at the pleasure he is getting out of this in his eyes. His hand is on the edge of the cot for leverage, his fingers look like sausages with hair on the knuckles.
The blade touches my cheek, just under my eye and starts to move down, the sting of the cut spreading across my face. “How does it feel? Hurts don’t it.”
I don’t cry out, I won’t let myself, but I can’t stop the sob that bursts from my chest. He’s dragging the blade slow, and I can feel a line of blood sliding down my jaw to my neck. Squeezing my eyes closed, I hold my breath to try and stop any more sound that would give him satisfaction.
“There.” He says and stands up straight. “Now we’re twinkies. Isn’t that what you girls call it?”
Keeping my eyes closed, and my head turned away from him, I jump when he yells. “Look at me.”
My eyes snap open and I turn toward him. He smiles as he looks at the cut. “Looks pretty good if you ask me.”
Icy blue eyes turning from calm to furious flashes in my mind, the hope that he will find me soon is keeping my mind from spinning out of control.
His words ‘Uvek c?u doc?i po tebe. Da? [I will always come for you. Yes?]’ echo in my brain and I lock eyes with the excuse for a man standing in front of me.
“He’s going to kill you when he finds me. ”
He laughs and leans over the cot again, his face just inches from mine. “He’ll have to find us first, blondie. But there may not be anything left for him to find.” His breath is just as bad as it was the last time he was in my face. He smells like an ashtray.
The pressure around my ankles tightens momentarily before I hear a snap and then is gone as he cuts the zip tie before he straightens again. He makes a show of folding his knife back in its sheath and walks out the door, locking it behind him.