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“Okay,” I reply reluctantly. “Actually…Levi?”
“Yeah?”
“Why don’t you keep me on the line. I’m just thinkin… in the event Quade is in there and he ain’t happy to see you comin, I’d like to bear witness to whatever goes down, right?”
“You bet Bo. Sounds like a smart idea, now that you mention it. Okay, well…I guess I’ll just…scoot on in the window then and…check the place out.”
“I’m right here waitin buddy. You got this. Just take it easy.”
“Should I call out to her, or try to be sneaky about it?” Levi asks, and I hate to admit I have no good answer to that.
“Levi, I’m sorry to ask you this but…do you own a gun?”
“No! No I’m afraid I sure don’t. Look Bo, I really don’t think Quade’s exactly a dangerous man or anything. I don’t know the details of the night he freaked Fiona out, but from what little he’s said to me about it…he didn’t mean to frighten her or anything. I don’t know…I think he just showed up late and accidentally woke her out of a deep sleep, gave her a start. You know how that sort of thing goes.”
“Mmm…” I grumble indiscernibly, “it sounds like that’s open to debate Levi, and I don’t know anything about it either because the woman don’t tell me nothin. But what I’m concerned about is you walkin in on somebody who isn’t expecting company and has no forewarning that it’s you. Assuming Quade isn’t armed either, he could still strike you with a beam or somethin if you come up on him in the dark, you hear what I’m sayin?”
“Oh yeah Bo, I hear you loud and clear. So…what the heck am I doing in here then? To tell you the truth, this whole thing’s giving me the creeps.”
“Okay, okay, stay calm now. No need to get wound up over anything. Here’s what you can do…call Fiona’s name and say ‘Hey it’s Levi, we’re worried about you. Are you here?’ That way he’ll know you’re not a burglar, okay? And turn on as many lights as you can, as fast as you can navigate through the house.”
I immediately regret this, knowing Quade could potentially hide or escape if he has that kind of forewarning. But unfortunately I’m not there, and I cannot, in good conscience, coax a guy into sneaking up on another man in the dark.
I listen with beagle ears for about ten minutes, as Levi cases the place before concluding he’s the only one in the house.
Chapter 33
Fiona
It vaguely dawned on me that I was entering Quade’s car, but I was too sick, weak, and faint to stop myself. Certain I’d collapse if I didn’t sit immediately, it seemed I had no other choice. But when I open my eyes a moment later, my existence blasts into stark disorientation. Suddenly the world has become black as ink, and I have no idea where I am.
As I realize I’m no longer sitting upright, I begin violently thrashing…instinctively terrified that I’ve been stuffed into Quade’s trunk. But my hysteria quietens once I notice the padded nature of the surface beneath me, and come to realize I can move all my limbs freely. I sit up to ponder what exactly happened tonight.
Clearly I was asleep or unconscious during the transport part of the evening. Which raises the question, where in God’s name am I? And where is Quade? I feel around for my purse, to check the time, but it’s nowhere to be found. I scoot off the edge of the bed and pat my way along the wall, searching for a light switch. After running my hands over what feels like a bookshelf, and then some other bulky furnishing I can’t distinguish, I conclude I’m getting colder and start running my hands back the other way. Once I reach the bed again, I sweep my palms up and down the expanse of flat, plain wall…desperately searching for something I never find.
But what’s much odder than failing to find a tiny light switch in the pitch dark, is that I never come across anything resembling a door. I never feel a doorknob, a door frame… even a window frame. As I clamber back in what I believe is the direction of the bed, I almost faint from fright when I trip over the leg of something and a sizable object rattles off with a crash as it hits the floor.
“Quade!” I yell at the top of my lungs. “Quade, where are you?” As the sound of my own voice pierces the quiet, nausea sets back in…compounded by a headache like nothing I’ve ever felt. My foot hits the mysterious object just as I arrive at the edge of the bed. I sit back down with great relief, then reach to the floor and grope a little…quickly identifying the object as a globe. I set it around the corner of the bed, where I can’t fall over it later.
A globe? I scoot back to the end of the bed and sweep my hands around until I scoop the globe up again. Turning it with one hand and running the other along its surface, I notice a couple of things. This globe is contoured, its mount has a precisely familiar size and shape, it has a chord sticking out of the bottom…because it’s a lighted globe. My lighted globe. In the event the lightbulb didn’t blow out when it hit the ground, and that I can grapple my way to an electrical outlet in this hellhole, I’ll be in business.
I begin my miserable search through the darkness again, continually surprised my eyes aren’t adjusting to something by now. I must be in a basement room, but I don’t detect any odor of mold or familiar coolness of a basement. It’s actually rather stuffy in here. Slowly making my way back to the area of the alleged desk, I begin frantically pawing the wall around it…in the space under its legs, to either side of it, between the wall and the desk frame itself. Nothing. Eventually I help myself onto the desk and methodically feel my way to the ceiling like a nincompoop.
My temples pierce like a cracking coconut when I let out a holler of frustration and drop to my knees on the desk, brushing over it one more time in search of anything with a plug I might have missed. But there’s almost nothing on it at all, no computer or lamp, just a tape dispenser and what feels like a small metal file-organizing rack. With my head in this condition, I simply have to get back over to the bed. Too groggy to resort to screaming my lungs out or beating on walls, rest feels like a priority over rescue…strangely enough. After struggling across the room and back to my soft surface, I’m down for the count.
***
“Cookie, honey, wake up.”
My head feels no better as I try to reassemble my awareness, piece by piece. Opening my eyes, I’m amazed to see…the lamplit room around me. And Quade hovering above, holding me like an infant, with tears in his eyes.
“Quade, you fucker!” I attempt to yell, as I instead break into a bawl, my fists clenched and gently pounding at his arms with the only trickle of strength I have. “What did you do to me? You left me here. Where were you? How did I get here?” I stammer out between sobs.
“Cookie, it’s okay,” Quade whispers, brushing my hair away from my face. “You got very sick last night and I brought you here to sleep.”
“But, but…where’s my purse? You left me in the dark. What is this place…there aren’t any lights in here!” I yell, pushing myself away from him.
“I’m sorry honey. I don’t have the house set up yet. I thought this would be the best room for you to sleep in. I… didn’t want you to wake up and spoil the surprise by seeing the rest of the house without me.”
