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She had to escape. That was her sole purpose. If she could get away, then Ace wouldn’t be in danger trying to find her, trying to rescue her. She should be more worried about herself, but her sense of panic decreased if she concentrated on Ace instead.
Focusing on the room she was in, her eyes began to adjust to the blackness. There was a window to her right, but it was sealed. She could see a bit of light coming in from low on the horizon, which meant the sun must be setting. But she had no idea where she was or how she was going to get out.
Dakota realized she was bound with rope. That was a good thing. She could eventually escape from knots. After all, she had grown up with brothers who’d enjoyed torturing her as they played their cops and robbers games. She’d always been the woman who’d had to be rescued. She’d eventually learned how to rescue herself.
She was finally beginning to make some progress when she heard voices outside her door, then the sound of the knob turning. She lay still as the door was thrust open and some men walked inside. It sounded like two of them.
“How hard did you punch her?” one of the men asked.
“She was screaming, and I was trying to shut her up,” the other guy said. She could practically see him shrugging his shoulders as if he didn’t really care.
“We need her alive, or she doesn’t make very good bait,” the first guy said. “Go and check her. Make sure she’s still alive.”
Footsteps moved toward her. She made herself take deep, even breaths as the man reached up and ran his hand down her chest, supposedly feeling for her heart, but taking his time groping her. She had to fight not to cringe.
“You’re taking your time,” the man standing back said, laughing as if this was nothing more than a big joke to him. It took all Dakota had not to lash out. Playing the victim wasn’t an easy thing for her.
“She’s alive and quite beautiful,” the man touching her said. He seemed somewhat bored and somewhat excited. The excitement frightened her more than anything else. She was tied to some stinky cot and they had all the power in the world, while she had none.
“Okay, leave her be,” man number two said, starting to sound irritated.
“Why? The boss isn’t here. We could wake her up and play for a while,” the guy running his hand down her stomach said. It took all she had not to shudder in revulsion.
“I don’t think so. If something happens while we’re playing, we’re going to get shot,” villain number two reminded his partner, who finally removed his filthy hands from Dakota.
“The guys are downstairs. They will keep a lookout,” villain number one said, but he’d moved a few inches away.
“I guess you are right,” the other one said. She could feel him step closer to her. She imagined him leering in the dark. She wanted to scream.
“Hey Tony, Pete, something is happening,” a voice called. “Get down here.”
The urgency in the voice gave Dakota hope. They were worried about something. Did that mean someone was coming for her? Was this nightmare going to end? She didn’t want to hope for that, because she feared she would break into tears and give away the fact that she was very much awake.
The men left the room, their steps a lot more rushed than when they’d entered. The door slammed behind them, and she waited, holding her breath as she listened to their steps growing fainter. Only when she knew for sure they were gone did she allow a tear to fall down her cheek.
She began shaking, hoping and praying someone was there for her. She was a strong woman who didn’t often give in to hysteria, but terror was currently tickling at her brain. She resumed trying to escape her binds.
She heard activity in the house, but she had no idea what was going on. When she finally began to feel a bit of give in the rope on her right wrist, she doubled her efforts to get it off. First one hand, and then the other.
She could do this. Yes, she wanted Ace to come for her, but she wasn’t going to simply lie there and wait for rescue. She wasn’t going to give up. She would get away if it was the last thing she did. And maybe she’d be the one to rescue Ace, she thought with a half smile.
Soon, she was able to slip a finger beneath a loose piece of the rope, and she tugged more. She heard voices coming closer to her room, heard shouts. But she didn’t stop this time. If they were coming back, they might think they were safe—they might be coming back to continue what they’d started.
She wasn’t going to allow that to happen. Her brothers had insisted she take self-defense classes when she’d gone off to college. She was more than grateful to them for that now. Finally, her wrist was free. She pulled up her raw arm and didn’t take time to analyze the scraped skin.
She immediately began working on the other rope. Shouts continued being yelled in the house, and she could feel the anxiety of her captors growing. She wanted to be free by the time they burst into her room. She needed to be able to defend herself.
When her second wrist was free, she sat up in the filthy bed, ignoring the throbbing in her swollen wrists and the tingling in her fingers. She still had to undo her feet, and that was only the beginning in her escape. She then had to figure out how to get out of this house.
She didn’t even know how many men were there watching her. She didn’t know what weapons they had. She knew she was upstairs. Maybe she could get out the window somehow and be gone before they knew what had happened.
But even if she were able to do that, she didn’t know if they were in the city or out in the country, if they had guard dogs. She knew nothing. But none of that stopped her as she finally got her feet free. She rubbed her swollen ankles and then tentatively placed her feet on the ground.
She could feel the tingling of the blood returning to her once-restricted limbs, so she waited a moment to stand. She didn’t want to screw this up by standing up o
n numb legs and then crashing to the floor, alerting the men below that she was not only awake but free.
Every second that passed as she did nothing but sit on the bed rubbing her legs felt like an eternity. She was wasting too much time, and she knew it, but the other options were too terrifying to even begin to contemplate.
