Page 83 of Four Cards Exposed

Susan grabbed on to that thought, intuitively knowing that was the part of herself she needed to listen to.

She forced air into her lungs. It tasted stale, like she’d been breathing it for a while.

Find out where you are.

She already knew she wasn’t in a coffin, and she wasn’t inside the trunk of a car, either. The ground was too smooth, the space too symmetrical, and nothing moved.

Susan felt with her hands, exploring three wooden walls and one metallic grating.

Her heart skipped a beat.

A crate.

A dog crate.

No.

No!

She couldn’t be locked up again.

Susan’s bare foot struck the metallic door—then the walls. She kicked until her toes and ankles were bruised, but the door was solid. She wasn’t getting out this way.

Think.

You walked home.

Opened the door.

Then—nothing.

It was the nothingness that finally did her in—that gave a shape to the feral fear that shared the dark space with her.

Nobody’s coming.

Susan felt the wetness between her legs that told her she’d just lost control of her bladder. Then she curled up on herself, like the animal the crate was meant for, and sobbed.

26

* * *

James

“You need to eat something, James,” Natalie said, handing him a shrink-wrapped sandwich.

James took it, but placed it, untouched, on the table in front of him. His stomach would simply reject anything he tried to eat.

Michael Bell walked by with his head down, giving James wide berth. A short while earlier, he’d shared the story of how he’d offered to walk Susan home, and how Susan had quickly shut him down. James had almost popped a molar listening to him.

But the man wasn’t responsible for what had happened to Susan. They knew that now. Nobody in this room was responsible—except for James. He was the only one to blame.

As soon as he’d calmed down a bit, he’d realized they had to start with the obvious place—and the obvious place was the cartel, not Susan’s friends and family.

“Traffic cameras didn’t catch anything last night,” Rob said. “But then, we don’t have that many cameras.”

James’s phone rang.

Lorraine.