The doors were always locked so even if she could have run, it would have been useless. Escape that, and she would have had Delores or those dogs to contend with. And of course, there was always the threat of killing Kane. “I’ll throw that mutt in the vehicle crusher if you attempt to escape. You want me to do that?”
So her days were spent memorizing patterns, observing their comings and goings. When they both went out, she was chained. On those few times, she couldn’t have escaped even if she wanted to. They were smarter than that.
So she waited.
The day soon came when Delores was away from the yard.
It was Matthew’s fault.
Taking a break from his work, he’d taken her back into the trailer for lunch, which he never did, so her mind was going into overdrive thinking of how she could use it to her advantage. The opportunity presented itself when he tried to come on to her.
“Strip.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I want you to give me a lap dance.”
“Hell no.”
“I’ll crush that dog. Now do it.”
She knew he hadn’t locked the door and that to take her clothes off he would need to remove the chain that went from his wrist to hers. Outside all three dogs were off their chains. Though Kane remained in the same spot barely moving — waiting for death to come take him.
“You hard of hearing?”
“What about Delores?”
“What she doesn’t know, won’t hurt her. Now get on with it.”
“I thought we were having lunch.”
“We are.” He flashed those nasty cigarette-stained teeth as he sat back in a chair waiting for the entertainment to begin. He sipped on a large coffee as she went to remove her outer sweater. “Come on. I don’t have all day. Speed it up.”
“I can’t with this on.”
“I guess so.” He pointed at her. “You give me any trouble… and…”
“You’ll crush the dog. I get it.”
As he was unlocking her restraint, he got close, breathing on her. His breath stank like an ashtray and shit. His dogs smelled better than him. Alicia held her breath as he turned the key in the lock and her wrist came free. She rubbed the red band on her skin from where the metal had worn away at it, leaving it raw.
Now whether it was her compliance up to that point or the belief that she would do nothing, he turned his back for just a second, and Alicia pounced.
She grabbed the chain that dangled by his leg and looped it up over his head.
It happened so fast.
One second he thought he was in control.
The next — she was tightening the noose.
At least she thought she was.
He’d managed to bring up both hands and put them between his neck and the chain that she was trying to tighten as she pulled back. A huge man, at least 240 pounds, he pulled at it, drawing her up onto his back. Then he bent at the waist, tossing her over him. Her body landed hard, her foot hit a table, and that’s when the real nightmare began.
“You’ve done it now,” he said, grabbing a clump of her hair and hauling her up, and throwing her against the side of the trailer. A mirror on the wall cracked, tiny weblike lines fissured out. “I’m gonna kill that dog, and you’re…”
Before he could spit the words out, she grabbed a lamp on the table and cracked him across the face. His body fell back, releasing her, and she bolted for the door.
Alicia burst out, her eyes turned to the dogs that leaped into action.
Kane’s ears went up as if he knew something wasn’t right, something was new, but he didn’t move.
However, she did.
“Fire. Brimstone!” Those words rang out in her mind even though Matthew wasn’t saying them. She’d heard it often. The fear she felt when Kane came after her in L.A. was nothing in comparison to that moment. She’d gotten maybe twenty feet before one of them took her down, biting into her arm, while the other grabbed her leg. Their monstrous teeth sank into her skin. She screamed.
She knew this was it.
The moment she would die.
Chewed up by some dogs while Kane looked on.
Except that’s not what happened.
She never even gave a command. It was like he acted on instinct. One second the dogs were attacking her, the next fighting off a wild beast that bit their legs. Yelps. Howls. The terrifying sound blended, a horrendous noise as Kane unleashed his fury.
Alicia scrambled to her feet, glanced at the trailer, and saw Matthew in the window, trudging toward the door. Though her leg was in pain, she burst toward that door with every ounce of strength she had left and slammed it closed, and used the dangling open padlock on the outside to lock him in.
Matthew cursed, kicking the door.
“Kane. Let’s go.”
That dog was smarter than she’d given him credit for.
He knew when it was time to leave as he released those two dogs and took off after her, as did those beasts, refusing to give up. Though now, she scooped up a tire iron she saw near one of the many vehicles, and used it to hit one of the dogs across the head as it attached itself to the back of Kane. The beast let out a yell and took off.
The other followed suit when Kane bit it hard on the back of the leg.
As they sprinted away, howling, she could hear Matthew cursing up a storm, telling her she wouldn’t get far.
She did. All the way to Los Banos, the one place everyone had been evacuated to.
“All right. Here you go, boy,” Alicia said, pouring water into a cupped hand so Kane could lap it up. As she was doing that, she looked outside the tent at a new influx of people who’d just
