He’d hauled her up over his shoulder and carried her back into the house, only to dump her unceremoniously onto her bed. More tears spilled from her eyes as she squirmed away from him, but he’d only laughed and raked his gaze over her.
“This is kinda fun,” he said, more to himself than to her. “I like you better this way, tied up and muzzled. When I get you home, I’m gonna enjoy stripping you bare and stretching you out for my pleasure. Now…” he clapped his hands together and headed for her closet, “don’t you move. I’ll be right back.” He stepped into her closet and began rummaging again.
Glancing around her room, sweat had trickled down her face and her heart had raced so hard that her chest hurt, but she’d frantically searched for a weapon. Something, anything that she could use to either get herself free or hurt him, or both. Whatever she had to do to stop him.
Panic swirled inside and kept her senses on high alert. He was crazy. He meant to rape her, to eventually kill her, and she couldn’t allow that to happen. She had too many things to live for.
I should’ve gone with Cade, she’d thought miserably. Why did I let him go without telling him how I feel? If she’d been smart, she would’ve taken him however she could get him because…because she loved him. If all it had meant was spending days and nights with him until he tired of her, she should’ve taken them and never looked back.
Instead, she’d let him leave, thinking she didn’t want him.
If I can just slow JR down, stall him just long enough for Jorje to arrive… At least then, someone would know and could call the police.
Unfortunately, that’s not what had happened.
“Ah-ha!” he’d shouted before she got a chance to do more than roll to the end of the bed. “There it is.” He’d come out of the closet waving a set of papers in his hands. She hadn’t needed him to tell her that it was the deed to her property as he smiled triumphantly and pocketed it.
How did he know my business papers were in the closet? Has he been in the house when I wasn’t around? Or even when I was? That thought terrified her even more. Then his crazy eyes had taken her in at a glance and a deeper chill froze her bones.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he’d said with a twisted grin. “I’ve got plans for you.”
And then he’d come for her. She’d tried to fight him off, but it had been useless. He’d hit her again, punched her in the stomach so hard she couldn’t breathe for a few seconds.
While she struggled to regain her breath, he’d flipped her over his shoulder and lugged her out to his truck, where he’d tossed her onto the front seat and pulled a pillowcase over her head.
“Be a good girl and I won’t have to hurt you so much next time,” he said as he slammed the passenger side door.
He’d forced her to lie on her back with her head in his lap while he drove. When he’d fondled her breasts again, she’d tried to roll and kicked at the door.
“Stop it,” he’d hissed as he pinched her nipple, but she only fought harder until he pulled over and tied her wrists to her ankles.
Now, she huddled in the corner of JR’s ramshackled house, still bound and gagged, wearing nothing but her underwear and jeans as her kidnapper coaxed the fire to life inside the stove.
Slamming the door on the licking flames, JR turned to stare at her. His leg bounced incessantly while his eyes moved over her. The lust still flickered in his eyes, but something else was there now, too. Fear?
“Bitch,” he mumbled as he turned away and almost ran to the kitchen. As he fumbled through items in his tiny kitchen, Addie’s gaze travelled to the front door.
Could she get out before he realized she was gone? She wouldn’t make it far, tied as she was, and the last thing she needed was for him to hit her again. Her face hurt from the blows he’d already landed and her stomach still ached from the punches he’d aimed there earlier. Still, if she rolled quietly, she might be able to turn the doorknob with her chin and fall out onto the deck.
Working up the courage to try, she jumped when JR let out a screeching “Whew, yeah!” from the kitchen. A moment later, he sniffed loudly several times and then appeared at the doorway, rubbing at his nose, though a dusting of white still edged his upper lip.
He’s high, she thought, the idea scaring her stiff. If he was crazy enough to kidnap and threaten her, what else would he do with a narcotic in his system? Or maybe he’d already had it in his system and this little booster was just to fuel his bravado.
He smiled at her, his leg still bouncing rapidly, as he held up a pair of scissors.
Her eyes widened in fear and her chest squeezed tight.
Snapping the blades open and closed, JR stalked her as she frantically looked around for something to save herself. Her eyes landed on a poker that sat beside the stove, but JR was already between it and her. She looked up, trembling, tears once again flooding her eyes, just before she dived for the poker.
He caught her easily and pushed her onto her back. Holding her down with a chokehold around her throat, he grinned wider as he slipped one blade of the scissors between her jeans and her skin. A long snip followed and she began to scream as the blades made quick work of the denim.
JR lifted the blades in front of her face and cackled. He lowered them, the cold metal caressing the skin of her chest. Then, with
