Explicit Instruction (2 page)

‘No th
ey won’t,’ he said with humour in his voice.

‘Do you think this is funny?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘But maybe next time you’ll think twice about doing what you’re told.’

‘If you had... I didn’t know what was in here. If you’d told me outside—‘

‘I tried. But you were hell-bent. If it wasn’t so tragic I’d tell you that it serves you right.’

‘You think I deserve this?’ she
asked pulling against her restraints. ‘You think any woman—‘

‘No,’
he said suddenly very solemn.

‘Let me go,’ she whispered. ‘Please.’

‘What’s your name?’

‘My name?’

Her impulse was to scream, to shout, and his benign question took her off guard. But maybe if she could put a human face on the situation she would be spared. Like naming the stray who comes to your stoop, you choose to keep and care for him once he has a name.

‘Felicity,’ she said. ‘
Felicity Hughes. But everyone calls me Flick.’

‘Flick,’ he said.

The mattress moved, and she tensed ready to scream again, but he didn’t touch her. ‘What’s your name?’

‘They call me Rushe,’ he said. ‘What are you doing out in these parts?’

‘Cab broke down,’ she said. ‘I was looking for a phone.’

‘You don’t carry a phone?’

‘Battery is dead. It’s kinda been a day.’

‘I’ll say.
Chances of you getting out of this alive are slim.’

Fresh tears burned her eyes and her wobbling chin tried to contain another scream. ‘You can let me go, just now, please, just let me go.’

‘To what?’ he asked. ‘You’ll have to walk back through that room, and if they think I’m not... they’ll finish what I’ve not started yet.’

‘Yet?’

Three heavy thumps landed on the door startling her again. The bed moved then he was off it.

‘I’ll uncuff you, but you’ve got to stay close to me,’ he said. ‘Do as you’re told.’

‘You’re going to let me go?’

‘No.
I haven’t had my fun with you yet.’

‘Please!’ she
screeched in the desperation from her heart.

Any thought that this man might be better than the others disappeared with those wor
ds. The cuffs were loosened and she was pulled up to her feet. Her legs were jelly, and Flick snatched out for an anchor, only to come up against him.

Solid didn’t begin to describe this man.
Every part of him was hard muscle, but he wasn’t bulky. His huge hand curled all the way around her upper arm, and he tugged her body away from his but he kept a hold of her with a vice grip.

The underwear that had been torn by the
other man slid downwards and Flick grabbed for it, but she didn’t get far because again his hand pulled her up – he obviously thought she was about to pass out.

‘Am I gonna have to carry you?’

‘No, my... my underwear, your friend tore it and...’ Flick didn’t want to fall over and smash her face somewhere. If she passed out these men would have free rein.

‘Get it,
’ Rushe demanded and tossed her back to the bed again.

Hooking it off her feet
, Flick realised that she’d lost her shoes somewhere, but she didn’t care about that. As if he could see in the dark, Rushe snatched the thong from her then took hold of her again to wrench her back to her feet.

It took him
two strides to get to the door. But it took her four times that many, and still he didn’t slow down. Ripping the door from the frame, he marched out. He was angry, she could tell it just from the way he moved, and still she hadn’t seen his face.

But in the gloom of the bar she got a better look at his frame at least. Being small she was used to people, men especially, being taller but he was a clear foot taller, if not more.
He had wide shoulders and narrow hips, long strong legs wrapped in faded Levi’s.

‘You got our toy?’ the man Rushe had identified as
Skeeve asked practically buzzing with excitement.

There were fewer men here now, only five left including Rush
e. Shiv was holding open the door she’d used to enter. One door; how could opening one door change your whole life?

‘
Glen’s first,’ Shiv said. ‘Then I’m up.’

Rushe said nothing; he dragged her out onto the wet street
, and any whisper of freedom disappeared when she was thrown headfirst into the back of a truck that idled by the kerb. Still on her face, Rushe got in behind her and shunted her against the far door. The cold glass of the window came up harshly on her cheek.

‘Put your seatbelt on,’ he grumbled at her.

Rushe didn’t look at her when he said it, but his diligence surprised her, and she did as told. Three others piled in the front and they were moving. The speed would have concerned her if she wasn’t desperately in need of a cop to stop them. But soon they were out of the street, and the town, and they were on the interstate.

‘If you’re not having your go, I’m going now,’
Skeeve said from Rushe’s other side.

‘You’ll keep it in your pants,’ Rushe said. ‘I ain’t watching that.’

The three up front laughed. ‘Yeah! You’ll only embarrass yourself,’ Shiv said.

Panic gripped Flick
again when she realised how far they were going. This wasn’t a quick trip round the corner. They were travelling somewhere. The further they went, the greater her urge to jump out became; except they were on the interstate and had to be hovering around a ninety, so she couldn’t leap from the car and hope to survive.

The reality of her situation clawed at her because
, unlike she’d tried to claim, her family wouldn’t miss her. She hadn’t seen any of them for almost a year. None of them kept in touch. She didn’t have a boyfriend. Her date tonight was a first date, and he’d likely just think she stood him up. Hayden and she had met in a coffee shop, so he wouldn’t notice she was missing from work.

And work, Tamara couldn’t stand her,
and Geoffrey had been prickly since she’d refused to go on a date with him. Plus, this was a long weekend, and being Friday night now she wasn’t due back into work until Wednesday. They’d let her miss a few days without thinking anything other than she was being unreliable. Then the weekend would come, so it would be more than a week before anyone thought about reporting her missing.

‘You’re gonna be right at home little girl,’
Skeeve drawled. ‘Right at home.’

Sitting in the back of this truck
, Flick stared blindly at her knees. Rushe took up most of the space, but she was glad that he sat next to Skeeve instead of her.

When she did glance up
Shiv was peering over his shoulder at her. Skeeve was creepy and eager but Shiv was evil. With that leering smile and those narrow eyes she could believe he’d killed a woman for no reason other than his own entertainment. Killing someone in the way Rushe had described was not out of necessity. The man at Shiv’s side stole glances too but he seemed younger, jumpier, a bit twitchy, and nervous.

‘I say the girl’s gotta earn her keep,’
Skeeve said. He shifted his hips forward and began to fumble with his belt.

‘Hey
, yeah!’ Shiv said from the front. ‘Give her something to eat! A taste of what’s to come.’

All of the men guffawed. Her fingernails bit into her thighs,
and Flick’s body was so tightly coiled she wanted to scream and self-combust.

‘You don’t touch my property,’ Rushe rumbled. ‘None
of you. You not clear on the rules?’

When he
spoke, she was never aware of his lips moving, or eyes, or anything. And they weren’t words as much as a bassy variety of vibrations from his chest. The third man was nervous; she had no read on the driver; and Rushe... he was unreadable.

Keeping her attention on her knees
, Flick tried to forget her surroundings, the men here, and what lay ahead.

The positive thing about the length of the journey was that it gave her a reprieve.
Whatever her future held Flick didn’t want to think about what details it could involve.

All of the men muttered
, but none of them stood up to Rushe. If he claimed her the others would respect that. Maybe respect wasn’t the word, but they wouldn’t refute it.

Rushe was broad but lean
, and the heat of his rock hard thigh against her made her physically quiver. This man was athletic but agile, and while he might not say much an awareness shimmered around him that spoke of a quick mind.

But these men feared him. His position
had to be superior to theirs, or he’d asserted his authority somehow. The muttering continued, but Rushe was unaffected.

The air was thick, humid,
and the tension between the men was apparent; in this vehicle there was no honour among thieves.

Hayden
would’ve left the restaurant by now. No one would miss her. He’d be in a cab, on his way home, cursing her name. Flick was alone.

When her family cast her out a year ago she’d learned the hard w
ay what being alone meant. She’d staggered like Bambi on ice, unable to find her feet. After having her purse snatched on two separate occasions, she’d thought herself independent and bad-ass. Boy did this scenario put that into perspective.

The black of night stretched into the souls of the men in this vehicle
, and when it left the highway, they drove for more than twenty minutes into more gloom. Streetlights and civilisation were a long-forgotten dream; darkness and trees were the only things outside now.

The trees thickened
, and their vehicle swung around a narrow bend into a side lane. From the bumping and bouncing Flick knew they were off-road. This wasn’t a concrete thoroughfare. They dodged trees and the bumping increased. Cresting a ridge, they fell into a dip and Flick came out of her seat, landing on top of Rushe.

Skeeve
whooped and took the chance to grab for her breast. Rushe shoved her aside as an inconvenience but that took her out of Skeeve’s reach.

Then after
a series of mounds the whole vehicle lurched to a stop. All of the men piled out. Rushe reached over her to open the door, then shoved her outside.

Any thought Flick
had about running vanished when mud seeped between her toes and over her feet. Trees barred her view from every angle; all she could see was the truck and a shack.

Calling it a shack was polite. A rickety old porch seemed to hold the walls in place like a belt ho
lding in the beer gut of a darts player.

As she was s
till stuttering at the view that didn’t even allow moonlight through the canopy, Rushe grabbed her arm and regardless of her unstable footing, he dragged her toward the shack in the wake of the rowdy men, who had exited the truck first.

Going
up the creaking wooden stairs, Flick knew walking in there was final. Taking the chance, she dug in her heels and tried to liberate her arm. Rushe wasn’t perturbed. He hoisted her off her feet, and despite her struggling and screaming, he kicked into the shack and crossed the width of the room.

W
ithout thought for the others Rushe shoved open a door, carried her in, and threw her down onto the floor with a thud. A nearby rope was used to bind Flick’s hands, which he then attached to a pipe that ran along the wall.

The room was small, little more than a cell, ten foot square with a single be
d, and a small set of drawers at its side. Rushe yanked open the top one and pulled out a folded pair of socks, which he held up to her.

‘You gonna keep
your mouth shut?’ he said.

Rushe
hadn’t put a light on, so she still didn’t get a good look at him. But the angles of his face told her he wasn’t to be messed with.

‘I—‘

‘There’s no one around here for thirty miles,’ he said. ‘Scream yourself raw and you’ll only piss me off. You want this in your mouth?’

‘I got something she can put in there.’

Rushe spun on the man she hadn’t noticed either. ‘You get the fuck out of here.’

After h
e hurled the door into its frame he came back to her.

‘Please let me go.’

‘I’m not letting you go,’ he said. ‘If you keep your mouth shut and stay put we won’t have a problem... are you gonna do what you’re told this time?’

Any argument she had died on her lips knowing that reason wouldn’t get her anywhere. In fairness
, the last time she hadn’t heeded his word she’d got herself into this mess, so she nodded.

‘Good girl.’

With that he left her alone in the darkness. The finality of that closing door sent tears skittering down her cheeks. She’d never leave this house again, or at least she wouldn’t leave it alive – of that Flick was absolutely sure.