One-Two Punch (20 page)

The door swung open, revealing the dark, empty loft.

“Beth?” Harry called out as he strode inside but her name echoed, unanswered. His face emptied of hope for a bare, heartbreaking second before he jerked back to action.

“I’ll try calling her again,” he said, heading to the living room to resume his pacing while he pulled out his cell. A phone rang behind Ky, making him jump and whirl around, half expecting Beth to be standing in the kitchen with a mischievous look on her face.

It was just her purse sitting on the counter. Ky crossed to it, digging out the phone and silencing it. It showed forty-two missed calls. He stared at her wallet, tucked inside her purse, and swallowed hard.

“Harry,” he called out, holding up the wallet, but Harry was already right beside him, staring at the purse.
She’s out there with no cash, no credit cards, no ID
, Ky thought grimly. The last hope that Beth was tucked away somewhere, pissed at them but otherwise fine, faded away.

Ky pulled his own cell from his pocket and Harry looked at him.

“I’m calling the cops,” Ky explained.

Harry shook his head. “I called them already. They won’t do anything. Not until she’s been missing for two days. Two fucking days!”

Shrugging, Ky found the number and hit “send” as his mouth curved in a humorless smile. “I have someone on the inside,” he said, his stomach twisting as he listened to the phone ring on the other end.

“West here,” barked a voice and Ky felt the words ball up in his throat.
Beth
, he told himself.
She needs you to do this.
The thought helped, loosening the knot enough for him to speak.

“Dad.” He closed his eyes, turning his face away from Harry’s view. “I need your help.”

The darkness was back. No moon, no stars, just the same dense black that she had woken up to in the van. Beth blinked, squeezing her eyelids together and then staring into the emptiness, as if she could see through sheer will alone. Nothing.

She was on her back, her arms at her sides—not taped anymore, she realized, and jerked her hands toward her face, feeling for a blanket, a blindfold, whatever was creating this thick blackness.

Her eyes were uncovered. Somehow, that was scarier.

Touching her wrist with her other hand, Beth could feel the sticky residue on the slightly swollen area where the tape had been yanked off, leaving her skin hairless and hot. It was the only place on her body that was warm. A horrifying idea occurred to her, making her jump and grab at her middle, relief rushing over her at the feel of her tank top beneath her fingers. Her jeans were still on as well, she discovered.

What are you doing?
The strident voice in her brain, the one that was so determined to survive, had suddenly woken up. Beth shook her head, wincing at a throb of pain beneath her skull. She realized that she was just lying there, helpless, as if her hands and feet were still bound, when Ed could be back any minute.

Get up
, the voice ordered.
Get out.

Rolling to her side, Beth ignored the twinges of her sore muscles and followed the giving surface of whatever she was lying on—a mattress of some sort, she guessed—

until her fingers curled over the edge. She slid toward the side, the rough denim of her jeans making a soft noise as it brushed against the mattress.

Beth froze, panic locking her in place as she wondered whether Ed was already here, wherever “here” was. Was he standing in silence, listening to her move? She swallowed her fear, forcing herself to shift to the edge of the bed.

Just don’t think about it
, she ordered herself. If she let herself imagine him, think about him standing in the darkness, waiting for her to bump into his motionless figure… Gritting her teeth together, Beth found the cold, smooth floor with her hand.

Pushing herself off the mattress and onto her knees, she tried to steady herself as dizziness swept over her.

As her mind cleared, she was able to stand, straightening carefully while holding a hand above her head in case the ceiling was low.
The last thing I need is a concussion
, she thought with a grimace, but neither her head nor her hand met anything except air. The complete darkness and lack of solid contact disoriented her, as if she was twisting in a murky pool of water. She swayed, not completely sure for a moment which way was up.

She extended her arms but only felt empty space. Moving across the floor with shuffling steps, she crisscrossed her arms in front of her and then extended them to her sides, sweeping the air with wide gestures. After six careful steps, her fingers caught on a wall—concrete blocks, she could tell, feeling the square outline and the bumpy texture of the surface.

When her hand met the wall, she hesitated, unsure about what to do next. She knew she should move, should find a way out, but after making actual, physical contact with something besides air or musty mattress, she was reluctant to take her hand off the concrete.

Moving slowly, she slid her feet carefully along the floor, her fingers never leaving the cold comfort of the wall. Counting her steps, Beth felt along the rough blocks, hoping to seize on the edge of a doorway, the frame of a window—hell, she’d settle for a light switch.

Beth remembered hearing somewhere that the way to escape a maze was to keep one hand on the wall and just follow it out. If it worked for a maze, surely it would work for a room as well.
There has to be some kind of opening, right?
she thought a little desperately.

Her heart was speeding up again, the single-minded focus on each step splintering, allowing panic to creep in around the edges.

“Stop it.” Her words were quiet but they echoed in the darkness. Beth clamped a hand over her mouth, too late to hold back the sound. She heard something—

footsteps?—above her and she stared into the dark, her eyes unblinking, so wide that tears gathered around the edges but didn’t fall.

Another noise, a rattling, scraping sound, came so close to her that she jumped, trying to refocus on where it originated, but one spot of darkness was the same as the next. Her breaths rushed in and out, crowding her throat, as her nails dug into her bare arms.

A square of the ceiling fell away, framing a black silhouette against the barely lit background, only visible to Beth because of the complete absence of light a few seconds before. She heard a soft click and was blinded by a flood of brightness across her eyes.

“What did he say?” Harry asked even before Ky could end the call. Harry had barely restrained himself from grabbing the phone away from Ky during the endless conversation. Harry glanced at his watch—okay, so it had been an endless four-minute conversation.

“Well?” he demanded when Ky didn’t immediately answer. A part of Harry admired him for making the call, for reaching out to his dad, but the rest of him couldn’t focus on that, couldn’t concentrate on anything except Beth.

“Can’t do much,” Ky said, staring blindly at his cell phone. “No point running her credit cards, no plates to check. He’ll put her description in the system, let us know if he gets any hits. He has a buddy with DPD—he’s going to give him a call in the morning, see if anything strange went down today—yesterday,” he corrected himself, finally focusing on his phone and noticing the time.

The same wave of emotion rushed over Harry, an equal mix of terror and frustration and helplessness. “We have to do
something
,” he said, wincing at the pleading note in his voice.

Ky dropped his gaze. “He said to start calling hospitals.”

Harry stared at him. “Fuck.”

Throwing an arm up to protect her eyes from the glare, Beth stumbled back a few steps, the light hitting her like an actual blow. All her bravery, all her plans dissolved in one bright flash and all she could do was cower.

Her eyes finally adjusted, although she still had to shield her gaze from the light. Ed was still just an outline, this time because the light was in front rather than in back. He must have descended a ladder or stairs, as he was on her level now instead of above her. He still hadn’t said anything, not a word, and for some reason, this sparked a surge of rage that freed Beth’s tongue.

“What do you want?” she demanded. Despite her anger, Beth’s voice wavered halfway through.

Ed didn’t answer.

“Damn you!” She sucked in a sobbing breath, felt it rough against her throat. “What do you want?”

When he remained silent, her tears began in earnest and Beth sank to her knees, doubled over with the force of her sobs. She hated each tear that forced its way out of her, furious that her body was betraying her this way, that he had the power to make her cry. Eventually the tears stopped, leaving only the dry heaves of sobs.

“We had to be together.”

Ed’s voice made her jump and jerk her head up. She had forgotten about the powerful flashlight and blinded herself again.

“This was the only way.”

“No.” Beth shook her head and then couldn’t stop. “No. This is not the way. This is the
insane
way.”

Ed balanced the flashlight on one of the steps of the angled ladder. She could see now that the light wasn’t directly in her eyes but she almost wished that she couldn’t.

The indirect illumination cut strange shapes into Ed’s face, making him harsh and strange and scary—
scarier
, Beth thought, tightening her arms around her middle.

She looked away, glanced around the small room. It was empty except for the mattress in the middle of the floor. Concrete surrounded them, floor and walls, the only wood the exposed ceiling joists and the ladder that descended into the space.

“You were straying,” he said, drawing her startled gaze back to him.

“What?” She climbed to her feet slowly, feeling vulnerable on her knees, trapped and unable to run.

“Those men,” he said in the same calm voice. “I saw you kiss them. Hug them.

They were making you dirty.”

He’s crazy
, Beth realized and then felt stupid.
Of course he’s crazy,
she told herself.
He
just
kidnapped
you, dumbass.

“It wasn’t dirty,” she said slowly, trying to feel her way. She wasn’t sure what would get through to him and what would just make things worse. “They’re my boyfriends.”

“No!” he snapped, taking a step toward her. Beth retreated instinctively and felt the rough wall against her back. Obviously, that had fallen under the “make things worse”

category.

“Okay,” she gasped, trying to force her brain to work. “They’re not my boyfriends?”

“They’re pretty boys,” he sneered, his calm demeanor shredding before her eyes.

“They expect everything to fall in their laps. They don’t know how to work for something—don’t know how to earn anything.”

“So you
earned
me?” Although terror still thrummed through Beth, she felt a small spark of indignation when he nodded.

“All those cards, all those days of watching out for you on the bus, making sure no one bothered you, the flowers—I was patient. I knew we belonged together and I was just waiting for you to realize it.” The shadows on his face shifted as he scowled. “And then you just threw it all away.”

“There is nothing between us,” Beth told him. “You don’t even know me.”

Closing the space between them in two long strides, Ed cupped her face in both hands, holding her head still when she tried to flinch away. “I know everything about you. I know that we belong together.”

Beth shook her head as well as she could in his grip. “No. We don’t. You need to let me go. Just let me go now and I won’t tell the cops or anything. We’ll just take it as a learning experience—you’ve learned not to kidnap women and I’ve learned not to get into strange men’s vans—”

She broke off with a gasp when Ed thumped her head back against the wall. “I’m not a strange man,” he said. “I’m your soul mate.”

Despite the pain bouncing around her skull and the fear that gripped her, Beth said stubbornly, “No, you’re not. You’re a stranger—a
crazy
stranger!”

“Stop it!” He dropped his hands to her upper arms and shook her, hard. “We need to be together—you’ll see.” Lifting her off the floor, Ed tossed her sideways across the mattress. She rolled to her side immediately but he had followed her down and twisted her onto her back, pinning her easily with his weight.

“You’ll see,” he repeated, his voice thick.

No, no, no, no
, her brain repeated over and over, knowing what came next, remembering this from every nightmare she’d had since she was old enough to realize that she was female and vulnerable.

Ed tried to kiss her and she bit him. Rearing back with a yelp, he slapped her so hard she saw actual stars.

“Why are you denying this? It was meant to be.” He held her down with one hand on her throat as his other fumbled with his pants. Hysteria whipped Beth’s head against the mattress, made her twist her body, fighting his.

A sense of déjà vu crept in, sneaking in under her terror. Another man pinning her down, his hands gentle on her throat even while he barked orders. Ky. Harry watching, his eyes lit with blue fire. What had Ky told her? She tried desperately to remember.

Grab his arm with both hands.
She heard Ky’s voice as if he was in the room with her.

Her fingers circled Ed’s wiry arm. Foot over his. That one was harder but she managed.

Now hips straight up—hard.

Even in the strange light of the flashlight, she saw his eyes widen in surprise as he toppled to the side, Beth following him down. She hesitated for a second once she was above him and then scrambled into action, shifting over until her knee rested squarely in his crotch.

She ground down with all of her weight, all of the strength she could muster, watching his face as it went slack with shock. His body snapped into a ball, tossing Beth unnoticed to the side, as he dragged in agonized breaths, keening in pain.

Beth rolled to her feet, not sparing another glance back as she grabbed the flashlight and shot up the ladder. She emerged in the main room of the cabin, pulling herself through the square opening on the floor. Freedom beckoned but she only took two steps toward the front door before spinning back to the black hole in the floor.