Unhinge Me (21 page)

They looked all around the campus that morning and, finding nothing, decided to meet up at the pub to discuss more search options. The police decided they wouldn’t do anything until Alex had been missing for twenty-four hours, and that wasn’t until later that evening. The three of them had no intentions of sitting around waiting.

When Rachael pulled into the stone parking lot, it was empty except for Caleb’s car and one other.
Must be Joe’s
, she thought.

She walked into the pub to find Caleb, Graham, and Joe all standing around a table, talking. Actually, it looked like they were arguing. She paused to watch them and realized it was really just Joe and Graham trying to calm Caleb down.

“
Bollocks
!” Caleb shouted and, swinging his arms in the air, turned away from them. He put his head in his hands and rubbed at his eyes. Rachael noticed he looked like he hadn’t slept. His unruly hair was even worse than usual and he was wearing the same clothes as the night before. His face was scruffy with a two day beard.

Deciding to interrupt, Rachael walked over to the table they were standing at and slammed down the maps she had in her hand. The men, who obviously hadn’t noticed her arrival, jumped a little. They looked at her questioningly.

“Okay, so here is the map of the campus. I have drawn out a grid system on top of it that shows the most efficient and fast way of covering the entire thing. I sectioned off four zones, one for each of us. There are a few parts where we can double up and if we do it like this we can cover the most ground. I don’t know what the police will do once they decide to get off their fat asses, but this will give us a good start. I made one for each of you,” she concluded.

Graham looked down at the very complicated and rather genius plans on the map and looked up at Rachael, dumbfounded.

Rachael stared back.

“What?” she asked, affronted.

Graham blinked.

“When did you get so smart?” he accused.

Rachael rolled her eyes.

“Just because I have nice tits, dress like this, and like going out doesn’t mean I don’t have a brain in my damn head,” she pointed out with a snarl.

Joe, who was studying the maps and not the conversation, looked up.

“These are pretty impressive actually. What did you say you were going to school for?” he asked.

“Mathematical Sciences,” she answered.

“A mathematician!” Graham said, confounded. He looked her over again, like he was seeing her for the first time.

Rachael scowled at him.

“I don’t have time for your halfwit deductions right now,” she decided and waved him off, dismissing him. She turned to Joe.

“So, is it doable?” she asked him.

“Aye, it’s doable, lassie,” he nodded, thinking. “But explain to me this part here…”

Alex woke to the fading of daylight. She must have slept all day. Her head hurt like last time, but it wasn’t as bad and she could at least see clearly. She tried to look around the room for any possibility of escape she may have missed, but found none. She needed to think, and she felt like she hadn’t been able to since she’d arrived in her prison. She didn’t know what the professor wanted her for, but the fact that he had taken her and let her see his face didn’t comfort her. She remembered what he had said earlier about having her and cringed. The way he’d touched her made her sick to her stomach. There was no way she was going to let him have her. She thought of Caleb. He was the only man who could touch her now… ever again.

She heard a lock unlatch and a door open, then footsteps on the stairwell. Paul came down, carrying another tray of food. This one was just as nicely prepared, except it was a dinner. Salmon and rice, it looked like. There was wine, but Alex knew better than to drink it. She decided it must be the drugs, because again her mouth watered at the smell of the food. Paul smiled at her sweetly and set the tray down.

She grabbed it with her free hand and tried to sit up. She winced in pain as the cut on her leg stung from the movement. Paul noticed her look and followed her gaze to her leg. He recoiled from the wound. It was badly cut and, since it had not been cleaned, it looked like an infection was starting. Paul’s proper demeanor seemed to be almost nauseated by the cut. He shook his head.

“No, that will not do. I can’t enjoy myself with you with that thing festering…” Alex got hope, for just a moment.

“I’ll just have to clean it up,” he concluded and went back up the stairs.

Alex’s heart sank. There was no hope after all. She felt so desperate.

He came back down with a small first aid kit and squatted next to her to clean her leg.

“Move it closer to me,” he said gently.

When Alex resisted and pulled it away from him, he was instantly irritated.

“I said
move
it!” he screamed at her. His voice made her jump and she did as he bade. When she’d seen him on the street a few weeks ago, he seemed so harmless, almost sweet. Now he seemed anything but. Now he was unpredictable and dangerous, and that made her very, very afraid.

He got out the antiseptic and started cleaning the cut. Every touch brought new pain, and Alex couldn’t help but flinch every time. She looked over at him and noticed that he seemed to be enjoying her pain. A small smile formed as he worked and he would close his eyes when she flinched, as if he was relishing it. To her disgust, she noticed the whole process was actually making him aroused.
So pain is his thing, huh?
To spite him, she tried to flinch less and pretend like it didn’t hurt. He gave her a dirty look and started pushing harder on the deep gash. At first she cried out, but the look of desire on his face made her bite her lip to hold it back. She strained with the effort to deny him the pleasure of her pain, but the harder she resisted, the harder he pushed. He started actually moaning, he was getting so much out of it. By the time he finished, both Alex and he were covered in sweat, but for very different reasons. The hardness between his legs infuriated her, and she felt defeated as hot tears rolled down her cheeks unchecked.

Paul leered at her and stood up, unabashedly showing her how much her pain had aroused him.

“There now,” he said smoothly. “You will be all fixed up in no time and then we can start all over again,” he sneered. He looked her up and down as if deciding whether to take her right then, but he looked over at her leg and shook the thought away.

“I may like pain, but I don’t do dirty,” he explained, not necessarily for her benefit.

He rubbed himself and licked his lips.

“Eat,” he commanded and left her alone, walking up the stairs and locking the door behind him.

Finally alone, Alex broke down. She curled up into the arm that was chained up and wrapped the other around herself as she sobbed uncontrollably. After all she had gone through, she had finally found happiness, only to have it all end here. He was going to kill her. Somehow, she knew it to be true. She hated the idea of never seeing Caleb again. Caleb. She realized she was never going to get to tell him that she loved him. And there in that dingy basement, covered in sweat and tears, Alex knew she had loved Caleb from the very beginning. Her stupid fear of losing him was all that kept her from telling him, even after he told her
he
loved
her
. And now, she was going to lose him anyway. He would never know how she felt about him. The thought brought a new onslaught of tears as she wept for the life she would never share with him.

Exhausted and crushed, she had no appetite. She moved the food around on her plate a little so it looked like she had eaten and then she threw the wine out of the glass as far from the bed as she could, hoping he wouldn’t notice she hadn’t drank it. Pushing the tray away from her, she tried to get as comfortable as possible and laid down to sleep. If she wasn’t drugged, she was going to have to fake it. She fell asleep to thoughts of her family, Rachael, Bear, and mostly Caleb.

Throughout the night, and most of the next day, Alex fitfully slept. She kept waking up and remembering her terror only to will herself to sleep again. Finally, late in the afternoon, she decided to just wake up. She had to pee really bad and realized she didn’t remember going at all in the last few days. She looked around and saw a bucket next to the mattress.

No way…
she thought to herself. She looked around for something else, but realized there was no other option. It took a while, one handed, but she managed.

Once she was done, she laid back on the mattress feeling disgusting and deflated. She feared what was going to happen once Paul decided her leg was well enough.

He came down a few hours later with another meal, same as all the others. He seemed to be in a crazier mood than the usual and kept looking at his watch as he watched her eat.

She tried to choke down the food. She wasn’t sure what it was but it looked like caviar. She had never had it before to know for sure. Paul scoffed at the face she made as she ate it.

“Figures. You don’t even know enough to appreciate good food when it is given to you,” he mumbled. “Trash,” he insulted.

Alex had enough. In the back of her mind, she knew she was losing it, like her sanity was slipping a bit, but she didn’t care.

“Trash?” she shouted in disbelief. “I’m tired, I’m starving for real food, and I just used a bucket for a bathroom, and it’s all because of
you
! You chained me up to this nasty mattress in God knows where! And you want to call
me
trash? Ha!” she spit at him. Then she sat back to watch his reaction, to see what she had done to herself. Her inner monologue screamed at her for being so stupid. But she couldn’t help it. She’d had enough and now… now she was angry.

“You fucking bitch!” Paul stood up to stand over her. Even though he wasn’t that tall, looming over her in the dim light while she was chained to the wall, it was as if he was ten feet tall.

“You think you can talk to me that way!” he shook his head, as if the thought was crazy. He smashed the tray off of the bed and slapped her across the face. The power of the slap snapped her head to the side and she could feel her face start to swell immediately. He started pacing the room.

“This is all Caleb’s fault,” he told her. “I didn’t want to do this,” he swore.

“Then why, Mr. Edmunton, why did you bring me here?” Alex hoped that by calling him that, it would remind him that he was a professor. Maybe if she could just reach his sanity, he would let her go.

Paul stopped pacing to look over at her. His dress shirt was rumpled and pulled out of his dress pants. His hair was starting to get out of place and he was beginning to look as crazy as he was acting. He got a faraway look in his eye.

“You know, before your boyfriend arrived, I was the one getting the female attention,” he informed her.

She looked at him, trying to decide whether to believe him.

“It’s true,” he insisted. “I was the star quarterback in high school and college. I was the life of every party. I only became a professor so I’d get to stay. I hate teaching, but I love those college girls. Especially the ones willing to do anything to bring up their grades,” he snickered. “I started going to the men’s club and eventually even gained the respect of the rest of my colleagues. But then fucking Hunt arrived.” He shook his head wildly. “All the girls called
him
by his first name. All of a sudden, no one was coming to me for extra help anymore because all the girls were going to him! Even the other professors started to respect him more, I could tell,” he said angrily. “I tried to make friends with him, asking him to go out to the club with me a million times, but he always thought he was too good to hang out with me,” he sneered. “He thinks I don’t notice the way he judges me. I
know
!”

Suddenly, Alex understood everything. This was a man who was clearly past his prime and resenting it. He had the world so early in his life, and now that he was growing old and losing it, he was blaming Caleb. That, and he obviously had a few screws loose.

“What does any of that have to do with me?” Alex asked him calmly.

Paul got a conniving look on his face.