Page 11 of Then and Now (The Edge of Retaliation 3)
The man pauses while the other guy is struggling in Tatum’s grips, trying to twist the gun as his body thrashes and his face becomes redder and redder. He can’t get the gun close enough because of the way Tatum is holding him. It’s so damned clever I can’t believe it didn’t cross my mind.
“Put the gun down or you fuckin’ die. Throw it toward Jo, and if you pull the trigger, I’ll fuckin’ snap your neck.”
The man who is gasping for air does what Tatum tells him—he throws the gun toward me. It slides across the ground, making me flinch, terrified it’ll go off, but it doesn’t. I scoot toward it, grabbing it with shaky hands and holding it up as best I can. I don’t know how to hold a damn gun, let alone how to shoot one.
“Now, cut them both free. You’d better hurry, he’s about to run out of air. You don’t want to be the reason your boss dies now, do you?”
He nervously eyes his boss, as if begging him to tell him what to do right about now. Does he risk it all to kill Tatum, or me, or Chase, or does he do as he’s told and let us go?
His boss nods, still wheezing and gasping for air. The other man moves quickly, pulling out a knife and cutting us free. He doesn’t try anything; I don’t think he’d risk his bosses life in a poor attempt at stabbing us. When he’s done, he undoes the cuffs, all except Tatum’s, of course. He’s eased the pressure just enough on the man’s neck that he’s not as red.
“Give her the key to my cuffs, then go and cuff yourself where we were sitting so I know you won’t follow us. Move.”
The man does as Tatum asks, tossing the key to me and then going to the wall with an angry scowl and cuffing himself to it. When he’s done that, Tatum looks to me and murmurs, “Bring the rope here, tie his arms and legs.”
I do as he asks, standing on wobbly legs that haven’t had enough movement in the last few days. Chase is trying to get to his feet, but he’s having trouble. He’s in a really bad way and needs a hospital urgently. I don’t worry about that for the minute, instead I rush over and hesitantly tie the legs of the man Tatum is holding. When I’ve done that, I tie his hands and step back. Tatum walks him over to where the other man is sitting, and tosses him on the ground, reaching out for the gun.
I hand it to him.
“Do not fuckin’ follow us.”
The man he just dropped to the floor starts to laugh, a bitter, knowing laugh that makes my skin prickle. Like he knows something we don’t, like he’s one step ahead of us. I ignore it and rush over to Chase, helping him to his feet. Tatum studies the man laughing for a brief second before coming over and taking Chase’s weight, helping him out of the basement.
We all move as quickly as we can, climbing the steps and moving out of the basement and through the old, yet well-secured warehouse, very hesitantly. As we go, we realize the two men are the only ones here. For now, at least. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. It seems … strange.
I don’t know, something just doesn’t feel right to me.
“You okay?” Tatum asks, as we step outside into the darkness.
I tip my head back and breathe in the fresh air that I’ve so desperately needed. We made it out. We actually made it out.
“I’m okay,” I say.
“We’ll take a truck back into town, no fuckin’ idea where we are but we’ll work it out. We need to find a phone to call Tanner, we’ll stop as soon as we find a town or a gas station.”
“Okay,” I say, glancing around.
There is only one truck here, and we help Chase over to it, opening the door. There is a set of keys in the ignition. I guess they weren’t planning on staying long. Probably just here to torment us, or tell us some horror story, or worse, and then they were planning to leave. Come to think of it, it was always super quiet in that basement, probably because there was no one up above.
“Fuckin’ perfect,” Tatum murmurs, spotting the keys. He puts Chase into the back seat and says, “We’ll get you to a hospital, hang tight, buddy.”
I climb into the front seat, rubbing my wrists, my body sore. I want to sleep, and eat, and shower, but mostly I want to see Callie. I want to see that they’re okay. I want this nightmare to be over.
I think of Patrick, and I wonder if he’s at all concerned with the fact that he hasn’t heard from me for a few days. Would he even notice? If he did, how long would it take?
