Unbound (Crimson Romance) (23 page)

“I know you’re awake.”

“Yippee skippy for you,” she grumbled, still not opening her eyes.

“Open your eyes,” the man said.

The sound of his gravelly voice grated like nails on a chalkboard thanks to her headache.

“No. The light hurts my eyes.”

“If I turn it off, will you open your eyes?”

“It’ll be dark. I won’t be able to see anything. What’s the point?”

He made a sound of frustration in his throat. It sounded like a cross between a groan and a growl. “Are you trying to be difficult?”

She managed to open her eyes long enough to shoot him a look of disbelief. “Are you kidding me? I’m not trying to be anything. Someone hit me over the head and left me with a pounding headache. I tend to get a little cranky when I’m in pain.”

She heard the lamp click off. “Open your eyes,” he ordered.

She hesitantly opened her eyes. He crouched in front of her. The way he looked at her made her uncomfortable.

Creep,
she thought.

“What do you want?” she asked him.

He shrugged.

“Who are you?”

“Matt Talbot.”

“Fuck,” she said. “You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”

“What?”

“You wouldn’t tell me your name if you were going to let me go.”

He shrugged again.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
she thought.
Deep breath, Payten. Deep breath. They’ll know you’re missing by now. They’ll find you. Stall for time. That’s what they always do in movies. Make him go through his bad guy spiel. That’ll give them time to find you.

“If you’re going to kill me, can I at least know why?”

He looked at her blankly.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You’re dating Dean,” he replied.

“For a week!”

He shrugged. “Does the time really matter? You mean something to him. Knowing he’s the reason you’re dead will kill him.”

“I don’t understand. Why are you so upset with Dean?”

“He’s the reason Kevin went to prison.”

“He went to prison because he killed eight women,” she protested.

“He stole Kevin’s wife.”

“Liv was Dean’s mother! He couldn’t expect her to abandon her child!”

He shrugged. “Women leave their children all the time.”

How do you reason with a maniac?

“So you’re working for Peterson?”

“With,” he corrected. “I’m working with Kevin.”

“He’s a monster. The women he killed were mothers. He murdered them in front of their children!”

He shrugged again. “Why does being a mother make them special? Do you know what mine did to me? She used to beat me. She’d beat me almost to death, then tell people I was clumsy. They put me in the system, but no one wants to keep a ‘bad kid.’ They’d send me home to her, and she’d beat me again.”

It was the first time she really saw the man in front of her. Talbot was as tall as Dean and almost as broad. He had a buzz cut and was dressed in a uniform. It was the uniform from the prison, if Burke was right.

What caught her attention — what really made her see him for the first time — was his eyes. His eyes were wild. Angry. Empty. His eyes terrified her more than his size or even what he was saying.

Maybe he wasn’t crazy, but he certainly looked like it.

“Kevin saved my life. I’d be dead if it weren’t for him,” he continued. “The day he killed her was the happiest day of my life. I thanked him over and over. I owe him.”

“You think you owe him something? You think by making Dean suffer you’re going to pay him back?”

“Yes,” he answered. “That’s the plan. That’s why I’m going to kill you. Dean will suffer like he never has before. In a couple months, if the guilt hasn’t killed him and Kevin says it’s okay, I’ll kill him too.”

She had no idea what to say. Again, she wanted to protest, but the pure glee evident at the idea of murdering her stopped any protest she might have made. There was no reasoning with this man, and there wasn’t going to be enough time to stall. She realized she was going to have to save herself.

“I have to pee.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Chief!” Chase called. “I’ve got it.”

Carl passed the phone he was using off to Burke without delay. “Tell me,” he ordered.

“Talbot has a small piece of property across the river,” she informed him.

“It’s tucked way back there,” Smith told him. “It doesn’t even look like it has road access.”

“Show me.” As he considered the place Smith showed him on the map, he realized Burke had crossed the small room to do the same.

“Looks like I am going to have to call the sheriff back,” he muttered. “That’s going to be their jurisdiction.”

“Forget about that,” Carl said. “How do we get there?”

“There’s a private access road,” Dean replied. “We used to use it to get to that place Jonah’s dad owned.”

“When we’d go camping,” Burke finished. “That’s right. Those lots are all privately owned for camping near the river. There was an access road that went right through the middle of this place. I’ll bet that’s how he went in.”

“We’re going,” Carl announced. “Burke, grab two rifles. Smith, Chase, can either of you handle a rifle?”

Smith smirked. “Better than he can.”

Carl looked at Chase. She nodded.

“Chase, you’re with me and Dean. Burke, you and Smith lead the way,” Carl ordered.

“The cars won’t cut it, sir,” Burke said as he relocked the gun cabinet at the back of the room. “The access road is rough. It’s basically a dirt path.”

“We’ll take Dean’s truck,” Carl said. “You take Rykers’. He leaves the keys in it. I’ll radio Jeff and have him send backup.”

“Who’s Jeff?” Dean asked as Chase shoved him through the door.

“The county sheriff,” she replied. “I think.”

Dean fished his keys out of his pocket. “Who’s driving?”

“I am,” his father answered from behind him. He passed Chase one of the rifles Burke had retrieved from the gun cabinet in the back of the station. “Dean, you’ll have to ride in the back seat.”

“Let’s just get there,” he said, handing over his keys and crawling in the back.

He sat in the back seat as his father drove at a breakneck speed out of town. He listened to the cackle of the police radios as his father radioed in his request for additional county units and as those additional units responded. He watched as Chase used the short trip to familiarize herself with the new rifle.

In the back seat, he waited. There was nothing else for him to do. He knew even at the pace Burke set it would take at least another ten minutes to reach the access road. He waited, and he prayed.

• • •

Inside the bathroom, Payten began to sweat. She never thought she’d make it this far. Convincing Talbot to untie her to go pee had been a long shot. At least, she’d thought it would be. It turned out to be surprisingly easy, though. Now that she was in the bathroom, she realized why.

There was no window. She stared at the wall where there should have been a window. She’d bet her very life on the fact that whatever idiot had built the one-room shack had put a window in the bathroom.

And there’s no fucking window! Just great,
she thought.
Now what?

“I don’t hear you peeing,” Talbot said from the other side of the door.

“I’m getting there,” she snarled.

She didn’t want to go to the bathroom despite the fact she really did have to go. After all, she had been on her way to the bathroom when she’d been taken. The flimsy door didn’t have a lock. Talbot seemed pretty focused on killing her, but she wouldn’t put it past him to change his mind and decide to rape her while he was at it.

I’d really like to skip that.

“If you don’t go to the bathroom in the next ten seconds, I’m coming in to get you,” he warned.

“I’m going!”

She stared at the bathroom door.
No window,
she thought.
The only way out is through that door. And, since it opens out, it’s not like I can even lean on it to keep him out.

The idea hit her. It was a long shot, but — Hey! Anything beats dead.

She needed to be sure he was in front of the door. If he tried to come in and get her, he would definitely be in front of the door. She moved herself to the far side of the bathroom.

“That’s it!”

She heard him stomping toward the bathroom and watched the door closely. When the doorknob began to turn, she ran the short distance across the bathroom and flung herself into the door. The door slammed open and into Talbot, knocking him backward.

Using her momentum, she kept running across the shack, slowing only long enough to open the door to the outside. She heard it when Talbot hit the floor of the shack, but she didn’t look back. She also heard his thudding footsteps as he got up and chased her.

She ran into woods surrounding the shack and kept moving. She didn’t look back, and she didn’t take time to figure out where she was going. She just ran as fast and as far as she could.

She couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore. That was a very good thing because her speed was decreasing. The throbbing in her head became even more persistent than before. It ached, and the cut on her shin was worse. Every time her foot slammed onto the ground, a shooting pain rang through her leg, radiating out from the cut on her shin. She could feel something wet near it. It could have been sweat. She thought her cut had broken open and was bleeding, though.

She risked a glance over her shoulder. Nothing. There was no movement behind her. She slowed her pace, but kept moving at a brisk walk. Still, she couldn’t hear anything but the pounding of her blood in her brain. She tried to slow her breathing while she looked around her.

Nearly full, the moon gave her a clear view of what was around her, but it also meant Talbot would be able to see her if he got close enough. As soon as she caught her breath, she bumped her pace back up to a run. The idea of Talbot catching up pushed her to ignore the pain in her head and thigh.

She kept looking around, but she didn’t recognize anything. The moonlight cast shadows through the trees. With every step she took, the wet leaves covering the ground shifted, making it a challenge to stay upright. She had absolutely no idea where she was running. She kept moving though.

If only you’d paid more attention when the guys had taken you girls camping in high school, maybe you would have some idea where you were.

The guys had attempted to teach them all sorts of tricks. There was one about the North Star. The bare branches of the trees allowed her to see the stars, but they all looked the same to her. There was another about which side of a tree moss grew on. She didn’t remember it all. On top of that, she didn’t think that one really worked.

Think, Payten! Think!

She saw a narrow clearing ahead of her. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she ran toward it. She realized it was a path. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be on the path. She knew Talbot would be looking for her, and it would make her so much easier to find. She definitely didn’t want to be wandering in the woods lost, though.

She decided it was worth the risk. She changed course to run along the path, but from a distance, staying in the shelter of the woods. It would give her time to duck if she saw Talbot on the path, but she’d be close enough to not get lost.

She had to slow her pace again. The pain was worse, she was definitely bleeding from the cut on her shin, and her lungs burned from the run.

If you make it out of this alive, you’re joining a gym
, she told herself.
And you’re running a lot.

She walked for what felt like forever. Her breathing leveled out. She couldn’t manage a run for very long again. She could feel the muscles of her legs quiver with every step, and her vision kept going dark for several seconds at a time. Sweat from her earlier running cooled on her skin. In the frigid winter temperature, her lightweight pants and Dean’s borrowed shirt weren’t enough to keep her warm.

You can do this. You just have to stay away from Talbot long enough for the police to find you. And they will find you. Talbot hurt Rykers. They’ll be super pissed. It’s going to be okay.

Dean will find you. He can’t help himself. He’s going to come upstairs, realize you’re not there, and race into danger. He’ll find you. He loves you.

She couldn’t help but smile. It made her feel insane, but at least, if she died, she had gotten to be madly in love for a little while. She regretted it hadn’t been longer.

You are not dying, Payten. Not happening. Move your ass. We are getting out of this, and we’re getting out of it alive. If you die out here, this maniac and Peterson win. Dean will torture himself over this. He’ll blame himself the rest of his life. Isn’t it enough he already has nightmares? You will not die.

It was enough to push her into a jog again even if she did wonder about the sanity of giving herself pep talks while being chased by a psycho.

That was when she saw the lights. They were headlights, and they were moving the opposite direction down the path. She debated whether to hide and wait for the vehicle to go past or to keep running in the opposite direction. She didn’t want to go running up to a truck to find Talbot waiting for her inside.

In the end, she was tackled before she could decide either way.

She knew her attacker was Talbot. Pushing and scratching at him, she did her best to get away from him. He grabbed her leg and squeezed slightly above where he had cut her. She instinctively jerked to get away from the pain. When she did, she slammed her knee into his groin. He rolled off her, cursing. She used the opportunity to run.

She jumped to her feet and ran toward the path. Talbot obviously wasn’t in the car, and she didn’t care who was as long as it wasn’t him. The muscles in her injured leg shook. She could hear Talbot getting up behind her. She knew she wasn’t going to make it.

• • •

“What was that?” Smith demanded.

Burke glanced at her. She pointed out his window. He slowed the truck and looked out. They had made the turn off the gravel road and onto the access road. The rugged lane was truly nothing more than a narrow path, no wider than a pickup truck, that had been cleared of major foliage. In the years since it had last been cleared, saplings and thick grass had grown up, making the lane hard to travel.