It turns out to be surprisingly harder than I expected, but it gives me something to focus on that makes me feel less helpless until my captor returns.
When he does, he shares a plan that has me not at all sure if it's better or worse than anything my imagination had come up with.
"They're not wolves," he explains. "I don't know what they are-- dogmen or werewolves or fucking demons, man, I don't know. But they'll smell you. They'll come because they want the women. They take the women. He doesn't believe me but that's what happened."
He has the gun in one hand and a phone in the other, waving both erratically as he talks.
"I'm going to show him though. They'll come for you. You don't even have to scream. They'll smell you. They ain't wolves, they're something else."
He might be insane and rambling nonsense, but I can't help but remember what I saw yesterday morning. Oh my god, was it just yesterday? How can so much happen in such a short amount of time?
Still, remembering the way the darkness closed in behind those men as they led my friend into the forest. It wasn't natural. And those men were found dead just hours later-- but no sign of Astrid.
I don't like the way those images fit so well with this guy's unhinged ranting.
Behind the duct tape, I whimper.
"Yeah, you know I'm right. They got Diz and Jimmy. I only got away because they wanted the girl more than me. I don'tknow what they do with them but you're going to help me prove I didn't let 'em go. Ready?"
No. Absolutely not. I have no clue what this guy expects me to do, but I am one hundred percent sure that I'm not ready for it.
"Get ready." If possible, Crazy Guy's eyes get crazier, his fingers inching toward my face. "I'm going to get one. I'll show him that I'm not lying."
The tape rips off my mouth in one quick pull that hurts so fucking bad I scream my head off without even thinking of it.
The man cackles with a manic glee, like he's excited to hear me screaming. And I do scream; after the initial shock of the tape getting pulled off turns to relief at being able to gulp deep lungfuls of air, I throw every curse word I know at the man who slinks behind a tree opposite of me. I scream at him to let me go, I scream at him to tell me where Astrid is, I call him crazy, and I make some very confident predictions about where he'll be spending the afterlife.
I pull against my restraints with renewed energy and then I start screaming for Talon.
The man who was so excited about giving me back my voice a few minutes ago goes quiet in his hiding spot behind the trees. Something in the air changes as the entire world seems to go silent. It's like every living thing in the forest is holding its breath, including me.
Primal fear seizes my throat, refusing to allow air in or out.
The man hidden from my sight, however, seems to have found his voice. A scream of utter terror rips through the forest and he takes off crashing blindly into the woods, reawakening the wildlife as birds leave the tree tops all at once, squirrels chatter angrily at having their routines disturbed, and my screams turn from angry and proud to terrified sobs.
Something crashes through the woods toward me. Heavy footfalls and the sound of brush being broken and crushed as something big runs in my direction.
My heart pounds so heavily at thoughts of what could be out there, my next scream lodges in my throat and I thrash at the ropes again, surprised that there seems to be more slack that there was before.
"Zona!"
Talon's voice is so unexpected that I can't even respond at first. Luckily, he doesn't need me guiding him to my location any more.
When I see Talon break through the brush with Austin close behind him I'm actually grateful for the ropes that keep me from collapsing to the ground as my body sags against them in exhausted relief.
It will be hours before the adrenaline wears off enough that I feel the sting of Talon's kisses on the raw skin where the tape was pulled away too fast.
CHAPTER TEN
TALON
I'd torturethe asshole that took her if it would do any good, kill him if the guys would let me.
He's obviously not stable, muttering about wolves not being wolves while Sagan and Leo haul his crazy ass back to the Jeep for a ride back to town.
"They going to take him into the police?" I ask Austin, not sure if I think that's the best fate for him, crazy or not.
Austin silently shakes his head as he helps carry the rest of the camp gear we've retrieved to the rendezvous point where Leo will pick us up in the Bronco I left at the trail parking.
