She locked the door behind her and tossed her coat in the chair. Frustration ran through her as she stood in front of the window. What was taking him so long?
The crackling of a log in the fireplace was the only sounds in the cabin as she stood there. It would have been the perfect romantic retreat if it wasn't for some unknown trying to ruin everything. She shivered a little bit as the cold permeated the glass in the window.
"So, you can stand here like an idiot and wait like a puppy dog, or you can be productive. Let's start by putting a log on the fire so it's nice and warm when he gets back." Her voice echoed as she turned to tend the fire.
A man stood right behind her. Tall, solid, but not Colton.
Her scream echoed louder when he grabbed at her before she could process what she was seeing and flee. She twisted to the side and almost threw him off enough to get across the room, but he was bigger and faster and caught her against him. Her hands were pinned against his gut, which was much larger than Colton had. This man was solid but chunkier.
She struggled and tried to free herself, but the man had her in a bear hug. She almost fell when he suddenly spun her around and clamped a hand over her mouth. Pinned against him, she tried to stomp his feet, but he picked her up off the floor and gave her a shake.
She tried biting his hand, but his fingers bit into her cheeks. In a last-ditch attempt to free herself, she suddenly went completely limp. It had worked in a movie once, maybe she'd get lucky. From supporting herself to dead weight, she hoped that it threw him off enough to drop her.
Instead, he rammed her stomach into the back of the couch. When she doubled over, he let go of her mouth and grabbed her hands behind her back. She felt a zip tie slide into place and tighten. It bit into her skin, and she cried out in pain.
"Shut up, honey. You've caused enough trouble."
"Who are you?" she hissed as he hauled her backwards.
"No one you need to worry about." He pulled her toward the door. "We're going on a little ride."
"I'm not going anywhere with you." She tried to rip herself free as the door opened. He shoved her around the side where a four-wheeler sat. It crossed her mind that she should have heard it pull up.
He growled at her. "You want to do this the hard way? Fine." He kept her close to him, and she felt him fumble around. She heard the crinkle of a bag, and before she knew it was coming, a rag suddenly covered her face. A thick, clogging smell blocked all of her senses as he covered her mouth and nose.
"Just breathe, little girl. Nice, deep breaths."
Her eyes watered as she tried to hold her breath. The fight drained out of her with each passing second.
"You have to breathe sooner or later. No sense torturing yourself cause as soon as you pass out, you'll breathe it in anyhow."
Hot tears ran down her face as she struggled to hold her breath. After a few minutes, she forgot what she was fighting for and just went swimming in a sea of black.
***
When she came to, she was in the dark. Everything was dark. She shifted her body just to find that her hands were still bound behind her back. She laid still and tried to listen through the fog that was still between her ears from the drugs on the cloth. All she could hear was the sound of her own breathing.
She reached out with her leg, and her foot bumped into a wall. She scooted herself in a circle to find that she was in a very small area, a room like a closet. She lifted her leg straight up but couldn't feel the ceiling. She tried to adjust her eyes to make out any detail, but everything was just black.
I have to get to Colton.
She pushed herself up into a sitting position and put her back against the wall. She shoved slightly to see if the wall was solid or temporary. It didn't budge. She felt it with her hands and was surprised to see that it felt velvety. The floor had the same texture. The blood rushed in her ears as she sat there and tried to catch her breath.
When she finally calmed, she remembered a trick she had used in a movie. She shimmied around until she brought her hands down around her ass and legs to bring them in front of her. She still had no way to get the zip tie off, but at least she was more comfortable.
Tears streamed down her face as she sat up on her knees and felt her way around the walls. The room seemed a little small to be a closet; it was more the size of a step-in shower. She stood up and raised her hands, but she still couldn't feel the ceiling. She just had no way of knowing if she was an inch short or a foot short.
All of the walls seemed to be lined with velvet. It almost felt like she was in a coffin, except the entire area, while small, was too big for a coffin.
Defeated, she sat back down with her back against the wall and rested her forehead on her knees. Luckily, she wasn't claustrophobic, or she would have already freaked out.
She had no sense of time and had no idea how long she had been unconscious. Anger prickled along her skin as she wondered if the kidnappers had bothered to check on her to make sure she hadn't died either from poison they had drugged her with or because they were isolating her in a box.
But foremost in her mind was that she really needed to go warn Colton before he got hurt.
Chapter Seventeen: Finding Ellie
Colton Hale
