At least they had cranked on the heat and she was near a vent. The blast of warmth after the time outside was almost soothing. Her fingers tingled painfully so she flexed them to urge blood flow. If only she could move her arms forward. The compression in her nerves was becoming unbearable.
They drove along the gravel road for what felt like forever. She would occasionally roll into the leg of whoever was sitting next to her, but he didn’t seem bothered. If anything, she could have sworn he was moving into the contact.
The driver turned the radio on again. This time the voices were much clearer without the drug muddling her mind.
“Severe storm with gusts up to seventy-five miles per hour. You are urged to fasten down anything that may be blown away—”
“Shit,” the driver said. From the sound of his voice it was the one with buzzed hair. The van swerved, and a hand latched onto her so she didn’t fly into something. She thought back on what he looked like. He was the one she’d run into—literally. That intense gaze and curve of his lips had heated her to her core. The “pretty girl” comments should annoy her, but for some unknown reason, she liked them.
“That was a huge branch,” the one next to her commented. Maybe it was for her benefit.
The driver snorted. “Yeah, there’ll be more. The wind is stronger here. Oh, what the fuck?”
“Is there another way out?”
“Not that I know of.” They came to a stop, the engine still running. He sighed. “I have to turn around.”
What did he mean there was no other way out?
The one next to her swore under his breath. “Cop.” He shifted next to her and she heard the click of a seat belt. Then, he jostled her around and she felt something heavy, maybe a blanket spread over her.
“Now, pretty girl,” he said softly, “no screaming. We want all this to go as smoothly as possible.” She felt an object press into her back. “Got it?”
“Yes,” she replied.
There was a crunch outside that spanned the length of the van, then the driver spoke, “Hey, officer.” Wind whipped through the open window.
“Afternoon. You’re gonna have to go ahead and turn around here. This storm’s just started and we don’t know when anyone will be out to move this tree.”
“Is there another road out?”
“No. We’ve been trying to get a road out the other way to connect to Gafford, but no one is willing to fork over the money.”
Gafford? They really were far out if Gafford was close. It was at least fifty miles north of Lakeview.
The driver sighed. “All right. Thanks. We’ll get out of here.”
“You guys have somewhere to stay?” Another gust howled against the side of the vehicle. It was getting more difficult to hear the cop, especially through the bag on her head. “It can be hard to find a vacancy here in He—”
“Yeah, we got a place,” the driver interrupted, ensuring she wouldn’t learn where they were.
Some more muffled words were exchanged before the sound of the wind was cut off by the window closing.
“Cabin?” asked the one next to her.
“Yeah.”
He scoffed. “How long do you think this will take?”
“I don’t fuckin’ know, but you heard him. There’s no other way out. Let’s stop for some supplies. Then we can figure out a game plan.”
Willow heaved herself up. “Hey, I have a cat. I can’t leave her alone for days!” They didn’t need to know about the automatic feeder, but the litter box would be a problem. She didn’t want her apartment to be covered in cat shit. Plus, Stahma wasn’t used to being alone like that.
The guy next to her placed a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down. Your cat will be fine.”
“How can you know that?” She jerked away, and clenched her teeth from the sharp pain that radiated down her arm. “You don’t even know how long we’ll be stuck here.”
Silence. Were they ignoring her? Well, fuck them. She took a deep breath, ready to give them an earful.
