I knew the answer. Too long. It would be too long.
“Put your arms behind your back, little piggy.”
I whimpered and did as he asked. I felt hard plastic around my wrists. The gun moved away and I could breathe again. Then the duct tape was pressed over my mouth and I knew I had lost my chance.
You idiot! You should have screamed! Now you are going to die. You’ll never seen Shane again.
I could hear people just inside. Hear them laughing and listening to music. Drinking beer. Having a normal life.
And just feet away . . . I was in the hands of someone very dangerous. Someone twisted. If it was the man Shane had warned me about . . .
“Shane!” I cried out against the tape on my mouth, unable to stop myself.
“Shut up, little piggy.”
I heard his rough voice. I heard the coldness. I heard the lack of compassion. I heard it all, and I understood that I was already dead, just before something hard came down on my head. I felt myself slip toward the ground, and then there was only darkness.
I opened my eyes, groaning at the dull ache in the back of my head. I was upright and in an unfamiliar place. I looked around, wondering where I was. It took a minute for things to come into focus.
The first thing I noticed was my arms. They were stretched high above me. I looked up and saw that I was suspended from a rope attached to a metal hook in the ceiling. The ceiling was high but dark and dirty looking. The room was industrial, like a garage or a loading dock.
I wondered how long I had been unconscious. Judging from the pain in my shoulders from my weight on them, an hour or so, at least.
My toes were barely scraping the floor, making the drag on my upper body unbearable. I had no leverage to reach out and kick. No way to protect myself. I moaned in terror as the hopelessness of my situation became crystal clear. Shane would never find me. He probably didn’t even know I was gone yet.
Where are you, Parker? Think!
The place looked abandoned. There were chains and rusted metal shelving. Broken chairs. Nothing worth salvaging. No cigarette butts or beer cans. No needles. Which meant no one hung out here or used it as a place to shoot up.
No one was going to wander in and find me. No one was coming to help. I had to get out of this situation on my own.
I looked around again, fervently wishing for a crack pipe or empty forty-ounce bottles peeking out of crumpled paper bags. Anything to say that somebody hung out here. Anyone. Crackheads or high school kids, it didn’t matter to me. It was crazy, but I’d learned that even a crowd of addicts was sometimes safer than being truly alone. I’d pretended to be a drunk or a junkie more than once to avoid getting messed with. An unconscious person was easier to ignore, and it gave you the element of surprise if you had to cut and run.
But I didn’t have that option now. Or did I?
I heard heavy footsteps. I let my head dangle and stopped trying to stand on my tippy toes. The pain in my shoulders intensified immediately. But I had no choice. If I could convince him I was still unconscious, maybe he would wait to start . . . doing whatever he was planning on doing. If I could buy some time, maybe Shane would have time to find me.
It was a long shot, but it was all I had.
I almost cried out loud, thinking about him. For the first time in my life, I’d finally found real happiness. And now this horrible person was trying to take it all away from me. I knew if anything happened to me, Shane would never be able to forgive himself.
And that hurt me most of all.
“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey.”
I didn’t react. I felt him get closer. I still didn’t move. I didn’t flinch when he reached out and poked me, hard. I let my body swing back and forth on the chain.
I had lots of practice pretending to be asleep.
Don’t think about that, Parker. Don’t think about him. Focus on Shane and Michelle and Kelly and Cass and Jaken and Mason. Think about Payton. She’s expecting you to go to the park with her next weekend. Focus on what you have to live for.
I started repeating their names like a litany. Like a prayer. That’s when I felt it. The sharpest, deepest pain I’d felt in my life. My eyes opened, and I screamed into the tape covering my mouth.
I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to see. But I looked. I saw.