If the Lincoln’s trunk hadn’t been so big, there was no way we could have turned over on our other sides. However, it was truly a boat of a car so we were both able to manage, though Jake almost got stuck due to the wideness of his shoulders. Finally we were lying back-to-back and I was able to feel for his hands as he felt for mine.
“I can feel the rope,” he said to me. “I could rip through it easily if it wasn’t for the silver bindings they have on me.” There was frustration in his deep voice as I felt him fumbling in the dark at the rope around my wrists.
“You could rip through it?” I asked doubtfully. I knew my stepbrother was strong—hell, his muscles had muscles—but this was pretty thick rope. It was also scratchy—I could feel it rubbing my wrists raw even as we spoke.
“If it wasn’t for the silver. Here, you feel mine,” he said, pushing his wrists towards my fingers.
I traced the cords around his wrists, which were much smoother than mine. They felt almost metallic and sure enough, I felt some kind of locking mechanism hooked to them. It dangled between his wrists and felt like it had a dial on it.
“Feels a little like a combination lock you’d use at the gym,” I informed him. “There are probably about a million combinations but I’ll at least try.”
I spun the tiny knob this way and that with my fingers with no results. What the hell was this thing? I’d never heard of anyone locking ropes like this before. Or were they more like silver cords? When I touched them again, I felt a tingle run through my fingertips and jerked my hands away. That had been unpleasant—like a low-level electrical shock.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Jake asked, feeling me jerk away.
I explained about the shocking sensation.
“I don’t know what caused it,” I said.
“I do.” He sounded grim. “Your first Heat Cycle might be even closer than we thought if the silver is affecting you. Silver doesn’t affect immature Weres—females who haven’t had their first Cycle and males who haven’t had their first Shift,” he added, as though that explained anything.
“Let me try again,” I said, ignoring this foolishness.
“No—don’t. The silver might be activating something inside you somehow. And anyway, you could spin that lock for a hundred years and probably never get the right combination.”
Well, he was right about that, but I still missed being close to him—touching him—even if it was only our hands touching. I felt so lost and alone—I wished we could at least hold hands in this horrible situation! But Jake seemed afraid to touch me—afraid to get too close. I wished I could convince him otherwise. How could it hurt just to get a little closer?
Before I could work up the nerve to try and convince him, though, the car jolted to a stop and I heard doors opening.
Apparently we had reached our destination.
TEN
When I get scared I have to pee. So by the time the trunk popped open, I was nearly about to burst.
“Get them out,” Sorenson commanded.
This time it was the girl—she had taken off her mask by now—who helped me out of the trunk while Tainer manhandled Jake out.
The girl wasn’t what I had expected. She had an open, dreamy face with big brown eyes swimming behind thick glasses.
“Please,” I murmured to her, hoping to keep it private—just between us girls. “I really have to pee.”
Unfortunately, Sorenson had heard me.
“That’s excellent, my dear,” he said, smiling—he had also removed his mask. Tainer had too—he had the face of an ex-boxer with a squashed tomato nose that looked like it had been broken more than once and piggy little eyes that crawled speculatively over my body.
It wasn’t lost on me that the fact that these people felt comfortable enough to take off their masks was a very, very bad sign. If they weren’t afraid of us identifying them later, either they were really sure that they could keep us quiet…or they intended to kill us.
No, don’t think that way, I lectured myself. Sorenson told Tainer that he couldn’t shoot me—they think we have to stay alive or they’re all going to die, too. Think positive, Ani! Play their game and maybe you’ll find a way out of here!
“Um…it’s excellent that I have to pee?” I asked uncertainly, looking at Sorenson.
“It is.” He grinned, nodding broadly. His nose—which I was pretty sure Jake had broken in the encounter at the diner—was already healed up. How was that possible? “You see,” he continued, “We have some tests we’re going to need you to take to see if you’re ovulating and find out how close your Heat Cycle is to coming on, and they are mostly of the ‘pee on a stick’ variety. If you’d just go with Ophelia here, she can administer one right now. Oh, and please don’t try to get away,” he added, as the girl with the dreamy eyes and thick glasses took me by the arm. “Do remember that we still have your lover in our custody. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to him.”