Chapter Eighteen
Adrien attempted to lift her up, but he didn’t get far carrying her. When he lifted her dead weight with his injured arm, he grunted in pain and nearly dropped her. Instead, he gripped her upper arm, to get her to stand up, but with her feet bound, it was hard keeping her balance. Still, once Camila had her feet under her, he let her go, and she swayed a little, but managed not to fall. She threw a wary eye at Adrien who had moved to the driver’s side of the car, then frantically searched around.
Immediately, she was disappointed by what she saw.
They couldn’t have gotten so far from New York, it didn’t matter how long she’d been out for, and from that, she could estimate a guess of where they were. And from her guess, they were somewhere in the Catskills at a farmhouse, likely belonging to Tansy, the woman she’d heard speaking with him before the gunshot. She couldn’t tell more than a general location of where they could be, though, especially in the dark. And considering they looked like they could have been in the middle of nowhere.
This farmhouse was so damn isolated she wondered if it was the only one in the area, though it was likely that she just couldn’t see any others because it was night and they were far. There was almost no signs of civilization anywhere around, except for the highway that was quite a bit of distance away. She saw a car drive past, but even with the gag off, she doubted anyone passing by there would hear her screaming before Adrien could stop her. The distance was just too great.
Fear made her heart freeze over. What exactly was Adrien going to do to her all the way out here?
Adrien was back by her side before she realized it, and it made her jump. A muffled sound came from her mouth, and she almost tipped over, losing her balance. Almost, but not quite, because Adrien caught her arm again. The only problem was that he caught her by only one arm. It just hurt her more where he gripped her, pressing his fingers into her bicep and pulling at her. It made the tape around her wrists cut more into the skin in places.
“Stay still, would you?” Adrien grumbled, frowning at her as if she’d greatly inconvenienced him. “If you keep squirming like that you’re going to hurt yourself, you know. Behave a little.”
Even through her fear, Camila couldn’t help staring at him in amazement. She couldn’t believe he’d actually just said that to her, looked at her like that, like she was the annoyance here. She hadn't asked to be where she was in the first place. He could have left her where she was if she was such a nuisance!
Her heart cried out.
Why couldn’t you just leave me alone!
She didn’t get to say any of the million things that came to mind right then, when her body froze again because she’d caught sight of what he had in his other hand. From somewhere inside the car, Adrien had pulled a knife, and her eyes went wide as she stared intently at it.
Did he really drag me all the way out here just to kill me like this? No way, right?
Only, Camila couldn’t think of what other reason he had for brandishing a knife at her. Threatening her with it? Even if she started hopping, she didn’t think she could get far, and bound and gagged as she was, she couldn’t alert anyone to her situation or even try to attack him.
She was scared, but she kept very still, staring at that knife.
In the end, she was surprised, because instead of stabbing her with it, Adrien squatted down and cut at the duct tape on her feet between her ankles.
“Don’t get so excited,” he muttered as he rose back up. “I’m just not in the mood to carry you up the porch steps.”
Then, he force-marched her inside. In her surprise, she didn’t even struggle. She stumbled a little, but he didn’t care, keeping a tight hold on her and pushing forward, so unless she wanted to hit the ground, she could only try to keep up, since he hadn't undone her hands, or the gag around her mouth for her to voice her complaints.
Her compliance didn’t last long, though. The woman must have turned her back to him when he shot her, because she couldn’t see from below the porch steps, but when they were at the door, not too far away was an old woman lying face down on the ground, clothes bloodied with a pool of blood growing beneath her body.
A tremor went through Camila’s body, and she tried to scream, though the gag just muffled the sound. Worse, Adrien was still dragging her forward, and there wasn’t enough space for them to walk around the body to get into the house, not side by side as they were. There was a tiny bit of space, but she knew Adrien would just take it for himself and leave her to step all over a poor dead woman.
No… no!
Camila struggled. She forgot she was supposed to be worried about Adrien still had the knife in his hand, after all, but she didn’t think she could go inside, even under threat.
“Hey!” Adrien yelled, struggling to keep a hold of her. “Stop struggling.”
Camila just shook her head, making more frantic noises as she tried to get away. She couldn’t pull her eyes from the body, either, and she just knew she would have a nightmare over this soon.
Adrien did his best to keep his hold on her, but she wasn’t exactly light and she was putting up a serious fight. With a curse, he tossed the knife so he could grab at her with both hands. Camila made muffled screaming sounds as she fought against him, even as he kept tugging on her.
“I will seriously hit you if you don’t stop it,” he threatened.
Looking in his eyes, Camila stared at him in terror. Oh god! He’s insane! she thought as he gripped her with his left and raised his right to hit her. Her eyes strayed back to the bloodied bandage on his left shoulder and she wrenched away sideways, as his hand came down at her. She had moved just out of his hands path with that move, and now that her feet weren’t bound, she was able to keep herself from falling to the ground as she stumbled away from him.
“Fuck!” he growled, anger and pain mixed in his voice as he reached for her again.
Camila managed to break free again, struggling in his grip and causing him pain in his shoulder. He released her to hold onto his injury, glaring at her. She didn’t pause to look at his expression though, turning away and stumbling into the dark, praying he couldn’t see her. The knife might not be of use to him once she put distance between them, but she hadn't forgotten that he had a gun, even though she hadn't seen it.
Please,she thought frantically. Let me get away.