Fuck…
What would I do? How could I possibly get out of this?
I had no choice. I had to open my eyelids. I could no longer hide behind their security.
With a slow flutter, I blinked against the dim lighting of the room I was in. It didn’t take long for me to become aware of my new reality. I was wearing just a man’s shirt and my panties, my arms tied behind my back, lying on my side on a bare mattress in what appeared to be a woodshed somewhere. Definitely not in my store, which was the last place I remembered being.
Awkwardly sitting up, I groaned as the pounding of my head and the severe ringing in my ears nearly forced me to lie back down, but my stomach roiled at the musty smell of the mattress and the earthy fragrance of pine permeating from the stacked firewood around me.
I tried to pull against my restraints, but quickly stopped when the flare of pain in my wrists where the rope had rubbed them raw had me realizing there was no hope. My feet were free from any kind of binds, which meant I could still walk… run… kick. I wasn’t wearing any shoes, however. But even though the shed was dark, there was enough light shining through the cracks in the wooden logs that made up the structure to show I had no place to run to. There was no one in the room to kick. I was alone in this woodshed sitting helplessly with my wrists bound behind my back.
Jay? Rye? Banks? The memories of my shop, and everything that had happened before a rag was placed to my face, came flooding in, my stomach roiling harder as the sound of teeth being pulled played in my head. It had been… horrid. They’d said they’d not killed the woman, but this? They definitely did this. Those fuckers did this to me.
As if my thoughts were the theatrical cue for their entrance, the door to the shed opened. Two figures, who I already knew were my kidnappers, walked in with heavy-booted feet. Rye and Jay both loomed in front of me, and if it was possible I was dead, there was no doubt I was facing the devil times two in front of me.
“I figured she would be waking up,” Jay said when he stepped closer and looked at me.
I wanted to cower in the furthest corner, but I also didn’t want to give the men the satisfaction of knowing just how scared I was. For some reason, I felt keeping my pride, and head held high would help fight against my situation. The additional light from the open door exposed more of the shed. Besides the wood stacked high, I could tell there wasn’t much around me. It was not much more than an empty, cold, musty shed with a cot covered by a thin mattress in one corner for my sake. The door they entered from appeared to be the only way in and out.
“How was your nap?” Jay asked with his arms crossed against his chest and a smirk on his face. “Was the bed too hard, too soft, or was it just right?”
The shadows of the room hid both his and Rye’s eyes, but I had no doubt the man had a twinkle in them as he asked the question. It was clear he was finding my situation amusing, and I fought the urge to spit in his direction.
“Where am I?” I asked, hating to hear how gruff and unsteady my voice was. “Where are my clothes and shoes?”
“We told you what the plan was,” Rye began. “You are on Barrett’s Mountain, and your clothes and shoes are covered in vomit thanks to your weak stomach.”
“I’m in your cabin?” Damn my voice and my clear weakness. I wanted to be strong but there was no way to fake anything considering my world was spiraling down a deep and treacherous hole. “Why?”
“Not our cabin. It’s the woodshed right outside from it,” Rye explained. He looked around and chuckled. “We aren’t animals. We have much higher expectations of our living conditions.”
“And,” Jay added, “we told you why you are here. Kit likes you. We give our sister whatever she wants and needs.”
“But getting you here was a pain in the ass,” Rye cut in. “You are heavy for a tiny thing.” He chuckled in the most maniacal of ways. Yes, this man was enjoying this. Asshole.
“Where’s Kit?” I asked, feeling she would help me.
She wouldn’t allow this. No way would she let her brothers keep me tied in a woodshed against my will. Hope filled my terrified heart. There was a chance. Kit was my chance.
“She’s coming with Banks soon. Jay and I took you here first with the supplies needed to start getting busy and fixing this place up and making it livable again. But our main focus is, we need to make sure you are aware of our rules.”
“So.” Jay took a few steps toward me and then squatted so he was at eye level with me. “Let’s talk about the rules, shall we?”
“You can’t do this,” I said calmly. “People will be looking for me. You can’t just kidnap me and think you’ll get away with this.”
“But we already have,” Jay said. “Gotten away with it. Your store went up in flames with a poor body inside. Burned to a crisp.”
“They will know it’s not me. DNA…” I managed to say, images of a well-appointed laboratory running through my head. “They’ll find DNA and know it’s not me.”
“Nothing we didn’t consider,” Rye said with a smirk and a shrug. “It’s not like on TV. I removed the teeth and fingerprints just in case the fire didn’t consume everything. But, even if there is an investigation, they won’t solve it within an hour of prime time. All those tests take weeks. We’ve already gotten you out of the city and by the time forensics putters about preparing samples and running them through their equipment, the others will be here as well. Even if they announce the body found in the fire was not Goldie Winters, it won’t matter. They’ll never track you to here.”
Jay smiled. “In other words, you being declared murdered or just missing is fine with us. We don’t give a fuck how it looks. The point of the matter is you are dead to all. You are nothing but a ghost now. A ghost living in purgatory with us.”
I took a deep breath to try to calm the raging fear threatening to consume all rational thought. I had to come up with a way out of this situation. I was out in the middle of nowhere in a place I had never heard of. Barrett’s Mountain? Where in the hell is that? Twisted, fucked up, demented, and bizarre were not strong enough words to describe the hell I was now in.
“So here is the deal,” Jay said in the most professional manner. “First option is you say no and refuse what we are offering. In which case, we kill you. We can’t have you here hurting Kit. And if she thinks we forced you to come, are forcing you to stay here, or that we are the bad guys we truly are, it will devastate her. My brothers and I won’t allow her to feel we are anything less than the heroes and good guys she believes us to be.”
“Even though we are the fucked up villains in this story,” Rye added.