Slowly, I turned the doorknob, opened the door. These people really should invest in locks, but I certainly wasn’t going to complain. I slithered around the door into a dark wooden room lit orange with low bulbs. It reminded me of a sauna, was as hot as one too. Only instead of a fire pit in the middle, there was an empty chair.
Ringing the room were large cages, like the kind you transport circus animals in. Big animals. All the cages were stained with blood. A corpse, skeletal and rotted, lay in a fetal position in the cage to my left. The others were empty.
Except for the one directly in front of me.
Victoria was curled up in it, her hair over her face. She was naked. Her body shook as she whimpered.
I wanted to run to her but something didn’t feel right.
The male voice. Where was it now? There was no one else in here.
I stepped into the center of the room, swung my gun around, focused for a second on the corpse but did my best to ignore it.
Whoever had been in here was now gone. To where?
I saw a second door between two of the cages. This place was just one creepy set of rooms after another. Whoever had been here must have left just as I came in, which either meant he’d heard me or I was just one lucky son of a bitch. But with my luck, it was probably the former.
“Victoria.” I moved to her cage and examined the lock. It needed some kind of big ass key, but I figured a bullet would work just as well. I’d been holding off on firing any rounds to avoid detection but I wasn’t about to play find-the-key at this point. There was an exit up to the shed somewhere nearby, had to be. Probably a ladder. We could be out of here in thirty seconds if we hurried.
Before I could think any harder about it, I shut the door to the tunnel, came back and told Victoria to move to the other side of the cage. She didn’t move, didn’t even acknowledge that she’d heard me. She just kept whimpering, curling into herself like a beaten animal.
For all I knew she was in shock and thought I was one of the lunatics who’d been abusing her.
“Victoria, I’m gonna shoot the lock. Just . . . just don’t move then, okay? And don’t scream. Please.”
I aimed at a funky angle, hoping the bullet would either lodge in the lock or careen off in a safe direction, and squeezed the trigger.
Bang!
The shot was cacophonous. God knows where the bullet went but I felt fine and I didn’t see Victoria get hit.
The cage door swung open with a hard yank. “Victoria, it’s me, Roger.” I raced in and put my arms around her. “Please be okay.”
Suddenly she screamed and tried to burrow through the floor between the bars. I shook her a bit and pulled her close, feeling her naked body against me. I’d wanted to feel her skin against mine for so long, but not like this. Not after what she’d suffered.
“Victoria, look at me. Please. It’s me, it’s Roger.”
Gently, I lifted her head and brushed the hair from her eyes. Her face was a puffy pink mess, slick with tears and snot. She trembled as she met my eyes, slowly realizing she knew me from somewhere. Must be the broken nose throwing her off. But she seemed to be getting it.
“See? It’s me. Roger. We need to get out of here, okay. I need you to move.”
Again, she didn’t say anything, but she didn’t break eye contact. And then slowly, like a timid creature, she reached up and touched my face.
When she did this I saw her bare breasts, and again I felt ashamed for seeing her in this state. It was all wrong, and I felt something special had been taken from me. I know that’s selfish, but I still felt it.
“Can you walk?” I asked. “They’re coming back down soon. We can’t stay here. My car is outside. We just have to get out.”
“Roger.” She mumbled my name, just about slurred it.
Shit, she’d been drugged. Her pupils were dilated. She probably couldn’t walk.
“I hurt,” she managed. “Stuck . . . needle . . . in me . . .”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Hurt me inside. My insides . . .”
“I know. I killed them. And now I’m gonna get you outta here.”
“Gabe? Need Gabe.”
Can’t say that her asking for her fiancé didn’t make me feel a bit depressed, but I didn’t know if it was because I was still jealous or because I felt terrible having to tell her the truth. I was afraid that if she went into further shock she would just lie down and die right here. Poor girl didn’t deserve this. No one did. Then again, if I lied she would worry about it instead of focusing on getting out. I chose my poison: “He’s dead. It was fast.”
Her mouth trembled. “No.” She closed her eyes.
“I killed the guy that did it.”
“No.” Her mouth pulled back in a giant sob. Her chest heaved with gasps of anguish and she began to shake. It was obvious she’d been hoping to reunite with Gabe. Maybe it had helped her get through this ordeal so far, as much as she was still sane.
“I’m sorry, Victoria. He died trying to save you. Please don’t let it be in vain. We have to go.”
Stupid movie lines, but somehow it got her up. Well, not exactly up, but she used my body to start to rise. I slipped my arms under her and lifted her the rest of the way. As we rose I saw giant teeth marks on her back from where Mr. Budweiser had chewed at her during his savagery. I also happened to catch a glimpse of the area between her legs, which was now blue and swollen.
She was going to have trouble walking no matter what.
I haphazardly took off my Ghost in the Shell shirt and fumbled it over her head. It didn’t cover her bottom, but I just hoped it made her feel a little more protected. Normally I wouldn’t want to show my lily-white body to girls until after several dates, but it was a sacrifice I could live with. I’m not really muscular, just a bit wiry. Didn’t matter, she didn’t notice. But she tugged the shirt down absently, happy for whatever cover she could get.
“This way.” I helped her limp toward the strange door between the cages, once again noticing the knotted-up corpse and doing my best to look away. A tiny window set at head level in the door let me see another dirt tunnel on the other side. It was dark, and only the light from this strange human zoo room provided any light. But sure enough, I could see the outline of what looked like a ladder up ahead. I figured it led up to the shed.
Bingo. Freedom.
When I pulled at the door it wouldn’t open. I knew that was a bad sign right away. The guy who left must have locked it. Sure as shit they knew I was here now. “They brought you down that way, huh? Down the ladder?” I was sort of just making conversation, to keep Victoria focused, but was equally as curious why they hadn’t taken her through the house and cellar. Probably to hide her from the guests. To keep her as far from the road as possible.
To keep her a secret little present until dessert time.
My guess, the door under the shed was also reserved as some kind of escape route. Whoever was down here must have gone up and out. Probably alerting Ben and his gun goons even now.
The time of silence and secrecy was over. I backed us up, aimed my Glock and fired. The lock splintered and the door opened a sliver on its own. The scent of fresh dirt swam through the opening and reminded me how close to being buried alive we were. “Just to the ladder and we’re free. Ready?”
She nodded, shifted her arm over my shoulder to walk better. I glanced down to make sure she was moving her legs, saw her bruised genitalia again and felt ashamed for staring, but I wanted to make sure she wouldn’t stumble, wanted to make sure whatever drug they’d given her wasn’t impeding her mobility. Basically I didn’t want to have to carry her.
“That’s good. Almost there.”
“Roger.”
“What?” I was still looking down. She was doing good. She was going to get through this.
“No.”
“No what?”
“Please stop.”
“huh?”
“Stop. Just . . .
stop.”
“What?”
“I see him.” She started to shake so badly I almost dropped her.
“Who?” I looked up and watched a big man in a Red Sox hat step out of the shadows just beyond the ladder. Sonofabitch had just been waiting for me, knowing I would come this way.
“No. No more,” Victoria cried. I was leading her right into the path of the man who had last raped her.
Right into Bob
CHAPTER 16
He genuinely looked a little shocked. “You?”
“Me.”
I raised my guns, took aim, but he ducked into some kind of alcove next to the ladder and disappeared before I could fire. His arm came around fast and squeezed off a shot from his own gun. The bullet echoed in the tunnel and struck the dirt wall a few feet in front of us. Bits of dirt stung my face.
“Shit!” I threw both myself and Victoria to the ground, and scrambled back inside the cage room, dragging her as fast as I could. Another bullet hit the door above our heads just as we leapt to the side.
Victoria was crying, holding her knees to her chest. “No more no more no more.”
She was starting to lose it and I needed her to be lucid if I was going to get us out of here.
I pointed to the tunnel door leading back to the basement. “Go that way. Get into the shadows and hide.”
“I can’t. I can’t move.”
“Yes, you can.”
“I can’t feel my legs.”
Crap, I’d forgotten about the drugs. She must only be able to walk with my help. “You’ve got to try. Crawl if you have to, okay?”
I peeked around the door, saw Bob peering out of the alcove at me in a weird type of mirrored movement. We both fired at the same time. Two bullets hit two walls at opposite ends of the tunnel.
“Please try, Victoria.” I grabbed her head and looked right into her eyes, let my busted nose touch her own. She leaned in closer, trembling. Her tears were warm and wet against my cheek. “Please. For Gabe.”
Finally, she nodded. “Okay. For Gabe. Give me . . . the other gun.”
That kinda stunned me, but hell if I wasn’t happy to hear she was willing to fight. “Do you know how to fire it?”
“No. But I’ll figure it out.”
I handed her Mr. Budweiser’s pistol and made sure the safety was off. “Here. There are fifteen shots in the clip. If you fire, fire controlled. Don’t unload the whole thing on nothing.”
She knuckled the tears from her face and started sliding toward the door.
I watched her open it, slide through, and then leaned out to check for Bob again. He was nowhere in sight, which could mean he was pressed back in the alcove--could be another tunnel for all I knew--or had scrambled up the ladder.
“Come on, stick your head out,” I said.
Several seconds passed but he didn’t lean out.
Time to go, I thought, and fired off a warning shot just to keep him at bay.
The door had swung shut behind Victoria, so I threw it open and ran down the tunnel after her. I didn’t see her, which meant she’d already made it to the basement.
“Fast girl.”
When I reached the other end I heard Bob behind me in the cage room, swearing. As much as I wanted to wait for him to come into the tunnel so I could shoot him down, I wasn’t so sure my aim right now was steady enough to hit him. Instead, I emerged into the dark basement--which wasn’t so dark anymore. An overhead light had been turned on at the other end, back near the stairs up to the kitchen. Suddenly I was surrounded by the most crazy-eyed dancing wolves you’ve ever seen.
I let out a stifled cry and reflexively aimed at the nearest one, hoping to shoot it in the head. Thank God I didn’t because I realized it was just a statue. There were tons of them, large and small, waving swords, holding up bones.
“Victoria?” I whispered, maneuvering through the statues looking for her. “Where are you? It’s me, Roger.” How I hadn’t run into these things the first time through in the dark is a miracle. Why did they all only have one eye?
Movement. To my right. I spun, gun raised, saw a man in a black suit step behind one of the statues. He was mostly bald with a thin ring of white hair over his ears. Had he nodded at me before he skirted out of view?
I was pretty sure he did, and it pretty much came across as an acknowledgment of some game of cat and mouse. Great, now I had two of these freaks on my tail.
I drifted left, away from the stairs, hoping to cut a wide circle around and back.
Another movement. The bald man in the suit stepped out into view up ahead. He whispered something inaudible. Looked like . . . well, it looked like he said my name. Roger. How did he know me?
I hadn’t seen him in the dining room earlier. He was not one of Marshalll’s cannibal friends, unless he was a late arrival. I supposed he could have been staff, maybe a butler or something, but he seemed out of place somehow.
“Roger?” Victoria’s voice broke me from my trance. It was coming from somewhere near the stairs.
“Victoria? Stay put. Hide.”
“Roger!” Her scream bounced off the walls. It was a scream of pain and fear, no longer concerned with stealth or hiding. It was followed by obvious signs of a struggle. Grunts, huffing, legs kicking, what sounded like a slap. Shit, they’d found her.
I rounded two more statues, gun at the ready, prepared to plug holes in whomever was wrestling her, saw her bare legs just a few yards ahead of me jutting out from behind more bad art. I also saw the man in the suit to my right. He was just watching, composed like a spectator at the theater. Then there were stars as Bob charged out from behind the nearest wolf, tackled me to the ground, and slammed his elbow into my chest. The gun slid from my hands, my muscles took a vacation. My own Red Sox cap fell off his fat head and onto my face, and I could smell the sweat he’d already left inside it. A hot gun muzzle pressed against my temple, burned the skin above my ear with an audible crackle. I was in too much of a daze to scream.
The hammer cocked back.
“No! Alive, keep him alive.”
Through the murky haze of near death and partially obstructed vision through the baseball hat, I saw Ben holding Victoria. “I need to question him.”
“Let me kill this fucker,” Bob said. He took the hat off my face and put it back on his own head.
“You’re not even supposed to still be here.” Ben had Victoria in a strangle hold; he was holding the gun I’d given her. Her feet kicked wildly as her breath cut out.
“I was waiting for Cary.”
“Your friend left a while ago.”
“No, he didn’t. He said he was getting something from the van and coming back. Only he never came back. He don’t run off on me. We were taking the van back together, gonna get a beer. I climbed up the ladder a minute ago and saw him up there dead with a gardening tool in his neck. And I know this shit did it, so I want to kill his ass.”
“Well, there’s a change of plans. I need to know if anyone else knows this guy is here. Marshalll has rules about this kind of thing.”
Bob frisked me as impatiently as he could muster. “He ain’t got a phone.”
“Fine, we’ll put them back in the cages. Marshalll will be down for her in a few minutes. We’ll need to sedate her again. He doesn’t like them to scream when the ritual begins.”
“What? Keep him alive?”
“I’m not going to tell you again, Bob. Pick him up and lock him in the cages.”
“Fine.” Bob socked me in the eye and I thought my head would go through the floor. My damn nose was already so swollen I didn’t think I’d ever be able to smell again, and his punch once more shifted the broken bones around. As I’ve already said, some pains are just so intense you can’t scream for fear of making them hurt more. That punch was one of those kinds.
He lifted me off the floor and dragged me back through the ugly statues toward the homemade dungeon. I heard Victoria behind me, sobbing in her captor’s arms.
So close, Roger. So damned close, but no cigar.
They threw us in separate cages and locked the door to the hallway. Now we were all in the dungeon. While Ben checked the locks on the cages Bob sat in the chair again, in the middle of the room, leering at me. He was pissed beyond belief.
I leaned back against the rear of the cage, felt the hard dirt wall behind it, briefly wondering if I could tunnel my way to the outside world should I be able to bend the bars wide enough apart. Maybe with enough time and a tire jack, but Bob wasn’t going to let me out of his sight.
“Take a picture, Bob,” I said.
“You do realize Marshalll is gonna kill you.”
“I dunno, he looked pretty stuffed last time I saw him.”
Bob’s reaction to that was a little funny. I think he thought I was making some joke that he wasn’t getting. It begged the question of whether or not Bob knew what was going on upstairs.
“You partake of these dinners too, Bob?” I asked.
“I already ate.”
“Don’t you know you can get all types of diseases eating human flesh?”
Again, he cocked his head kind of funny.
“Enough!” Ben said. He withdrew a pair of small wire cutters from his pocket. “You talk again and I will remove a finger.”
Ben stepped back next to Bob. “And that goes for you too, Bob. Once we’re done here you leave this house and stay gone.”
“Yeah, well, guess I get all the money this time,” he said with a smile, “so I ain’t got a problem with that. Mark my word, boy, if Ben and Marshall don’t kill you, I will find you and make you suffer.”
I looked at Ben. “He’s still talking. Take his thumb.”For a moment Ben stopped and looked at me like he was going to come in and really do some damage to me, but then Victoria whimpered and he remembered he had other work to do. Over near the door was a first aid kit. I hadn’t seen it before because sometimes it’s hard to notice things when you’re being shot at. He opened it up and took out a syringe and a little bottle of something nefarious. He filled the syringe with the liquid and entered the other cage with Victoria.
Born To Bleed (The Roger Huntington Saga, Book 2) Page 14
