by Angela Foxxe
I should have taken a picture.
She chortled, surprised by the laughter that bubbled up unexpectedly and clamping her hand over her mouth.
“You’re punch drunk,” Ty said. “Let’s get you into bed.”
Senora nodded, thankful that he had no idea about the thoughts that were going through her head. It was better if he didn’t know he was gorgeous. Ty seemed like the kind of guy who didn’t need his ego stroked at all.
He opened up the door at the end of the hallway and stepped back, letting Senora take in the scene before her.
She gasped, amazed at the size of the room and the massive bed in the center against the wall.
“Your room is the size of my first apartment,” she said with a laugh.
“Everything is bigger in Texas,” he teased with a wink.
“I’ve noticed,” she said, then blushed. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
“Of course, you did.”
She scowled at him, but he was already walking over to the large closet, rummaging through his shirts before he tossed one her way.
“I’d offer you a pair of pants, but I don’t think I have any that will even come close to fitting you.”
“I’ll wear what I have on,” she insisted.
He shook his head.
“It needs to get tossed in the wash with the rest of your clothes if you want to have something to wear while you’re here.”
“How long are we planning on staying?”
“You want to solve the case, don’t you?”
He had her there. She absolutely did want to see this case through, and that meant more time spent with Ty.
“I do,” she said, hesitant as she wondered where he was going with this.
“Well, you have no extra clothes, and we can’t exactly go into town and just buy you some. Since you’re going to be staying here, it would make sense to wash your clothes while you sleep, right?”
“We’re staying here?”
“Were you planning on staying in town?” he laughed. “Staying here is the only option. You’re not safe anywhere else, and with Dale on the rampage, you might not be completely safe here. But here, I can keep an eye on you and protect you if he is stupid enough to send his henchmen. I don’t think he’s that stupid, but the Sheriff has surprised me before.”
“I don’t need protecting,” she said.
“I’ll remember that the next time you’re in a hotel room and about to be captured. I don’t believe you ever thanked me for that.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“That sounded sincere,” he laughed. He pulled the blankets back and pointed toward a door in the corner of the room. “The bathroom is there. You can take a shower if you want or just change and toss what you’re wearing into the hamper. I’ll make sure it gets washed and it’s ready to go in the morning. You can pick your side.”
She started to protest then changed her mind. Arguing with Ty wasn’t going to change a thing, and it was just frustrating her. He was going to do things his way, and there was no way around it.
“Fine,” she said, shaking her head. “But you better not try anything funny.”
His smile was wicked.
“Trust me,” he said with a low growl. “If I try anything, you won’t be laughing.”
She felt her body tighten at the suggestion in his words. Before she could make matters worse, she turned and all but fled into the bathroom. There was no lock on the door, but even if there had been, it wouldn’t have mattered. It was Ty’s house. He could probably open the door with the power of his mind or something ridiculous like that.
She laughed at the thought, then stripped out of her borrowed clothes and stepped into the shower.
The water was warm and the spray almost too rough as it pelted her sore, bruised muscles. She washed quickly, just a little worried that he might barge in at any time.
She laughed to herself at the ridiculousness of it all. He’d been nothing but a gentleman the entire day, and she had no reason to believe that would change just because she was naked just a few feet from where he was. He had more than earned her trust throughout the day, and she felt a twinge of guilt for balking at the idea of sharing his large bed for the night. There was plenty of room for both of them, and she was confident that Ty would manage to sleep beside her and keep his hands to himself.
Whether Senora could keep her hands off his smooth, bronze skin remained to be seen.
Stop it, she thought, scrubbing vigorously and trying to get her mind out of the gutter. You can’t keep entertaining those thoughts when he’s right in the other room.
She chuckled softly to herself. She could let her thoughts run wild because she doubted that he felt the same. He teased her good-naturedly, but Ty was all gentleman, and there was no way he would be so bold with her on their first day working together.
Now that she had some time to think and they were no longer running for their lives, Senora thought back on the day and how very crazy it had been. She’d started out in the wolf enclosure and ended up in the wolf pack, safe from the corrupt Sheriff and his cohorts. It was enough to make even her head spin. Sprinkle in the wild ride on the back of a werewolf and walking in the woods with a sexy, naked man and Senora knew that no one would believe her even if she had someone to tell. The day had been stranger than fiction, and she’d loved every minute of it.
If that made her just as crazy, she didn’t care.
Senora shrugged with a smile, going to work on her hair and closing her eyes when the scent of mint with a touch of something she couldn’t quite place rose up from the bubbling lather and swirled around her. She needed to take some of this shampoo home so she could remember this moment and this cabin deep in the woods.
Stepping out of the shower, she grabbed a plush towel and dried off quickly. The shirt was soft and loose, going almost to her knees. She would’ve preferred more fabric between herself and Ty, but this would have to do until she got some more clothes or she was able to get her clothes from the hotel.
Not going to happen. She sighed at the thought and wished she’d had the foresight to at least pack a few pairs of underwear and socks in her backpack even if putting more in the already full bag would have made the bag hard to zip closed. At least she would have something to wear.
She hung the towel on the rack by the door and quickly ran her fingers through her already drying hair. Mustering her courage and trying not to think about the sexy shifter in the other room, she opened the door to the bedroom and stepped through it.
The room was empty, the bed turned down and waiting for her. She glanced out the bedroom door and down the hall, but she didn’t see Ty anywhere. She called out to him, but there was no answer.
She sighed.
Might as well get some sleep, she thought. She had no idea where he could have possibly gone, and a myriad of options raced through her head. For all she knew, he could be running in a wolf pack in the light of the full moon.
Or he could be out walking with a lover. The truth was, she knew nothing about him besides what he’d already revealed and that wasn’t much. He had an entire life that she knew nothing about, and she wasn’t about to leave the house in the darkness to try and find him. He would come home when he was ready, and hopefully, she would be sound asleep by then.
Sliding between the sheets, she curled onto her side and faced the doorway to the hall. It was the only entrance and exit, and she didn’t ever sleep with her back to a door. She hoped that Ty would be comfortable on the other side, but she was so tired that she didn’t really care.
She pulled the covers up to her chin and inhaled the fresh scent. Everything smelled so fresh with none of the artificial perfumes that filled her own home. The windows were open, the screens keeping nature out and the fans that spun lazily throughout the house keeping it cool enough despite the Texas heat. She closed her eyes, listening to the sounds of nature that drifted in through the open windows.
H
er body was heavy, and she was tired to the very depths of her soul. As the night critters sang their song into the air, she found that she couldn’t fight sleep any longer. Her last thought before she fell to sleep was that, on her next vacation, she would have to go camping somewhere like this place. She wouldn’t miss the crazy Sheriff, but she wouldn’t mind having a sexy shifter come with her. Camping alone was fun, but she was sure that camping with Ty was immeasurably better.
She fell to sleep with a smile on her lips, feeling at peace for the first time since she’d first stepped foot in Texas.
CHAPTER 12
Her head was pounding when she woke up in the darkness and tried to roll over. She reached up to touch her head, but her hands wouldn’t move, and her wrists screamed in agony as the fog cleared and her memory returned.
Kidnapped! Hannah thought suddenly, the fear slamming into her full force. The Sheriff had picked her up and brought her here. But why? What was she doing here, in the middle of nowhere on the floor of some old barn?
She moved her hands again, slowly this time. She could feel the ropes that bound her, their rough, frayed strands cutting into her delicate skin and making her itch. The knots were crude, and as Hannah moved around, she could feel them slacken depending on where she held her hands.
A door opened on the other end of the barn, and the click of boot heels on the bare cement floor echoed in the rafters. Quietly but as quickly as she could, Hannah rolled back onto her stomach and buried her face into the sweet stench of the fresh straw beneath her. Her nose twitched, but she looked up and found that the silly trick her daddy had taught her to avoid sneezing actually worked.
Struggling with terror as the man got closer to her, she forced herself to go limp and ignore the muscles in her arms that protested at having her weight on them again as they tingled painfully.
“I see you there,” a voice called out into the horse stall that Hannah was locked in.
There was a loud rap on the metal bars that made up the top half of the door, but Hannah somehow managed not to jump at the sudden sound. Still forcing herself to relax, she focused on her breathing.
In and out.
In and out.
There was a laugh behind her, and Hannah was certain that the man on the other side of the doorway was the Sheriff. She bit back the anger and held her ground, refusing to let him bait her into moving and revealing that she was indeed awake.
“You’re such a little thing; I think they gave you too much juice. That’s going to make your video spot impossible to make right now, but maybe that’s a good thing. The customers go into a frenzy when they have to wait for new product.”
There was a flash and a click as the Sheriff took a picture with his cell phone, then silence as he stood, watching her for a few minutes. Her skin crawled at the feel of his gaze on her bare shoulders, but she wasn’t going to move. She wouldn’t be making a video, and she wasn’t about to be sold to anyone. She wasn’t going to go down easy, and she would rather die fighting than let them make her into someone’s maid or worse.
News stories and cautionary tales flooded through her mind, but she pushed them away. She wasn’t going to panic, wasn’t going to call this what it was. She knew she was a victim of human trafficking, but she didn’t want to dwell on that. She had to keep the fear under control or she would react instead of acting logically, and she would end up right back where she was. If she was going to get away, she had to be smart.
She was starting to think that the Sheriff had already tiptoed away when she finally heard the first steps of him leaving. She heard a second set of footfalls, and when the two men spoke, they were several yards away.
“She’s still out,” the Sheriff said. “Your men gave her too much, and now, I can’t video her until morning. Hopefully, you didn’t kill her.”
“Was she breathing?” a nervous man asked.
“Shallow, but yes. I’m sure she’s fine, but your guys have to get a handle on their dosage. They killed the last girl, and I can’t afford to lose another one.”
“To be fair, Boss, the other one was almost ten years older than this one and fought like a hell cat. We didn’t mean-”
“I don’t care what you meant to do. The fact is, you killed my catch, and next time, I won’t be so forgiving about that. This one better live or I’m going to have to answer for your stupidity. It’s almost midnight. She should be wide awake by now and futilely yelling for help. Instead, she’s dead to the world and laying there like a ragdoll. She’d better be awake in a couple hours. I have to post her by four in the morning so the early morning sickos can get first dibs on her. That will drive the price way up. So, please. Do your damn job and get your men under control.”
The man muttered something unintelligible, but Hannah could hear the regret in his voice. Hannah wondered who they’d killed, but between her schooling and her job, she hadn’t had much time to read the news.
The men were still talking, and then their voices faded and the heavy barn doors slammed shut with a deafening boom that echoed off the rafters. The room was plunged into darkness, and only the light from the small, square window cut out in the back of the stall illuminated the small space.
Midnight? How could it be midnight already? She’d slept forever, and now, she only had four hours until the Sheriff was going to come back. Scratch that; it would be under four hours because he was going to upload the video in four hours.
That didn’t leave her much time.
Cautiously, Hannah moved her legs, noting the rope tied around them as well and closing her eyes in despair. She was tied up so tight, and even though the ropes around her wrists gave a little, they were far from falling off.
She rolled onto her side, her movements gentle and deliberate. When the rope had the most slack on her wrists, she stopped, holding her awkward position with her foot and breathing through the pain. She was sore, and her body was trembling from the after effects of the Taser and whatever drugs they’d injected her with. She was fighting to hold the position she was in, but she pushed the pain away and focused on her wrists in the pale moonlight.
There was just a bit of give in the outer ring of the rope that was wound around her wrists several times. Carefully, she used one finger to pull at it, trying to pull it up and over her fingers so she could pull her hands further apart.
She pulled the rope up a few inches, then hooked the rope with her index finger and almost cried out in triumph. Taking her time, she pulled it up an inch at a time, curling her other fingers into a fist so it would go over her hands more easily. She was focused and sweating from the exertion in the stuffy barn.
She almost had the rope over her knuckles when she lost her grip and the rope fell back down around her wrist. She groaned, then caught herself, silencing the involuntary protest and taking a deep breath before she went for it again.
Working at the rope again, she wriggled her finger until she was able to get it high enough to hook again. This time, she turned her hand slightly so that her finger crooked up and away from her body instead of curling into her other hand. She lost slack doing it that way, but it ensured that she wouldn’t lose her grip this time. She pressed her wrists together as hard as she could to create more slack and tried again. Wriggling inches at a time, she bit her lip when the rope became tight just a few inches below the tops of her knuckles. She was going to have to pull harder, and it was going to hurt.
Steeling herself for the pain she was about to endure, she took a deep breath and yanked really hard, curling her finger around the rope as tight as she could and pulling with every ounce of strength she had.
Tears sprang to her eyes, but she didn’t make a sound. The rope got impossibly tight and still, she pulled. When it was almost too much to bear, the rope slipped. All at once, the rope went over the knuckles, and her hands flew apart a few more inches. She let her breath out in a loud whoosh, smiling broadly and repeating the process again.
This time, it was much easier, an
d before she knew it, her hands were free.
She worked her fingers, clenching and unclenching her fists so that the pooled blood in her joints would start flowing again. Her body screamed in pain, but Hannah was on a mission, and she wasn’t about to celebrate before she was free.
Going to work on her ankles, she fumbled with the huge knot a few times before her fingers finally cooperated, then she pulled and plucked at the knot until it gave way, and she was free.
The relief was palpable, but she was far from free. She rubbed her ankles and legs, then stood up hesitantly and held onto the wall as the world spun around her. She almost fell over, but she managed to wade her way through the fog in her head until she was at the stall door. She tried to reach out through the bars to unlock the latch on the other side, but they were too close together, and even if her hands weren’t swollen from being tied for hours on end, they wouldn’t have fit.
Frustrated, she turned away and looked around the horse stall.
The window was small and square, and even if she could have reached high enough to pull herself up, she couldn’t fit through the tiny hole. So, the door and the window were out, which left only one more option.
Her eyes went to the heavy-duty hay rack that hung below a larger square cutout in the ceiling. Fastened to the wall with bolts the width of her fingers, it looked sturdy enough to hold her.
The only problem was getting up to the feed rack, which was five feet off the ground.
Hannah looked around the stall and considered her options. There weren’t many. She finally settled on using the space between the bars as a toehold when her eyes landed on a large, square feeder built into the wall on the floor of the stall opposite of the hay rack. It looked like it had once been used for grain, forcing the animal to walk back and forth between the two feeders to keep it moving in the small space.
Kneeling down, Hannah peered into the three feet by one-and-a-half-foot wooden box and reached in. She felt along the wall until she found the little door that opened up near the top of the feeder for the grain to be dumped into. Designed to hold a five gallon, flat sided bucket in a wire frame, the door was just slightly bigger than the window at the back of the stall. But it was big enough.
