Dangerous Games - Gold

by Adele Huxley

  Phoenix zoned out from the conversation as he felt the rope slip and give. He jerked his gaze to where Penny looked more contortionist than journalist. With a soft grunt, she pushed up on her heels and yanked her arms forward. Now her bound hands were trapped under her knees. Not the best position, but a vast improvement.

  Panting and glistening with a sheen of sweat, she grinned at him triumphantly.

  “Could you… move,” he managed through his teeth.

  “Oh! Sorry.” She shimmied closer to provide a bit of slack. The best position they could find was wedging her feet between his legs at an angle.

  He could’ve kissed her and probably would’ve if it wouldn’t have triggered Hadley’s fury. After a few minutes rest, he started to feel exposed.

  “It’s probably best if—”

  “Yeah, yeah, Christ,” she muttered. Somehow her tone put him more at ease. It was like the nice version of Penny reeked of fear and the testy one was her normal state.

  Compared to the wriggling, this was nothing. Penny shifted and shimmied one leg out, then the next. A moment later, she fell to her knees with a contented and proud grunt.

  “What the fuck?” Hadley muttered.

  Penny smirked. “You see? Fighting beats flirting every day.” She turned back to Phoenix. “We have to move fast. Which pocket?”

  He leaned to the side to give her access, wracking his brain to remember exactly where he’d stashed the pack of matches. He remembered grabbing them from the front desk at the Lodge, but couldn’t recall anything beyond that. “Good job!” Rebel whispered followed by a sharp, “Ow!” Phoenix assumed it came from Hadley’s sharp elbow.

  Miah laughed. “Seriously great! Now we have the element of surprise.”

  Phoenix couldn’t hear the words, but it definitely sounded like Hunter repeated him with a mocking voice.

  Penny groped around in his back pockets but came up empty. Their eyes met as he shifted onto his ass.

  “Don’t go feeling me up without my consent,” he joked.

  “Ha, ha,” she replied dryly.

  His stomach clenched as she felt through the pocket. He feared the matches would be in the far right, an almost impossible reach for her to make with the rope. Her fingers closed around something with a triumphant laugh.

  “Got ‘em!”

  “Seriously. What are you two doing over there?” Hunter demanded.

  “Keep talking and keep your voices down,” Phoenix replied. As happy as he was that their plan was working out, this was the most vulnerable point. There was no telling what could happen to them if they were caught in this position with no way of defending themselves.

  He watched as Penny dragged her nail along the matchsticks. The thin paper would burn fast. He could tell she was thinking the same thing.

  “Concentrate on one spot. Hold it as long as you can. Even if we don’t completely burn through, it might be enough to—”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Holding the matches up in the soft light, she folded one away from the pack. He wanted to ignore the trembling in her hands, but couldn’t.

  “And for the love of God, don’t drop one.”

  “Blow me,” she replied without venom.

  “Gladly.” He was grateful for the banter to release the tension.

  The conversation faded away the second she lit the first match. All eyes were on them as the sudden burst of light illuminated the space. It was incredible how far the light flung in the dark.

  Phoenix couldn’t pick a place to look; the burning rope or Penny’s intent gaze. The acrid stench of charring plastic rose with the curl of black smoke. The first match burned so quickly, it made his chest tighten. She pressed her lips into a thin line as the flame crept closer to her pinched fingers. With a curse, she pinched it out.

  “Try to hold it upright,” he encouraged.

  “I know what I’m doing.”

  Watching the second match, Phoenix tried to accept this was all a mistake. The rope wasn’t burning so much as melting. The blackened section shrank and tightened rather than burning through. If it had been normal rope, they most likely would be free by now.

  Before lighting the third, Penny gave the length a hard yank without warning him.

  “A little fucking teamwork, yeah?” he grunted.

  “It’s not working,” she hissed, panic filling her voice.

  He took a deep breath and struggled to calm down. “Try one more. Then we can both pull and hopefully it’ll snap, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “Yes!”

  Anger always seemed to center her, so he thought to prod once more. “Don’t drop it.”

  “For fucks sake,” she grumbled as she lit another match.

  Although she held the flame to the blackened bit as long as she could, there was no visible change from before. The room went dark and he could almost feel her hope deflate.

  Phoenix nudged her with his foot to get her attention. “Alright. Put the burned part under the ring and on the count of three, pull up.”

  “It’s not gonna…”

  “We have to try, okay? We gotta try it.”

  She nodded and shifted onto her knees. Because of his awkward positioning, he allowed her to move everything into place. “You ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Three, two, one,” he whispered.

  The rope didn’t break in one snap, but the longer and harder they pulled, the more give he felt. It was stretching and stretching until finally, without warning, it snapped. The force he’d put into it hurtled him forward and Penny backward. Both landed on the wooden planks with a heavy thud.

  The group gave out quiet cheers, but he and Penny were wordlessly on the same wavelength. They scrambled back together, her fingers clawing at his wrists to undo the rest of the rope. They could’ve been heard. The guards could be coming to investigate.

  The moment his wrists were free, he spun around to pick at the surrounding knots. It was the first time he felt genuinely hopeful they were getting somewhere. Penny bent low to whisper in his ear as he worked.

  “We should release the guys next, in case the guards come.”

  Phoenix grinned up at her, still resisting the urge to kiss her. He couldn’t understand how he could loathe and like someone so much.

  “That's not very feminist. Admit it. You’re just afraid of Hadley.”

  Penny snorted but didn’t reply. When the final piece of rope fell away, they both straightened and rubbed their wrists as if amazed they were actually free.

  They scrambled across the pen toward Hunter and Miah. While Penny got to work with the matches, he started picking at the knot at Hunter’s wrist, just in case.

  It felt like it was taking forever. Collectively, they held their breath. Four of them was far better than two. People cope with stress in vastly different ways. For the newcomer, it seemed he talked his way through it.

  “I still can’t believe this is all happening. I wasn’t even supposed to be here,” Miah muttered quickly.

  Penny grunted but didn’t reply. It did nothing to silence his rambling.

  “This is good though, real good. They won’t expect us to be free.”

  “Right,” she snapped.

  Hunter grunted as Phoenix urged him to shift a little to the right, further exposing the knot. Penny lit another match and held it under the rope.

  “Hey, don’t I know you?” Miah asked, dipping his head low.

  “No idea,” Penny replied curtly.

  Phoenix watched as she tried to shield her face from him, shifting her hair so it hung on the left side.

  “What was your name again?”

  “Mrs. Saving Your Ass.”

  Phoenix couldn’t figure out why she was being so nasty to him. The guy was beyond friendly and grateful for her help. But then again, there was no explanation for Penny’s bouts of aggression and attitude.

  She absentmindedly tucked her hair behind her ear before lighting the nex
t match. Phoenix looked up as Miah gasped in recognition.

  “Holy shit. Penelope? What the hell are you doing here?”

  Phoenix dropped his gaze to her. She didn’t react. She was entirely focused on the match.

  “How do you know each other?” he asked casually.

  Miah licked his lips, blinking at her in confusion. “We uh…” He cleared his throat, gaining traction on the story. “We met after the kidnapping. They brought her in…” He leaned back to catch her attention, no longer answering Phoenix’s question but speaking directly to her. “Don’t you remember? You and Dani were such good friends. When you disappeared like that, we had no idea what to think. I know you know me.”

  The match went out. “You two should pull in opposite directions.” It was only the second round of burning but with their combined strength probably enough.

  Phoenix’s ears rang as they sat in the darkness. Miah and Hunter pulled and yanked and stretched the rope until it split. Phoenix made quick work of Hunter’s bindings as Penny stood. With one free, he jumped to his knees and angrily grabbed her elbow, dragging her to the opening of the pen.

  “What are you doing?” she hissed, pulling back.

  He was filled with such rage, he didn’t dare reply. It was time for answers.

  Chapter 9

  Penny’s mind raced as Phoenix pulled her out from the relative safety of the pen and into the open.

  What do I tell him? How much do I tell him? What is he going to do? Where is he taking me?

  With fingers digging into her already sore wrist, he physically dragged her to an empty corner of the barn.

  “This is nuts,” she spat at him. When in doubt, hide behind anger. “You’re gonna get us both killed.”

  The moment she stared into his eyes, she knew she wasn't going to get any rise out of him. He’d been pushed to the brink, over the edge, in fact. He cornered her against the back wall and filled the space in front of her. It wasn’t quite menacing, but he also wasn’t kind.

  “I want the truth.”

  “I—”

  “And before you start, let me clarify. No trickle-truths. No half-truths. I want the whole fucking truth. Got it?”

  Penny nodded. “What if someone finds us?”

  “As far as I’m concerned, the real danger is standing in front of me. I’d rather address that first.”

  She bowed her head again, staring at the ground. She felt so utterly exposed even though they were hidden from sight by piles of crap. Visions of the hood came flooding back to her as she idly rubbed her sore, bloodied wrists.

  “Well?”

  “Well what?” she snapped.

  “Start?”

  “And where would you like me to start? Where I was born? What my favorite baby food was?” She knew she shouldn’t rile him up, but it was impossible not to meet his temper with double her own.

  He ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek and stared at her with black eyes. “Start with why that guy back there knows you.”

  Penny swallowed, her throat making a clicking sound it was so dry. “That’s a long story.”

  “Cause I have places to be,” he scoffed.

  She wrapped her arms around her ribs and leaned against the wall of the barn, not because of the cold, but out of protection. It wasn’t a story she was comfortable with telling, not in its entirety.

  Phoenix gave her elbow a light smack with the back of his hand. “Start somewhere.”

  “Okay,” she choked out. She still didn’t have any idea how much she’d reveal, but knew it had to be a lot. Deep down, if she were honest with herself, she wanted to dump it all out. “I’ll tell you what I’m really doing here.” She looked up at him through her eyelashes and brows, reluctant to meet his gaze fully. “I’m not actually a journalist.”

  He didn’t react. He didn’t blink or twitch or move a muscle. For a second she was afraid she’d only thought the confession rather than said it aloud but he finally shrugged one annoying shoulder.

  “Yeah? Am I meant to be shocked?”

  “What the fuck ever. I’m under cover.”

  Phoenix cocked his head to the side and stared at her. Just as she was about to open her mouth to explain, he turned to walk away. It was she who reached out to stop him, an action that surprised the both of them. He swung back and refused to meet her eye.

  “I liked the other lies better. They were more believable. But now you apparently think I’m an idiot.”

  Penny licked her lips and dove straight in. “I’m an under cover civilian agent for the CIA. I was sent here to pose as a journalist in order to get inside where others can’t.”

  “And how long have you been a spy then?” His attitude told her he didn’t believe a thing she said, like he was humoring a habitual liar.

  “About four years,” she shot back. She pulled the temper down a notch and tried to explain. “I mean, I’ve worked for the agency for that long. This is the first time they’ve sent me anywhere like this. And I’m not really a spy, spy.”

  Once she felt like he wasn’t just going to run off, she slid her arms back around her waist. She had a quick idea about going back to fetch the scratchy horse-scented blanket the kidnappers had given them, but shook it away. Leaving would break the spell.

  “When I was twenty, I had a boyfriend. And like most girls who go to college, I thought I was so grown up and mature. People told me to be casual, play the field. You're only young once, type thing. Against all the advice of people around me, I stupidly fell in love with him. Dylan.”

  Phoenix matched her body language, crossing his arms over his chest. “You can’t exactly control who you fall in love with.”

  “Tell me about it,” she retorted before hearing the deeper message in his words. She scrambled to continue, to avoid any of those emotional landmines for the time being. “Anyway. Long story short, he wasn’t good for me. And not in a, I stopped going to class and cut my hair kind of way. Like—”

  “Abusive?” he asked flatly.

  Penny licked her lip and looked to her feet. “Not at first.”

  The whole thing came flooding back, but thanks to years of therapy, it wasn’t as though she were reliving it. It was more of a movie, a series of events she could safely observe from a distance. On the rare occasions she recounted her experience, it was like a flat telling of facts rather than an emotionally wrenching confession. Depending on the person, it either resonated or made them think she was faking.

  Phoenix patiently waited for her to continue.

  “It was textbook, actually, knowing what I know now about abuse. He started with little things. Wanting me to call when I got somewhere or when I was leaving to go home. Coming along with me on girl’s nights. At first, I thought he was just being caring. He wanted to make sure I was safe and get to know my friends. But before long, he closed the noose a little tighter.”

  Penny scuffed her toe across the floor, pushing a bit of hay and dust around. The last thing she wanted to see was pity in his eyes. She simply didn’t look.

  “Then he started getting mad. One time, my phone died while I was in class and I couldn’t text him to let him know I was going to be late. By the time I got home, he’d called the police and reported me missing. Once the authorities knew I’d been found, he went from terrified boyfriend to this… I don’t know. It was like watching someone peel a mask off. Suddenly, it was my fault. He made me feel guilty that I’d caused so much worry, that because of my stupidity all those police had taken time away from their real jobs.”

  As emotionless as she was about the next part of the story, she couldn’t hide the anger in her tone. Half of it was reserved for Dylan, the other half for herself. When she looked back, she wanted to scream at her past self. All the warning signs were there, but she’d been too blind to see them.

  “It went on like this for months. He sensed I was pulling away and would do something insane to pull me back in. At one point, he convinced me that what we needed was a g
ood break away together. A couple’s vacation. I was hesitant because I was actually planning on breaking up with him, but waiting for the right time.”

  Phoenix nodded. In a lot of ways, she felt guilty telling him, revealing it to anyone. It was like she was unloading a burden they shouldn't have to carry. It wasn’t theirs. It was hers.

  “I kept saying no, but he went behind my back and took care of it all. The thing with Dylan was when I liked him, my friends and family despised him. By the time I started to hate him, he’d charmed them over. So it was with their help he arranged time off from my job, got my clothes packed, the whole thing.”

  “And they all thought he was such a nice guy, right?”

  “Exactly. But he lied to them. He told them we were going to a little cabin near Lake Tahoe for a long weekend. Instead, he blindfolded me and drove all the way up to the Oregon border.”

  Phoenix shifted on his feet. “You were blindfolded the whole time?”

  She knew how it sounded. “At first, it was exciting. But to be honest, I fell asleep for most of the trip.” She took a deep breath and released it through her lips, staring up at the ceiling. “When we got to this remote little one-room shack, I thought I’d make the best out of it. I thought it might be a nice way to stay goodbye, one last weekend as a couple.”

  Despite fighting it, visions of those few days flashed through her mind like an unwanted movie reel.

  “You don’t have to give me any more details,” he said, carefully picking his words.

  “Yeah, not about to,” Penny snorted.

  Phoenix shifted on his feet again, sparing a quick glance over his shoulder. “So that’s where the hood thing came from? Why you panicked back there?”

  Her voice was tight with emotion. “The times when he used the pillowcase were always the worst. It was horrible if I could see it coming.”

  “But being tied up doesn’t bother you?”

  “I mean, as much as it probably bugs you,” she shrugged. She looked up at him with a proud yet sheepish grin. “As part of my therapy, I learned contortion. It gave me some control back, to know I was able to wriggle my way out of most situations.”