There was the grate of a key, the creak of a heavy door. Then Mia was shoved forward. Someone was shoved after her. Then the door slammed, the key grated again, and several boots stomped away. There was silence, except for their shared breathing and the drip-drip-drip of moisture.
Mia pushed up on the bottom of the black bag and wriggled her shoulders and was finally able to shove it off. She could breathe freely again. But it was still pitch-black. The air was dank and old and smelled of slime.
“Mia?”
She recognized Marti’s voice, except it was all trembly and scared sounding. “Yeah, I’m here. Did you get the bag off of your head yet?”
“No—I’m too scared.” Marti sounded like she was swallowing a sob. “I don’t think I want to see whatever this is.”
Mia sighed. “My bag smelled like onions.”
There was a short silence. Marti spoke up, her tone entirely different. “I think I want this thing off of my head now.”
“Follow my voice. I’ll help you.” Mia talked and walked, and she could hear Marti stumbling toward her. Then they fell against each other. Mia helped get the bag off. Marti hunched and held onto her tight. Mia wasn’t ashamed to be holding onto her, too. It helped not to be alone in the dark.
“Where are we, Mia?”
“We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.” Mia had a feeling she knew exactly where they were, and that scared her spitless. “Uh, Marti? I don’t want to scare you or anything, but I think a really bad guy has kidnapped us.”
Marti squealed.
It hurt her ears, and Mia snapped at her. “Stop that! You nearly broke my eardrums.”
“I’m sorry.” Marti was trembling. “I just don’t understand. What does someone want with us? We were just watching a movie!”
There was an edge of hysteria to her voice. Mia grabbed her sleeve and tried to shake her. It didn’t work out too well since her wrists were tied together. “Marti, don’t go ape on me! We’ve got to keep our cool. We’ve got to think!”
“Right, okay, you’re right. Think, think, think.”
Mia rolled her eyes. “I dropped my purse. Do you still have yours?” She knew that Marti’s handbag had such a long strap that she had to pull it over her head to the opposite shoulder. “Do you have anything we can use?”
“Oh! Let me think.” Marti let go of her. Mia heard her rummaging with her handbag. “I have a lighter!”
Mia was surprised and disgusted. “I thought you quit smoking.”
“I have. I am.” She sounded defensive. “Look!” The lighter came to life, casting a glow up into her face. That flame was the most beautiful thing Mia had ever seen. It looked like Marti had cupped magic fire in her hands, but it was because her wrists were tied together and she was holding the lighter between her fingers.
“Marti, you rock!”
She giggled. Then she moved the lighter around so that they could see where they were.
Mia’s spirits plunged. The accommodations definitely were not the Ritz. There was a cot with a bare, lumpy mattress and a stinking toilet. Mia really did not want to take a closer look at the inside of the toilet. Mold covered some of the rough walls, and somewhere water was dripping, but it wasn’t from a sink faucet. The faint illumination moved, letting their surroundings fade back into the dark.
Mia didn’t care. It was depressing.
“Well, look at that!” Marti’s voice was indignant. She had moved the lighter higher. When Mia looked at her, she saw that Marti was looking up. So she looked up, too. There was a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. “They could have left the light on!”
Suddenly, Mia heard the echoing scrape and tramp of boots. She waved her bound arms. “Quick! Cut the light! Someone is coming!”
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.” Marti flicked off the lighter, and Mia could hear her fumbling with her handbag. It had to be tough with her wrists lashed together, but still, Mia thought she could have been a little faster.
The boots sounded really loud and close.
“Can’t you be faster?” Mia hissed. Sweat trickled down her spine from under her bra strap.
“Got it!” Marti’s voice was triumphant.
The grate of a key sounded, followed by the squeal of rusty hinges. The lightbulb overhead suddenly blazed. Marti and Mia froze like blinded rabbits facing a snake. Two soldiers came into the cell and grabbed them, while a third waited at the door. They were hustled out and made to walk down a long, dreary corridor, guns at their backs, while they followed the third soldier.
Mia noticed other cell doors, and because it was something to do besides freaking out, she counted them. It wasn’t like counting sheep to get to sleep. It didn’t have the same effect. But it did calm her racing heart down a bit, which was a good thing.
They were marched up some stone stairs and out into a courtyard. The sunshine was blinding. Mia’s eyes teared up, and she blinked and squinted. She stumbled over a rough patch on the ground and got a jab in the back with a gun. “All right, all right. I get the point.” Har, har, I’m a real laugh track. She noticed she wasn’t the only one not laughing.
The two women were marched upstairs to the balcony level of the building and pushed through an open door and into an elegant office. Mia had seen it before in the movie, of course, but she thought it was even more impressive in person. There was a beautiful, huge wooden desk, all scrolly and touched up with gold paint, lots of bookshelves, a nice carpet, an honest-to-goodness crystal chandelier, and red silk drapes at the window. Actually, the window was one of those double-door arrangements that could be opened and had a foot-wide balcony with beautiful black metal railings like in the French Quarter. The doors were open, and a nice breeze was coming in. It was really nice after being in that stinking hole of a cell.
A man dressed in a fancy military dress uniform was sitting at the desk, reading some official-looking papers, when Marti and Mia were escorted into the room. He lifted his head, his gaze sharpening. He looked Mia up and down, kind of slow. A little smile came to his face, and he licked his lips. Mia’s skin crawled. Yep, the commandant. Black hair, reptile eyes, narrow, mean mouth. It was him, all right. Wish I was back in Kansas.
The commandant stood up and walked leisurely around the desk. He didn’t blink. He just stared at Mia and Marti. “Which of you is the whore of Lieutenant Aiden Smith?” His voice was very pleasant, very polite.
Mia didn’t answer. Marti didn’t answer. Mia didn’t have to look at her girlfriend to know that Marti was shaking like a leaf. She wasn’t doing such a good job of looking cool, either.
The commandant whipped around on Marti. “Is it you?”
Mia resented that. Of course he would think it was Marti! She was the prettier one. But Mia still resented it.
Marti’s mouth worked. “Wha–What?”
The commandant sighed. He shook his head. He clasped his hands behind his back and walked slowly over to the window. He stood silhouetted between the open doors and looked outside. He looked like he had all the time in the world.
Glass panes shattered. The wall on the opposite side of the room spit plaster, followed by the distinct sound of a delayed report.
The commandant staggered back.
The guards standing behind Mia and Marti surged forward.
The commandant fell against that beautiful desk. His eyes and nostrils and mouth were flared wide open. He looked really shocked. But then he straightened up, furiously waving back the guards.
“Oh, missed.” Mia didn’t realize she had said it out loud until the commandant spit out a vile curse. He strode over to Mia and backhanded her across the face. The heavy ring on his finger cut her face, but Mia didn’t notice that right away because she was too busy seeing lights. Mia staggered sideways into one of the guards, and he grabbed her, holding her up.
“Ai-ya!”
Mia shook her head free of stars. She saw the most amazing sight. Her best friend in the whole world was karate kicking the commandant! Marti la
nded two or three good blows, driving back the commandant, before the other guards could grab her shoulders. So she kicked them, too. She even whipped her hands up and backhand bitch-slapped one of them in the face. There was the crack of cartilage, and blood spurted from the guard’s nose. The guard grunted, but he held on to her wriggling shoulders.
“You go, girl!” Mia shouted. Inspired, she stomped down on her guard’s toes. He shook her like she was a rat.
Marti couldn’t win, of course. It wasn’t long before she was subdued. But she wasn’t shaking anymore. She was breathing really hard, her eyes were shining, and she looked really militant. She blew a blonde curl out of her face.
The commandant walked over to face Marti, but Mia noticed he stayed a respectful distance away from her feet. He didn’t look mad anymore. He smiled at her, a really evil smile. He almost purred. “I will enjoy taming this one.”
The guard with the broken nose glared at Marti. “Shall we put them back in the cell, commandant?” He cracked his knuckles loudly.
Mia didn’t like the look on his face.
“No! Put them in my private quarters. I will have something pleasant to look forward to while we are out looking for that shooter!”
Chapter Nine
The guards herded Marti and Mia out of the commandant’s office and down another hall. They were roughly pushed into another room and the door was slammed shut and locked. As soon as they were alone, Marti did a couple of hip shimmies. She waved her bound wrists over her head. “Oh yeah! Oh yeah! I kicked some butt! Who rocks, huh?”
“You do! I love you, blah-blah-blah. Now help me find something to cut these ties off of our wrists.” Mia started prowling around.
Marti pouted. She tossed her blonde hair back over her shoulders. “Spoilsport.” But she started snooping around, too.
Mia saw that they weren’t in a cell, but instead in a kind of austere bedroom. Curiously, she looked around. There was a wide bed with a wrought iron headboard and footboard and chains. There was a tall wooden, T-shaped thingy with chains. There was a sawhorse thingy with chains. There were chains bolted into a wall. Mia was beginning to see a pattern. Whatever else it was, it wasn’t a fun-house kind of place. “I’ve got a really, really bad feeling about this room.”
“Uh, Mia? There’s some stuff in these drawers.”
“Let me guess—chains.” Mia was really being sarcastic as she looked around again at the furnishings. Then she turned to see that Marti was standing in front of a long piece of furniture that looked kind of like a squatty dresser. “What’s in there? Naughty costumes?”
“Well, no. There are leather whips and paddles and the kind of pliers like we would use to remove some really big splinters. Like, maybe, from a nail gun accident.”
Marti and Mia looked at each other.
Mia looked again at the wall with the chains bolted to it. It was a white wall except for some weird faux job done in splotches and sprays of an ugly rust color.
Mia’s stomach turned over. When she tried to speak, she couldn’t make her voice much louder than a whisper. She held up her bound wrists. It didn’t surprise her to see that her hands were shaking. “Anything else in there that we can use to cut these ties?”
Marti’s eyes were huge. She nodded, quick-bobbing her head up and down. Mia was glad to see that she wasn’t the only one who could stand in for a bobblehead toy. Marti gingerly reached into the drawer and lifted out some big clippers. Mia preferred not to think what those were used for. They weren’t for trimming toenails—at least, not in the usual way.
They managed to cut the plastic ties off of their wrists and rubbed the soreness from them while they looked around some more. There was another door in the side of the room, but it was also locked. Mia looked at the new door, frowning as she considered it. “Well, even if we get the door open to the corridor that overlooks the courtyard, the guards will see us. I guess we should try to pick the lock on this other door and see where it leads.”
Marti agreed. She rummaged in her handbag and came up with her cross stitch needles. “All these locks look ancient. I bet this will work.”
Marti knit her brows in concentration and delicately plied the cross stitch needles to the lock. It clicked. Mia high-fived her before they very quietly eased the door open. They looked through it at a huge, sumptuous bedroom suite. Mia knew instantly whose suite it had to be, and she made a face. “I’ll give you two guesses whose bedroom that is.”
Marti frowned, looking puzzled. “I’ve been thinking, Mia. It’s really weird, but I keep thinking the lounge-lizard in charge looks familiar.”
Mia braced herself. She remembered how well she had taken to the realization she was inside of a movie. And she’d had Aiden beside her. “Uh, Marti? Do you remember the movie we were watching?”
“Well, sure I do! We were grabbed right there in the theater and—” Marti’s eyes rounded. “No-no-no! You’re not saying that—that guy can’t be the commandant! He’s just in a movie! He’s not real!” She looked around, kind of dazed and horrified. Her body folded, and she plopped onto the floor on her butt. “I do not believe this! I do not believe this!”
Mia gently closed the door on the commandant’s bedroom. No one was in there at the moment, but she didn’t know when a servant or someone else might walk in. Until Marti got over her mild hysterics, Mia thought it would be best to play like the door hadn’t been picked open.
Mia kept her voice very mild and nonjudgmental. “The first time, I went into major meltdown. You’re doing really good!”
Marti glared at her. “I am fine! It’s just the shock.” A trembling grin tugged at her lips. “I’ve always wanted to be in the movies.” She giggled and fell back on the floor, waving her arms and legs madly in the air.
Mia looked down at her worriedly. “Marti, you’re starting to worry me. You’re not going to snap or anything, are you? Because I really don’t think I can think of a way to save us if you go wacko on me!”
Marti sat up. Calmly, she climbed to her feet and dusted herself off. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed her palms together. “Ahm…ahm…ahm…”
“I hate to point this out, but I don’t think this is the time to go into a Zen state.”
“I am centering myself.”
“Okay, grasshopper. But hurry it up. We need to find a way out of here before torture guy comes back.”
Mia’s sarcasm kind of snapped Marti back. She gave a decisive nod. “Right. Focus on our priorities. First, escape. Second, deal with craziness. Third, don’t follow any mad hatters.”
“Do you have an important date?” Mia quipped. Marti shot her a look that should have seared her like fish on a hot grill. Mia grinned at her and made kissy-fish noises. “You love me. You know you do.”
“Dork.”
“Freak.”
They grinned at each other.
Mia felt better. Maybe some of Marti’s centering had rubbed off on her. She rubbed her hands together and glanced around the torture chamber. “Okay, let’s see if there is anything around here that could be useful.”
“Like maybe a phone?”
Mia just looked at her. “Right. Like a phone.”
Mia didn’t really want to touch anything, so she just did a lot of peering into the corners of the room and around the contraptions with chains. Marti was poking around in the squatty dresser, muttering to herself. When Mia glanced at her, she saw that Marti had her face screwed up, like she smelled something bad.
There was nothing in the fun house that they could use, except a few knives. Mia thoughtfully took those and tucked them here and there in her clothes. Marti silently watched her, not looking horrified or anything, just watching her. Mia defended herself. “I’m a nurse. I can probably slice and dice if I have to. I’m just saying.” Marti only nodded. There was a window in the room, but it had metal bars set in it, so that wasn’t an escape option.
They opened the door to the bedroom suite. Mia scurried over to
the door that would open onto the same corridor that the torture room faced. Slowly, ever so slowly, she pushed an iron bolt into place. That would stop someone from coming in and surprising them.
Marti was still looking for a phone or another door or anything else that could help them. She disappeared into another room and reemerged. “Bathroom,” she whispered.
“I’ll check over here.” Mia opened another door and then just stood in awe. It was a huge step-in closet. The commandant was a clothes horse. The man had a serious wardrobe, all fancy uniforms and shiny boots and military hats. There was a big corkboard covered with all kinds and sizes of medals and ribbons. One entire wall was paneled with mirrors. Mia could just imagine him strutting in front of the mirror, admiring his newest uniform and shiniest medals. If he had been a villain with a long moustache, he probably would have twirled the ends.
Mia shut the door and shook her head. “Just the closet.”
“That leaves—” Marti’s gaze traveled to the bank of wide windows opening along the outside wall. There was a gorgeous view of sky and ocean and nothing else. Mia didn’t like the “nothing else” part. Marti hurried over and leaned out. When she pulled her head in, she looked excited. “This is our way out!”
Mia joined her. She looked out of the window. Still just sky and ocean. She looked down. The wall looked almost sheer, and there were rocks and waves crashing far, far below at the bottom. Only a tiny, tiny strip of ground separated the ocean and rocks from the wall. Mia swallowed. She backpedaled away from the window. “Nuh-uh. No way, no how.”
“Oh, come on, Mia! It’s not that bad. Look, it’s not much different from the rock wall at home.”
“Oh yes, it is.” Mia had gone with Marti a few times to the gym and tried the climbing wall with her. Marti was like a lizard on that rock. Mia spent more time dangling in the harness than she did crab-walking from one itty bitty piece to the next. It probably had to do with her center of gravity. “You are not Thelma, and I am not Louise.”
Roberts, Sarah - Action Hero Junkie [Movieland] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 10
