Eadlyn Selects

No Ransom

My hands are stuck together at my waist. I start to sit up but my legs are also bound. I open my eyes, fear pulsing through my veins.

It's dim, but I can make out a tarp overhead and a pounding of hooves. My body jostles up and down. I'm in a cart? I've been kidnapped!

I strain my memory. Hale?

Squinting into the enclosure, I can make out farm tools and sacks of something. Across from me are a pair of long legs crossed at the ankle.

"Hale?" I try to say, but my throat feels swollen and it comes out as a cough-like yelp.

A deep masculine chuckle fills the small space. I don't recognize it.

I try to swallow and work up some saliva so I can speak. My whole body feels wrong and my mind is slow and fuzzy. I was drugged with something. I have no idea how much time has passed.

I try to speak again but it's a mere croak. Tears build and gush down my cheeks and I begin to softly sob.

"Aw, that's going to get old," says the male voice. "We've got a long ways to go yet."

Where do I recognize that voice from? It's not Hale, I don't think.

I try to say, Release me, but it comes out like a broken wail. My tears seem never ending.

Finally, the feet uncross and scoot forward. I strain to see the torso they are attached to, but before I can focus, the feet give me a sharp kick in the thigh. I grunt and try to roll away but the pain swallows me. I curl into a ball and drift off into a weak and confused half-daze.

When I open my eyes next, I am in horrible pain from being crunched up with my hands and feet tied and the constant bumping of whatever we are riding in.

I try to rollover but I don't have the strength.

After some time, I hear male voices, raised to be heard over the horse's hooves. I can also make out the sound of grasses and rocks scattering away from what must be a poorly maintained road.

"She worried you'd lost yer heart to the b*tch," the same, oddly familiar voice says.

I scan the cart. The other person is no longer in here with me.

From farther away, and somehow above us, a voice I know to be Hale's responds coolly, "Not a chance of that. Just had to wait for the right moment is all. Have a little faith, you wanker."

"Should I jab her again? We got about an hour," the closer voice says.

"Sure, go ahead. I'm not looking forward to hearing that stuck up voice again any time soon," Hale shouts back.

I freeze with dismay. It's true. I'm their captive.

There is a rustling behind me and I twist and crane but I cannot even turn my head in the direction of the noise. A cold pinprick at my neck infuses a numbing sensation through my body. Again I lose myself into the black void of unconsciousness.

                                                                                             * * * * *

I open my eyes to find Hale peering down at me.

"You!" I croak out. My throat burns with the word but at least I got it out.

He smiles that devastating smile. "Me," he says smugly. "I bet you had no clue."

I stay silent. I didn't.

I cast my eyes around the room I am in. It has dank stone floors and walls, exposed eaves, and pink fiberglass poking through the ceiling's shiny silver insulation. An echo-y silence presses down on me.