I woke to a pounding headache and blinked a dozen times to clear my focus. Squinting helped, and I could tell I was in a vehicle by the movement I felt and the headliner I was staring at. Sitting up was impossible—I was tightly bundled in something, and my hands were secured behind my back. I couldn’t see the driver over the back seats. I looked closely in the darkened space and recognized what I was in—Hanna’s sleeping bag.
The driver has to be Leon. That son of a bitch blindsided me and is going to finish off the job he started at their campsite, but I’m not in his pickup. Is this the Explorer?
The fog in my head was beginning to lift. I’d left Hanna with Lila and told her I’d be back soon. From what I could see out the side window, it looked to be way past dusk, and the sky was as black as ink. I remembered crawling into the tent and feeling for the flashlight so I could find her phone, but it wasn’t there. The snap of a twig sounded behind me.
And then what?
I couldn’t remember anything after that. I didn’t have a clue where we were going since I wasn’t sure who was in charge, but even if it was Leon, I didn’t know a damn thing about him other than that he was a dangerous man.
It felt like we were on a highway—the road was smooth, and we were going at a pretty good clip. I watched for billboards and green illuminated freeway signs but didn’t see any. I was surprised that I wasn’t blindfolded.
Hanna has to be going crazy with worry. I wonder if she found Bandit and if she got help for Lila. Wait—how could she? She doesn’t have a phone or a vehicle. She’d have to set out on foot and leave Lila alone.
My mind was racing, yet I didn’t have any answers. I wasn’t sure if calling out to my captor was the smart thing to do or if it was better to stay silent and think of ways to get out of my predicament.
With the fingers of my right hand, I tried to feel what I was tied with. Rope would be good. I could loosen it. Zip ties would be bad, and there’d be no way out. It had a smooth shape and wasn’t cutting into my skin, which told me it was rope.
Thank God. He must have used our clothesline rope.
I had to find the knot and untie it. If I pulled too hard, the restraints would tighten and become much more difficult to get out of.
“You awake back there?”
The voice startled me since I didn’t recognize it as Leon’s. I wondered if the pain in my head was messing up my hearing, too, so I remained quiet. It would give me time to work on the rope and to try to make sense of what was going on.
I kept my eyes on the window. It would be the only way to get a clue of the direction we were going. All I needed was an overpass road sign that was high enough for me to see from my position on the floor. I resigned myself to believing there were two men in the front seats—Leon driving and a coconspirator who had done the talking. I figured it was their way of throwing me off, yet at that point, I really wasn’t sure of anything.