Chapter Nine

Cabin Fever

Ella

Panic inflated in her chest, the inside of the gloomy barn spinning as Tucker hauled her across the hay-covered ground. It was the type of terror that few people experienced in real life. The kind that pierced her skin and penetrated her bones. She struggled to catch her breath as her heels dragged across the floor, her mind frantically trying to remember how this had happened.

One moment, she'd been free, dashing into the darkness with a glimmer of hope growing in her heart. Sure, she'd known the odds were stacked against her, and even if Tucker had let her go, she'd have probably suffered from exposure or worse, but still, there had been a chance of freedom, an opportunity that she could be more than only Tucker's plaything.

But now? As his arm snaked around her middle and he forced her backward again, she had no idea what would happen. He was tugging her into a desolate barn and had already told her that nobody would hear her screams. Anxiety knotted in her belly at that dark promise.

What the hell would he do, and how was she going to survive it?

"Tucker!"

Frantic, she grasped at his arm as best she could until he finally stopped pulling her. Then, as she grappled to find her bearings, he manhandled her arms above her head. Compelled to stretch them up into the darkness, she strained to see what he was doing, but the shadows merged with his strapping body to obscure most of her view. By the time he moved away, she was trapped there, reaching up and held by some unseen attachment.

"There." His voice oozed with conceit as he looked her up and down. "That should hold you."

"Wh-what are you doing?" She could scarcely get her words out. "Why can't I move?"

He motioned above his head. "Your ropes are secured to a hook on the edge of one of the rafters."

"A hook?"

What the hell was his plan?

Who built a barn with hooks liberally scattered around the place?

Seizing a lungful of musty air, the answer smacked her in the face—someone like Tucker—a man who apparently had no qualms about taking a woman hostage because an old acquaintance owed him money.

"That's right." His lips twisted into an ugly sneer. "You can stay there until you've calmed down and are less intent on running."

"But?" Yanking at the infernal ropes that held her hands together for so long, she tugged to the left and right, but to no avail. Whatever he'd affixed her to was solid and didn't respond to her desperate efforts. "You can't leave me here! It's not safe."

The space was open and murky, so dark in fact that she couldn't even see the edges of the building. All she could make out, thanks to the limited glare of the flashlight he'd angled in the doorway, was the looming tower of Tucker before her. Anything else could be lurking in the corners, just waiting for her to be left dangling as prey. Her heart rate accelerated at the terrible thought. To wake up in the forest had been horrendous, but this was a step too far.

"It's perfectly safe." He scoffed as though she was a child who needed mindless reassurance. "I'll lock the door behind me."

"That's even worse!" The protest burst from her lips before she had time to consider the words. "You're locking me in when anything could be in here." Wide-eyed, her gaze extended about the place, looking for any evidence of movement in the gloom.

"Nothing's in here," he scolded. "Except perhaps the occasional rat looking for a warm bed in the hay."

"A rat!" She hopped from one foot to the other as she contemplated the horror of what that meant. An oversized and hungry rodent could soon be running around her feet in the almost darkness—there was no way she could deal with that. "Oh, God. I hate rats!"

"Have you ever seen a rat?" His right eyebrow arched to reflect his skeptical tone.

"No, I mean… I don't know." She shivered with disgust. "But I don't want to, though!"

"Just as well it's so dark, then." His lips curled. "It's not likely you'll see much of anything until the morning."

"The morning?" She was practically hyperventilating. "You can't leave me alone in here until then. Just let me down! Let me go."

"You keep telling me what I can and can't do." Closing the distance between them, he glared down at her. At that moment, he commanded every fiber of her attention, his face the very center of her world. "I want to make one thing clear… you don't get to tell me anything."

Her already parched throat somehow dried further at his glower. "Okay." She loathed the tremble in her husky tone, not wanting to show any sign of the fear pinballing through her body, but for once, she had to be sensible.

What choice did she have but to concur with his declaration? She was hardly in a position to counter him, and whatever happened next, she needed Tucker to take pity on her and let her down from the rafter, or the inside of the barn might be the last place she ever knew.

Cold dread bled into every part of her outstretched body at the chilling prospect, but as catastrophic as it sounded, it was all too real a possibility. He'd already shown himself to be a man of little conscience. Who else would even consider holding a human being as a warranty?

"Okay, what?" His hands rose to his hips as he demanded she parrot back his terms.

"Okay, I don't get to tell you anything."

It was possibly the most humbling and feeble thing she'd ever admitted, but her weakness made it no less true. Like it or not, until she could break free of the damn ropes, the unknown quantity who was Tucker was most certainly in charge.

"Better." His expression softened as he nodded, the tiny lines at the corners of his eyes relaxing to reveal the deep blue eyes she'd noticed earlier in the forest. Even in the shadows, the azure shade was startling. "Now, how about that water?"

Staring at him, Ella wondered whether he truly was clinically unstable. How could a man treat her like this, then offer her a drink as though he were an honorable and respectable person?

"You're still thirsty, I assume?"

"I am." She couldn't recall being thirstier at any time in her life.

"So?" One arm fell flat to his side. "Do you want the water?"

"Yes, please?" She phrased the reply as more of a question than a statement, painfully aware that she now required his approval for just about everything.

"There." His face lit up with a broad smile. "I knew you could be polite if you tried."

Polite? She would have been happy to throttle the arrogant oaf, but suspended in ropes in his barn didn't give her many options. In the short term, at least, she had to play nice.

"Wait here." He sniggered as though there was anything even vaguely amusing about her predicament. "Not that you have much choice! I'll be back with the water." He spun on his heel, pacing toward the open doorway.

"But I can't see!" Her heart pounded as she acknowledged the most perturbing truth of them all—she might actually feel bereft without the man who'd taken her and made her his captive. "Please don't leave me like this."

She stiffened at her imploring tone, detesting how pathetic she sounded, yet standing by every word. The only thing worse than being left alone in an unused barn was to be left in the darkness in a hay-strewn barn.

"Be brave, Ella." Standing in the doorway, he turned back in her direction. "I have an oil lamp next door that I'll bring, but you'll have to hang in there for a few minutes."

Hang in there?Her brow furrowed. Was he trying to be fucking funny?

The unspoken question remained unanswered as he stalked away, leaving her to her thoughts and the swirling shadows.

"Oh God."

Closing her eyes, she lifted her chin and gazed into the black above her head. Tucker had left the flashlight in place, a token gesture for which she supposed she should be grateful, but its weak illumination did nothing to light the space above her head. She couldn't see the rafters or the hook he'd alleged to have fastened her ropes to.

She couldn't see anything.

Maybe it's for the best.Letting her head fall forward, she blew out a breath. There are probably spiders and God knows what up there. I don't want to see.

Yet deep down, she knew that was a lie.

Ella wasn't crazy about arachnids and insects, but she would always rather know what threatened her than allow her mind to catastrophize events. Those spiders would be bigger and meaner in her head than they would ever be in real life.

"Stay calm." She forced in a deep breath, trying to ignore the taste of the stale air that followed.

This was a nightmare, wasn't it?

Surely, if she kept her eyes shut for long enough, then she'd wake up in her own fragranced luxury cotton sheets to find the whole disaster had been nothing but a bad dream.

This couldn't be real. Things like this just didn't happen.

She'd heard of the daughters of rich men being taken hostage for lucrative ransoms, but never that loser fathers had offered their children to men like Tucker.

Men like Tucker…

The phrase resonated in her head like a chorus stuck on repeat.

Who even was Tucker?

She knew nothing about him, save for the little information he'd divulged. For that matter, she only had his word that it was her father who had landed her there, although Alexander's track record at duplicity and screwing people over certainly made the allegation plausible.

The only decent thing her father had ever done for her was provide ample stores of money and a lifestyle she'd enjoyed. If it now transpired that the cash hadn't been his to give, it would deem Alexander Bennett utterly useless.

"Typical." She muttered the word to her chest, dismissing the ache in her shoulders. Her irritation risen to the fore, it was easier to ignore her anxiety and frustration than she'd thought. "Only I could have such an inept father."

"I'm sure that's not true."

She gasped at the sound of Tucker's voice, having not heard his tread returning from outside. As her head snapped up, though, there he was, striding toward her.

"I think plenty of us can relate."

"Really?" Concentrating on her breath, she urged her pulse to slow. Had she ever had a more stressful day than this? The answer was invariably no, she had not.

"Oh, absolutely."

He paused, lowering to place the items he'd brought to the floor. She watched as he lifted what she hoped would turn out to be a lamp, time lengthening as she waited to see if her prayers had been answered.

Ella had never been one for God. She subscribed to no monolithic religion and had never given faith a second thought in her regular life, but dangling from Tucker's rafters, her choices seemed suddenly dubious. Perhaps there was an all-consuming energy in the universe that had the power to heal and protect. Maybe she'd been wrong?

If there was even the chance that the power existed, then she was willing to pray to it. She'd never needed its help more than she did now.

Please.She squeezed her eyes closed as she sent the thought out into the night. Please, if there's someone there who can hear me, help me out. I need light, water, and ultimately, to get the hell out of here.

She didn't know how wise it was to bring hell into the equation, but she figured she had nothing to lose. However amiable Tucker had seemed at times, he'd also chucked her over his shoulder like garbage, thrown her over his knee for a spontaneous outdoor spanking, and now hung her from the rafters in his fucking barn. The man was patently unhinged.

Staring into the gloom, her heart missed a beat as a low and ethereal light grew from the glass lamp between his hands.

The first of her prayers had been fulfilled then.

Thank God.

But as Tucker lifted the dim light and she caught sight of how it illuminated his face, the bundle of nerves in her stomach knotted. The light cast an eerie gleam over his visage, morphing a man—who in another context might have been handsome—into a menacing monster.

"Better?" He grinned, revealing a row of near-perfect teeth.

Odd.The thought bandied around her head. Why would a man living in a cabin have such wonderful dental work?

But then why would he be owed so much money? Evidently, Tucker's lifestyle didn't equate to his bank balance.

"Thanks." She swallowed, lubricating her dry throat, all too aware of how he'd noticed the gesture.

A sinister smile spread on his lips as he replied. "Don't worry, Ella. You'll get your water."