Betrayed: Days of the Rogue (44 page)

“I’m sorry about the mess.” Eve
apologized again as he dealt with the spill. He glanced up at her,
his expression neutral. She thought to give fake smile, but then
stopped. If she was too compliant, he’d become suspicious. In fact,
he might already have begun to wonder about her. The man had
kidnapped women before. No doubt there was a certain behaviour
pattern he’d come to expect. Yet she couldn’t do a complete
about-face, and being too hard to get along with could push him
over the edge.

Getting to his feet, Gordie tossed
the wet paper towels in the garbage pail near the door and then sat
down in the chair by the bed. He was giving her a doubtful look.
“You know—”

Eve interrupted him, deciding a bit
of complaining might make her seem more like a typical abductee.
“Being tied to this bed hour after hour is starting to get boring.”
She rubbed her tethered ankle with the other foot. “And these zip
ties are chaffing.”

“Then don’t pull on them.” Gordie
sat back in his chair and studied her.

“Can’t you at least put the longer
rope on me so I can get up and walk around a bit?” She affected a
hint of a pout.

“Perhaps later on.” He raised one
brow. “Weren’t you just complaining about your arm? If it’s so
sore, you should be resting.”

Damn. The man had a point, but at
least the vaguely suspicious look had left his face. He took a swig
of his soda. Eve held her breath as he did so, hoping the pill
hadn’t caused the drink to taste strange. Apparently it hadn’t for
Gordie made no comment.

Eve relaxed slightly. Now all she
had to do was to keep Gordie talking until he finished the drink
and then wait for the sedative to do its job. She tried to
calculate how long the pill had taken to affect her and then
compare her body weight to Gordie’s, but soon gave up. Mental
calculations had never been her strong suit.

She realized that Gordie was
studying her and shifted uneasily, searching for a topic of
conversation, but he beat her to the task.

“You’re different from the rest.”
Gordie leaned forward, his elbows on his knees.

“Different? How so?” Eve wondered
if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

“The others all agreed to go out
with me first, and only started protesting after we’d formed our
initial bridge. But you, you’re different.”

“Because I didn’t agree to a
date?”

“That and the way you’re acting
now. The others all cried and begged and fought against me.” He
cocked his head to the side and looked pleased. “But you’re
accepting this, aren’t you? You realize fate has brought us
together.”

Fate. Was that whom she had to
blame for the mess she was now in? “Um…”

“You don’t have to explain, Eve. “
Gordie got to his feet and moved to sit beside her on the bed.

Eve inched away as far as the
tether on her leg would allow. Gordie merely put his arm around her
waist and drew her back. She fought not to cringe at the feeling of
warmth from his hand as it rested on her waist. This close, his
scent filled her nostrils, a strange combination of gasoline and
bleach that made her want to wrinkle her nose and cough.

“So shy and proper.” Gordie crooned
the words gently. “Have you ever formed a bridge with another
empath?”

“I…” She hesitated. Mentioning Rafe
would likely not be a good idea. Did Gordie even know Rafe was an
empath? Or perhaps Rafe had a good enough wall in place that Gordie
wasn’t even aware of him. And would Gordie realize she’d already
formed an initial bridge with Rafe? Would he be able to tell? Was
it like being a virgin? Was there a bridge cherry that had to be
popped? Rafe hadn’t mentioned anything, but…

“Never mind. It’s easy. All you
have to do is let me in.” He leaned closer, his breath whispering
over her cheek.

She shivered, but not with
desire.

“Relax, Eve.” He twirled a lock of
her hair around his finger.

Oh God, what to do? “Gordie, I…I’m
getting sleepy. The pill you gave me…”

“One kiss, Eve. Just one.” He
placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned closer.

Eve tried to lean away and
unexpectedly found herself falling onto her back.

Gordie gave a pleased grunt and
followed. He loomed over her and Eve began to panic. She pushed at
him with her good hand, but he didn’t budge.

“Please, Eve. A tiny taste of the
heaven that will be ours.” Gordie trailed his lips along her jaw.
It felt wet and sloppy and she jerked away.

“No! I don’t want this.
Gordie—”

A strange look came over his face.
His eyes seemed unfocussed. “That’s what the others always said. I
thought you were different, Eve.” He glared down at her, his mouth
twisted in an angry sneer. His fingers tightened on her
shoulders.

Oh damn and double damn. “I didn’t
mean it that way, Gordie.” She tried to back-peddle, to keep him
from going off the deep end.

“Then show me.” He pressed his
mouth to hers. Instinctively, she struggled to get away, keeping
her lips tightly sealed. Gordie lifted his head and grabbed her
face. His fingers bit into her jaw as he tried to force her mouth
open. “Let me in, Eve!”

His voice slurred as he spoke, and
she hoped the sedative was starting to work but obviously not fast
enough. She could feel him probing her mentally, trying to get past
her defences, to bridge with her emotions. Jerking her head this
way and that, she bucked and pushed at him but to no avail. Gordie
crushed his mouth to hers, his tongue trying to wedge between her
lips. His body pressed down on her, holding her in place. He was
heavy, so heavy. His weight felt like it was squeezing the air from
her lungs. She fought to breathe, to escape and then, with a sigh,
he collapsed on top of her!

Shocked, Eve lay there, hardly able
to believe that pill must have taken effect.

“Gordie.” She said his name, but
there was no response. “Gordie?” She tried again, this time shaking
him a little. He gave a heavy sigh and a mumble before lapsing into
silence again. Elation filled her, and she would have liked to have
taken a moment to savour her victory, but there was no telling how
long the pill would affect him.

With great difficult she managed to
squeeze out from under him. However, she was still stuck because of
the tethers. Eve studied the zip ties, noting how the teeth locked
together. A shim, wasn’t that what she’d seen being used in that
police drama she liked to watch? Of course, she didn’t have a shim
tucked in the collar of her shirt. Nibbling on her lip, she
surveyed the room but nothing came to mind except… Pulling open the
small drawer in the table, she took out the newspaper clippings.
Maybe the paper clip would work. Bending the malleable metal into
an appropriate shape, she set to work. Her wrapped fingers made the
task more difficult than it should have been, but in less than ten
minutes she was free. Who said TV wasn’t educational?

Now that she was able to move her
good arm more freely, she was able to shimmy down to the end of the
mattress. After removing the zip tie on her ankle she allowed
herself a moment to rub the chafed flesh before climbing off the
bed.

She had no shoes or clothes save
Gordie’s t-shirt, and spent precious minutes searching for them
before a grumbling noise from the bed had her giving a start of
fear. Gordie’s eyes were still closed, his mouth slack, as he lay
half on and half off the bed. How long was the sedative going to
last on his larger body weight? As loathe as she was to stay in his
t-shirt, did she dare continue to search? Nervously biting her
lower lip, she glanced around the room one last time. There was
still no sign of her own clothing; she couldn’t delay her escape
any longer. Keeping her eyes fixed on her abductor—for some reason
she felt she couldn’t turn her back on him—Eve backed away, bumping
into the dresser and then the wall. Reaching out with her hand, she
fumbled for the door knob. Once it was in her grasp, she wrenched
the door open and darted into the hallway.

Running through the house, she had
a vague impression of small rooms and simple furnishings but her
eyes were now focussed on the kitchen at the end of the hall. It
wasn’t that far away but fear made it seem a great distance. Her
legs felt heavy; each stride was an effort like in some horrible
dream where you couldn’t run fast enough from the unspeakable
horror that chased you. Her bare feet slapped against the cool
vinyl, classical music swirled about her, hiding the harsh sound of
her breathing.

The kitchen was just feet away when
there was a thump behind her. Was Gordie awake already? She skidded
into the kitchen, scanned the room wildly and then dashed to the
door. Yanking it open she stumbled down the steps and into the
yard.

All was quiet outside, no sound of
traffic or twittering birds. For a moment she hesitated, looking
around, not sure what to do. A car was parked in the driveway, but
she didn’t dare go back inside to look for the keys in case Gordie
was waking up. Instead, she ran down the length of the driveway,
only pausing when she reached the dirt road. Which way would lead
to town? The sun was getting ready to set, so that was west, but
the road ran north and south. Curling her toes, she wrapped her
arms around her body, shivering. The ground was cold beneath her
bare feet, and the wind cut through the thin material of the
t-shirt.

Deciding any direction was better
than staying where she was, she headed south, alternately running
and walking. For how long she had no idea. Her mind was solely
focussed on putting as much distance as possible between herself
and Gordie. It might have been ten minutes later, or maybe half an
hour, but at some point the sound of a vehicle approaching from
behind reached her ears.

Relief flooded her rapidly followed
by fear. What if it was Gordie? He could have woken up and started
to search for her. Images of the other women he’d captured—the ones
who ‘went away’—flashed through her mind. If he caught her, he’d
kill her, of that she had no doubt. With no thought other than
avoiding the crazed empath, Eve veered off the road and headed into
the forest.

Chapter 46

It was at their third stop that a
glimmer of hope finally appeared in the search for Eve. Rafe was
studying the map when Damien emerged from a ditch with a bit of
something white in his mouth. After dropping it at Rafe’s feet, he
shifted into human form.

“I found that caught in some
weeds.”

Rafe picked up the crumpled paper
napkin and sniffed it. Almost masked by the odor of cola, an
unmistakable scent could be detected. “It’s Eve!” Relief flooded
him, followed by an adrenalin rush. Quickly pulling open the
driver’s door, he started the truck and put it into gear even
before Damien had his door completely shut. “They must have gone
this way.”

“There’s no guarantee this is the
right road, you know. A paper napkin could blow for miles.”

“Or it could get stuck in a bush
not far from where it was tossed out of a tow truck. It’s all we
have at the moment.”

“True.”

“Any other clues on it?” He tossed
the napkin to Damien and executed a neat U-turn, heading down the
narrow dirt road. It had a lonely, seldom travelled look about it,
and in his gut he knew Gordon Grant would choose this sort of an
out of the way place to live.

Damien was turning the napkin over
in his hands, examining the logo printed on it. “It’s from a coffee
chain. I seem to recall they’re in almost every town across the
country so that in itself isn’t much help.” He held it to his nose
for a second. “There’s a second scent present. A male, and I think
we can safely assume it’s Grant’s.”

Rafe didn’t answer, merely
tightening his hands on the wheel while continuing to scan the area
on both sides of the road, looking for any sign of a building or
vehicle. When a small hint of smoke showed above the trees, he
immediately slowed down. “Do you see that?”

“Yep.” Damien nodded. “Looks like a
plume of smoke from a furnace.”

Pulling over to the side of the
road, Rafe turned off the engine. “We’ll need to leave the truck
here. He might hear us.”

“We’ll approach as wolves—”

“But shift back once we’re there.
Eve knows nothing about Lycans.”

Rather than answering, Damien
opened his door and slid from the truck.

Rafe followed suit, and the two
shifted forms then began to silently make their way towards the
source of the smoke.

A modest home came into view. It
had simple white clapboard siding and a darker shingled roof. In
the driveway, a small foreign make of car was parked near a rickety
lean-to that housed a collection of old lawn chairs, a snow shovel,
and a few garbage cans. There was nothing extraordinary about the
place, but they still approached with caution, clinging to the
shadows and carefully watching the windows.

There was no sign of movement in
the house. A few rooms had lights on, and bits of smoke lazily
drifted from the chimney, but for all intents and purposes it
appeared that no one was home.

A sick feeling rose in Rafe’s
stomach as he considered the fact that this might not be the place.
He pushed the idea away and shifted into human form. This had to be
it. The longer it took to find Eve, the greater the possibility
that she’d never be found, and that was something he refused to
consider.

At his side, Damien whined soft and
low. Rafe nodded. Damien was going to keep watch from a distance, a
sort of backup in case something went wrong.

With measured steps Rafe walked up
to the house, constantly checking the windows for any sign that
someone was watching his approach. When he reached the side door,
he was surprised to see it swinging loosely. The latch was old, and
obviously whoever had last entered or exited had neglected to give
it a firm tug. That was curious; he’d have thought the homeowner
would automatically check it was shut out of sheer habit.