Page 125 of Traces Of You

Reenie moaned, fighting through the nausea.

What the hell was going on?

There was a hideous smell around her. Like feces and urine, mold maybe?

Her throat constricted, fluid threatening to spew out of her mouth.

“I know you’re awake, Maureen. Open your eyes.”

There was a spinning noise. Was it buzzing in her head?

Everything was flashing in her brain.

She was walking back to Ford’s truck and then there was a filthy hand on her mouth and a pain in her side.

Mental inventory let her know that wasn’t her imagination as there was an itch and burn there now.

She’d put up a fight when they pulled her down a street and toward a van.

Two men. She couldn’t see either of their faces clearly.

One of them knocked her out.

There was a tickle on her cheek now.

As if a bug was crawling on her.

She hated bugs. Her eyes snapping open, she was ready to scream only she was choking on a dirty rag binding her mouth.

There was Randy holding a feather in his hand, leaning close to her face. “I knew that would wake you. Oliver told me about that trick.”

It didn’t surprise her that Oliver shared that detail with his cousin.

That she’d feign sleep for him to leave her alone, but she was terrified of bugs crawling on her. Like in some places she’d lived in as a child.

If she thought something soft or creepy was on her, she’d jump up screaming and slapping at her skin.

Only she couldn’t scream with the rag in her mouth.

She couldn’t run either.

The direness of her predicament registered fully.

Her eyes darted down. She had rope around her hands and ankles.

All of this because she left Oliver? None of it made sense.

Or did they really think she had those drugs that were missing?

Could Randy be that stupid? It seemed he was.

She tried to talk, but nothing came out but sounds.

“I’ll take the rag off if you don’t scream. I can’t stand screaming. We’ll just have to knock you out again. Bobby enjoys seeing women crumple to the ground.”

She turned her head slowly to see the second guy. The one whose fist she’d seen raised before he knocked her out.

The sea of vomit in her throat was threatening to make an appearance.