Yield (15 page)

“Had to strike while the iron is hot.”

Or while the forked tongue was oozing poison.  I felt like I
’d just stepped into hell except I’d been here before and knew the boundaries of escape if it ever arose.  Pretty sure I’d seen Ames moving before out of sight, I set to find out their motives.

Joshlin didn
’t help in the dragging me part but rather barked at Randor for doing it.  It was almost as if he cared. 
Almost.

His face was a combination of blood and a busted lip.  Good.

Randor walking ahead and Joshlin behind me, I was without escape. I tried to remain rational and appear in control knowing Ames was lying in the road.  I screamed insults, threats, whatever I could come up with to make them want to let me go.  The rational part was telling me they had this planned, but the desperation was winning (or losing) over the possibility of Ames being run over by a car or even his own car if a driver didn’t see him first.  Rational just wasn’t the right label for this whole situation.

When the back of the cabin came into sight, my mind went into the next possible rescue ideas.  It was the last place I expected to be held hostage or whatever they had in mind.

“Why here?” I tried to sound calm hoping for answers.

“
Not your concern, princess,” Randor growled staring at where he initially ripped my shirt on the car door when he yanked me away from it.  I think it surprised him more than me.

“No need for that.  She knows why she is here.”

Do I?  “You need my assistance for something,” I tried out just to, once again, see if they’d give up some information.

“Vague and unsure.  Easy to dominate.  Just like I like ‘em.”  Joshlin shined his beady eyes at my bra strap where my shirt revealed only my shoulder.  It really wasn
’t that pronounced, but his perverted eyes kept going back there.

“Don
’t talk to her like that!” Randor barked at Joshlin actually defending my honor with some kind freaky irony.

“Randor, shut up.”  Joshlin didn
’t like Randor I surmised, a little lacking in the brotherly love department.  He was just a means to an end.  “I will take it from here.  Go back to Caydon and play his game until I call you next.”

“What about my revenge?”

Revenge?  To who?  Since I stood in the middle of the cabin’s living room watching them quarrel like two-year olds, I took a second to examine how Joshlin had the door open so quickly.  Above the chair by the back door was a window with broken glass around it and the floor. 

“If I take the heat for this without getting my end of the bargain, the deal
’s off.  I will take her to Caydon so fast you’ll have to untie the knots in your balls from the whiplash on your face.”

Gorily visual, but works.  “What do you get out of this?” I asked Randor.

“Shut the hell up, token girl.”

Someone needs some playtime therapy sessions.

“Oh, very insulting.  I’m sure it means something, but I have no idea and probably would have to remind you anyway who is really in charge here.  I know my place, boys.  And I know you need me for whatever evil Red Skull/Captain America plans you have in your tiny, little brains.  But I assure you if I am harmed, you will both be sterilized or dead, whichever comes first.  I am aware that my heritage makes me some kind of trophy to pass among you testosterone filled horndogs for mating and breeding little goblin brats that would probably make me off myself if they turned out like either or you.  However, I am fairly confident that I will possibly kill you both if you come anywhere near me.”

With their previous arguing and my current stalling for time they didn
’t see my fast action grab for the cheese knife left on the cutting board.  Backing all the way up to the raised bar, I slid it into my hand and down into the back of my pants.  It wasn’t much, but it was something if they so much as touched my pinky toe.  I had electric hands, but I needed information first.

“I
’m not sure you can do anything about anything I might choose to do in your presence, but I will humor you.  For now,” Joshlin looked back to Randor. “You do what I said.  Your reward will come when she is safely out of the hands of Caydon and not holding the ability to overtake the rest of us.”

Ohhhh!  Now I get it.

“As for you, get your prude ass down the hall.”

Seems his manners hadn
’t improved.

Randor left huffing and cursing all the way out.  Alone with Joshlin was the farthest from comfortable I could have been. 

Watching the cabin door close behind Randor, I suddenly wished I’d have come up with a reason to keep him here.  Not that I’d be safer with two evil villains, but the alternative just seemed worse being alone with this particular one.

Weirder, I wasn
’t as afraid of Randor as I was Joshin.  Maybe it was the more detailed plan I knew about with Joshlin.  Maybe it was the fact that Randor had the opportunity all these years to attack me at my own home and didn’t. 

Joshlin walked back from the hallway where he had been waiting for me to go towards and leaned into my frame.  I reached deceptively behind me to grab my only weapon and before I could grab it, Joshlin took hold of it and pulled it in front of my face. 

“Looking for this?” he smirked evilly.

“Maybe,” I bit my lip in frustration.  And fear.

“I won’t kill you despite what you think Jem Loggins.  I actually at one point considered you appealing.  Lord knows you’re beautiful, but you have too much brain for my taste.  They teach humans girls more than they need to know.  I believe I heard it called liberation.”

Boy, is he in the dark ages.  Most guys I know want bimbos for their dumbness and that
’s where it ends.  I can’t see Ames falling for a girl who was brainless.  Nor Caydon for that matter.  Lily didn’t strike me as the type.

“What are going to do with me?  Hide me in the very cabin Ames would come to make plans in to rescue me.”

“No.  Not in.”

I just announced I wasn
’t the brainless kind, but I was clueless on what he meant. 

“And it all ends now.  You
’re not going to belong to Ames or Caydon or any other but me to assure my rule.  That bad attitude won’t bother me as long as you look like that.  I can manage.”

He looked me over rather disgustedly in my opinion staring long at my bare shoulder blade.  Was it that appealing?  Randor thought to stare too. 

I kind of wanted to read his mind at the moment, and I kind of...didn’t.

Not for the first time in my life post-Emma have I literally seen red or even black before my eyes.  In a way, they were defined before she came into my life.  Red meant roughing someone up for being a nutcase or screwup.  Black meant death, plain and simple.  They messed with something personal to me and I would see it ended before I let them go. 

Black for me was contained and reserved for doing Joshlin’s doings in the past.  Now, it took on a different meaning. Emma made me see things exclusively with her in sight. It’s like I had deflective eyesight concerning her and nothing, I mean
nothing
, would stand between us.

When I came to, the Jeep was still running and Emma wasn
’t anywhere around.  I couldn’t believe I got duped by idiotic Joshlin.  Beyond anger, I sailed over to the Jeep and dialed Wicker instantly.

Fear was winning over how many kill r
atios it might take to find her.   And if I find her damaged….

Trigger and Wicker were in route, I parked the Jeep and headed into the woods.  I couldn
’t imagine where they would take her being this close to my traced out area.  I’d done everything for years to keep Joshlin from knowing about the cabin, but he found out about a year ago.  When he took her last.

Branches cutting my face didn
’t phase me, but the dug in dirt and broken limbs laying down a freshly beaten path told me exactly what pain she started out in.

I hated myself.  How could I deserve someone I can
’t even protect?  A worthy female needs someone who can keep her safe and that didn’t seem to be me.

I kept picturing the strangest things.  Her shoes would be muddy.  Her hair would have little pieces of tree in it.  She was tough, but I didn
’t like anything connecting with her physical body except me. 

I followed the trail to a point where he allowed her to walk knowing by then exactly where it led.

My cabin.

Why would he take her there?  Did he have a car parked there and walked to where he stopped in the road?

I rounded a few trees and caught the sight of my cabin in the sunlight.  Since I knew my perimeter and every single section of it like the back of my hand, the broken window stood out like a sore thumb.

I double-timed it through the front door that was left unlocked.  Clue number one.  Inside the cabin, it was empty.  I slumped my shoulders in defeat.  I just knew the broken window was a sign.  I looked around the living room for clues that it would be Joshlin that destroyed the window knowing full
y it was him anyway.  Who else would it be?

“I did that.  The other day when Randor was loose and acting a fool.  I came here to find him snooping around.”

I slammed my fist around ready to fight him.

“Where the hell is she then?  And why didn
’t you tell me before he was here?”

Caydon laughed. 
“Now if I knew that, I wouldn’t be hanging with the likes of you.”

Yeah!  Same here.  “What are you here for wasting my time then?”

Caydon left the front door and sat on the edge of the sofa resting his hands on his knees.

“Because we both want the same thing, essentially.  I would never want her in the clutches of that filth.”

“What’s the catch?”  I knew when we did find her, he’d take her.

“You and I find her.  You continue to hopefully save both our asses
’ future and hers.  She is very determined to be with you Cahn, though I question her taste.  We all make this work the best we can.  You and I both know my intentions are not to make her unhappy.”

I know.

“Open the floor and head in.”

Joshlin just asked me to go in the cave he shouldn’t know anything about. 

“Go on before I pitch you down the ladder.”

He knew. 
He knew
.  “How do,” I choked and stopped.  “How do you know about the cave?”

“Oh
, please.  Ames can’t hide anything from me.  He’s an open catalog of information that he has yet to be sure of what I know and don’t know.”

Ames would be pissed off royally to hear all this.  I wish I could record it on my cell and show him.

My cell
.

I need to call or text him on my cell and do it before we descend below into the area that would not have cell phone tower connections.

I backed my way to the hall and away from the rugged entrance to see if he really knew where it was.

“Is there a reason you
’re stalling again?  He’s not coming.”

“He will and I
’m not.”             

“He won
’t and I’m getting tired of your whining.  I knocked his skull with a crowbar.  This is going to happen, Jem.  Get going or watch your boyfriend die.    Down.  NOW!”

“You wouldn
’t hurt your brother.  You’re not capable.” Agony flushed my body.  I felt my hands start to shake.

“He
’s not my brother.  Never was.  And do you really want to hurry the process of finding out what I’m capable of?” His maniacal eyebrow rose.

I moved towards the first bedroom.

“I know you’ve been down there, so just go already.” 

I finally looked back at where he
’d not moved since I started this dancing routine and saw that he was pointing to the closest where the rug lay.

Dang it!

I dragged my feet and shakily dialed my newest cell phone behind my back.  I hated this new version of the phone.  I didn’t know the buttons as well blindfolded.  My plan to have him in front of me at least worked if nothing else had.  I hoped like anything I’d dialed a number that actually went somewhere.  Not being able text or anything hurt my chances and if Ames answered the phone, he would yell into it giving me away.

I didn
’t care.

“What are you doing?” He eyed me suspiciously.

“What, you worried?  Think I might try to yell or even...CALL AMES.”

If his suspicions were strong before, they were ten times worse now. 

“If you’re hiding something, it will only make it worse for you.”

I can only think of one thing worse and his intentions were made clear.

“You left me no alternative.”  I pushed my phone into my back pocket and headed for the trap door.  He stopped me with a tug back to the kitchen. 

“Hold off.”

A minute later, he had my hands tied behind my back with a trash bag.  So inventive, he was.  A huge deep breath later, I climbed down into the cave of wonders without the ability to balance.