Authors: Blake Crouch
He happened to look up at some point, saw Devlin standing in the hall in a plain pink tee-shirt that fell all the way to the carpet, the tattered blanket she’d slept with every night since her birth draped over her left arm.
And he could see in her eyes that she’d heard every word the patrolmen had said about her mother, because they were filling up with tears.
4
Rachael Innis was strapped upright with two-inch webbing to the leather seat behind the driver.
She stared at the console lights.
The digital clock read
She remembered the crowbar through the window and nothing after.
Bach’s Four Lute Suites blared from the Bose stereo system, John Williams playing the classical guitar.
Beyond the windshield, the headlights cut a feeble swath of light through the darkness, and even though she was riding in a luxury SUV, the shocks did little to ease the violent jarring from whatever primitive road they traveled.
Her wrists and ankles were comfortably but securely bound with nylon restraints.
Her mouth wasn’t gagged.
From her vantage point, she could only see the back of the driver’s head and occasionally the side of his face by the cherry glow of his cigarette.
He was smooth-shaven, his hair was dark, and he smelled of a subtle, spicy cologne.
It occurred to her that he didn’t know she was awake, but the thought wasn’t two seconds old when she caught his eyes in the rearview mirror.
They registered her consciousness, turned back to the road.
They drove on.
An endless stream of rodents darted across the road ahead and a thought kept needling her—at some point, he was going to stop the car and do whatever he was driving her out in the desert to do.
“Have you urinated on my seat?”
She thought she detected the faintest accent.
“No.”
“You tell me if you have to urinate.
I’ll stop the car.”
“Okay.
Where are you—”
“No talking.
Unless you have to urinate.”
“I just—”
“You want your mouth taped?
You have a cold.
That would make breathing difficult.”
Devlin was the only thing she’d ever prayed for and that was years ago, but as she watched the passing sagebrush and cactus through the deeply tinted windows, she pleaded with God again.
Now the Escalade was slowing.
It came to a stop.
He turned off the engine and stepped outside and shut the door.
Her door opened.
He stood watching her.
He was very handsome, with flawless, brown skin (save for an indentation in the bridge of his nose), liquid blue eyes, and black hair greased back from his face.
His pretty teeth seemed to gleam in the night.
Rachael’s chest heaved against the strap of webbing.
He said, “Calm down, Rachael.”
Her name sounded like a foreign word on his lips.
He took out a syringe from his black leather jacket and uncapped the needle.
“What is that?” she asked.
“You have nice veins.”
He ducked into the Escalade and turned her arm over.
When the needle entered, she gasped.
“Please listen.
If this is some kind of ransom thing—”
“No, no.
You’ve already been purchased.
In fact, right now, there isn’t a safer place in the world for you to be than in my possession.”
A gang of coyotes erupted in demonic howls somewhere out in that empty dark and Rachael thought they sounded like a woman burning alive, and she began to scream until the drug took her.
BLAKE CROUCH was born near the piedmont town of Statesville, North Carolina in 1978. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated in 2000 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. Blake lives with his family in southwest Colorado, where he is at work on a new book. His website is www.blakecrouch.com.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blake’s Works Available on Kindle
Desert Places (featuring Andrew, Orson and Luther)
Locked Doors (sequel to Desert Places)
Abandon
Snowbound (coming June 2010)
Four Live Rounds – Collected Short Stories
Perfect Little Town – horror novella
Serial Uncut – novella with J.A. Konrath and Jack Kilborn
Luminous Blue – short novel – coming soon to Kindle
Visit Blake at www.BlakeCrouch.com