Hunt and Pray (2 page)

“You hunt animals all the time, Chance. And I never said he’d be unarmed. What kind of a training session would that be? Why are you getting so squeamish, anyway? You’re a decorated sniper with the US Marines. You’ve killed plenty of people.”

Drew heard a sharp intake of breath and found it interesting that the father seemed to have hit a nerve with his son… Chance, he’d called him.

“I’ve killed terrorists and dictators, Dad, not runty little faggots who aren’t any threat to me.” Drew wondered if anyone else picked up on the small shake in the son’s voice.

There was a loud bang as someone—the colonel, presumably—hit the side of the truck. “Damn it, boy! He
is
a threat! His kind all are.”

The fury in the colonel’s voice terrified Drew, and he found himself willing Chance to shut up and quit provoking his father before he decided to shoot Drew right there, just to prove a point.

“Uh, Colonel?” The third voice—Drew thought the colonel had called him Ezra—was back. “What should we do with the body?”

“Toss it in the RV and lock the door. We’ll torch it on the way back out. I don’t think anyone will find it before then.”

Drew heard grunts he assumed were coming from Ezra as he manhandled the driver’s body into the RV. After a few minutes, there was the click of a lock and the slamming of a door.

“We’re ready, sir.”

“Good.” The colonel’s voice was still irritated, but he seemed to be calming down.

There was a flurry of footsteps and then the doors of the truck opening and closing. Drew was left alone in the back of the truck with the one captor he thought might listen to reason, and he couldn’t say a fucking thing because of the gag in his mouth.

He tried to move but was stopped by a boot on his wrist.

“Don’t.” Chance’s voice was harsh, yet Drew could hear a little fear in it as well. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

Drew held still. He found himself distracted by Chance’s voice. He wondered if this was what it was like to be blind. Everything sounded sharp around him, and he could pick up things he knew he would have missed if he could see his surroundings. He wondered if it ever dulled for those who were sightless permanently.

“I don’t want to do this… it’s not who I am. But he will hurt you if you challenge him, so you’d better do what he wants.”

Drew almost laughed.

What worse could he do than kill me?

“I know you’re thinking… that there’s nothing worse than being dead. But trust me, he’ll make you wish you were.”

The absolute bleakness in the man’s voice made Drew’s heart stutter. The finality he heard there was terrifying. He had an idea that this man—Chance—felt almost as trapped as he did.

The truck started, and the noise it made drowned out anything else Chance might have decided to say.

All Drew could do was lie there in the truck bed, caught somewhere between horrified and furious this was happening to him.

He spared a random thought toward Jason, his anger at his ex-boyfriend growing as he blamed him and his fucking around for this current predicament.

If Drew got out of this alive, he was going to punch him again, just for the fun of it.

Chapter Two

D
REW
wasn’t sure how long they drove. Not being able to see was messing with his perception of time, and the ride had been turbulent, to say the least.

By the time they stopped, he ached everywhere and he felt like he’d been beaten with a baseball bat.

When the engine was shut off, there was silence for a few seconds save for the faint sound of birds and running water, along with heavy breathing Drew assumed was coming from Chance.

He probably shouldn’t be using the guy’s name. He should be calling him douche bag or jerk off in his head. Somehow, though, knowing Chance’s name made Drew less scared—maybe because it made him more human. Drew not being able to see his captors made it easier for his brain to morph them into monsters, and he had no doubt the other two men
were
monsters after a fashion.

But he had a feeling they were no less than monsters to Chance as well, and for some reason, Drew felt sharing the terror made it easier to bear.

He could hear the voices of the two men in the front of the truck arguing about something but was unable to make out what.

When the doors opened and the two men got out, one of them slammed the door shut.

The sound of someone stomping off reached Drew’s ears, and he’d bet it was that asshole Ezra. The colonel was someone who would insist on winning arguments.

“Chance, get him down from there and get him into the cabin. There’s a room ready for him with a lock on the outside of the door. Free his hands once you get him in there. It wouldn’t be a very interesting hunt if the little freak couldn’t use his arms, would it?”

Drew could almost picture the cruel smile he heard in the man’s voice.

“In fact, you can get rid of all his bonds. It’s not like it matters if he sees us or not.”

“Dad, I don’t think—” Chance started speaking, apparently intent on trying once more to plead for some sanity, but his voice was cut off by a dull thud and a grunt.

The colonel had hit his son, Drew was sure of it.

“You don’t need to think, boy. Soldiers don’t think, they follow orders.” The man took a few deep breaths, apparently getting a hold on his anger. “Now do what I told you, you hear me?”

Chance’s voice, when it came, was angry but restrained. “Yes, sir.”

Without another word, he got up. Drew could feel the truck bounce as Chance jumped out, and then he heard the tailgate squeal as he pulled it open.

He grabbed Drew by the ankle, and for a second, Drew panicked, thinking he was going to fall, but Chance just loosened the ties on his legs, leaving him hobbled but able to walk. Once he was finished, he pulled again and let him land feet first before grabbing him by the arm and pulling him along.

Part of Drew wanted to resist. The idea of walking meekly along to his doom chafed on his pride. But he also knew trying to do anything while he was blind and bound was useless.

His parents always said he’d learn patience someday… too bad it took this to learn his lesson.

Chance pulled a little harder, causing Drew to stumble, but the other man caught him before he could fall.

“Stop fucking around, asshole,” Chance growled the words in Drew’s ear, but somehow he thought they were meant for the man’s father.

Drew walked along pliantly, not wanting to piss anyone off and give them any other reason to hurt him. If he had any chance of living through this…
as slim as that chance might be
… he had to remain as healthy as possible.

He heard a door open before he was thrust inside a building. They walked down what he presumed was a hallway until he was jerked to a stop, before he was shoved through another doorway. He just managed to keep on his feet and stood there waiting, wondering what was in store for him next.

He heard the quiet hiss of metal on leather,
and then his hands were grabbed. He struggled instinctively for a moment, but a thump on the side of his head with something hard made him stand still, seething with anger.

All of a sudden, there was another dull hiss, and his hands were free.

“Don’t fucking move.” The order was clear, and Drew had an idea the knife Chance had used to free his hands was a big one, and he wasn’t tempted to try the other man’s patience.

It was weird how Drew could feel that Chance was standing in front of him one second and then he could feel the absence of him the next. Another soft hiss and his legs were free, and he was left standing, disoriented and scared.

“I’m going back to the door, and when I say, you can take off the blindfold and gag.” The man’s voice was harsh, but he could hear the note of fear in it.

Drew nodded his agreement and waited. He counted six steps as the man moved away before they stopped.

“You can take them off.”

Drew reached for the blindfold first, tired of feeling off-balance. When he pulled it off, he blinked to clear his vision, and he got his first look at one of his captors.

Chance was tall. He had at least four inches on Drew and probably a good thirty pounds, and from what Drew could see, it was all muscle.

He had short, curly, dark-brown hair that had probably just started growing out from a military cut and olive skin that had seen a lot of time spent in the sun.

But what caught Drew’s attention were his eyes. They were a deep blue, the color of bottle glass, and were full of so many emotions as Chance looked at Drew.

Fear, anger, resentment, and something Drew was almost positive was regret… shone through in the man’s expression.

The man was beautiful, there was no denying it. He was dressed in an olive drab T-shirt that stretched across his broad chest and camouflage pants with black boots, and it was obvious he was comfortable in them. In any other circumstance, Drew would have been drooling all over him.

Something he was thinking must have shown in his eyes. As he reached for the gag, Chance spoke angrily.

“Don’t look at me like that.” He growled the words. “Fucking faggot!”

The mixture of rage and fear in the man’s voice was fascinating, and it made Drew wonder at the reasons behind it.

He held his hands up in surrender.

“Sorry, didn’t mean anything by it.” Drew’s voice was rough from disuse, and he saw Chance tremble almost imperceptibly. “Not like I was going to try and jump you or anything. Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I try and fuck anything with a dick. I do have some standards, you know. For instance, I’d rather die than bend over for the guy who’s gonna kill me.”

Drew listened to himself speak and wondered when his sense of self-preservation was going to kick in. He didn’t know when to shut up at the best of times, but when he was scared, nervous, or angry he had absolutely no self-control, and right now he was all three.

Chance flinched a little, then glared at him before slamming the door. Drew heard the lock click into place and realized it was a deadbolt that had been installed backward so the keyhole faced the room. He wondered where the key was.

Drew looked around, surprised to see a comfortable-looking bed against one wall. There wasn’t much else in the room except a couple of novels lying on a chair that had been bolted to the floor and a small window fitted with bars.

He patted his pockets and found that his cell phone and wallet were missing. He was disappointed but not surprised. He sighed and walked over to look out the window. Mountains and trees were all he could see in the distance. He was pretty sure the phone wouldn’t have worked where they were anyway.

He could see a couple of small buildings but no vehicles, so the window must face the opposite side of the building they came in on.

The sun was high over the mountains, and Drew looked at his watch and found it was just after 10:00 a.m. He figured it was around 1:30 a.m. when he was grabbed. That left a lot of time for them to have taken him wherever they wanted. There were a lot of mountains around Colorado Springs, and he could be anywhere.

Exhaustion overcame him and he wandered over to the bed to sit down. He wanted to hang onto his anger, but at the moment, fear was taking over.

All he could think about was what his family was going to go through and how horribly he was going to die. It was ironic, really. Drew had lived through a horrifying bout of meningitis when he was a child and a riding accident when he was sixteen that had nearly left him permanently paralyzed. He would have thought he’d used up all his bad luck. Apparently not.

He knew his grandmother believed God had a plan for everything, but he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to learn from this latest—adventure—life had sent him on.

He lay there thinking, and the combination of coming down from his adrenaline high and the leftover drugs in his system had him slip into sleep.

H
E
WOKE
with a start and looked up to see Chance standing over him with a plate and a glass of water. The dark-haired man was watching him intently but blushed and moved back as soon as he realized Drew was awake.

“I brought you some food.” His voice was sharp and reluctant.

Drew met his gaze, refusing to look away. “I don’t want it.”

Chance sighed wearily. “You might as well eat it. You’re gonna need all the strength you can get.”

“Is it drugged?” Drew didn’t want to be drugged. He didn’t want things happening to him when he had no way of defending himself.

“No.” Chance shook his head as he spoke.

“Why should I believe you?” Drew knew he should shut up, but he just couldn’t do it.

The other man shrugged. “You shouldn’t.” He set the plate on the bed. “But it isn’t.” Drew saw that it was french fries and a hamburger.

Chance reached down and grabbed a couple of fries and popped them in his mouth.

Drew reached for the water glass, eyeing it suspiciously before gulping it down. When it was gone, he looked at Chance again.

“I need to go to the bathroom.” He hated having to ask but once again found himself without a choice.

Chance nodded before reaching back to pull a gun out of the waistband of his pants. He motioned for Drew to get off the bed and walk through the door in front of him.

“Turn right, first door on the left. Leave it open.” Chance’s face was red again, but Drew could see he meant it.

He walked into the bathroom and tried to ignore the fact that a man with a gun was watching him as he took a piss. Of course, he’d watched porn where shit like that was considered foreplay but at the moment, he couldn’t think of anything less sexy. He sighed and shook his head at his own internal wanderings. He wondered where the other two men were.

When he was done, he washed his hands and walked back out and into the bedroom. Once Drew was inside, Chance shut the door and locked it again from outside, so Drew had no option but to walk back to the bed and get comfortable before eating the food.