Killer Scents (24 page)

Danny cut through the tape binding her to the chair and
picked her up
. She tried to bring her hands up to rake his
eyes
, but only succeeded
in
lightly brushing her fingertips across his cheek
,
the effects of the drug far from over.

“Ha! You’re something else
,
Becca
.
W
elcome back.”
Amusement
now danced in his
eyes
. He wasted
no time in running upstairs with her to a sparsely furnished bedroom where he sat her on a chair and quickly bound her to it.

All the while she prayed.
Please don’t see the phone in my pocket.
He held a piece of tape in front of her face and shrugged before tossing it to the side.

“Scream all you want. It won’t
make a lick of difference.”

“What about Jacob?” She hardly recognized the rasp coming from her mouth.

“Jacob? I could care less what happens to him. He’s no threat to anyone.” His lips curled in a snarl
,
and he narrowed his eyes
at her
. “You
,
my dear
,
are my trump card. You’ll be safe up here for now.”

He quickly pulled the mattress off of the bed and propped it up against the narrow window, engulfing the room in darkness.
He
paused beside her
and said
, “I really hope you’re not afraid of the dark.” His tongue circled the inside of her ear before he continued out of the room.

A shudder ripped through her and she willed away the
urge
to
vomit
. The door closed behind him
,
and a key rattled the lock with a final click.

She wagered Jacob still lay on the couch.
Whether he was alive or dead was another matter.
Becca squinted, trying to adjust to the darkness.
Moonlight streamed in through an uncovered space at the top of the window.

This time he
’d
taped her
good.
Her hands stuck out the bottom
of her bindings
, slowly losing sensation from the
lack of
blood supply. She took a good look around the room
.
A
single bed
sat against one wall and
a small chest of drawers
stood nearby it
. Her breath hitched
.

“It’s an
old
iron bed
frame
.”
She had a bed like it when she was little and knew the ends of the springs were very pointed and sharp.

Becca sat
at
an angle in the corner
,
at least four feet from the bed. With every ounce of strength she could muster,
she
tried to throw her weight in hopes of bouncing the chair across the
room
. Unfortunately, her strength didn’t match her determination. Her frustration level reached an all-time high and she screamed.

“Chief? Randy? I’m upstairs! Can you hear me?” Becca threw her weight in the direction of the bed and crashed to the floor, her head hit
ting
the
iron
frame.

“Shit!” Her world
spun
and the all
-
too
-
familiar darkness swept her away.

Danny shivered in unbridled expectation
. He could hardly wait
until they happened upon his other surprises
.
  His smile broadened upon hearing Becca’s screams.
Is the big
-
shot detective a little scared?
He should really just shoot Jacob and be done with him, but for whatever reason
,
he wanted him alive. Not that he’d be any good to anyone with his love
-
maker sewn shut.

Jacob sat propped in the corner where he’d moved him to, only now he’d acquired a rather foul odor about him. Danny turned up his nose and pulled the guy up to his feet, uncovering the reason for the stench.
He’s done gone and shit himself.

“You dirty fucker.” Danny dragged him to the bathroom and into the tub, positioning him so
his head rest
ed
below the rim.  The blocking drug made things almost too easy. He put the plug in and turn
ed
the cold water on. “I guess I’ll see you later
.
T
hat is if I
come
back in time.”

Danny left the bathroom and stopped in the middle of the now vacant front room. The picture window framed a stupendous
ly
star-filled sky.

“The calm before the storm.”

Danny smiled and
sauntered
to the dining room where the contents of his duffle bag
lay
strewn across the table
.
H
e set the lantern down and
pulled the pocket doors closed
. Armed with a hammer and several wooden planks
he’d
leaned against the wall, he began nailing one at a time across the doors. Several minutes later
,
he stood back and shrugged
,
having used all eight planks when three would have sufficed.

So what if it’s overkill
?
I’m the boss
and I make the rules.

“I’m a little worried
.
H
e’s
too
quiet in there.” Randy took the binoculars off the car
’s
roof.
He focused them and then checked each window.
Nothing stirred
indoors or out
, not even the leaves on the trees.

The calm before the storm.

A guy from the special task force ran over and squat between them
.

“He
’s
blocked a window with a mattress on the second floor. Maybe that’s where he moved Becca and Jacob.”

The chief’s radio crackled. “Chief, he’s closed off the doors leading into the front
room
. We believe he’s in the dining
area now
. Even if we get inside, we have to get through those doors. The guy
has
been hammering away for the past twenty minutes.”

“Thanks
,
Tim. Keep an eye on him.”

“Copy that.”

“The fucker’s nesting—getting everything set up for the long haul.” Randy flicked the toothpick
away that
he’d been chewing on for the past hour.

“
If
he’s busy doing that, he’s not bothering Jacob or Becca.”
Chief rolled his neck.

Randy stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles. They were biding time
for
daylight. The EMT
had
left with six of their men in body bags. They couldn’t chance another attempt and set off another of Danny’s traps.

The Florist
was far from stupid. He knew if
Jacob and Becca
were with him, they wouldn’t be planning an
ambush.

Chief put a hand to the small of his back as he stood hunched over, out of sight. “It will be
dawn
soon,
and then the real
show
can get started.
I need to take a leak.
” He wobbled off down the side of the barn.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

A stream of s
unlight
from the top of the window
nudged her eyes open
only
for her
to shut them again. A streak of white lightning ripped through her skull. Becca quickly remembered her circumstances
where she laid
on the floor still taped to the chair
, t
he
iron
leg of the bed only inches from her head.

She lay listening for any clue to what was going on outside or, for that matter
,
inside. The door rattled
and
remained closed. She tried to turn her head,
but
couldn’t. A few short seconds passed before it rattled again.

“Danny? Is that you? What are you doing out there?”

Becca strained to hear.
No, it
couldn’t be...could it?

“Jacob?
”
She held her breath.
“
Is that you out there?”

“Sssss...
.
”

She gasped.

T
he door rattled again, the lock click
ing
and the door bang
ing
open. Jacob half
-
crawled into the room, leaving a trail of water in his wake. He kicked the door shut and collapsed
on
the floor
.
He took long, shaky breaths through his nose, his body visibly trembling.

“Jacob, I know you’re hurt, but Danny could come back any moment. You need to help me
free my hands
. Can you do that for me?”

He grimaced with every movement
as he dragged himself over to her
and 
started working at the
tape
.

“If you can get one of those springs off of
the
bed frame, the pointed end should cut through
it
.”

In spite of his many injuries, Jacob unhooked a spring
and sliced into the bindings.
It took a little doing, but he finally managed to find the end and began unravelling
it from her body
.

“Once my hands are free
,
I can take over.”

Her heart ached
at
the pain
she saw
in his eyes.

It seemed to take an awfully long time before the
tape
loosened enough for her to dig the
phone
from her pocket and press redial.

“We need a distraction.”

“Becca?” His voice cracked.

The sound of Randy’s voice made her heart ache.
“We
need
your help. In five minutes you
need
to create a diversion so we can get the hell out of here.” She hit
END
, not wanting to risk Danny find
ing
it
. She was already worried he’d see the water puddles Jacob
had
left.