Page 92 of Sweet Poison

“Jesus. What the fuck? What you go do that for, Tony? She’s just a kid,” the youngest of them spoke up.

“Ah fuck! This is just a fucking mess,” the bearded man said. He sounded totally fed up.

"If she keeps going like this, we can't continue on here," the man who had hit me said. "It's bound to draw attention."

"Let's get out of here then," came the response from the younger one.

"It's not as though the boss has ordered us to remain here. He's going to tell us to go back to the city anyway, so we might as well just start to leave now. This town gives me the fucking creeps. All these busybodies every-fucking-where.”

“I think Tony’s right. We should get out. I don’t like this place. Too quiet. And these people … they’re not normal."

"Alright, let's go," the bearded man said.

My heart clenched harder in fear. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? At least here, I still held a measure of hope, though small, that someone would come by, my Dad would send the Sheriff, and we would be found. If we left now with no one knowing there was something wrong, especially my dad, it could take even longer to find us, and by then it might be too late.

But I had no choice. I rose to my feet. My hands were tied behind my back, so I couldn’t do anything but walk.

"The kid isn’t shutting up," the man who had hit her complained, glaring at Anya who was still wailing with fear and pain.

"Gag the little shit," the bearded man responded cruelly.

My heart sank. It was going to get even more traumatic for her. I had been hoping that somehow her fright from this experience could be managed, especially with my presence, but if they gagged her now, this trauma would leave even more scars.

They gagged her with a cloth and duct tape, and there was nothing either of us could do but follow the men out. They led us out of the house and talked amongst themselves, and then to my surprise, they took me to my car. They only had one car in the driveway, and two of the men got in there.

"Go with her and the girl," the bearded man commanded.

The ties around my wrists were cut and I was pushed so roughly into the driver's seat I nearly banged my head onto the steering wheel.

"Wait," the man who had hit Anya said. He was sitting in the passenger seat next to me. Outside, the younger man was dragging Anya along with him, and I looked anxiously to see what he would do. To my immense relief, he opened the back door and threw her in.

The way they manhandled her infuriated me, but there was nothing I could do.

I caught her terrified gaze in the mirror. “Wear your seatbelt, honey.”

She didn’t move.

I nodded at her while staring at her, willing her to obey my instructions.

For a few tense seconds, it looked like she wasn’t going to listen to me, probably sapped of energy, but then she complied. She strapped her seatbelt on.

Something about her being in the car, and my car for that matter, made me realize that I might have new options that I didn’t before. When the man got into the back next to her and shut the door, I was able to calm down enough to start the car. It was my car, old but familiar, and I had driven it for years. My ties were gone. I had more options. It felt like an out-of-body experience pulling it out and onto the road. I checked the rearview mirror and could see that there were two men in an SUV behind, and they were closely following us.

Their car could easily outrun my old and rickety one, so there was no hope in trying to do a Hollywood-style car chase. Besides, the man beside me ensured that would never happen. He held his gun pointed directly at me, with his hand on the trigger.

"Any funny business and you will be dead in a second," he said. "Don't test me."

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“Where’s the GPS in this fucking car?”

“It’s an old car. It doesn’t have GPS.”

"Leave the town altogether," he said. "You know the way, right?"

“Yes. We can take the shortcut.”

He relaxed slightly in his seat, and I did as I was told. I looked behind at Anya, and she met my gaze. She had calmed down now, but her eyes were swollen and puffy, and I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms for a hug.

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