Page 34 of Crave Me

After that last time I’d been kidnapped by Jett Bane, I’d undergone an intensive crash course from Cas and Luke that had given me some useful tips and tricks to handle this sort of thing.

I was actually lucky they’d used cuffs. I was sure they thought it was hardcore to go this route, but it had actually helped me out. Zip-ties would have been another story altogether.

I’d dislocated my thumbs and slipped out of them.

Doing that without making a sound, and then snapping them back into place too, had been a bit of a challenge, but I’d managed it.

Then had come the trickier part of trying to escape the actual room they’d confined me to, an unfinished basement with exposed concrete walls. The tiny window about eight feet off the ground had been my indication of how much time had been passing—how many days.

Since I’d escaped the cuffs and chair, I’d been using the limited items available in the space to my advantage. Rocks and stones likely intended for a rockery of some sort, patio stones, and an old bistro set.

I’d checked the door up at the top of the wooden stairs and determined that it was locked from the outside by a padlock. I needed something to leverage against it to wrench it open in spite of the lock. And I needed a couple of weapons to defend myself with. That was especially important considering how lightheaded and weakened I felt from the lack of food and water.

So I’d been using a combination of a couple of rocks and a patio stone to first compromise the melded wrought iron of one of the bistro chairs so I could use one of the arms or bars as a lever, and also to pull two smaller pieces free. Once I’d managed that, which had taken mind-numbingly long given the tools I was working with, I’d set about sharpening one end of two pieces to fashion makeshift weapons—shivs, basically.

Satisfaction coursed through me as I finally finished.

I swung my head toward the window.

Darkness.

It was time.

I couldn’t wait to escape this hovel, along with the scent of piss. After the first little while of escaping the chair, before the dehydration and hunger had set in, I hadn’t had many options when it came to voiding my bladder, given that there was no toilet or sink, nor even a bucket, so the far left corner of the room had needed to do.

I snatched up the two shivs and the piece I was going to use as a lever and made my way over to the stairs. With my head swimming and weakness permeating my body, I stumbled in my step a few times.

Climbing the stairs was a lot more challenging, but my determination to make it out, along with adrenaline starting to spark at the thought of my coming liberation, pushed me onward.

I put the shivs down and shoved the other piece between the doorframe and the door, positioning it at the optimal angle.

And then I bore down on it with my strength against the lock.

Come on, come on.

It became clear to me just how much weaker I was than normal with the effort and strain it took, and my need to take a beat every few moments.

There was no fucking way I was stopping, though.

I was sweating by the time I finally managed to wrench the door open.

I put the makeshift lever down, then grabbed both of my weapons, holding them at the ready as I pushed out of the basement, finding myself in a small hallway.

There was nobody there.

At least not in this limited space.

I made my way through the house, noting that there were no noises at all, no voices, no movements. It was a modest open concept space with peach colored walls and minimal furniture, just the basics of a two-seater couch with a pine coffee table and a television hung on the opposite wall. It gave way to a dining area, a simple pine four-seater table with high backed chairs.

There was no one here anywhere.

I made my way over to the kitchen, ugly brown cabinets filling my vision. My focus was on one thing, though. The tap.

I staggered over, managing to make it, then I turned on the cold tap.

As soon as the water started flowing, I angled my mouth under the stream and gulped it down. Thank fuck.

I wiped my mouth with the sleeve of my dirtied white shirt, then approached the windows back near the seating area.

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