Page 31 of Four Times Saved

Damn, was he fucking Lily too?

Whatever kind of spell she'd got on these men, I didn't want any part of it. I didn't know what they saw in the girl.

Today was too close. What a fucking relief it was that I'd remembered to clean out the container. I wasn't sure that I had and when Ethan instructed them to open it, I knew I was dead. The breath that left me and got stuck again when I noticed the words 'Help me' carved in the side of the metal wall. I jumped in there so fast, I almost face-planted on the floor, counting every single second until I managed to cover the carving with my body. Relief washed me with cold sweat, but my nightmare wasn't over.

They were convinced I had something to do with it and when they couldn't find any proof, they beat the living shit out of me, hoping to exact some truth. I was approaching seventy years old. My body couldn't take the beating it used to. I spent a couple of hours in the bathroom coughing up blood before going to the hospital. But I couldn't sit still there, not with the threat that they could show up whenever they wanted to. Besides, if I was about to die, I didn't want to do it in a cold, hospital room. I was surprised I was alive, to be honest. Once I got some pain meds inside me, I walked the fuck out of there, with one thing on my mind. Ending this bullshit agreement.

I didn't care one way or the other about whether Lily lived or died. But I did care whether or not I did. And this was too fucking close. There was no way we were getting that money. Lily's pussy-whipped bloodhounds were out for exactly that, the blood of whoever dared to hurt Lily. We were playing a dangerous game with no incentive. It was time to give up, let her go and threaten her not to speak. As if our threats meant anything. Oh shit, what had we done?

Lily

"Don't know why you gotta stay here seventy-two hours. Don't make no sense. You look fine to me." My kidnapper paced back and forth at the door, looking up and down the aisles as if he was ready to make a run for it.

Sucking his teeth, he turned to look at me and I froze. Not yet! Please, not yet.

Gulping, I ran through a list of makeshift weapons in my head and tactics I might use to escape. His phone rang, distracting him a while, but I still couldn't breathe. It was only a matter of time.

"What the fuck do you mean change of plans? No fucking way. We're sticking to it. We're this close to getting our money. So what if they trashed the place and knocked you around a bit, do they know where she is?" He yelled into the phone, jumping as medical staff walked past the room door. But my ears quirked up. Someone was close to finding me.

"Yeah, well if you blow the cover on this, they'll be the least of your worries, you hear me, old man. There's no backing out now!" He barked when the door swung open. My heart jumped too.

"Is everything alright?" The nurse stepped in and looked between the two of us. She scrutinized him for a moment, and her flutter of doubt gave me courage. There might be a way out of this.

Tense and tight-lipped, my kidnapper grimaced. "Everything is fine."

"Actually, I can't feel my legs," I gasped.

Time for the performance of a lifetime. Let's see if I could act to save my life.

"What do you mean? Is there numbness?" The nurse rushed over and started touching my legs. I took great effort not to react. "You're not feeling anything?"

The kidnapper was laser-focused on me; he was boring into my peripheral vision.

I shook my head at the nurse. "In fact, I've been holding my pee in forever, because it's um...uncomfortable using the bedpan." I flashed a glance toward the kidnapper.

I wasn't completely lying about that. I was on the verge of pissing myself because I refused to use the bedpan with him staring at me, so there wasn't a lot of acting involved in that part, except I had to fight the urge to shake my legs.

"Oh, that's not good, must be a kidney issue. Let me see what happens when you try to stand." She wrapped her arms around me, and I imagined that I'd caught a cramp in both legs which had now gone dead. I fell, and it was dramatic as hell.

The kidnapper was scowling at me, and he was trying his best to make eye contact with me. I was doing everything in my power to avoid that eye contact.

I hissed, wincing as pressure built in my bladder, pushing up against my urethra. "Any minute now, I'm about to start spraying pee everywhere."

"Would you like me to ask him to leave so you can use the bedpan in private?" she asked.

"I'd appreciate that, but for the sake of not raining all over this room, can you please help me to the toilet!" I gasped, clenching my walls until the liquid found another escape, through my eyes.

"Sir, please step out of the room and give this woman some privacy," she spoke over her shoulders while hobbling with me to the toilet.

Unable to find a convincing reason to stay, he acquiesced. As soon as he was out of earshot, I took my chances.

"My name is Lily Thornbread, and that man is my kidnapper," I whispered as low as I could manage over the emptying of my bladder.

Her cheeks reddened, but she didn't look at me.

"How are your legs feeling now?" she asked.

I blanked, forgetting all about my legs. Did she even hear what I said?

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