Page 43 of For the Birds

I had several things to my advantage. One, even though the room was dark, the light from the warehouse streamed through the window, giving me enough light to see I was in an office. Two, my hands were bound in front of me, which meant I could use them. Three, I was pissed as hell, and I was fighting my way out ofhere.

I had no idea how long I had until someone came back, so I got to work right away, ignoring the pain in my shoulder and head. I yanked the cloth wrapped around my mouth down over my chin and pulled the nasty rag out of my mouth. Then I crawled across the room to the desk, got to my knees, and opened the closest drawer. I could barely see the contents, but I felt around and found paper clips, ink pens, Post-it notes . . . scissors.

I nearly cried with relief as I pulled them out. Sitting on the floor, I turned the scissors so they were pointing toward me, but my hands were too shaky to get a good hold on them. I closed my eyes and forced myself to take a breath and calm down. I needed to be level-headed. The panic wasn’t helping.

After several cleansing breaths, I opened my eyes and focused on the task at hand, cutting through the tape with agonizing slowness. They must have been given an impressive budget for the tape, judging by how much they’d used to bind my hands and feet. As soon as I made it halfway through, I slammed my hands down several times on my upright knees to break through the rest. I didn’t waste any time before snagging the scissors again and cutting through the tape at my ankles. Once I was free, I scrambled to my feet and reached for the doorknob. Locked.

Nowwhat?

There was only one answer, really. Call James.

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and pressed his speed dial number. Hopefully the single bar of service on my screen would be enough.

“Malcolm,” he barked in a harsh voice, obviously still pissed at me since he had my number programmed into his phone.

To my irritation, I started to cry when I heard his voice. “James.”

“Rose?” His anger instantly gave way to panic. “Are you in trouble?”

“Two guys knocked me out and stuffed me in a trunk. And now I’m in an office in a warehouse.” I was babbling like a fool, and I needed to pull myself together. Just because I’d gotten a hold of James didn’t mean I was safe. “They know I’mLady.”

“Who? What warehouse?”

“I don’t know.” I looked around the room, but there were no hints as to my location.

“You’re breakingup.”

I glanced at my phone. “I only have onebar.”

“Try to pull up your map app. If it will open, we can figure out where youare.”

Why hadn’t I thought of that? I opened the app, frustrated by the spinning wheel. “The page won’t load. I don’t have enough service.”

“That’s okay,” he said in a deceptively calm voice. “We can still figure it out. Tell me what yousee.”

“I’m locked in an office with a window overlooking the interior of the empty warehouse.”

“There’s nothing in it atall?”

“No. Nothing other than the car they brought me in. It’s some kind of dark sedan, older. The warehouse doesn’t look brand new; it’s not all that old either.”

“Jed,” he barked. “An empty warehouse in Fenton County that’s in decent shape. Nothin’ stored init.”

Jed? What was Jed doing there? Why wasn’t he with NeelyKate?

There was silence for a second; then I heard Jed’s muffled voice. “There’s nothin’ like that in Fenton County.”

I wasn’t in Fenton County. Where was I? Fear swamped myhead.

“Rose,” James said in his cool-as-a-cucumber voice. “You said they put you in the trunk of a car. How long were you in there?”

“I don’t know,” I said, trying to catch my breath. “They knocked me out. I didn’t come to until I was almosthere.”

“Okay. Listen to me. We’re gonna come get you, but you have to look around and tell me what yousee.”

I sucked in a breath, willing myself to stay calm, and did as he’d asked. “There’s a desk in front of a window, but there’s no chair. The calendar on the bulletin board is two yearsold.”

“That’s good. The warehouse hasn’t been used in two years. What else do you see? Is there writing at the top of the calendar?”

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