Page 45 of Hush Darling
Chapter 9
Black Waters
Wendy’s blood-curdling scream ripped through the night as she stared into the sinister eyes of a pock-marked face covered in tattoos. Beyond the labyrinth of black ink, hung dreadlocks as thick as snakes.
His hand covered her mouth as a gun clicked by her ear. “One more scream like that, and it’ll be your last, understand?”
She nodded frantically, her heart racing so fast she could barely speak. Eyes wild, she spotted the silhouette of distant figures falling to the ground. This was no hallucination. Masked men infested the beaches, and no one was coming to help her.
The frightening man jerked her around to face the water. His powerful hands trapped her arms at her back in an unbreakable grip as he fastened her wrists in coarse rope. It was so surreal she hardly protested, her mind lost in a drugged haze and her instincts traveling too slowly to her brain.
“Time to go.” The wind knocked out of her lungs as she was hoisted onto his shoulder. Before she knew what was happening, they were soaring off the cliff and flying toward the jagged rocks below.
“I can’t swim!”
“Then you better hope I don’t let go.”
A shot echoed through the air just as frigid water closed around her. His shoulder lodged under her ribs, shoving the air from her lungs, then she broke the surface as he pushed her upward.
“Help—mph!” Tossed roughly into a small rowboat, she winced as pain shot through her bound arms and skull.
“What did I say about screaming?”
She tried to scramble back, but there was nowhere to go on the small boat and her tethered arms made it impossible to escape. He grabbed her by the silk of her nightgown and yanked her forward. Darkness blinded her as a burlap sack was shoved over her head, making it hard to breathe.
Panting frantically, she tried to sit up only to get shoved back down.
“Stay put.” The tiny craft wobbled wildly, and she feared they might capsize.
The clatter of oars sliding through the holds met the lapping water. Where was he taking her? In only a short minute, the screams of the lagoon were distant whispers, and her panicked breathing and the pounding of her heart became all she could hear.
When he grabbed her again, she kicked, the heel of her bare foot connecting with something that felt like a jaw.
“Little bitch!”
He roughly yanked her off the floor of the boat, and she screamed, kicking wildly. Then, she was shoved forward with no way to catch her fall. Her foot tripped over something, and she stumbled. Once more, the frigid water pulled her under as true fear set in. He yanked her to the surface by her bound arms.
“See what you’ve done!”
The wet sack over her head made it impossible to breathe, and he yanked it off her head.
“Please!” she sputtered. “I can’t swim!” She didn’t stand a chance of surviving the water with her arms tied.
“Are you going to behave?”
“Yes, I’ll be good.” Ice filled her veins as she shivered and begged for mercy. “Please, don’t put me in the water again.”
“Quiet!” he snapped, rowing them further out to sea. Soon, the sloshing of the water became all she could hear until he finally said, “We’re here.”
She looked up as a black wall blocked her view of the sky. They were at the ship.
Her teeth chattered. “What happens now?”
“You shut your mouth and do exactly as I say.” He yanked her forward, banding a thick arm under her waist as he carried her like a rag doll.
Their craft wobbled precariously, and the blood rushed to her head as she feared falling into the water again. He climbed up a rope ladder with one arm as he held her in the other, and soon, the water was two stories below.
She was tossed onto another hard surface, and pain radiated up her arms. “Asshole!”
