Tease Me (Private Listing #4)

How much time do I have? I strain against the rope, but there’s no give.

I hear him moving around in the other room, then the sound of dragging. Turning my head, I can’t see through the doorway. I’ve got to keep trying, so I lift my arms and feel the rope shift up. A little bit of hope jolts through me.

Okay, I can work with that.

The dragging continues along with grunts from Patrick. Hunter was not a small man, so I imagine it will take Patrick some time to do whatever he plans to do with the body.

I shrug and scoot down while pulling my arms up against the rope. Little by little, the rope slides up until it reaches my breasts.

The front door opens. My breath catches and I wait as the beep fills the house. I lift my arms and feel the rope, hoping to find the knot. The door slams shut. After a few minutes, a car starts up and drives away.

Okay, I need to get Anna and me out of this. We can go hide in the woods until someone finds us. I don’t know what he injected me with. For all I know, it will paralyze me or put me to sleep.

Fuck, I’m running out of time. “Anna! Anna!”

Please hear me. My pulse races.

“Madison! I can’t get out of the room.”

My head slumps. Of course, he locked the room or blocked the door. That asshole thinks of everything. Dammit, there has to be something I can do besides wait for the drugs to kick in.

My legs! The chair I’m on is wood, maybe I can break the chair if it falls on the ground. I could also knock myself out. I blow out a breath.

I can’t give up. I have to try something. Anything. How long do we have before he returns?

Fuck it. I scoot the chair back slightly so I can get my legs up. Putting my feet on the edge of the table, I take in a breath, tuck my chin, and push back quickly. The chair tips and I brace for impact.

The fall knocks the wind out of me. For a second, I lie there before I gasp in a breath. I try to shift to see if that loosened the rope or broke some part of the chair.

Hope flares in my chest. But then it dies. It’s not any looser. Fuck.

I glance toward the living room and see the blood streaked across the floor. Yeah, not staying here with a killer determined to rape me. No matter what he says or what drugs he puts in me, it will still be rape.

I wiggle up and slide higher on the chairback some. Okay, if I can’t get the rope off me, maybe I can get it off the chair.

Millimeter by millimeter I work myself up the chair. A distant whop-whop sound comes closer and then stops some distance away.

“That sounded like a helicopter,” Anna yells. “Madison? Are you still there?”

“Yeah,” I strain out as I shimmy on the floor. My blood is pounding. “I’m almost free.”

Well, sort of free. I roll onto my side off the chair and my vision blurs, making my head spin. I stay still for a moment while it passes. Fuck, I don’t have time for this. Without my hands, it’s hard to sit up and it takes me a few minutes.

My head swims more and my muscles tense. I feel like I drank an espresso or five.

I get my knees beneath me and struggle to my feet. With my arms tied, I lurch to the doorway. I just have to get to Anna. She can help me if she’s free. Then I can let my body do what it wants.

My heart is pounding so hard as I push off the doorway and sway my way across the living room. My foot slips on something and I look down at the streak of shiny red. My stomach lurches. The color is mesmerizing. Can’t think about that now. My vision blurs and my hands shake.

I move, because I need to move. When I get to the hallway, I pull the chair out of the way of the door and lean against the wall.

“Anna.” My heart races and I feel sick to my stomach and sweaty.

Anna opens the door and glances around me.

“Madison? Are you okay? Where’s Patrick?” Anna turns me and works on the rope.

“He drugged me. We should go.” I press my face against the cool wall. Fuck, that feels good.