He stared at the hole in the roof where the sky was turning a pewter gray that reminded him of Nathan's eyes when he was turned on. Oh, God, he was dying and thinking of fucking Nathan instead of how to get the hell out of this mess. He should have called this in hours ago. No one knew where they were.
"Hey, buddy," the sky said from above. The sky became a face. Like Deputy Dawg … but uglier. Drew had a thing for redneck boys when he was a kid. This guy was not … thing-worthy. He had all of his teeth, but he didn't seem to have all of his marbles. "Got your bell rung, did ya?"
"Motherfucker, what the fuck?" Drew said, hearing Spanish come out of his mouth when he'd meant it to be English. He tried to reach out to punch the fucker when his good-natured grin turned into burning hatred, but he couldn't. He seemed to be lying on his arms. Worse, they seemed to be bound together.
"Yeah, you're not going anywhere. The missus has a thing for your kind … she lets me have my fun after she's had hers." The dude was bigger than he looked. He hauled Drew off the ground with one hand. Drew kicked, or tried to kick, his ankles didn't want to separate. "You were out long enough to hog-tie your ass. No use fighting, Pedro."
"Fucking asshole, what … hell … you hit me with?" Drew struggled for the two seconds he was on his feet. The world tipped over again and he was floating. His brain was already floaty enough. He tried not to vomit.
"A shovel. You was snooping around my property. I got rights. Be happy I didn't have the shotgun. The missus had it. She doesn't miss."
The ground floated beneath him making him dizzy. He closed his eyes and let his head drop, his forehead bounced against the dude's ass. It was a big ass. That belonged to a big fucker. Almost as big as Nathan. Maybe bigger. Jesus. Where the fuck was Nathan?
"We'll find him, don't you worry your pretty head about that." That wasn't the redneck dude speaking. "It's time we meet again, anyway. I was getting really tired of ducking into stores when I see him coming." She walked up close, Drew liked her shoes. How many women wore gold strappy high heels to a kidnapping?
He cried out as her hand snaked through his hair to yank his head up. He bit his lip to keep from crying out again. She crouched in front of his face, her red lipsticked lips pulled back in a smile so wide it reminded him of … Oh, God. "He's not going to be happy about this … Tori."
She dropped his head. His forehead thudded against redneck Bubba's ass. "Like I give a shit what makes my ex-husband happy besides having dicks stuck up his ass. He means nothing to me."
"Then why did you pick his hometown to go on a killing spree, if you didn't want his attention?" Drew said, knowing he was just going to make her angry. Maybe if he made her angry enough, Nathan would have time to get off a couple of shots.
"What the hell is he talking about, Victoria? I thought I was your first husband," Bubba Dawg said in his not-too-bright Bubba voice, as if maybe, just maybe, he was starting to think this all through. Maybe Bubba Dawg would drop him and …
"What does it matter? You don't like sex anyway. And I give you pretty men to practice your art on." Victoria slapped the man on his ass, her long nails grazing Drew's cheek as she did so. "Now let's get him inside. We don't need him being rescued. Make sure he can't escape. Check on the other one. I'll get the gun and make Nathan Truman rue the day he had our marriage annulled."
Drew felt the world spin out of control, literally and figuratively, in every way possible, and choked back the bile rising in his throat. If he threw up now, he'd drown.
The sweet heat of twilight gave way to the dark stench of a long unused cavern. The door slamming behind him closed out the world and the air giving way to the decaying scent of rotting building … and flesh.
Death lived in this place.
He wasn't going to die in this hell. Not while Nathan was out there.
"There are federal agents on their way as we speak." He remembered that he was a fucking cop when he hit the floor in a room that was considerably cooler than the cave they'd gone through, but the stench of blood only grew stronger.
"You boys went past to the plant a couple of hours ago. Unless you called from out there, ain't nobody coming. This whole area is a cell dead zone in every direction. And I don't see no radio antennae on that pickup. Nope, y'all are out here on your own. Nobody knows where you are, and that truck is about to disappear, same as the other'n."