Page 12 of Shadowed Rubies
I nodded, even though I was silently praying that it wouldn’t come to that.
Molly evidently didn’t want to leave him in his lair where he might be able to find something to help him escape because she instructed him to slowly walk outside. She stayed out of his reach, but nearby, and I walked directly behind him with the knife ready to gouge at him at the first sign of any attempt to get away.
Molly found a white birch tree just outside the cave and ordered Kevin to sit down and wrap his legs around it. When he complied, she instructed me, “Stand right behind him while I zip tie his ankles, if he makes any sudden movements, stab him in his ear. Yes?”
I nodded, clutching the knife in my fist.
The next few moments seemed to move in slow motion, even though it was probably only a fraction of a second. As Molly stooped to wrap the piece of plastic around Kevin’s leg, he kicked her in the head––hard.
I lunged forward, intent on stopping him. Every instinct was telling me to stab him in the ear, like Molly had instructed, but at the last moment, I turned the blade and sliced it downward––taking a large chunk of his ear off.
Kevin howled in pain and tried, unsuccessfully, to raise his shoulder up to his ear. His bound hands meant he didn’t have a way to cover his open wound. I had startled and injured him, but he wasn’t unconscious and his feet were still loose.
Unsure what else to do, I held the knife near his jugular and said through gritted teeth, “You try anything like that again, and I’ll kill you. Got it?”
He remained silent, so I shouted, “Got it?!?”
At this, he nodded. I took that as a good sign.
Pausing for a moment to assess the situation, I realized that he had knocked Molly out with the kick of his boot against her head. “Molly?” I asked tentatively, but the woman didn’t stir.
My eyes frantically searched the area, but I didn’t see an easy way out of this predicament if Molly didn’t wake up. I needed to hold the knife at Kevin’s throat to keep him from attacking me, but I also needed to secure the zip tie around his legs. I was certain that if I tried to do it without Molly’s help that he would manage to kick and knock me out as well.
Realizing that my options were severely limited, I shouted the word that I normally had absolutely no use for, but suddenly seemed to find befitting my life. “Fuck!”
“No,” Kevin warned me sternly through gritted teeth. Apparently, the man saw nothing wrong with taking women hostage and holding them against their will, but he found cussing to be crossing the line.
Almost as if the f-word had been a frantic prayer, I suddenly saw the solution, and it was just barely out of reach. I stretched my leg out behind me, trying not to make my movement too obvious, since I didn’t want Kevin to figure out what I was up to.
I couldn’t reach the rock. Tentatively turning to get a better look at it, I realized that it would make the perfect weapon. It was big enough to do some damage, without being so huge that it would instantly kill the big lug.
Not seeing another alternative, I slid the knife from the front of Kevin’s neck. His head turned to the side as if he was trying to see what I was up to.
“Don’t move,” I sneered near his bleeding ear. “I have the knife pointed at the base of your spine, and I think you know I’m not afraid to use it.”
I hoped that my voice sounded more assured than I felt. This was a harebrained scheme if ever there was one, but it was the best idea I had at the moment.
Since I couldn’t reach the rock, I needed to move away from Kevin to get it. I didn’t like not having the knife close enough to jab at him if he tried anything, but I didn’t see any other choice. Moving as stealthily as I was able, I stepped back to reach for the rock. Keeping the knife in my left hand and aimed at Kevin, I stooped down to pick up the rock with my right hand.
My eyes remained locked on Kevin’s back as my fingertips worked to get under the rock. It had obviously been in that spot for a long time because it wouldn’t budge.
When Kevin’s head began turning back toward me, I shouted, “Freeze!”
He must have been able to tell by the distance of my voice that I had moved away from him because he ignored my order and whirled around to face me. The fingers of my right hand scrambled to dig under the rock, but it was completely wedged into the earth.
Looking down to give the rock my full attention, I made a snap decision to slide the knife blade under the rock to loosen it. Hoping with all my might that I hadn’t just made a deadly error by using the weapon for this, rather than stabbing or cutting Kevin again––which didn’t seem to be slowing him down––I gritted my teeth and tried with all my might to loosen the stubborn rock.
I heard Kevin stumbling in my direction and knew he was close. Turning my head slightly to the side, I saw his giant boot rear back in preparation to kick me. Deciding it was now or never, and praying I had the rock loose enough for me to pick it up, I made my big move.
15
Max
Isprinted in the direction I thought the f-bomb had arisen from. It hadn’t sounded like my sister’s voice, but it had definitely been an angry woman, so I had to assume that was a good sign. I would find Molly and Dani furious, but safe. There wasn’t any other acceptable solution.
Moving some brush aside, I stepped into the clearing just in time to see Dani rise up as she whirled around and clocked Kevin Durley hard on the side of his head. The man had been rearing back to kick her and his hands were bound behind his back, so she caught him off balance. The blow made him fall backwards and land flat on his back, like a large fallen tree. I wisely resisted the urge to yell, “Timber!”
My sister did not have similar restraint. She leaned up onto her elbow and made the snarky comment.
