Page 43 of Cole: Bloodlines
The panic coiling in Maddy’s gut seemed to know the answer.
“Aren’t you supposed to be on a date with your girlfriend?”
The panic coiled tighter. “How do you know that?”
The stranger gave a casual shrug. “I pay attention,” he said. “Do you usually come home so early from a date? My guess is, no. So, why would your dads be expecting you?”
Maddy took another step back. Cory had trained him to fight—and he’d proven his abilities when he kicked Byrd’s ass—but even if this man didn’t have a gun, Maddy wasn’t confident he could take him. A man of his size and weight could overpower him if he made one wrong move. Still, he would fight… if not for the gun.
Studying him, seeming to read his thoughts, the man drew the weapon, erasing Maddy’s option to defend himself. “Let’s go for a little ride, shall we?” The man grinned, and Maddy’s panic shot through the roof. “You look like someone I want toget to know…” His eyes trailed up and down Maddy’s body. “… intimately.”
Terror mixed with his panic, concocting a powerful bout of nausea. Maddy wanted to puke. What if he vomited on the man—he wouldn’t be expecting that. But somehow his stomach resisted despite the rise of bile in the back of his throat.
“Come on, let’s go.” The man waved the gun, keeping it low and practically out of sight in case of passing cars.
Maddy couldn’t move; fear rooted his feet to the sidewalk, freezing him in place. He suddenly felt like the vulnerable little kid from his years with Wade, except now… Angel wasn’t here to protect him. Tears filled his eyes, and he felt angry at himself—ashamed for being so weak and scared. What would he do if Savannah were there with him? Would he cry and whimper? Or fucking do something to save her?
But she wasn’t there, and he felt scared—terrified—and he couldn’t stop the tears.
“Seriously, kid?” The man spoke low, almost disappointed, as if experiencing secondhand embarrassment for Maddy. “Tears? Come on. You’re practically a man.”
For a while, Maddy had felt like a man. Until the island. Since then, he’d been trapped in that vulnerable state of mind where fear was a constant shadow, and panic was always right there, ready to surge to the surface at any moment, whether or not he was in actual danger.
“Come on, then.” The man waved the gun again, and this time Maddy moved as the stranger directed him to a white van parked along the side street, cloaked in darkness.
The inside of the van smelled of stale cigarettes and rotted pine needles, the pungent odor courtesy of the pine tree air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror. The man cuffed Maddy’s hands behind his back, duct-taped his mouth, and pulled a cloth bag over his head.
“Comfy?” A grin strained the man’s voice. Maddy flinched when he gripped his knees and slid his hands along the boy’s thighs. Maddy whimpered behind the gag and shook his head, trying to scoot away. The man’s heavy body leaned against him as he pressed his mouth to Maddy’s ear through the bag. “There’s nowhere to run, pretty boy.” The sexual rasp in his voice ignited another level of panic. “You’re all mine, now. And I’m going to take my time with you. You’re going to feel every inch of me… over and over… until you’re nothing but a raw, bloody hole.”
Maddy whimpered sharply and jerked away. The man chuckled and withdrew. A moment later, the van started and pulled away from the curb. Maddy curled onto his side on the floor of the cargo space, his breath coming rapidly and unevenly as tears ran down his face.
I’m gonna die… and no one’s gonna know what happened to me.
Not his dads. Not Savannah. Not… Angel.
He would just be… gone.
•••
The room was dark except for a tiny light near the base of the exit door, no bigger than a nightlight and just as faint. It offered no real visibility but stood as a beacon in the otherwise suffocating darkness—something to focus on to fend off the claustrophobia always lurking in the back of his mind, ready to trigger panic and impair his breathing.
During his training, he’d often been placed in “suffocating” holds to teach him how to control his panic, breathe through it, and stay in control. When he was brought into this room and locked in the cage, the panic had already taken hold and controlled his mind and body. Even before this room, before hisabduction, the panic was constantly clawing at the edge of his mind. All his “training” had done little to help him fight it.
And it wasn’t helping now.
He would die here—rapedand murdered. The man who regularly checked on him had made it clear he was going to fuck him. Each time he returned to the room, the only question was,Will this be the time?
The room had no windows and no way to track the passing of time. He didn’t know if the man was returning hourly or daily. He drifted in and out of consciousness, mostly trying to sleep to escape the nightmare of being awake. It felt like days had gone by, maybe weeks, but he didn’t think it was that long. Still, he couldn’t be sure.
What did my dads do when I didn’t come home? What about Savannah?She was worried about him when he headed home. Surely, she knew by now that he hadn’t made it. And Angel? He would freak out.
Maddy lay on his side, his cheek pressed against the floor of the cage, and stared at the tiny light. He’d been sleeping to escape the nightmare, but now he didn’t know if this cage was the waking nightmare… or a sleeping nightmare. Maybe he had made it home and was caught in one of those weird dreams that felt real. It was hard to think straight, and he wondered if the man had been drugging him. But how? He wasn’t giving him water or food.
Maybe it was in the air—some kind of gas pumped into the room through vents. Even if he knew that for sure, he couldn’t fight it; he couldn’t just stop breathing.
A violent shiver ran through Maddy’s body. He had been stripped down to his underwear before being locked in the cage. When the man took his clothes, Maddy nearly went catatonic from the sheer panic and terror of being raped. The fear was so overwhelming that he couldn’t breathe for a few moments.
His kidnapper had fondled him while Maddy squeezed his eyes shut and sobbed. But he hadn’t done anything else to him, not even... what the hunter had done to him on the island. But he would, and it would be so much worse than what the hunter did.
