Page 22 of Capturing You
Voices carried through the metal door that locked her in. With them, sounds of scraping and sliding boxes.
The men out there were almost as terrifying as the pitch-black darkness.
Something tickled the back of her hand, and she wiped it over her jeans.
Ants? Spiders? Cockroaches?
Get me out of here. Lord, get me out of here!
Every cell in her body screamed for her to escape. To pound on the door. To risk whatever was out therein order to get away from the invisible threats in here.
But she held very, very still. Not thinking about the bugs crawling in her hair. Beneath her shirt. Up her leg.
Please, please…
“I’m telling you, there’s nobody here.” That was Ford.
“Then you’ve got nothing to hide.”
Footsteps on wood—they were going upstairs.
A door closed. Something moved on the ceiling over her head. Then nothing.
Silence.
For a long time. Too long.
What if something had happened to Ford? What if they hurt him, or killed him?
She needed to get out of there. Now. She needed to check on him and escape this tiny hole.
In the darkness, she opened her backpack and found her phone.
Powered it on.
Tried to dial 911. Better to have to fend off Lenny than to suffocate. She’d deal with him. She’d deal with the smugglers. Anything to get out of this box.
She stared at her phone screen, at the zero bars that showed she had no service.
Time ticked by, second by second. Minute by minute. It felt like hours passed before she heard footsteps again.
Ford?
Was he dead? Were the bad guys still looking for her?
A scraping sound, and then the metal door swung open.
She crawled out, lurched to her feet, and crashed into Ford. “Thank you. Thank God. Thank you.”
“Whoa.” He held her at arms’ length. “What’s wrong?”
She backed up to brush away the bugs she hoped she’d only imagined.
But there was a spider crawling up her jeans.
Squeaking, she smacked it, then smacked at more.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. Just…” Ford looked around, then crossed the room. He returned carrying a man’s button-down and a pair of shorts. “Take those clothes off and throw them in the wash. Put these on.”
