By then it’d be too late. I’d have died from heat stroke in his trunk. He wouldn’t have to kill me directly.
The arm linked around my throat tightened again, cutting off my air supply. I instinctively grabbed his arm and tugged at it. He loosened it again, and I gasped in a breath.
I realized too late to do anything about it that he’d used it as a way to distract me while he grabbed something from the trunk.
“Hold out your hands, crossed at the wrists and knuckles together.”
For one breath, I considered fighting him, but those few seconds without air had been enough. He was too strong. I wouldn’t be able to break free.
I held out my wrists and he locked a zip tie around them. It cut into my skin, and an ache spread down into my hands.
What kind of a man carries zip ties around in his trunk? a hysterical little voice in my head shouted.
But I knew. The kind who wanted Ahanti, believed she belonged to him, and was going to do whatever it took to make that happen. In his delusional world, she loved him. She just didn’t realize it yet. He must have planned to take her back to his apartment or somewhere else he’d set up for them and keep her until she realized it.
Today had probably been the planned day. With Terrance out of the way, he would have expected them to be alone in the studio.
Eddie dropped his grip on my throat and tipped me into the trunk in one move. My head smacked into something solid, and the air rushed from my lungs. Before I could grab a full breath, the trunk slammed shut.
Darkness blocked my eyes, and sweat beaded on my upper lip and forehead. Even though the side street where Eddie had parked was in partial shade, it still had to be well over 100 degrees in the trunk. The air was stuffy, clogging my nose and my throat.
The cautions on TV and the radio about leaving pets and children in a car on a hot day said they had about ten minutes before the temperatures in the car reached 160 degrees or more, even with the windows cracked. I didn’t have a window cracked in here.
Think, think, think.
Eddie hit a clicker to unlock and pop his trunk. That meant his car was newish. All cars made after 2001 were supposed to have a safety release in the trunk. My parents had once defended a kidnapper in a case where they argued that the victim should have been able to free herself if she’d wanted to for that very reason.
The safety release was supposed to glow in the dark.
It wasn’t anywhere from my waist down.
I wriggled around, but the trunk was tiny. I wasn’t quite in the fetal position, but it came close. From the corner of my eye, I spotted the tiny glow back above my head. There was no way I was going to be able to get my hands behind my head to reach the release as long as they were tied together.
I’d give a lot right now to tell my parents how flawed their argument had been. The poor kidnapped woman could have been zip tied like I was or duct taped or tied with a rope.
They’d won that case.
“Focus, Nicole.” My voice sounded muffled even to me, like the small space shrunk it somehow.
I strained against the zip ties. Numbness flooded my fingers.
Bad idea. Not only was I not going to be able to break out of them that way, but I might cut off my circulation.
I slithered my hands around, but Eddie had been careful. I was too tightly bound to wriggle a hand loose.
My purse was back in Skin Canvas…or more precisely, probably out in the dumpster behind Skin Canvas, along with my phone by now, since Eddie’s story was going to be that I’d left to take a call. If I’d had it, I might have been able to get out my fingernail cutters.
I moved my hands along as much of the trunk as I could. It was smooth to the touch. Nothing remotely sharp enough to cut through plastic. Trying to chew my way through would only break my teeth.
Tears pressed at the back of my throat and clogged my nose even more. This was both the right time for tears and the worst possible time.
Literally the only tool I had was my shoe laces. They seemed like they’d be better to tie something with than to cut something with, but they were nylon, like the leashes Mandy now had a vendetta against.
That might mean my nylon laces would also be abrasive enough to create the friction needed to snap the zip ties.
I squirmed around, bringing my knees up closer into my chest, and reached my fingers as far as they would go. They brushed the edge of a lace.
I strained further, every muscle in my body pleading with me to stop. I pinched one end between my pointer and middle finger and moved along until I had the other lace end trapped in my other hand. When I released the bow, I’d need to have hold of both ends.
The bow gave way.
My tongue felt thick in my mouth, and my shirt was so damp against my body that it felt like it was trying to smother me. The car around me seemed to be moving, swaying, even though I knew it was standing still. I didn’t have long before I’d pass out in the heat. I used to think freezing to death was the worst possible way to go. I’d been wrong. At least when I’d been close to hypothermia, I’d felt drowsy, not sick to my stomach and dizzy the way I did now.
Sirens carried faintly from a distance, coming closer. For the first time in my life, I wished telepathy was a real thing. Then I could mentally message the officers to come find me. I was here.
I let out a breath. I couldn’t let my mind wander.
I maneuvered one end of the shoelace up until I had it between my teeth. My fingers were so weak and numb I could barely tie the knot.
The driver’s door slammed, and I jerked. The lace slid through my fingers. Thankfully, I’d already completed the knot.
Eddie shouldn’t have been back, but no one else would be climbing into his car. Had he managed to convince Ahanti to come with him? He could have talked her into letting him drive her home while Lucas looked for me, assuming they’d discovered I was missing.
I hadn’t heard voices.
Then again, I hadn’t heard him coming back at all.
The car engine roared to life.
