Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
I took a deep breath, then let it out. I wouldn’t panic. There had to be a reasonable explanation. I was a second-grade teacher at a Christian school in Mississippi. This kind of thing did not happen to me. My life was boring. I did not live in an episode of Criminal Minds.
Wait…
“Am I dreaming?” I asked aloud.
Oz looked annoyed by my question. As if he had the right to be annoyed. I’d just peed in a bucket and wiped with a piece of brown paper bag. I was the one who got to be annoyed. Besides, that was a legit question. It made more sense than anything else had so far.
“Don’t gulp down your water. That’s all you get today. Unless you have something to tell me that is worth another one,” Oz said, then stared at me, as if waiting for me to unleash the exact whereabouts of Perry.
I had nothing. If he was really gone…then he could be guilty of this. I knew Perry was a genius. I’d known that way before he was tested at twelve years old. But this other stuff sounded nothing like the man I knew. The boy I had grown up with, protected.
Would he have told Marley where he was?
Marley Luneze had taken both Perry and me in after my mother was found dead at the bottom of the apartment staircase one morning. She’d left in the middle of the night to go get more alcohol, and she fell. It had broken her neck. Instead of Perry and me being placed into the system at twelve and fourteen, respectively, our elementary school counselor, Miss Luneze, stepped in. When she had heard about Mom’s death, she had used her brother-in-law—the county judge—to help her get custody of us quickly.
I owed my college degree to her, even if my brother was the one who had paid off my loans. She’d helped me apply for a partial scholarship, cosigned my loans with me, taken me shopping for my dorm room. Marley was also the one who’d had Perry’s IQ tested, already guessing, like I had, that he was brilliant.
Oz turned then and began to walk away.
I gripped my water tighter. This was all I had for the day? I was so thirsty. I could drink this in three long gulps.
“I’m hungry!” I called out after his retreating form.
“I’m out four million dollars,” was his response as he continued to walk.
My stomach growled, making this all very real. This wasn’t a dream. I’d never been this hungry in a dream. Tears stung my eyes, and I fought them back again.
Perry would track me. He’d call me. When he got Oz on the phone, he would fix this.
But what if he couldn’t? What if he didn’t have their four million dollars? What if he’d messed up and he really ran off without a trace?
Fear began to spread through me slowly. I’d not truly felt in danger before, thinking it was a mistake. That Perry would come get me. He’d call the cops. Something. But now…now, I wasn’t so sure he could come get me. Even though he was brilliant, he was a small, petite man. He frightened easily. I’d always been the one to stand up for him, defend him. He’d never had to do that for me or anyone. Did he even know how?
The metal bars clicked closed.
I listened to the key turn the lock.
The light from his flashlight faded away, then disappeared.
What if Perry didn’t come back? What happened if they didn’t get their money back? Would I starve to death? Or would they do worse things to me? Perry wasn’t the protector. I was!
I sank down onto the chair as a single tear rolled down my face.
Perhaps I would go mad down here, all alone, before I starved to death. I wouldn’t care that I was dying if that happened because I would have lost my sanity. The darkness and solitude would eventually become too much. Or I could dehydrate.
I had rarely thought about my death. But when I had, this was not in the list of things I’d thought might kill me.
Six
Oz
July 9, 2025
I wasn’t sure if the plan was to kill the bastard or not when we found him, but if they didn’t want him dead, they were gonna have to hide him from me. Standing in the kitchen, I watched the damn clock as it passed the forty-eight-hour point since I’d arrived here with Winslet.
Where was the motherfucker? His sister needed to eat. She needed more water. She hadn’t eaten in so damn long that she wasn’t even shitting. I’d have smelled it if she had.
The sandwich I made myself with items from the well-stocked kitchen tasted like sandpaper. Eating while I had a woman starving in the basement was apparently an issue for me. Until now, I hadn’t realized how fucking weak I was when it came to torturing females. I’d never had to do it before. I hated it.