Chapter Four
Tess
“He’s coming,” I whispered.
Zag had spent most of the morning slowly moving around the basement, trying to find a way out.
There wasn’t. At least one that was obvious.
I had done the same thing as him when I was first thrown in here.
Zag moved back over to me. “Stay quiet,” he whispered.
That would be more than easy for me.
When Malcom had taken me, I had tried to protest and plead with him, but he had mocked me severely when my stuttered tripped me up. I hadn’t spoken to him since.
“Knock, knock,” Malcom called.
Zag scoffed.
I listened to the four locks on the door click and spin, and then the door swung open. A cast of light shown around Malcom, and he reached for the light switch on the outside of the door. “Miss me?” he cackled. He flicked on the light, and I placed my hand over my eyes. I longed for the light, but I could barely open my eyes for the few minutes I had it.
I felt Zag shift next to me.
“Tut, tut,” Malcom scolded. “I wouldn’t take one more step if I were you, pretty boy.”
I squinted hard and tipped my head back. Zag stood next to me with his hands in the air.
Malcom stood in the doorway with a gun pointed at Zag. That wasn’t all that had stopped Zag.
Strapped to Malcom’s chest was a black vest with wires running along it that led to some type of explosive.
This was new.
The times that he had come into the basement, he had just pointed a gun at me and ridiculed me the whole time.
“Why the fuck are you doing this?” Zag growled.
“As if you don’t fucking know,” Malcom laughed flatly. “The Devil’s Knights think they are fucking gods, and I’m going to be the one to take you guys out one by one.” A snide smirk spread across his lips. “You already know I’ve started.”
“You’re not going to get away with this. You know the club is turning Rockton apart looking for me.”
Malcom tipped his head to the side. “I guess it’s a good thing we aren’t in Rockton, then.”
“They’re still going to find you. “
“So confident,” Malcom mocked. “But I don’t think that is going to happen. Not even with that detective and Green Giant leading the way.”
Huh?
“You’re a dead man, West,” Zag growled.
“No, you’re a dead man.” Malcom turned and grabbed a paper bag from the doorway. “Enjoy that. It may be your last meal.” He tossed the bag on the floor and stepped back. He flipped off the lights and slammed the door shut.
“SON OF A BITCH!” Zag rushed to the door and pounded his fist on it.
Malcom laughed loudly on the other side of the door as he flipped the locks. “Fucking barbarian.”
We were back in the darkness and not closer to getting out of here.
Hell, the sack of food could be our last meal, according to Malcom.
I cautiously scooted forward to the area where Malcom had tossed the bag and blindly searched for it. My hand hit the paper, and I grabbed it.
“Where are you?” Zag asked. “My eyes haven’t adjusted to the darkness yet.
“I g-g-grabbed the b-bag,” I stuttered. I scooted back until my back hit the wall.
“Are you back to where we were?” he asked. “Tap the wall or something,” he instructed.
I tucked the bag between my legs and hit my fist on the wall.
I heard him shuffle across the floor, and then his hand was on top of my head. “Sorry.”
I ducked my head to the side and reached up for his hand. “S-sit.” I tugged on his hand.
“What the fuck are we going to do, Tess?” he sighed. He slid down the wall of the basement and sat next to me.
We needed to eat and try to keep our strength up. “Eat.” I opened the bag and hesitantly reached inside. Each time Malcom had dropped a bag, I was always wary of what could be in there.
My fingers wrapped around something round, and I pulled it out. It felt like an apple.
“What if he put something in the food, Tess?” he asked.
I had thought of that, too. The first time he had given me food, I hadn’t touched it. The next day when he came in with another bag, he was so mad that I hadn’t eaten the food from the day before.
Was he mad that I didn’t eat because he was trying to poison me? I wasn’t sure.
After three days of not eating, I had been so hungry that I ate what he had given me. I figured I had two choices. Die from starvation or poisoning.
It was all pretty stale, but I didn’t get sick.
“You need to s-stay strong.” I pressed my hand toward him until I hit his chest. “Eat.”
He grabbed the apple from me and grunted. “I’m not weak, Tess. I’m fucking pissed.”
I reached into the bag again and grabbed a plastic bag with a smushed sandwich. “Then eat and be p-p-pissed.”
“We have to figure out how we are going to get out of here,” he insisted.
I pushed the sandwich into his chest, or what I thought was his chest.
“You’re gonna force me to eat, aren’t you?” he laughed. He grabbed the sandwich from me, and I dropped my hand.
“Yes.”
The plastic of the sandwich crumpled. “After we eat, we need to try to get up to the window,” he mused. “Maybe we can get the boards off it and climb out.”
I hoped we could do that, but I wasn’t really hopeful.
I opened my sandwich and took a few bites before Zag started talking.
“You think he made these sandwiches and then stood on them for two hours?” Zag smacked his lips. “Is there anything to drink in the bag?” he asked.
I pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to him. “Here.”
Zag reached around until his hand collided with mine. “You don’t realize how much you appreciate light until you don’t have it anymore,” he mused.
He cracked open the bottle, and I listened to him take a long drink.
“There is o-o-only one bot-t-tle.”