“Right. Okay. Okay, alright,” she says, her voice getting excited, as if she’s just had a good thought. “If we work together, we might unfasten these bonds if they’re just ropes.”
“You were drugged when they tied you up, and I don’t remember when they tied me up, but if I was tensing in any way when they did, or fighting, if I relax in the restraints, they’ll likely be looser.”
She nods. “Okay, alright. That’s a good plan.”
“They did a shit job here. My legs are free, you?”
“Yeah, same.”
“So all we’ve got is our hands tied together and something holding us together. Remember that. Your untied legs are your best weapon. Actually, any freedom of movement you have at all is.”
I can feel her straining as she looks over her shoulder. “There’s only one tie that’s binding us together.”
“Right. Good. Okay, so you can’t move your hands in front of you if you’ve got them behind your back, and I can’t either. But if we unfasten the short rope tying us together—”
“We can undo each other’s wrists,” she finishes.
“Exactly.”
“Okay, so I’m gonna go slack. You go slack, too, and let’s see if that loosens the bonds at all.”
“Right.”
My heart beats faster as her body gentles against mine, going limp. I relax as much as I can, my body loose and slack. The ropes around my wrists feel looser.
“I get more slack that way,” she says, so low I can barely hear her. “Definitely. I’m gonna try to see if there’s any difference in the two bonds. See if I can’t distinguish them.”
I thread my fingers over rough rope, touching my wrists first. Hard, thick rope binds my wrists together, and I can’t get much more than my thumb across one. But I can feel her hands up against mine, and it’s easier to feel the rope along her wrist. As I wriggle, finding the rope, I feel something around my waist.
“Wait,” I whisper. She freezes. “Got another one around my waist. Looser. You?”
She sighs a second later. “Yeah. Me, too.”
“It’s alright, we might be able to use that one to our advantage.” I can already see the asshole who came in here wriggling and kicking for his life as I use the rope around our bellies to strangle the life out of him. It would be a much better weapon than the thick rope around our wrists. Suppler, easier to hide.
“Oooh,” she whispers. “It’s coming loose, the one tying us together. I don’t think they did a good job tying them.”
Likely criminals, not Boy Scouts, and tying ropes isn’t in their bag of tricks. Probably thought they’d get Gray and Vivia but didn’t count on taking a two-hundred-fifty-pound guy like me with them.
“Okay, good.”
“The longer length is at your side, can you feel it?”
It takes long minutes, we curse up a blue streak, and when we’re finished, she’s panting and sweat pours down my face in rivulets, but the rope tying us together falls to the floor. We can tell it is the same as they used around our waists, so once that’s gone, all that remains is the tie around our wrists.
“Come here.”
I swivel, still held back a bit by the rope, but not enough that I can’t strain against them to reach her. “Let me get the transponder out.”
“Can you please just take the ropes off my wrists first? I don’t relish the thought of you coming anywhere near my breasts.”
I can’t help myself. I grin in the darkness.
“Afraid I’ll turn you on, baby?”
She curses like a sailor.
“Shh, now. Words like that shouldn’t come out of the mouth of a pretty girl like you.” I shake my head. “Could take a long time to get our wrists unfastened, and we want to send that signal as soon as possible.”