“You sure?”
Though my heart raced and my thoughts ran wild, I managed to provide a convincing smile. “Yes, I’m sure. I may be a coward, but I can’t keep you from helping other people. Now go. The sooner you leave, the faster you’ll get to come back.”
Cowboy slid off the bed and yanked on his jeans. He grabbed his shirt and hat and started to walk away, but then turned and came back. He clamped one brawny arm around my waist and lifted me high enough so that his mouth secured itself over mine. After a long, searing kiss, he pulled back and gave me a reassuring smile. “Well, I think you’re brave. Especially since, if you’d turned me down one more time yesterday, I was planning to wring your pretty little neck.” He winked at me, kissed the tip of my nose, and headed for the door. “When I get back, we’ll talk about your sleeping disorder.”
I hopped out of bed and raced into the living room, not bothering to turn on any lights. Didn’t matter, though. The glow from the computer screen in the other room gave off enough light to see Cowboy tearing off the top sheet of the notepad on my desk.
“I don’t have a sleeping disorder.”
He glared at me. “Darlin’, I’d love nothing more than to stand here and argue with you, but I have to go. We’ll argue when I get back. That way we can make up,” he said, shrugging his brows. Cowboy pecked me on the cheek and held up the piece of paper with Ned Swanson’s phone number written on it. “Thanks for this. I’ll call him on the way to the fire.” Cowboy headed for the door and called out, “I’ll be back soon. Lock the door behind me.”
The moment he walked out, I shut the front door behind him and flipped the deadbolt to the lock position. I walked toward the couch to grab the remote, planning to watch some TV until he returned.
But as I reached for it, the floor creaked behind me and fireworks exploded behind my eyes.
Chapter Eighteen
My eyes flickered open.
I blinked a few times to clear my blurry vision, until I finally made out a faint glow of light. My head pounded, but when I tried to reach up and touch it, I realized I couldn’t. My arms seemed somehow stuck behind my back. At first I thought I was paralyzed, but as I wriggled around, I felt the scratchy rope binding me twist painfully tighter.
Someone tied me up?
That knowledge sent a surge of fear running through me. I glanced around, searching for my captor, but all I could determine was that I was lying in a musty, hay-filled stall of an old, dilapidated barn, and there was no one in sight. As far as I could tell, I was completely alone.
That was, until someone banged loudly on something and a man’s gruff, stale voice rang out. “Fucking idiot.”
It sounded a little familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d heard it before.
Though the loud banging persisted, I couldn’t see the man. Only heard him swear occasionally under his breath. Quietly, I tried to maneuver into a sitting position, but couldn’t because my feet were bound, as well. Since I couldn’t see my captor, I hoped like hell he couldn’t see me—
Oh my God! I did recognize that voice. Dan, the not-exactly-homeless bum? But…why? What did he want with me?
Dread filled me, and my adrenaline kicked into high gear. Panicking, I rocked back and forth to gain enough momentum to allow me to sit up. But as I did, I knocked something over behind me in the process. The clanging noise echoed through the barn.
“Who’s there?” Dan called out.
Who’s there? Was he as deaf as he was blind? Or had he only pretended to be blind all along?
I shifted to see what made the noise, hoping to use the metal object as a weapon, but instead I gasped. An oil lantern sitting nearby had tipped over and leaked onto the ground, catching the musty hay on fire right next to me. Without shoes, I couldn’t stomp it out, but I managed to scoot away from it. Unfortunately, that frantic move only ended up shoving more moldy hay into the flames. The fire grew larger.
I rolled to my side, twisting and pulling my arms to try and loosen the rope binding me, but it only tightened. Luckily, I managed to bend my arms back just enough to get the rope past my rear, where I tucked my knees to my chest and maneuvered my bound hands over my tied feet.
The fire was rapidly spreading and had already started working its way up the interior wall of the stall. I couldn’t reach the tight knots between my wrists with my teeth, so I reached down and untied the knots at my feet.
I’d barely gotten the rope off my ankles and scrambled to my feet when Dan came into view outside the doorless stall. I backed away, watching him feel idly along the wall close to the entrance, as if he were looking for something, though there was nothing there to find. He didn’t even flinch when he turned his head and looked right at me. Almost as if…he couldn’t see me. Guess he’s blind, after all. Which meant…
“Dan…?”
He nearly fell over from the shock. “Jesus fucking Christ! Who the hell are you and what the fuck do you want with me?” He’d had no clue I’d been there all along.
“Dan, it’s me, Anna…Cowboy’s friend.”
“Who gives a fuck? All I wanna know is why you locked me in here. If you’re here to rob me, you can forget it. The wife kicked me out again and I don’t have no money.”
“I…I didn’t lock you in here.” I considered having Dan try to untie my wrists, but then I took in the flames and gathered we only had a few short minutes to get out of the barn before the smoke overwhelmed us. With him unable to see the knots, it would take entirely too long. “Dan, we have to get out of here. The barn’s on fire.”
I hurried past him out of the stall and looked for the nearest exit. The fire had spread to the wall and door, which meant almost a quarter of the barn was already engulfed in flames.
“No shit, Sherlock. Just because I can’t see the flames, doesn’t mean I can’t smell smoke. But I’ve been trying to get out ever since someone locked the goddamn door. No fucking use. It must be barred from the outside.”
“No, you’re wrong,” I yelled over my shoulder, hearing the panic in my voice. To keep from burning my hands, I picked up an old piece of rotting wood and hit it repeatedly against the barn door. The door wouldn’t budge. “Damn it. We’re locked in.”
“Told you that already,” Dan said calmly, obviously not understanding the condition of the barn and the ferocity of the fire.
Toxic smoke filled the room, burning my eyes as I choked up. “No, please! I don’t want to die!” I stood there frozen, shaking my head in disbelief. “This can’t be happening. Not again. It’s just a bad dream. Any minute now, you’re going to wake up.” Damn it, Anna, wake up!
Before I lost control, I closed my eyes and tried to block out the sounds of the fire roaring in my ears. But embers popped all around me, and my eyes opened to take in my surroundings. Sinister flames bowed the dry wood, and the old barn creaked, as if it were seconds away from caving in. I almost wished it would because I couldn’t think of a worse death than being burned alive.
Until Dan coughed and gasped for breath.
I stared at him as he continued running his hands along the burning walls, searching for a way out. He was blind and doing everything in his power to get out, while the only person in the barn who could actually see stood there frozen, too terrified to do anything to help. His death would be my fault.
It was bad enough my mother died because of me. I couldn’t let anyone else go through what she did.
I searched for a way out and spotted a large gaping hole in the wall of the hayloft. We’d have to jump to the safety of the ground outside, but a broken neck or back somehow seemed more comforting than burning alive inside a building. It was our only chance. I was our only chance.
You can do this, Anna. Just breathe.
“D-Dan, over here,” I shouted, gasping for a breath as I ran to the broken ladder leading to the hayloft. “Follow the sound of my voice.” As he moved toward me, I encouraged his progress. “That’s it, straight ahead.” When he reached me, I took his hand and put it high up on the ladder. “Start climbing. When you get to the top, go to the right about ten feet. There’s a large opening to the outside, though, so be careful. We’ll have to jump. It’s the only way out.”