She had probably imagined the image in her mirror. She’d picked up on the dog’s anxiety. He could have seen a deer or a fox, or even a cougar.
But you saw a man.
Upright. On two legs.
Pulse racing, she punched several buttons on the radio, found a rock station, and singing along to some Springsteen song she remembered from her youth, turned onto the highway. She wasn’t going to let her overactive imagination run away with her. She refused to let fear control her.
Not this time.
Not ever again.
Chapter 21
Her fingers bleeding through her now toeless and filthy socks, Dani worked hard, putting all her strength into pulling out the damned nail. “Come on, come on,” she muttered, knowing she was running out of time. As well as patience. The creep wouldn’t keep her here forever; she knew that much. She’d observed him through the crack in the door and he was getting more restless, more keyed up. He paced a lot, striding back and forth in front of the fire, and he’d taken to leaving his knife on the bricks near the firebox, the blade stretching toward the flames, its steel looking red with the reflection of the coals.
She thought about how he’d pressed that blade against her cheek, how he’d threatened her with the razor-sharp edge, and she quivered inside. She would never let herself get into that position again. Never.
Her fingers ached, but she wouldn’t give up. “Come on, you miserable thing!” She hunched her shoulders, pulled back and felt the nail wiggle crazily.
“Come on!”
With one final tug the nail was free.
Dani nearly fell backwards.
Heart pounding, she stared at the long spike and curled her sock-clad fingers around the shaft. Yes! Freedom from the creep was within her grasp. She wanted to bolt out the door at this very minute but knew that would be suicide. She might run into him coming back. He’d already been gone for hours this time, and his hours in the cabin had become irregular.
Much as she wanted to race into the surrounding woods now, she didn’t dare leave. It was still daylight and she needed to leave at night, after he took off for whatever sick mission he was on.
The last few days she’d been watching him through the slit in the door. She knew where he kept an extra flashlight and his knife, which he usually took with him, but there were other objects she could carry with her, like the little torch he used to light his fire each night. That might come in handy. And the picture of her mother, damn it, she was taking it.
But she didn’t have a backpack any longer. He’d stolen that a few nights ago, so what she could carry would be limited. And she still had the creep’s cigarette butt, hidden deep in her pocket. If she took some other things from this place, they might have his fingerprints on them and the police would be able to nail his sorry hide to the wall.
She couldn’t wait.
But she was getting ahead of herself.
First she had to hide the spike and the best place to do that was to put it back in its hole. She’d reamed the old wood out well enough that now she could extract it again easily.
Smiling to herself she stared down at the long nail.
What she’d really like to do with it was ram it deep into the guy’s neck. Or using her tae kwon do skills she could drop the bastard to his knees. Oh, how she’d love to take him out! However, just like he had obviously underestimated her and didn’t know what she was capable of, she didn’t know anything about him, either. He, too, could have a black belt. He was muscular and strong. She’d seen enough of his body when he went through his nightly ritual to know that. As gross as the spectacle was she did learn some things. He was tough. And a lot bigger than she was. If he took a mind to, he could hurt her.
So she couldn’t push him.
But she couldn’t just sit around and wait for him to decide he didn’t need her any longer.
She stared down at the nail…It was nearly six inches, she guessed. Long enough for her purposes.
Soon he would return. Her guts squeezed at the thought of being near him again and the sick sensation in her stomach returned. If she knew she had the time she would take off now. But did she? Should she risk it?
Glancing up at the skylight, she realized that it was late in the afternoon, maybe early evening. Shadows were creeping across the sky so the sun had to be getting low in the western sky. Maybe he wasn’t coming back. Maybe she should leave now, while she had the chance. Maybe she wouldn’t get another one.
She palmed the nail.
The least she could do was explore the cabin…
She thought she heard a truck rumble in the distance.