Her heart skipped a couple of beats before picking up its faster than normal rhythm. Too bad her captor hadn’t thought to bring a battery operated lamp.
She shouldn’t have wasted so much time worrying about Sean—where he was, if he was alive. There was nothing she could do for him at the moment. She should have focused on the things she could do for herself, for Langley.
She glanced left as another snore climbed the air. If she was going to move, now was the time. Before he awoke. She really didn’t want to spend another second in this hellhole. Certainly not the entire night. Nor could she trust him to keep his word and release her and Langs come morning.
What if he decided that taking down Mitch wasn’t worth possible prison time and chose to dispose of his hostages? Nope, she couldn’t chance that. There was too much at stake to trust the word of a criminal.
But what really made up her mind was the horrifying ick…ick…ick factor when something scurried across the top of her shoe, beneath the hem of her wedding dress.
Greasy fur brushed her ankle.
She jolted, frantically shaking her bound feet while her stomach tried to hurl itself up and out of her throat.
Oh. My. God.
She gagged. There wasn’t enough bleach in the world to scrub this place off of her skin. Without thinking, she lurched to her feet and stood, shock still, her legs and feet numb.
Well. That had gone better than she’d expected. The worry that her legs would collapse beneath her had been a constant buzz beneath her mind. She shot her snoring kidnapper a quick glance. He was a dark bump in the chair. The gun resting in his lap was a smaller, even darker, lump.
Snapping the zip ties binding her wrists would be challenging enough. But there was no way to break the ones around her ankles. She would need to cut those off. Or find something slender enough to decompress the locking mechanism and pull the straps out. Too bad she didn’t have a bobby pin or a brooch handy.
As for something to cut the ties…there was nothing sharp within reach. She’d have to cross the room to the plywood boarded window to reach the nearest pile of broken glass. And since she couldn’t walk with her feet bound, she’d have to hop. Frowning, she looked down. Her shoes had heels. They’d make noise.
What were the chances she could hop all the way to the window without waking her kidnapper?
Not very likely.
Okay then. The shoes needed to come off. But before she could remove them, she needed to break the zip ties around her wrists. She wouldn’t be able to slip the straps out of their tiny silver buckles with her numb fingers in their current position facing each other.
So new plan. She took a deep, calming breath. Five Steps to Freedom. Easy peasy…
Step one—break the zip ties, free her hands, and shake some sense into them.
Step two—release the straps of her shoes and remove the pumps from her feet.
Step three—find something to cut the ties around her ankles.
Or…she glanced toward the kidnapper and his gun. He was much closer than the broken glass. There was a better chance that she could hop across the six feet separating them and help herself to his gun without waking him. There wasn’t as good a chance that she could make it across the room without sounding like a herd of storm troopers.
Okay then.
Step four—hop over to that armchair, as lightly as possible, and steal her kidnapper’s gun…without waking him up.
Sure, no problemo. She grimaced.
Step five—get across the room, gun in hand, while hopping, while keeping an eye on her adversary, and release Langley from her prison.
Right.
She blew out a frustrated breath. This was getting complicated. Best bet was to tie her kidnapper up. She scanned the dark room for the bag of zip ties. They had to be around somewhere. She’d use the gun to force him to tie himself up.
But everything rode on getting a hold of that gun.
Easy-peasy, Sarah, easy-peasy. Just breathe. You’ve got this.
She grimaced and fought back a shudder. She needed to move. The room was getting darker by the minute. It wouldn’t be long before she wouldn’t be able to see the gun.
But first she needed to break the zip tie binding her wrists.
She used her teeth to wiggle the plastic band as far down her wrists as possible, pressed her thumbs together and tightened the strap with