With that, she stalked down the darkened tunnel, soft lights glowing to light her way as Tanner’s lips twitched. If she could find the hidden access, then she was welcome to it.
He picked up the remote and changed channels, chuckling as he caught Gilligan working the bike-powered washing machine.
He might be so horny he was about to explode, but he had time, he assured himself. Time to figure out why she pulled at him, time to figure out how to save her.
CHAPTER 10
Scheme hadn’t found the exit out of the caves, and the dark mood it put her in did little to ease the frustration rising inside her. In desperation, she crawled into the bed, pulled the blankets over her head and prayed for sleep.
Sleep that finally came despite the knowledge that Tanner was na**d beside her. Naked and hard and waiting to still the warmth growing inside her. It was a restless sleep though, one plagued by bad dreams and a certainty that Tanner would be the death of her. They followed her, shadowing the landscape of her sleep, until finally, she forced herself awake, and faced the real nightmare.
It was dark.
But her eyes were wide open.
Her eyes were open and her heart was racing as panic began to set in.
It was pitch-black dark.
“Tanner?” She sat up in bed, her fingers clenching in the blankets as she listened.
There was no light, no sound.
“Tanner, where are you?” She was not going to panic.
Forcing the fingers of one hand from the blankets, she felt across the bed, ignoring the tremors beginning to build in her body.
She had been here before, she reminded herself. In the dark, lost, uncertain where she was or what awaited her.
“Tanner, don’t play these games with me,” she snapped, her voice loud in the dark as she found only emptiness on his side of the mattress. “Where are the lights?”
She hadn’t found light switches in the past two days. If they were here, they were very cleverly hidden, just as the exit was.
“This is going too far, Tanner,” she cried out, staring around frantically, seeing nothing but the darkness, hearing nothing but the sound of her own heart beating, her own gasping breaths.
She was not going to lose it, she promised herself. She hadn’t lost it yet, and she wasn’t going to start now.
But it was so dark. Her breathing hitched in her throat. With the lights out, it was like…She shook her head as she inhaled roughly.
She was not buried alive. She was in a bed, a very comfortable bed. The cavern was at least ten or twelve feet high, she remembered. She had plenty of room. Plenty of air.
And she was buried alive.
“Tanner. Tanner, where are you?” She screamed out his name as she struggled to get herself out of the bed.
Suddenly, the mattress wasn’t a mattress, it was a coffin, enveloping, smothering. Her feet tangled in the blankets, tripping her, tossing her to the cold, hard floor as her fingers clawed at the stone.
She could feel the rock biting into her knees as she tried to find her feet, only to collapse again as her legs refused to hold her up.
It was fear, that was all, she told herself frantically. Her mind had been screwed with too many times, the dark used against her in too many ways. She had survived it then without giving away her secrets; she could do it now. She was stronger than this, she told herself. She could survive this.
But she knew her father’s weaknesses. She had no idea how far Tanner would go, or if he would even return. He could have left her there to die in the dark. To smother in her own fears.
“Tanner, don’t do this to me,” she screamed, shuddering, feeling the chill of the air wrap around her. It was cold. So cold.
It was too dark. She had to find light. There had to be light here somewhere. Appliances. Where was she in the room? Where were the appliances?
Inhaling roughly, she tried to push back the fear. It took what seemed forever, each second filled with the sound of her heart thudding and her gasping breaths.