One Foot in the Grave - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,125
the other.
I chomped down on his fingers, hard enough for him to yelp and pull his hand away, and shouted, “Lula’s shack!”
Paul turned off his radio and gave me a murderous gaze.
“Leave her alone, Conrad,” Wyatt said in a bored tone. “She didn’t do anything.”
“Bullshit. She’s done plenty.” He grabbed a length of rope from the table and dragged me over to a support beam. Placing my back against the beam, he wrapped the rope around my chest several times and tied it off, which proved to be difficult since I fought him every step of the way.
“Damn,” he grunted. “You’re a hellcat.” He cast a glance at Wyatt. “You like ’em wild, huh? Or maybe not, since you’re not together anymore.” He walked toward the door and glanced back at us. “You two have fun.”
He shut the door behind him, and we sat in silence for several seconds until we heard his vehicle start. The sound of the engine got fainter as he drove away from the house.
“Are you okay?” Wyatt asked in a concerned tone.
I ached all over, and I was tied to a pole. I was far from all right.
“How did he find you?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe he followed me after I drove to Ewing to call you earlier. He drove out here around six in his sheriff’s car. I didn’t put up a fight, but instead of arrestin’ me, he knocked me over the head and tied me up.”
“I only found out were you were after he left a note telling me to bring Abby to where you were hiding. Obviously he thought I knew.”
“Who told you?” he asked.
“Max, but I’d pretty much guessed.” I paused. “Do you think Marco heard me?”
“I don’t know,” he said, sagging against the bed.
“Max knows we’re here. He was supposed to wait for me on the county road, but he must have seen my abandoned car. Let’s hope Paul doesn’t catch him.” I told him about Paul pulling me over. “Why not just wait until I pulled down the drive?”
“To make sure you were really alone? To intimidate you? All of the above?”
I would have nodded, but my face throbbed too much.
“Why does he want Abby?”
“She knows the truth about Heather.” I paused, glancing at him, and added, “She accidently killed her.” I explained what I knew about Heather’s plan A (getting him arrested and blackmailing his parents) and B (setting Bart up in the hopes of a payout).
“Conrad was one of the deputies who arrested me,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was part of the initial setup.”
“He’s a cancer.”
“No argument from me,” he said. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this. You know he plans to kill us. I suspect he intends to make it look like a murder suicide.”
I wasn’t surprised, but I felt a new adrenaline rush. “Then we have to get out of here before he comes back.”
I’d fought him enough that my ropes weren’t terribly tight. I just needed to figure out a way to free my hands. I lifted my butt and threaded my legs through my arms, which was difficult with my chest tied to the pole. When I finally got them free, I started tugging on the rope around my middle, trying to twist my bound hands so the knot was in front of me.
“I’m worried about, Max,” I said as I kept fidgeting.
“Max is pretty scrappy. He can take care of himself.”
“We haven’t heard any gunshots, so I’m going to take that as a good sign.” Paul had really tightened the knot, so I was struggling to loosen it. “If Marco heard me, he’ll do everything in his power to get here.”
Wyatt was silent for a moment. “You can break that zip tie, but first you have to tighten it.”
I glanced up at him. “Tighten it? Are you crazy?”
“No. It’ll make it easier to break. Tighten it, then lift your arms as high as you can and then swing them down and to the sides, as hard as you can. It should break the lock.”
I’d heard it was possible, but I wasn’t sure I could do it. I wasn’t exceptionally strong.
“You can do this, Carly,” he cajoled. “You just tried to fight off a violent man. You can definitely defeat a zip tie.”
He was right. What was more, I didn’t have much of a choice. I had to do this. I tightened the zip tie with my teeth, then lifted my arms and swung them down