Pressure - By Jeff Strand Page 0,57

plight. If only there was some way to get him to put down the gun, just for a second.

The woman stepped out of the bedroom. It clearly hurt her to walk, and her lips were trembling with fear, but she kept her head up, defiantly.

Darren followed her. “Sorry that she won’t be much of a challenge to catch,” he said. “I think I tied her too tight.”

“I’ll do it,” I told him. “I’ll cut her.”

Darren looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“We can cut her together. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I’d love that. And we’ll be doing a lot of it. But right now I think you’re just trying to screw with me, so we’re sticking with the game.” He jabbed the barrel of the gun into the woman’s back, hard. “Keep going.”

He walked her over to the front door. “Tell him your name,” Darren told her. “Prey is more fun when it isn’t anonymous.”

“Andrea,” she said, voice cracking.

“Andrea who?”

“Andrea Keener.”

“I’m sure Alex is pleased to meet you, Andrea Keener. Now, I’m going to give you a very short head start. Your first instinct is going to be to go for the van, but it’s all locked up and you’ll just be wasting your time. Open the door.”

Andrea opened the front door.

“On your mark…get set…go!”

He shoved Andrea out the door. Then he pointed the gun at me. “That’s enough of a head start, I think. Go get her, buddy!”

I sat there, paralyzed.

“Get moving!” said Darren. “Your ten minutes has started. I’m not really into hurting little girls, but I’ll sure do it.”

I forced myself to stand up. “I’ll kill you,” I told him.

“Fine. But kill her first.”

I glared at him, but that glare couldn’t come close to showing the extent of the hatred I felt for him at that moment. Hatchet in my hand, I ran out the front door.

Chapter Seventeen

Andrea was gone.

My first thought was that she’d ignored Darren’s advice and had gone for the van, but I quickly ran around the vehicle and she wasn’t there.

Shit! With all of these cacti, there were plenty of places to hide. I lowered the hatchet and listened carefully for the sound of footsteps.

There had to be a way out of this. Maybe draw Darren out of the cabin somehow, then surprise and subdue him.

I caught a glimpse of motion on the left side of the cabin, and took off running in that direction.

I didn’t know what I was going to do, but it certainly wouldn’t involve chopping off Andrea’s head and bringing it back to Darren as a trophy.

Had there been a window in the little girl’s room? I couldn’t remember.

Stop being ridiculous, I told myself. Even if there was a window, no way was I going to be able to break it, crawl through, untie the girl, and take her to safety.

I hurried after Andrea, moving as fast as I could without running into a cactus. I wanted to shout after her, to let her know that I wasn’t going to hurt her, but I couldn’t risk letting Darren hear that.

I didn’t have a watch. Had a minute elapsed yet?

I heard a cry of pain up ahead.

I picked up my pace, letting out a cry of my own as several cactus needles slashed across my shoulder.

How could I get Darren to come outside?

I could pretend that I’d killed Andrea, but he wouldn’t fall for that.

What if she pretended that she’d killed me?

What if Andrea screamed that she had won the game, and when Darren came out to investigate, I let him have it with the hatchet?

Holy shit, this could work!

I picked up my pace a little more. I just had to find her, catch her, and explain the plan.

I stopped running and listened.

No sign of her.

“Andrea!” I said in a loud whisper. “Andrea, listen to me!”

Nothing. I walked forward, keeping alert for any signs of movement.

“I can get us out of this. I just need your help. Andrea, can you hear me?”

She answered with a primal shriek as she came out of nowhere. She knocked me to the ground and I howled in pain as my arm smashed into a patch of cactus.

She showered me with punches. I used the hatchet to try to deflect them, but most of them struck my chest. I turned my head to the side as she tried to claw out my eyes.

I wrenched my cactus-pinned arm free and struck her in the jaw. The blow didn’t even faze her. She kept