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as pain shoots through my head and down my neck.
He’s showing no mercy as he bends me backwards unnaturally. In
this moment he illustrates the full scope of his brutality.
    The sound of my back
hitting the metal wall of the shed is disconnected, until the wave of
pain catches up to it. Glass puts one hand around my neck, lifting my
feet off the ground until our eyes are level. My lids seal closed and
my head turns away from the cruelty in his gaze.
    “Let me tell you
something, you little cunt. This is not how it’s going
to happen. You are not taking me down like this.” He’s so
close I can smell the hot wings and gin on his breath. He throws me
down in the middle of the floor and I crumple in defeat. He spits on
me then drags me by the hair back to the chair and throws me down.
The chair tips back and I hit the back of my head on the concrete
floor, hard.
    My survival instinct
has come alive and I’m kicking and flailing my feet. He grabs
hold of my ankle, pushes it back against the leg of the chair, and
fastens it with a zip tie. He repeats the process with the other leg
and rights the chair. Then he ties my hands and leans down in front
of me. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you
yet, but I promise you’ll be the first to know.” He
replaces the gag on my mouth and stands to walk out the door. Glass
looks back at me over his shoulder with a fiery hate that bores
through me as he leaves.
    Hopelessness floods my
being. I was so close to getting away. But I didn’t make it. I
didn’t get out. Tears free fall down my cheeks and sting my
neck when they reach the skin that is raw from his grasp.
    I cry out audibly for
Carl, Dad, Eli and then Aiden. Somebody, please. There has to
be some way I can get out of this.

Chapter Three
Miranda Should Remain Silent
    Eli
    “She’s
alive.” Carl sits up, making the announcement. All of us in the
room exhale the collective breath we were holding. Somehow I’m
unable to feel joy, there’s relief, but no joy.
    “Do you know
where she is?” Harry leans in closer to Carl.
    “No, she’s...”
Carl hesitates and I can see him candycoating his answer, “she’s
blindfolded.”
    “Is she…”
Harry starts but can’t finish his statement.
    “Strong, Harry.
She’s getting through it.” Carl puts his hand on Harry’s
shoulder as a gesture of comfort.
    “So, she doesn’t
have any idea where she is?” McNab asks.
    “No, but I did
tell her certain things to look and listen for.”
    “Does she know
who took her? Does she know about the security guard?” I ask,
exchanging a glance with Trish.
    “No, she doesn’t
know who took her or what happened. The last thing she remembers is
getting out of her car at the parking garage. Then she was
blindfolded and tied.”
    “Okay, so this is
good. We know she’s alive, we know she’s able to
communicate. This is some real hope.” Harry is trying to put a
positive spin on it. Frankly, I’m glad he’s trying to,
because I need something to hold on to.
    “We’re
still left with the same problem of how to find her.” It dawns
on me that I’ve bought this hook, line and sinker.
    “She’s in
some kind of garden shed from what she said about the smells. She
also indicated she’s feeling temperature changes but that they
aren’t unbearable.”
    “Carl, why don’t
you rest up. Maybe now that you’ve told her what to listen for
she’ll be able to give us some other indications where she is.”
McNab walks around the couch. “Harry, let’s take a look
at the likely suspects and figure out who has access to a garden shed and is in a remote area. We can rule out neighborhoods and
areas with frequent air traffic. It may not be a good lead, but
perhaps we’ll get lucky.”
    “It could also
lead us to other theories.” Harry heads for the makeshift
command center on the breakfast bar. “We can also try to
pinpoint a general location and set up a target area.”
    “Fuck, Eli, is
any of this going to help her