No, no, I couldn't.
The instant I tried, my knees buckled, and I slumped into his arms. He scooped me up like a sleepy kitten and carried me outside, pushing me into the passenger seat, complete with a ratty old pillow he'd fished out of the back.
“Hold up, I need to give you my address,” I said, struggling to remember the numbers in my own head as another jaw-popping yawn conquered me. “It's...uh...it's...”
“Don't think too hard, baby,” he growled, starting up his truck. “I already know where you live. Just go to sleep. You'll need that energy for tomorrow.”
What the fuck was this man talking about? Tomorrow? How did he know anything about me?
“Tomorrow? Huh?”
It felt like an entire hour slipped by before he answered me.
“That's the day you find out you fucked up bad tonight. I haven't picked up a new girl since Loretta left me when I was still a sad, broken little man, trying to make an honest living. That shit I told you at the diner tonight was true, but you didn't care. Nobody ever gives a fucking shit about some asshole hauling loads across the country. Whatever, baby, it's not your fault. You're a stuck up, rich little cunt, and I'm gonna give you something to care about.”
I tried to jerk up, tried to scream, but I couldn't seem to move anything except my eyes. What happened to me? I hadn't been alone with him in the diner at all, except when I used the bathroom twice.
Twice. Goddamn it.
The first time, I'd come back, and our food was waiting for us. That had to be when he did it, slipped something into my food or drink, springing the trap he'd set from the very beginning.
The one I'd been too stupid and drunk to see.
“You...you lied.”
His high, shrill laughter split the night, and everything in my head started spinning. “What? Were you expecting hugs and kisses and free meals from strange men in the woods? I don't know what kind of stupid bitch you are, but you're mine now. Sleep tight, little girl. And by the way, the name's Ricky. It fits me now. You ever heard of a pimp named Richard?”
Ricky. The last coherent thought before the blackness swallowed me up was knowing that I'd probably hate that name forever.
Oh, how right I'd been. I knew it the next day, when he splashed ice cold water in my face, and I realized I was completely naked.
He had my driver's license in his hand, twirling it around like a wild card in some poker game he'd just won.
“Jeeesus H. Christ, woman! I think you've just made me the happiest man in the world.”
I glared at him, saying nothing. If it wasn't for the fear constantly churning in my stomach, I would've spit in his face. I hated his arrogance, his treachery, and my own stupidity, but I hated his cruel joy more than anything else.
“Let me go, Richard. It's not too late to pull back. You can drop me off with the cops, my family, I don't care. I just want to go home. I won't even press charges.”
Yeah, right. He saw right through my hollow promises. Next thing I knew, his palm slapped me across the face, so sharp and sudden my whole head spun.
“It's Ricky, bitch. Get used to it. I'll let you off light because you're something else.” He paused and sniffed, staring excitedly at my license again. “You know, I really thought I'd hit the jackpot when I got myself a pretty mountain girl, all doped up and goddamned beautiful. But shit, you should've told me you were a Wilder girl sooner. Your * might make me retire early!”
Bastard. I swallowed the hard, hateful lump in my throat and forced myself to look at him, ignoring the fiery sting on my cheek.
“You're going to ransom me, then? Let me talk to Daddy. I can get you the money faster than if you do it alone, I swear, he'll –“
Ricky cut me off with his nasty, shrill laughter again. “Oh, please. You really think I'd give you up for a few bags of cash, only to have a SWAT team storm in here and tear this place apart? I've got better plans for you, little princess. You're gonna make some rich, twisted motherfucker very fucking happy. I just gotta spread the news through the grapevine and find myself a buyer.”
My heart started pounding. I stood up, only to feel him throw me back down against the shitty bed, the flimsy mattress snapping against my spine.
“Don't do this, asshole! You have no idea who you're dealing with. You will pay, one way or another. My family won't let me go. My friends know where I disappeared. We can't be that far from town, somebody'll come looking and then you'll regret the night you saw me in that forest.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you're not the first bitch to say that, trust me. You're just the richest little cunt I've ever had in here.”
The richest? For the first time I lifted my head up and took a good look around.