Robert Crais - Hostage

She still held the washcloth to her father’s head, but now the ice was melted and the cloth was soaked. Dennis felt a flash of annoyance.

“Shut up, all right? I’ve got a situation here, in case you haven’t noticed.”

Her face worked harder.

“All you’re doing is watching yourself on TV. You hurt him. Look at him. He needs a doctor.”

“Shut up.”

“It’s been hours!”

“Put more ice in the cloth.”

“Ice doesn’t help!”

The fat boy started crying.

“He’s in a coma!”

The girl surprised him. She lurched to her feet with the abrupt fury of a jack-in-the-box and stomped toward the door.

“I’m getting a doctor!”

Dennis felt outside of himself, as if the weight of the cops and his being trapped in this house were all suddenly real where they hadn’t been before. He caught her in two steps, slapping her just the way his old man used to lay out the old lady, that shrill bitch. He caught the girl square on the side of the face with the weight of his hand, knocked her flat fucking down to the floor. The fat boy shouted her name and charged, pummeling Dennis like an angry midget. Dennis dug his fingers into the soft meat on the back of the boy’s neck, and the fat boy squealed. Then Kevin was shoving him away.

“STOP IT!”

Kevin pushed the fat boy down with his sister, placing himself between them and Dennis.

“Just stop it, Dennis. Please!”

Dennis was in a blood fury. He wanted to beat Kevin down, to smash his face and kick him into a pulp. He wanted to beat the fat boy and the girl, then throw the cash in the Jaguar and crash out of the garage and shoot it out with the cops all the way down to Mexico.

Mars was staring at him, his face a shadow, his eyes tiny glints of strange light like ferrets peering from caves.

Dennis shouted, “What?”

Mars made the quiet smile and shook his head.

Dennis stepped back, breathing hard. Everything was coming apart. Dennis looked back at the television, half expecting to see the cops storming the house, but the scene outside was exactly as it had been minutes before. The girl was holding her face in her hands. The fat boy was glaring with hate-filled eyes like he wanted to cut Dennis’s throat. Their father was breathing noisily through his nose. The pressure was making him crazy.

Dennis said, “We gotta do something with them. I can’t deal with this shit.”

Mars lumbered to his feet, large and gross.

“We should tie them up so we don’t have to worry about them. We should have done that anyway.”

Dennis hooked his head toward the girl, speaking to Kevin.

“Mars is right. We can’t leave these assholes running around like this, getting in the way. Find something to tie’m up with, and take them upstairs.”

“What do I use to tie them?”

“Look in the garage. Look in the kitchen. Mars, you find something, okay? You know what we need. This turd doesn’t know anything.”

Mars disappeared toward the garage. Kevin took the girl’s arm as if he was afraid that she would hit him, but she stood without resisting, her face working and the tears coming harder.

“What about my father? You can’t just leave him like this.”

Her father was cold to the touch; every few seconds a tremor rippled through his body. Dennis took his pulse like he knew what he was doing, but he couldn’t tell a goddamned thing. He didn’t like how the man looked, but didn’t say anything about it because there was nothing to say.

“We’ll put him on the couch. That way he’ll be more comfortable.”

“He needs a doctor.”

“He’s just sleeping. You take a head shot, you gotta sleep it off, is all. My old man used to beat me worse than this.”

Dennis had Kevin help lift her father onto the couch.

When Mars returned, Dennis told them to take the kids upstairs. He was tired of thinking about them. He was tired of thinking about everything except the money. He needed a way out.

JENNIFER

Mars opened the door to her room, then stepped aside so that she and Kevin could enter. He had come back from the garage with extension cords, duct tape, a hammer and nails. He gave two extension cords to Kevin.

“Put her in here. Tie her to the chair, and tie her tight . Tie her feet. I’ll take care of the windows and the door when I finish with the boy.”

Mars looked at her with unfocused eyes, as if he were waking from a deep sleep and she was the memory of a dream.

“I’ll check how you tie her when I come back.”

Mars pulled Thomas away as Kevin brought her into the room. The lights were on because she never turned them off; she fell asleep with them on, either talking on the phone or watching TV, and woke with them on, and never thought to turn them off when she left to start her day. The shades had been pulled and the phone was on the floor against the wall, its plug smashed so that it couldn’t be used. Kevin dragged her desk chair into the middle of the floor. He avoided her eyes, nervous.

“Just let this happen and everything will be okay. You gotta pee or anything?”

She felt a flush of embarrassment. She had to use the bathroom so badly that she burned.

“It’s in there.”

“Where? You got your own bathroom?”

“Uh-huh. It’s right there.”

“Okay, come on.”

She didn’t move.

“You can’t come with me.”

He stood in the bathroom door, waiting.

“I’m not going to leave you alone.”

“I’m not going to the bathroom in front of you.”

“Would you rather pee on yourself?”

“I’m not letting you watch. I don’t have guns or anything in there, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

He seemed annoyed, but she didn’t care. He stepped into the bathroom to look around, then came back.

“Okay, I won’t go in with you, but you can’t close the door. I’ll stand over here. That way I can’t see you.”

“But you’ll hear.”

“Look, piss or don’t piss. I don’t care. If you’re not going to go, put your ass in the chair before Mars comes back.”

Jennifer had to pee so badly that she decided to go. She tried to pee quietly, but it seemed louder than ever. When she was finished, she returned to her room too embarrassed to make eye contact.

“You’re disgusting.”

“Whatever. Sit here and put your hands behind the chair.”

“I don’t see why you can’t just lock me in. It’s not like I can go anywhere.”

“Either I’m going to tie you or Mars will tie you.”

She perched on the chair, tense and wary.

Kevin had two long black extension cords. She cringed when he touched her, but he didn’t treat her roughly or twist her arms.

“I don’t want to make this too tight, but I got to tie you. Mars is going to check.”

His voice held a regret that surprised her. She knew that Kevin was scared, but now she wondered if he felt embarrassed at what they were doing. Maybe he even had a conscience. He finished with her wrists, then moved around in front of her to tie her ankles to the legs of the chair. She watched him, thinking that if there was a friend to be found among them it was him.

“Kevin?”

“What?”

She kept her voice soft, scared that Mars would hear.

“You’re caught in this just like me.”

His face darkened.

“I’ve heard the three of you talking. You’re the only one who seems to know that you’re making it worse by being here. Dennis doesn’t get that.”

“Don’t talk about Dennis.”

“Why do you go along with him?”

“Things just happen, is all. Don’t talk about it.”

“My father needs a doctor.”

“He’s just knocked out. I’ve been knocked out.”