19644d8eebdf42e4b611005d94748ece

My eyes traveled down the length of her pants, where I found that the hem on one leg was torn and bloodied.

She caught me looking and raised the pant leg to show me the nasty wound that had marred her milky skin. “That stupid dog of yours. He didn’t have to bite me.”

I was glad he had as I watched her hobble through the cabin in search of something. Maybe it would be enough to give me a fighting chance, if only I could escape my bonds before Mr. Thompson returned.

“This will do nicely,” Denise said with a satisfied huff. I twisted myself around in the wheeled chair to watch as she pulled a bottle of Glenlivet from a glass cabinet. “Very nicely, indeed.”

She brought the bottle and a large shot glass back to the armchair by the fire and took a seat with them clutched in either hand.

“Want some?” she asked with a cruel laugh as she filled her glass and downed the first shot. “Now there’s a painkiller I can get behind,” she said with a happy sigh.

I could use a painkiller too, but more than anything I could use this as an opportunity. If Denise drank enough of her self-professed medicine to hamper her senses, then I would have her injured and drunk while my mind remained sharp ready to fight for my life.

She poured herself another shot, savoring this one with tiny, discerning sips.

“I never hated you that much,” she revealed. “Sure, my husband had always insisted that you were useless even before the senator’s unfortunate end, but I saw you more as clueless rather than incompetent. Not that there’s much difference in the end, I guess.” She shrugged and finished the liquor in her glass.

If I could keep her talking then I could probably keep her drinking. And the surest way to keep any conversation going was to get the other person to talk about herself, of course.

“Must be hard having your husband be tried and convicted of accidental death.”

She shrugged again. “It’s a small charge. But yes, it wasn’t easy to undergo all that public scrutiny while the case was on.”

I nodded. “So that’s why you have to make sure to tie up all your loose ends. So that no one has any reason to question you ever again, especially once you yourself step in to run for office.”

She pointed at me and made a clicking sound. “You’re definitely smarter than my husband claims. I’ll give you that.”

I watched as she poured a third shot, smiling to myself without saying anything in response.

Yes, I was definitely smarter.

But was I smart enough to wiggle my way out of this one alive?

Chapter Sixteen

Denise downed another shot, and then considered her bottle of Scotch with a frown. “Not much left. I guess I should’ve paced myself,” she remarked with a snort.

“How is your pain?” I asked kindly, hoping she wouldn’t question my motives.

My inebriated captor pulled up her pant leg and moved her ankle from side to side. “Can’t even feel it now,” she chuffed. “A good liquor is better than any pill, I’m telling you.”

I decided to take a chance knowing there wasn’t much hope of it paying off. But if it did…

“Now that you’re feeling a bit better, I don’t suppose you’d untie me?” I asked with an innocent smile.

Denise shook her head and slammed the shot glass onto a side table “Untie you? What do you think? I’m stupid? He said to leave you exactly as you are until he comes back.”

“Who’s in charge here?” I pressed. “I don’t see him anywhere. Do you?”

She sucked air in through her teeth. “No can do, and stop trying to trick me. You think that just because I have a couple drinks in me that suddenly…” Her words fell away as a scratching sound by the door caught both of our attention.

There Marco stood, whimpering and dragging his claws along the wooden door frame.

“What is it, boy?” I asked, hope sparking in me anew. “Do you need to go outside?”

Turning back to Denise, I said, “If you just untie me, I can—“

“No way!” she shouted. “I’ll take the stupid dog myself.”

She turned behind her and glanced to either side. “I don’t suppose you saw a leash somewhere around here, did you?”

I shook my head and watched as Denise grew increasingly frustrated with what was quickly proving to be a fruitless search. “You know,” I offered slyly.“The rope on my hands would make a mighty good leash. If you just untie me, I could—“

“No.” She kicked at my chair. “Stop asking to be untied. It’s not going to happen.”

“What if I have to go to the bathroom?” I questioned in my last-ditch effort to gain freedom.

“If you have to go to the bathroom,” Denise told me with a cruel chuckle. “You can go right were you’re seated.”

“Gross,” I muttered. I’d already heard enough about pee to last a lifetime, thanks to Cujo’s preferred method of tracking Marco earlier. The last thing I wanted was to sit in a puddle of my own making while waiting to die.

Marco whined again, twirling in a frantic circle as he begged to be let out. “I have to go! I have to go number two!” he barked. “I can’t hold it inside, and I’ll be in such trouble if I go on the carpet here. Please! You’ve got to let me out!”