Page 52 of A Pawn for Malice
“You would do that for me?” His eyes mistedwith tears. He wiped at them quickly, so she wouldn’t see, but shedid.
“Yes, Morris. I would do that for you, if youhelped me get away. I promise, I will stand up for you in court,and help you get a better job too.”
He started to get all fidgety and unable tocontain his discomfort.
“I really got to think about all this. Sure,sounds too good to be true.”
“Okay. Okay. We have time.” She waited amoment and tried to get in a more comfortable position. It wasdifficult. “Morris, can you tie my hands in front of me instead? Myarms hurt, and I can’t feel my hands. It’s so uncomfortable thisway. My legs are cuffed. I can’t go anywhere with them like this.Please, just my hands. Will you do that for me.” She made a greateffort to look forlorn, and it worked.
“Ah, gee, I don’t know, miss. If you getaway, he’ll -”
She pressed harder. “Not like this, I won’t.”She demonstrated, trying to move her legs, and attempting to stand.When she toppled forward, he reached out to catch her.
“Stop that now, before you hurt yourselfagain. Okay. I will.”
He paused momentarily, as if an afterthought,had him second guessing his decision. His forehead crunched withworry and his lips pressed tightly together. He nodded curtly andstepped forward and moved behind her, careful not to tug too hardon her bindings.
When her wrists were free, she cried out inpain, as her arms dropped to her side like heavy weight. She satthere for a moment, her arms still lifeless at her side, lettingthe blood slowly recirculate through her veins. The pain wasexcruciating, and she couldn’t stop the flow of tears.
Morris, fell to his knees and looked terriblyregretful.
“Gee, miss. Don’t cry. I sure didn’t mean tohurt ya.”
Slowly, she managed to move her arms, andbegan to massage them with her hands to help get the blood movingfaster. They throbbed painfully and she did her best to try andstop from crying. She hated getting her wrists tied again, but sheknew she had too. If anything, this time, she’d be able to managegetting at the contents in her bag a lot easier.
“It’s okay, Morris. The pain is subsidingnow. It’s just because the rope was too tight and stopped the bloodflowing up and down my arm.:
“I told him he tied it too tight. He don’tlisten to no one, but the monster inside his head.”
It was a great analogy he made. Morris wasn’tas dim-witted as he thought of himself. He was insightful andcaring … good qualities to be proud of. She raised her arms andcrossed her wrists in front of him.
“Go ahead. I’ll be okay. I enjoyed talking toyou, and I thank you for the lantern,” she nodded at the element toher right. “How long will the battery last?”
The boy smiled proudly. “I just put a freshone in fit or ya. It’s a good one too, and will last more than aweek, if you keep it turned down low like that.”
She expelled a breath loudly.
“Well, my friend. Hopefully, I won’t be inhere that long.”
Her stomach growled loudly, and the soundbounced off the cave walls and echoed throughout the chamber. Shegazed up at him and chuckled, and before she knew it, he waslaughing as well.
She snorted and remarked.
“Guess I’m a little hungry.”
“There’s some leftover donuts up in thelounge room where we take our breaks. I’ll go get you a few and abottle of water too, and fix your cut.” He rose, picked up thesecond lantern and started to walk away.
“Thank you,” she called out to him.
“You welcome, mam,” he replied politely.“I’ll be back in about forty minutes or so, by the time I get uptop and return.”
“I’ll be here when you get back,” sheanswered, and heard him chuckle softly, as though her reply tickledhis funny bone.
Knowing she had forty minutes, before hereturned, Jessica tried to work her hands into her shoulder bag.There was something to be said for women, who carried bags the sizeof a small attaché. She had everything, but the kitchen sink insidehers. It was her bag on the go. As her fingertips grazed along theinside, she could feel her small mist bottle of breath freshener, apacket of matches, chewing gum, two tissue packs, a protein bar sheforgot about, her change purse, wallet, key chain, cell phone, andyes, her gun.
She pulled her cell out first. She knew shewouldn’t be able to get a signal this far below the ground. Sheknew Bryan was smart enough to check the ping on her phone. Afterthe last time, she was attacked, security had downloaded a GPStracker to her phone. She prayed, that the signal would worked inthis godforsaken cave. She checked the app to make sure it wasactive, and smiled when she noted, that the green indicator buttonwas just that.
She placed it on a silent mode, and put it onthe ground beside her. Next, she removed her gun from her bag aswell. She did not want Corbat to find either one of them, in casehe eventually checked her bag. She was rather surprised he hadn’talready. Sometimes when someone, was in a fit of rage, they lostsight of the obvious, and thankfully it worked in her favor. Shereached out for the lantern and held it out in front of her.Carefully, she checked around her for a good place to hide herphone and gun, yet close enough to reach it, in case she everneeded it.
