Chapter Thirty

It took me a several minutes to calm myself and assess my predicament. The strange thing was that I wasn’t raving mad at Rae. Oh, I was angry about her tactic of locking me to the bed, but I was a lot to blame. I had told her I wanted to go to Jerusalem Rocks to poke around and she said I couldn’t. She was a cop and knew reporters well enough to not trust my obedience to her orders, regardless of the fact we had just made love.

Made love. Yeah, this felt like more than a hump and run, despite the handcuff cutting into my wrist. I even grinned at that point and offered rueful admiration to her resourcefulness. I pulled myself into a sitting position, trying to keep my left arm from cramping. I noticed a bite mark at the top of my breast.

“She could have lied to me and said nothing of importance is going on up at the Rocks,” I said to the walls.

It was getting darker in the room as late afternoon was passing by. I knew Rae would release me when she felt it was safe, meaning she would free me when it was too late for me to get the story.

I wanted to get up to Jerusalem Rocks and find the location on the drawing in my father’s office. I knew those formations as well as anyone and knew there were caves in the Rocks. Daddy would never let me go in them when I was a kid. But I remembered they were located at the west end of the Rocks. A little climbing around and I’d find them. I was willing to bet Ms. Amazon Cop didn’t even know where the caves were.

“She doesn’t really think I’d just lie here and nap.” I pouted, watching the green light blinking on Rae’s uniform tie left on my dresser. The green light. Blink. Blink. “My cell phone!” It was lying next to Rae’s tie, its on light reflecting off the metal clip.

I glanced at my cuffed wrist and started planning my movements. Because I was buck naked, there was nothing dignified in what I had to do next. I hoped I was strong enough. I slid off the bed to my right and flopped over on my stomach. I grabbed a headboard slat with my trapped left hand. I planted both feet on the floor and used the strength in my legs and right arm to push the entire bed toward the dresser. It was excruciating, and I was a little embarrassed at the thought of my bare hiney pushed into the air. But I wasn’t one to stand on decorum when faced with a challenge.

It took a full thirty minutes for me to inch that massive bed across the wood floor. I would push the bed an inch, then flop facedown and rest, then repeat. I knew the floor was damaged by the screeches every time the bed moved. I had no idea how I would explain that to Connie. During each rest, I cussed Rae and I made a mental list of items to pack in my car for the trip to Jerusalem Rocks.

The last several pushes, I was too tired to even look at my progress. Then, to my relief, because it butted the dresser, the bed couldn’t move any farther. But then, neither could I. I lay there shaking, my body half off the bed, face buried in the covers. I felt the fabric beneath my face dampen with tears and drool. I was mortified at having been cuffed to a bed by my lover, left naked to fend for myself, and spending all my energy pushing several hundred pounds across the floor. Well, by the time the tears stopped, I was just plain pissed off. Pissed off and determined.

I crawled back onto the bed and stretched my right arm to the dresser. “Fuck!” I screamed. My arms were too short. “Goddamn you to hell, Rae Terabian!”

I stopped straining and sat for a moment to review my options and to get the cramp out of my left shoulder. Then it was clear what I had to do. It was crude but simple. I lay down on the bed. I blessed my yoga teacher as I stretched my cuffed arm straight above me and reached my left foot to the top of the dresser. My heel rooted around for the cell phone. I felt it. Then I rested my heel on top of the phone, careful not to use so much weight as to damage it. With a quick backward jerk, the phone shot off the dresser and onto the bed, right at the base of my butt.

I reached between my exhausted legs, snatched the phone, flipped it open, and speed-dialed Billy.

“Well, I guess you’re over the assassination attempt,” he said instead of saying hello.

“No jokes right now, I need you.” I heard my voice trembling and took a breath to calm it. I didn’t want Billy to think me overly rattled. I just wanted him to get me free from the bed and then leave me alone. If he thought me upset, he would stay with me all night, if necessary, until I was composed. Given my current situation, it would take all my dramatic abilities to convince him to leave me alone for the evening. I wanted to be at the Rocks before dawn.

“You need me? Why? To process your close encounter with the law?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, dearie, that I went to your house as soon as Connie called to tell me you’d been shot at and that the jackalope got the worst of it. I thought you’d need some male energy, you know. Protection? A shoulder? But what do I hear upon entering? Humma humma sounds from the peanut gallery. And the only car in front of your house was the sheriff’s cruiser. I’m not betting that one of her manly-kinda-men deputies was upstairs giving you a strong shoulder.”

“Shit,” I muttered. I didn’t need this now.

“That’s not what you were screaming when I walked in. It was more along the lines of appealing for salvation from the deity.”

“Look, now’s not the time. I’ll fill you in later. Right now I need for you to get here fast. You do have a house key, right?”

“Your dad kept every spare key right here in the office. What do you need?”

“I need for you to go into the garage, unlock his tool cabinet, get the electric Sawzall, and come up to my room.” I’m sure he heard my veiled panic.

“Sweetie, are you okay?”

“I will be when you get here with the Sawzall. Oh, and for God’s sake, keep this to yourself.”

“As if. But don’t worry, babe, I’m on my way.” He hung up and I knew I was going to be fine.

Half an hour later, after suffering a few sniggers and verbal jabs at my unclad condition, I explained to Billy about Rae’s concern that I’d interfere with an investigation. He graciously turned his back as I dressed.

“And, of course, you are going to heed her oh-so-obvious warning and stay home, right?” His light tone was belied by his tense shoulders.

“Billy, I think it’s pretty clear that I’m not welcome in her work. So, yeah, I’ll stay here and get some sleep tonight. Today was tough.” I was rubbing my wrist where it had been rubbed raw, first from moving the bed and then from Billy’s rough but efficient work of sawing off the cuff.

“Well, that kind of tough we should all have. That sheriff is a no-slouch woman. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced that a girl who leaves her girl cuffed to a bed is something to sink your teeth into. But I have no idea what little kinkies you favor, honey, and choose not to think about it.”

“Fine, my girly-man, you just put those thoughts out of your pretty head. Leave me to have an evening of rest and I’ll call you tomorrow. I promise.” I could tell he was unconvinced, but I also knew he had his tables running that night and was still breaking in his new front man. He was a loyal bastard but he was also a businessman. My father had made an excellent choice in Billy. Billy left about twenty minutes later, after making sure the house was sealed tight in defense against another attack.