Backed Redux … Chapter 7

Thick, heavy clouds warned of an impending storm from the distant desert. But I preferred to think of them as an ominous symbol of Seth’s arrival. If this had been a western, there would have been an organ playing and maybe a slow drum keeping time with our movements.
 
Seth seemed to know his way around, especially the hotels, and I remembered him telling me once that he had lived here for a time before moving to Cleveland. We drove by the one where we thought Paul was staying, though of course there was no sign of him from the outside.
 
The movie scene that played out in my head, however, involved us spotting him in the crowd or crossing the street while we stopped for the light. It was easy to imagine Seth running after him or hitting him with the car but none of that came to pass. I imagined that when the real scene happened, it would be far more subtle, and I found I actually looked forward to watching it play out.
 
We drove around a bit, seemingly on the off chance that just such a scenario would reveal itself, but it didn’t. When Seth stopped, it was at a smaller hotel than the big flashy casinos but still nicer than I was used to. He said he had stayed there before, and they accepted cash. He parked and this time we went in together. I hadn’t stretched my legs since Salt Lake City, and I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to get out of a car in my life.
 
When we got to our room, I flopped on my bed thinking I would fall asleep immediately. Instead, I was restless. Seth said he was going to call Nat again and try to nap, and that I could go downstairs and find the hotel’s free computer room.
 
“No Facebook and no email though,” he reminded me. I barely heard him. Finally, I thought and tried not to sprint out of the room.
 
None of my emails were particularly interesting, except one from a friend I regularly corresponded with wishing me a “Happy Friday.” I deleted it along with the other advertisements and my spam folder.
 
Yes, I did exactly what he told me not to do. But I was in and out quickly, and signs on the computers promised their server was secure. To balance things out, I opted to check a couple of my favorite news sites, just to see what the rest of the world was up to. But it was the same old political fights, another unfortunate school shooting, and boring celebrity news.
 
When I was done, I glanced around for Seth. The bank of computers faced a long window and I could see people coming and going from the lobby. Seth didn’t seem to be anywhere around, and I decided to venture onto Facebook. I immediately turned off the location finder and was determined not to “like” anything or comment anywhere. I just needed some semblance of contact with people I knew. I suddenly needed to see their silly cat photos, pictures of what they were eating for dinner, and work updates. Nothing significant had changed in the past two days but just the sight of that little blue rectangle with the white lettering was comforting.
 
I got so lost in the normalcy that I somehow missed Seth’s entrance.
 
“Anything interesting out there?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious. There were a couple of other people in the room, so I knew he was trying to cover his anger. He did a damn fine job of it too. He very nearly convinced me.
 
“Not really,” I said as I quickly closed the browser. This was going to be worse than getting caught at work, I thought.
 
“Good – we should get going,” he said.
 
“Oh right, what time is that show again?” I asked as we walked out of the room.
 
Seth didn’t answer me, even in the elevator, but his grip on my arm as we marched down the hall to our room grew steadily tighter. Once inside, he pressed me against the door with his body. “Who did you contact?” he asked.
 
“Wh – what? What are you talking about?” I asked.
 
He spoke more slowly, but the menace in the words only grew. “Who did you alert to our presence here?”
 
“No – nobody, I swear,” I told him. “That never even crossed my mind.”
 
Seth arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
 
“Of course I’m sure!” I exclaimed. “I didn’t talk to anyone, I didn’t rat you out. I’ll take you back down there so you can see for yourself if you want!”
 
He stalked away with one of his mirthless chuckles. “I didn’t want you on there. What makes you think I want to follow suit?”
 
“Contrary to popular belief, I’m not trying to get away from you,” I called out as I followed him. “If I were, I would have done it in Cleveland! Not in the middle of the fucking desert 2,000 miles from home!”
 
“Fuck it, I can’t deal with this right now,” he muttered.
 
I started to back away, but Seth grasped my wrist and pulled me to him. I hadn’t seen him grab the handcuffs, but I felt it as one locked around my wrist. He used it to push me to the floor and the nearest leg of my bed. “You don’t have to do this,” I whimpered.
 
Seth finished securing me to the bed then hunched down in front of me balancing on his ankles. “Evidently, I do. You keep making promises you have no intention of keeping.”
 
He moved away while I shifted as much as I was able to get more comfortable. “Goddammit!” I called out to no one in particular.
 
Spotting my movements when he returned, he said, “Your comfort is not my priority right now, babe. Now, I’m going to go look for Paul alone while you stay here.”  
 
“Hey, you can’t leave me–”
 
“Wanna bet?” he snapped. He’d brought rope back with him and began tying my ankles and then my shins together. “You do not want to underestimate me again. You’re lucky that all I’m going to do is make sure you don’t leave the room while I’m gone.”
 
“Please don’t do this, Seth,” I pleaded. “I can be good – I swear.”
 
“So you’ve said,” he said. “But you have yet to prove it for more than five minutes at a time.”
 
“Please…” I cried. I couldn’t imagine staying bound on the floor all night – even a couple of hours sounded dreadful. I started to panic and fought the restraints as much as I could.
 
“Where is that little button,” he asked kneeling closer to my hands. “Ah, there it is. I actually don’t want you tightening these up too much while I’m not here.”
 
“Now is a hell of a time to start caring!” I was yelling again. It was my only outlet. Meanwhile, Seth continued to move calmly around the room.
 
“There is a big difference between being uncomfortable and doing real harm to yourself,” he said. “I am trying to prevent the latter.”
 
“How merciful of you,” I spat out.
 
“You really have no idea,” he said as he ripped off a length of duct tape and put it over my mouth. I groaned and fought but it was just wasted effort. I watched him change clothes, turn off the light and walk out the door. Sitting there, alone in the dark with nothing to do but wait, I just prayed he made it back safely.
 
I couldn’t see the clock from where I sat, but when Seth finally returned, the sun was just beginning to lighten the windows in front of me. Sleep had come to me in short bursts, but I had never been able to get very comfortable.
 
Seth’s face told me it had been an unproductive night for him, but he released me without a word. I didn’t even bother to get undressed – just crawled into bed and cried myself to sleep. I don’t think Seth heard a thing.
 
I woke up later in the morning much the same way I had the past two days – Seth shaking me into a state of confusion, still wondering how this was going to end and what my role would ultimately be. My eyes were bloodshot and puffy from the night before but neither of us acknowledged it.
 
Instead, he sent me off to go the bathroom, but was waiting with handcuffs again when I exited. This time, he attached me to one of the rolling office chairs by the table. “What the actual fuck!” I screeched.
 
Seth sat down across from me on the bed and folded his hands in his lap. Once again, I was stunned at his casual manner because I was seething. “Apparently I can’t get anything approximating the truth out of you without handcuffing you to something,” he said. “And we need to have another little chat.”
 
“About what?” I asked.
 
“About what got into your head last night,” he replied.
 
“You mean while I was chained up here in the dark with no clue when you were coming back!” I yelled. I even rattled the chain for effect. Just in case he wasn’t aware how annoying this was all getting for me.
 
Seth released a slow breath out through his nose. “I mean, why you considered my directions – my explicit directions – to be optional.”
 
“I was thinking that I needed some contact with the outside damn world,” I retorted. “And you promised I could have it!”
 
“Because I thought I could trust you, Dani,” he said. “Because I meant it when I told you that if you did what I said, we would be square. I thought we could actually work together as partners. How wrong was I?”
 
“I was just reading, I swear,” I said. “I was frustrated, you know. I needed an escape. You are not the only one around here who’s allowed to be angry!”
 
“You want to be angry with someone, be angry at yourself,” he said and pointed at the chain connecting me to the chair. “Because once again, you’ve done this to yourself. And you can do it on your own goddamn time. Because I do not have the patience for this right now. I have a criminal to catch. I’d rather not have to keep track of a second one who can’t be bothered to listen when I say I know what I’m talking about when it comes to computers.”
 
It had been a stupid mistake. I knew that now. What was less clear was whether admitting that would actually help. “If I told you I really did believe you, that I know what I did was wrong, would you let me out of this?”
 
Seth ran a hand over his face then crossed his arms. “Why should I believe anything out of that mouth right now?” he asked. “You knew my rules. You knew why I made them. And you still showed a blatant disregard for everything I said. Having said that, I could use your help today.”
 
“How?” I asked hopefully.
 
“This is the deal, sweetheart,” he said. “And believe me when I say this is your final chance. Defy me again, and I will leave you, in this room for the maids to find you, with nothing. No cash, no credit cards, no debit card, and no phone. If you’re lucky, I’ll leave your ID. Is that clear enough?”
 
I nodded slowly, too much in shock to say much. “Yeah,” I said. It came out as a near whisper
.
Seth stood and towered over me as he removed the handcuff key from his pocket. “I know you can do better than that,” he said.
 
Do not ask me where the courage for this next line came from. All I knew was that I couldn’t bring myself to call him by anything but his name. “Titles are for people I respect, not people I fear,” I said shakily.
 
Seth chuckled and gave a resigned shrug. “I’ll take what I can get,” he said and held up the key. “But first, I need to hear it. I need a promise that you will be my extra set of eyes today. That you will not try to signal him – or anyone else – and that you will do what I say this time.”
 
“I – I promise,” I told him.
 
“Or what?” He motioned as if beckoning me from across the room. “I need to know you understand me.”
 
“Or – or – ” I swallowed hard. I didn’t like thinking about his threat, much less voicing it. “You’ll abandon me here. With nothing.”
 
Seth unlocked the cuffs. “Go shower. Quickly,” he said then glanced down at my wrists. “And wear something that will cover those.”
 
The red marks were prominent now. They would be difficult to hide or explain away. I grabbed the next sweater from my suitcase and rushed to get away from him.   
…
Not a lot of changes here, aside from the morning-after conversation. I added it largely because I very much wanted to eliminate this entire scene. They were getting along so well, things were smoothing out. At this point, I don't think she would defy him in this way. Unfortunately, the incident comes up in no less than three subsequent books, in quite significant ways. 

So it stayed. 

The result then had to be more than a simple handcuffing. She had to know there could be ongoing consequences. She'd had plenty of chances, and there was no way Seth was going to continue to give them to her. 

Otherwise, I enjoy the taking down of one Paul Reid. There is so much left to the imagination and yet we know exactly the sort of things Seth must have said to him. In fact, I've written that short story. It was one of the first times I wrote from Seth's POV. Someday, it will come out, probably in a collection of such things.