Finders Keepers by Edie Baylis (epub ebook reader txt) 📕

what you want,’ she croaked. ‘I don’t know anything about the drugs. Please, you have to believe me. Please just let me go. I really don’t know ab...’

‘Still playing games?’ Saul’s eyes narrowed. ‘That’s not an advisable route to take, little girl. There’s only so much I will put up with before I get really cross. I’m not interested in these drugs you keep going on about. I just want what’s mine. I’ve been through your bag and I’m very disappointed to find my goods are not in there.’

Teagan blinked in confusion, along with the sinking realisation that she really needed to use the toilet. ‘Please, I don’t know what you mean. I...’

‘Look,’ Saul hissed, grabbing one of Teagan’s breasts and twisting it. ‘It’s easier if you do things my way. Your boyfriend was adamant that you are in possession of what’s mine.’

Yelping in pain, tears sprang from Teagan’s eyes. ‘Can you unlock me. I-I need to use the toilet.’

Grinning, Saul perched on the end of the bed, his fingers running slowly up Teagan’s thigh. ‘And you think I’d be so stupid as to do that? You’d try and run away or whack me with something!’ He laughed heartily. ‘You think I don’t know what you lot are like?’

Teagan moved her leg from Saul’s touch as if his fingers were branding irons.

Saul shifted quickly. ‘I rest my case. You tried to kick me then. Don’t know when to stop, do you?’ he growled. ‘All I want to know is where my stuff is. The stuff she gave you.’

Teagan looked bewildered. ‘I don’t know about any stuff and I don’t have a boyfriend!’ She clenched her teeth, the pressure on her bladder increasingly painful, her mind too fuzzy to think straight. ‘Look, I... Please untie me.’

Saul laughed again. ‘Your lies are starting to bug me, but I tell you what, despite your behaviour, I’m in quite a good mood. How about I make you come? Orgasms stop the urge to piss.’ His hand moved back to Teagan’s thigh, his fingers inching under the hem. ‘It will relax you too. You look like you could do with a release of tension. Maybe then you’ll be more inclined to tell me the truth?’ He palmed his rapidly swelling crotch. ‘After that, I’ll let you return the favour...’

Teagan bucked away from Saul’s hand. ‘GET OFF!’ she screamed, freezing as hot urine flowed over her legs, soaking her dress and the bed.

‘Urgh! You dirty bitch!’ Saul spat.

Openly sobbing in humiliation and terror, Teagan began screaming in earnest, banging her cuffed wrists against the bed frame and making a racket loud enough to split her own head. ‘Let me out of here!’ she shrieked. ‘LET ME OUT!’

‘For fuck’s sake!’ Saul growled. ‘You’re not making this easy!’ Fishing out the syringe, he held it up, smiling as Teagan’s eyes widened in renewed terror.

‘No! NO!’ she sobbed. ‘What’s that? What is it?’

‘The same as you enjoyed last night,’ Saul snapped, forcing her elbow prone against the bed frame. ‘I’m trying to be reasonable with you, yet you’re determined to piss me around. Well, listen up, girl – it won’t fucking work!’ Grabbing an elastic strap, he threw it around her arm, tightening it with his teeth.

‘NOOOOO!’ Teagan screamed, eyeing the point of the needle as it slotted into her vein. They’d injected her last night? With what? What was it? ‘Please! Please don’t! I...’

It was too late. She felt it rush up from her feet to the back of her eyes and her body went limp as she fell into the void. The world turned grey and she could only lie back, blissed out, unable to even react or feel any emotion when Saul unzipped his trousers.

Twenty Five

ROBERT SAT IN HIS CAR in the work’s car park and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. If he’d thought going into the office would offer him any means of concentration, he’d been wrong because he hadn’t achieved more than a ten-second burst of thinking about something other than Teagan’s whereabouts.

Teagan, Teagan, Teagan - forever squirrelling into his thoughts and driving him crazy.

Ripping the cellophane from the packet of cigarettes, Robert fumbled with the lighter he’d just purchased. Lighting up, he leant back against the head rest. He’d knocked fags on the head ten years ago and here he was – the rush of the first drag on a long-awaited cigarette just as satisfying as it always had been. Taking a couple more deep drags in quick succession, his head swam from the nicotine rush.

He frowned deeply. After a few hours had passed this afternoon, he’d called home, making out he was calling to check his mother was alright, rather than to ask the only question banging around his head: Had Teagan returned?

Thankfully, the question had been answered without him having to ask. And the answer was no. Still no sign of Teagan. No message. No phone call. Nothing.

Promising he’d be home within a couple of hours, Robert had returned to staring at his computer, pretending to study the rows of code, but there was a niggling worry that wouldn’t go away. Would Teagan really have just upped and left without a word? Even if she’d been angry enough to react like that last night, surely she would have been in contact by now? If not with him, then with Dulcie? He knew how much Teagan cared for his mother, so her lack of contact made no sense.

Robert impotently toyed with what to do. Finally resigned to making the call, he slapped the button for the glove box and retrieved Teagan’s phone.

Two texts.

Heart picking up the beat, he unlocked the phone, grateful Teagan was so trusting she’d felt no need to password it:

How are you doing? Give me a call sometime. Joe xx

Robert frowned. Who was Joe? Another boyfriend? Irritated, he moved onto the next text, his skin bristling seeing it was from Darren Harding:

Great to see you. Call me xxx

He