Swallowing sickly, she battled against the nausea that was becoming more and more intense. {Please, God, don't let me throw up. Don't let me throw up.} Unwanted tears trickled through her eyelashes. {What about my baby? Dear God, my baby!} As if in response to her words, she felt a faint flutter low in her abdomen. Tears trickled faster, and a whimper of relief escaped her throat. {Thank you, God. Thank you. Keep him safe. No matter what else happens, please keep my baby safe.}
A dull throb at her temples told her a massive headache was imminent, and her mind kept repeating the litany, {I won't throw up, I won't throw up, I won't throw up.}
A deep bass voice echoed hollowly above her, one she didn't recognize. "Have a nice nap, Mrs. Caine?"
Kacie stiffened, first in fear, and then in anger. A fierce surge of protectiveness swept over her, and she unconsciously curled into a fetal position, covering her midsection.
"Not talking, eh?"
She felt a rush of fresh air as whatever it was that had been covering her was removed. She sucked in the oxygen, breathing deeply through her nose, then cried out as the adhesive over her mouth was cruelly ripped off. Gasping in pain, Kacie fought a losing battle with the bile rising in her throat, giving up and retching violently as the breakfast she had eaten earlier left her stomach.
"That's no way to act when you're a house guest. You'll be expected to clean that up, you know."
Kacie panted weakly, "Who are you? What do you want with me?" She gathered enough saliva in her mouth to spit out the aftertaste of her vomit, and sent the sputum in the general direction of her first malodorous emission.
"What do I want with you? Nothing. I don't really want you at all."
"Then what's this all about? I don't have anything anybody would want." Kacie lay still a moment, taking in her situation and trying to remove the last of the cobwebs from her brain. "What did you do to me?"
The disembodied voice laughed. "Just a little chloroform. It's still the best way to encourage someone to take a quick nap."
{Chloroform? Oh, God! Let my baby be all right! Don't let my being so stupid hurt my baby!} Kacie felt another surge of anger, both at this formless voice and at herself for being suckered into a trap so easily. "How do you feel after your fake heart attack?"
Laughter again. "Recovering nicely, thank you very much. Weren't you just the Good Samaritan to stop and help? I'm surprised someone hasn't trained you better to be more careful about stopping to help strangers. There's a lot of crazies out in the world, you know."
Quick words sprang to her lips, but Kacie cautioned herself, {You don't know what you're dealing with here; watch your mouth.} Biting back her sharp reply, she asked in a small voice, "Could I please have some water? I don't feel very good. And I have to go to the bathroom, too."
"I imagine you have to do a lot of that lately. Just how pregnant are you?"
Kacie felt her muscles start to tremble again, wondering where this line of questioning was leading. "I-I'm almost five months."
"This might complicate things. I wasn't told about this little detail."
"Why are you doing this to me? I don't even know who you are. What could I ever have done to you?"
"I'm doing a favor for a friend."
"Can't be much of a friend to set you up for a felony kidnapping."
The voice laughed. "Oh, this friend makes me very happy, any time I want, any way I want. I figure the least I can do is help to keep her happy, too."
Kacie remained silent, digesting this little bit of information. {A woman is behind this?} Keeping her voice small and pitiful, she asked again, "Could I please use that bathroom? There's already enough of a mess here, isn't there?"
Her bonds were loosened and she was jerked roughly to her feet, nearly falling as her stiffened joints and muscles refused to hold her. The hand on her arm yanked her up again, the grip on her biceps like a vise.
Kacie stumbled along as she was guided up a short flight of stairs. She could tell that she was walking along a narrow hallway, as she bumped into the walls from time to time. She was pulled to a halt, and the blindfold removed from her eyes. Blinking against the garish light of an uncovered light bulb, she shielded her eyes with her hands, turning to face her captor when the voice spoke to her again.
A rubber mask in the image of Richard Nixon grinned back at her, eyes as black as onyx showing through the holes. "There you go, all the comforts of home."
Kacie looked around at the filthy bathroom, which looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in years. She shuddered, wondering what things were growing there. "Is the water safe to drink?"
Nixon shrugged. "The rats don't seem to mind it."
She leveled an acid stare at him. "I need to drink a lot of water. I have to think of my baby. Look, I don't know what you want from me, but if you want a healthy captive here, I need water -- the kind you can drink without wondering what disease you'll pick up."
"Feisty, aren't you? But you're not exactly in any position to make demands here, are you?"
Kacie's chin quivered in spite of her brave words. "I'm not asking for me. I'm asking for my baby. I'm asking because I stopped to help you when I thought you were in trouble. How many people in this city would have done that for you?"
The obsidian eyes studied her a moment. "Use the bathroom," he muttered. "I'll get you your water." He stepped outside, closing the door and locking it behind himself.
Kacie started trembling violently and hugged herself to try and bring some warmth. She looked at her vile surroundings and squeezed back tears. {Oh, Peter, what have I done? What have I gotten us into?}