The Big Bad Wolf

CHAPTER 57

HOW MUCH TIME did she have left now?

A day? Hours?

It almost didn’t matter, did it? Lizzie Connolly was learning to accept life as it came; she was

learning who she was inside, and how to keep herself in balance.

Except, of course, when she was frightened out of her mind.

Lizzie called them her “swimming dreams.” She had been an avid swimmer ever since she

was four years old. The repetition of stroke after stroke, kick after kick could always put her

in another place and time, on autopilot, let her escape. So that was what she was doing now

in the closet/room where she was being kept.

Swimming.

Escaping.

Reach, slightly cupped hand, S-figure with her arms, pull at the top, grab the water. Tip

through to the belly button, then down through the bottom of her swimsuit. Swoosh, swoosh,

kick, kick, feeling hot inside, but the water was cooling, refreshing, invigorating. Feeling

empowered because she was feeling stronger.

She had been thinking about escape for much of the day, or what she thought of as a day,

anyway. Now she began to get serious about other things.

She reviewed what she knew about this place the closet and the vicious, horrifying man

who kept her. The Wolf. That was what the bastard called himself. Why the Wolf?

She was somewhere in a city. She was almost sure the city was in the South, and fairly large,

lots of money in the surrounding area. Maybe it was Florida, but she didn’t know why she

thought that. Maybe she had overheard something and it had only registered in her

unconscious. She’d definitely heard voices in the house when there had been large parties or,

occasionally, smaller get-togethers. She believed that her vermin captor lived alone. Who

could possibly live with such a horrible monster? No woman could.

She knew some of his pathetic habits by heart. He usually turned on the TV when he came

home: sometimes ESPN, but more often CNN. He watched the news constantly. He also liked

detective shows, such as Law and Order, CSI, Homicide. The TV was always on, late into the

night.

He was physically large and strong, and he was a sadist but also careful about not hurting

her badly, not so far, anyway. Which meant what did it mean? that he planned to keep

her around for a while longer?

If Lizzie Connolly could stand it here for another minute. If she didn’t flip out and make him

so angry that he’d snap her neck, as he’d threatened to several times a day. “I’ll snap your

little neck. Like this! You don’t believe me? You should believe me, Elizabeth.” He always

called her Elizabeth, not Lizzie. He told her that Lizzie wasn’t a beautiful enough name for

her. “I’ll break your f*cking neck, Elizabeth!”



He knew who she was and quite a bit about her, and also about Brendan, Brigid, Merry,

Gwynnie. He promised that if she made him angry he’d not only hurt her, but he’d do the

same to her family. “I’ll go to Atlanta. I’ll do it for kicks, just for fun. I live for that kind of

thing. I could murder your whole family, Elizabeth.”



He was desiring her more and more she could certainly tell when a man got like that. So she

did have some control over him, didn’t she? How about that? So f*ck you too, buddy!

Sometimes he would leave her binds slightly looser and even give her free time to walk

around in the house. Tied up, of course on a kind of chain leash that he would hold in his

hands. It was so demeaning. He told her that he knew she’d be thinking that he was getting

kinder and gentler but not to get any stupid ideas.

Well, what the hell else could she do except get ideas? There was nothing for her to do all day

in the dark by herself. She was



The closet door swung open violently. Then it slammed against the wall outside.

The Wolf screamed in Dizzies face. “You were thinking about me, weren’t you? You’re

starting to get obsessive, Elizabeth. I’m in your thoughts all the time.”



Damn it, he was right about that.

“You’re even glad for the company. You miss me, don’t you?”



But he had that wrong, dead wrong.

Lizzie hated the Wolf so much that she contemplated the unthinkable: She could kill him. Maybe

that day would come. Imagine that, she thought. God, that is what I want to do kill the Wolf

myself. That would be the greatest escape of all.