Free Explicit Instruction by Scarlett Finn Page A

pounced to her feet.
    Being in the trees wasn’t the safest place in weather like this, and though she could see the line of the fence stretched out in front of her, she couldn’t see beyond where it got lost in the foliage far up ahead. With the hope that there could be a clearing, she started into the trees hoping for shelter. The forest had been on both sides of the fence and Flick worried that in this weather, and in the state she was, things couldn’t get much worse.
    Then she heard the rumble of an engine and she cast her eyes upward, thankful for this serendipity. If the fence was around someone’s property, then it stood to reason that person could be patrolling the perimeter. If the landowner found her, she could get to shelter, and to a phone, and be home by the morning. Progress was slow going. Flick had to heave one sodden foot from the viscous mud then with as much might she lugged the other foot out, which sent the first foot deeper.
    A flash of light lifted her chin and Flick dropped her hands, letting the last of the items in her shirt pouch fall to the ground. That wasn’t the lightening that cracked up ahead, that flash had been headlights. Picking up the pace Flick raced as fast as she could toward that noise, and when those lights became a solid beam she lifted her hands to wave at the vehicle hoping it wouldn’t miss her in this murk.
    The light stayed on, and it came closer, and Flick’s cheeks burned with the width of the grin bursting on her face. Then the rumble slowed, and the vehicle stopped. But she couldn’t see past the glare of the headlights. Taking her hand up to deflect the light she heard a door opening.
    ‘Lookie, lookie.’
    Her blood froze. Her smile fell. Her body screamed in dismay. ‘ Skeeve,’ she exhaled.
    ‘In the flesh,’ he said moving closer. ‘You going somewhere? Or you just on the welcoming committee? You’re pretty fa r from home. What were you doing, running away? You’ll pay for that little girl.’
    Flick took a step away but in the slippery terrain , she fell backwards. Another door opened and she recognised the figure that emerged though he didn’t say a word. Skeeve sidled closer, like a scavenger moving in toward a carcass all but picked clean.
    Rushe wasn’t so dainty. He strode over, snatched her up, and h auled her back to the truck. Flick didn’t get the place of a seat this time. He threw her to the floor and slammed into the vehicle. Skeeve’s cackle came back into the truck, and then Glen was driving again.
    Rush e hadn’t said a single word, but she didn’t need him to spell out what that look on his face meant. He was definitely not amused.
     
     
    Flick couldn’t believe that she’d missed her chance. Now she was back here. Back with these men, who were capable of anything. Her freedom had been brief, but it had smelled good. The rain, the terrain, the loss of her supplies, all of those had been negatives, but she hadn’t considered that they would be out here.
    Rushe and the others were of co urse coming back to the hideout. But that first night, on their approach to the shack, she hadn’t been aware of their surroundings. Most of the environment looked the same as the rest, as Flick had learned on her brief expedition. She’d been out of the shack, far into her journey, and it hadn’t occurred to her that these men would travel the same route she would be on. Especially as she had walked in the opposite direction to the one they’d driven on her first arrival here.
    When they got back to the shack and the men piled out it was like a recurring nightmare. Rushe took hold of her, and on their journey into the structure, and into the bedroom , her feet never touched the floor. Not until he dropped her down onto it. It was dark. It was cold. She was wet and dirty. But what she was most aware of was Rushe’s seething figure. Flick could feel his anger.
    ‘Sixty seconds,’ he muttered. ‘I said sixty seconds. Can you not