Free Dream Tunnel by Arby Robbins Page A

pulled into a motel. “I’ll be right back.” He turned off the engine, took the keys, and went into the office.
    Conroe considered getting out of the truck and going on by foot. Maybe she’d be lucky and catch a ride with someone less creepy. But what if she couldn’t? Crane was in danger, and besides, the time travel computer battery might die soon.
    The man came out of the office and got into the truck. “Now we’re set.”
    Conroe hoped that meant there would be no more stops along the way.
    He drove around to the back side of the motel and parked in front of a room. “I’ll just be a minute.” He took the keys and went into the room.
    Conroe decided to bail. She grabbed the door handle.
    He stuck his head out the motel room door. “I’m sorry, honey, but this is gonna take longer than I thought. I cut my hand.” His hand was covered with blood.
    She jumped out of the truck. “Let me help you with that.” She went inside with him.
    He closed the door behind her. “Now this won’t take long, honey, and then we’ll be on our way to Galveston.” He unbuckled his belt.
    “What are you doing? Don’t we need to bandage your hand?”
    “Oh, this?” He licked his hand. “I was just joking around.” He pointed to the empty ketchup packets on the TV stand and then unzipped his pants and let them drop to the floor. “Now come over here and give me some ‘scratching.’” He grinned.
    She walked over to him. “I really thought you might be a decent guy, just wanting to help out a girl in distress.” She gently stroked his cheek with her hand.
    “Nope. I’m a bad, bad boy,” he said with a smirk, “and I need to be punished.”
    “Then I will happily fulfill your needs.” She pinched his ear between two fingers, Gomwei style.
    He dropped to his knees and cried in agony when they hit the thinly carpeted concrete floor. “I can’t move my arms. I’m paralyzed.” He began to whimper. “What have you done to me?”
    “I’ve given you exactly what you deserve. But don’t worry—you’ll be as good as new in four or five hours. Oh—I hope you didn’t need to go to the bathroom.”
    “I think…I just did,” he said, sobbing.
    She laid him down on his side and placed a pillow under his head. “Thanks for the use of your truck. I’ll try to take good care of it. And don’t bother to come looking for me. By the time you’re able to walk again, I’ll be long gone.”
    “I will come after you, and when I catch you, you’re gonna be sorry you messed with this cowboy.”
    “That’s big talk, coming from a guy who just wet his pants.” She picked up his keys from the TV stand.
    “Now, do I need to gag you so that you can’t scream for help? Hmm, probably not. Because if you call for help, they will take you to the hospital in this condition. That would be embarrassing. The nurses might even be laughing behind your back. No, better to just sleep it off, don’t you think?”
    “I’ll track you down, no matter where you go.”
    Draping a blanket over his half-naked body, she said, “Sweet dreams,” and walked out and shut the door.
    Conroe got into the truck and started the engine. She had never driven before, but after watching a drunk do it, she figured it couldn’t be that difficult. Leaving the parking lot, she flattened a stop sign and narrowly avoided a ditch. After that, she drove as well as any first-day driver’s ed student.
    Crane could be walking along the highway, or he might have caught a ride with someone, she thought. What if he had gone into a convenience store somewhere along the way and she drove right past him? Or what if she was wrong about him going to Galveston?
    She had been driving for twenty minutes when she saw a guy who looked like Crane walking along the highway. She pulled over and stopped in front of him, just as the creepy drunk guy had stopped for her. But as he approached the truck and she got a better look at him in the rearview mirror, she realized