Marriage of Convenience (The Raven Brothers 1)

My walk at the park had been lovely. The weather was hot but not oppressive. People of all ages and types were enjoying the amenities Central Park offered. After an hour or so, I started to get tired and decided to head home. I just exited the part and was coming to the street corner, when a hand grabbed me.

“Miss me?” Glen’s menacing voice hissed in my ear.

I tried to pull away, but he held tight. I started to cry out, but he put a knife against my belly. “I’m here to save you, Sara. Don’t make me hurt you.”

Tears filled my eyes. My perfect life was about to crumble. My first thought was for my baby. Did I tell Glen about it? Would that make him not want me and let me go? Or would it anger him and cause him to hurt me?

Then I thought of Chase. He’d be angry when he learned I’d gone missing. If I was saved, he’d probably decide my baggage was too much, and that I wasn’t worth the effort. He’d leave me and probably get custody of the baby. After all, the people in my life were all letches and kidnappers. He might even think I set him up to get money.

Glen dragged me to a minivan. Pressing a button on his keychain, the side door opened. He pushed me in, coming in behind me.

“Give me your hands,” he demanded.

I did as he said, and he put handcuffs on me.

“You be a good girl, and everything will be fine, Sara.” He nodded at me. Then he climbed into the front seat and started the van.

My phone was in my pocket, so I reached for it to call Chase.

“What are you doing?” The van swerved and screeched to a stop, causing a blare of horns around him. Glen yanked the phone from my hand. He got out of the van, dropped the phone and stepped on it. Watching him out the window, he put it under the back tire, then he got in the van, and drove off, smashing the phone underneath the van.

Panic made it hard to think, but I had my baby to consider. “Where are you taking me?”

“I’m doing an intervention. We’ll get all this bullshit about living the highlife in New York out of your head. We need to get that greedy, sinful demon out of you.”

God, he sounded like my parents. I’d known Glen was religious, but I hadn’t remembered him talking like that before.

“I want my sweet, pure Sara back. Then we’ll get married. I’ve got a house picked out for us near your parents. You’ll like that won’t you Sara?”

I didn’t say anything as I tried to work out the safest thing to say. I thought he’d take me back to Staten Island, but instead, he pulled up in front of a nondescript building still in Manhattan.

“You behave, you hear?” He said as he pulled me from the van and led me up a set of stairs. “There’s no one else in his building, so yelling won’t matter.”

He opened a door to a small apartment and led me back to a room. “We’re going to get you right again, Sara. Other people said I should just let you go. Even your parents think you’re a lost cause. You’re a sinner, but I told them I’d save you. We’ll be a family, you’ll see.”

God had he gone crazy? “I can’t marry you, Glen.”

There was a flicker of anger in his eyes. “Why not?”

“I’m already married.”

“No!” He grabbed my hand, the handcuff yanking the other one up with it. He saw the ring Chase had put there on our wedding day. “By a minister?”

“No.”

He gripped the ring, and yanked it off my finger. I cried out in pain as he bent my finger back.

“Then it’s not real. If it wasn’t blessed by God, then it’s not real.” His eyes narrowed. “You’ve been living in sin.” Then as if he realized what that meant he said, “Did he touch you?”

“I’m his wife.” I was afraid to tell him about the baby for fear of what he’d do to me. Would he think the child was a demon?

He slapped me hard, and I stumbled. “Don’t you say that. You’re mine.” Then he grabbed me and pulled me to the bed. He undid one cuff and I started to fight him. He hit me again in the face, and he was able to secure the cuff to the headboard.

“I’ll be back.” He left but was back within minutes. “Drink this.”

“What is it?”

“Drink it!” He slapped me again.

“Glen please. I’ll be quiet. I’ll just sit here.”

He squeezed my face by my mouth and brought the small cup to my lips. “Drink!”

The liquid hit my lips, and I tried to turn away, but he held my face. I choked as the liquid hit the back of my throat. It tasted like cold medicine.