It was the first time I felt as if I had a heart because the thing stopped. It stopped until I pressed my palm to her chest and felt her heartbeat. I picked her up and went out the way I came in.
I carried her to the neighbor’s backyard then gently laid her on the grass. Her eyes opened briefly and if I hadn’t been on my knees, I would’ve been brought to them just seeing her look at me.
I held her for a minute, my finger brushing her hair from her face. She coughed and coughed and I held her, rubbing her back as she sucked in the fresh air. When she finally caught her breath, she tilted her head and our eyes met. That was when I said, “I’ll always come for you, braveheart.”
Her brows lowered and she tried to say something before she coughed again and closed her eyes, lying limp in my arms. I noticed a fireman look in my direction, so I let her go, jogged back to my car and left.
That was when I hired Ernie to watch her. Of course, the only way to appear as if he wasn’t watching her was to be disguised as a homeless guy.
My cell vibrated on the coffee table, jiggling a few inches across the smooth, hard surface. I stared at the blinking screen, unable to see the number, but I didn’t have to. It was the cell phone I had that only one person had the number to.
I reached across, picked it up and then pressed the green circle on the screen before placing it to my ear. “Ernie.”
“No show this morning, boss.”
The storm pushed into me and my hand tightened on the phone. If I were forced to trust anyone, it was Ernie. He wasn’t part of Vault, but knew about them. As an ex-Navy SEAL, he knew about loyalty. Plus, I paid him a shitload of money.
My jaw clenched. “She sick?”
Ernie hesitated; he was a straight-up guy so this cemented the fact that what I was about to hear wouldn’t be good. “Got that feeling. No movement in her windows all morning. Got here around six and left last night after eight. Boss, the window’s closed.”
Fuck.
I stood. “Get in there. Don’t care how you fuckin’ do it.” I strode out of the living room and into my bedroom and threw my bag on the bed. “I’m on the next flight.”
I hung up.
I’ve never felt fear before. Had nothing to fear since it was beaten and tortured out of me when I was a kid. But suddenly that catapulted into me because I didn’t need to take a flight to New York in order to check what was up with London.
I knew.
I’d made a fatal error. I’d spent a week with London and Mother found out about it.
No attachments.
Mother was making sure of that and now London was paying the price.“FUCK. YOU!” I screamed.
His beefy arm raised and then his hand smacked me across the face so hard I fell to my knees. I put my palm on my throbbing cheek, the impact like I’d been hit with a wooden paddle.
I would never submit to these assholes. They could beat me until my last breath. I wasn’t giving in to them.
“No. You’re the one who will be fucked.” He laughed and the sound was like fingernails running down a chalkboard. I wanted to take his fingernails and rip each one off and shove them into his eyeballs. I had no idea where that came from because I wasn’t like that. I always tried to find the good in people. But this man grinned and looked giddy when he inflicted pain. He liked hurting others. He enjoyed it and that wasn’t just mean-hearted, it was evil and cruel.
I didn’t know how long it had been since I’d been kidnapped. But I was taken a week after Kai walked out and I knew that because I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I’d counted the days, hoping it would get easier¸ every morning when I woke. It hadn’t.
I’d tried to get back to my routine, but I’d been in a daze, unable to sleep or study. Even Ernie noticed a change in me and asked if I was okay.
I told him I was stressed over school, but that was a lie, and I think he knew it by the way he shook his head and frowned as if disappointed in something.
I hated myself for thinking about Kai and yet no matter what I did, he was there in my thoughts. Maybe that was how they kidnapped me so easily. I’d opened my door to what I thought was my order of Thai food and the next moment, blackness. I hadn’t even had time to scream.
And since then, I’d been drugged with some kind of sedative. I was transported in a windowless van and switched vehicles several times, but I couldn’t tell who moved me or what anyone looked like because my vision was all fucked up. I was force fed and had to pee at the side of the road before being thrown in the van again.