Fool Me Once

Out of the corner of my eye, I see him reach back between the seats. I try to move toward the window, afraid he’s going to hurt me, but his reach is long. The car swerves as he reaches farther, and a couple cars on the road honk. “Stop moving! I’m trying to take your tape off.” Not wanting us to wreck, I lean forward to let him rip the tape off, but it’s too late. The car is going too fast and he loses control. It’s dark and I can’t see much, but I feel the vehicle hit the reflectors, indicating he’s driving off the road. The vehicle hits some kind of bump and then slams forward, tilting to the side. Just before we begin to flip, I catch a glimpse of the wide ditch filled with water.

Brenton screams, and I can’t do anything. He put my seat belt on to keep me in place. I have no hands and no voice, and as the car flips and lands in the water, and the inside begins to fill with cold liquid, all I can do is pray Keegan is following us. Because otherwise, I know that as soon as the water fills to the top, my life will be over.

Keegan

“She’s gone!” Sierra yells. “She told me she’d wait for me right outside of the bathroom and she wasn’t there. I called her phone and she didn’t answer. Where is she?” The panic in her voice has me jumping to my feet. My first instinct is to call her. When she doesn’t answer, I check the GPS I still have on her phone. It shows her traveling away from the club. There’s no way she would leave without us.

“Let’s go!” I yell, already running for the door to my truck. I don’t know how long the GPS is going to work, how long whoever took her will go without realizing she still has her phone, and I’m not going to wait around here to find out. We jump into my truck and I take off in the direction the vehicle is going.

“She’s still not answering,” Sierra says.

“Don’t call her!” I shout a bit too loud. “Don’t call her,” I repeat again. “If it goes off, even a vibration, whoever took her will get rid of it and then I won’t have any way to find her.”

“I’ll call Dad,” Kolton says.

“Tell him to send someone over to Brenton’s place. The GPS says she’s going north. And tell him to put someone on Mom and Zane. Make sure they’re okay.”

“Brenton lives south,” Kolton states.

“I know, but if he’s home, it will rule out him taking her.”

“Who else would’ve taken her?” Sierra asks.

“Miguel Sanchez and Maxwell Travers are both locked up. Either of them could’ve had someone pick her up to send a message.” I slam my fist against the steering wheel. “Fuck! I should’ve had someone watching her tonight. I thought she’d be okay because she was with me.”

“Bro,” Kolton says, “don’t go there.” But it’s too late because I’ve already gone there.

Kolton explains to our dad what’s happened and he says he’ll call back once he knows anything. With me doing over a hundred, I’m catching up, but whoever has her must be flying as well because I’m not catching up fast enough.

We drive in silence for a few minutes, none of us having a clue what to say, until Kolton’s phone rings. He puts it on speaker phone.

“Your mom and Zane are okay. Duncan is with them now. Brenton’s apartment is empty, though. The furniture is all there, but it’s been completely cleaned out of his possessions.”

“He has her,” I say out loud. “I’m only about a quarter of a mile behind her phone.” And then a thought hits me that if I wasn’t sitting, would knock me down. “What if he set up a decoy? What if I’m following her phone but not her?”

“Son…” Dad starts, but his words are cut off by Sierra screaming.

“Oh my God! Look!” Our eyes fly to the side as a small vehicle swerves off the road and hits the ditch. It flips a few times and then lands in the water. It takes a second for my brain to catch up to what I already know.

“That’s Brenton’s car. Dad! We need an ambulance stat!” I glance down at the GPS and read off our location before tossing the phone to Sierra. “Stay on the phone with him.” I pull over on the side of the road, grab my Life Hammer, and jump out of my truck. Kolton and I run straight over to where the car is submerged under the water. We had a bad storm last week and the ditches are all full. Luckily, when it flipped, it landed upright, so even though I can see there’s water leaking in, part of the windows are still visible.