She could still breathe through her nose, but now she started to hyperventilate, fast.
What’s happening? Who was that man who helped me out of the hospital? Where did he go? Who are these men?
She heard a van door slide open.
What can I do?
She tried to turn right and left to get free, but the man holding her arms was too strong. Hands grabbed her, pulling her into the van.
She kicked her legs, trying to fight, but her legs were then grabbed by strong hands, and she was manhandled all the way into the van.
The van door slid closed, slamming as her heart beat fast in her chest. Ropes were tied around her wrists and ankles. She tried to fight, but they were too strong.
Where are they taking me? What do they want with me? How will Brian find me?
She hadn’t had time to press the pendant to alert Brian that she needed him. And she needed him more than ever, now.
Cecelia brought her bound wrists up, curling into herself, and they didn’t stop her. Pressing against her chest, where the pendant lay between her breasts, she hoped she’d activated the pendant tracking device.
Her arms were grabbed and forced down again as they held her down.
The pinprick of a needle going into her arm made her breathe in sharply.
Then everything in her world went black.
* * *
Brian wasn’t backfrom his appointment at the Naval base, when the tracking device on his phone went off.
Cecelia needed him.
He needed to get back.
Brian hurried to his truck and headed for the hospital.
When he stepped into the hospital elevator and pressed the elevator buttons, the braille panels reminded him of Cecelia.
In the elevator, riding up, one of the female passengers said, “I’m glad there wasn’t really a fire. Can you imagine trying to move all these patients?”
Her girlfriend said, “I know. How would they get them all out fast enough?”
He went on alert the moment the first woman said “fire.” He looked at them and said, “There was a fire alarm?”
“Yes. You must’ve missed it,” the first woman said. “This was a couple of hours ago.”
He took out his cell phone and double checked it.
No messages.
Cecelia hadn’t messaged. He’d heard nothing from about a fire. And she was afraid of fires. Had nightmares about them. It didn’t seem like her not to call or text him, to tell him about the fire alarms going off.
Something was wrong.
He had a bad feeling about this. A gut feeling.
Had she left the hospital when the fire alarm went off on her own? Or had she gone with someone else?
His gut was telling him she’d been taken. But he had to double check with her cousin.
