I crawled to the back door and thanked the Lord when it opened. The idea of being trapped in the back of a van was atrocious. I stumbled out onto the cool pavement beneath me, the small rocks piercing my hands. “Aw, shit,” I mumbled and stood slowly. I was in a tunnel. Why was I in a tunnel?
I could see the light at the end of the tunnel far in the distance, past the black van that had held me.
“Finally,” a low voice grumbled behind me.
I whipped around, though that was a bad decision. I teetered to the side as the world spun too fast. “Nope, not doing that again.”
“How much did you give him?” the low voice asked. I squinted, trying to make out his features, but it seemed Pablo Picasso was his father. His features swirled as I tried to focus. In fact, the entire tunnel was swirling around me.
“I calculated his height and weight,” a feminine voice answered. Hmmm… I knew that voice. Where did I know that voice? “I must have miscalculated."
I wagged my finger, “No, no, no, you got it right. Me?” I pointed to myself, “Lightweight.” Neither of the weird blobby figures seemed to appreciate my humor at the moment. Rude, I was delightful to be around. “Well, if we’re done here, I’m just gonna head on out.”
I turned and started to make my way out of the tunnel, though it was starting to spin the other direction, and that definitely didn’t seem right. Then it all went black yet again.
At least waking up this time, I wasn’t high on whatever shit they had injected me with. I was hog-tied again and back in that damned van. Now I had a headache and a knot on the back of my head from where I had been knocked unconscious. I guess brain damage was still on the table.
“Fucking hell,” I mumbled and got to work on the bindings again. This was something out of the Twilight Zone. I was still in the van, the van was still in the tunnel, and I wondered if my captors were still waiting outside.
The ties were easier to get through this time, not nearly as tight. I slipped both my hands and feet free and stretched my arms high above my head. “I’m getting too old for this shit.”
If my memory served me correctly, it was only two individuals with me—an older man and a young woman. I could remember them speaking, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what they said.
There was nowhere to go but out of the back of the van; I might as well see what shit I had found myself in this time. I cautiously opened the back door of the van and climbed out.
It was dark outside now, with no light filtering from the end of the tunnel. I had no way of knowing if it was simply later in the evening, or if I had been abducted days ago.
“Stop right there,” the man commanded again. Despite the dim light, I could see him clearly. His dark hair was peppered with white and grey. His steel blue eyes were a familiar shade, and the rasp of his voice was reminiscent of his son’s. He was also training a gun straight at me.
I had only met him once and had hated him on sight. My opinion wasn’t getting much better.
“William.” I greeted casually as I surveyed my surroundings. “Where’s Andi?”
William Sr. chuckled, “She’s indisposed for the moment. But she’ll be back.”
I nodded, “Cool, cool, cool. So…” I trailed off, “What’s the plan here?”
William Sr. stared at me as if I were some specimen who had just grown a second head. It wasn’t far off from how Bec used to look at me. “You do recognize I kidnapped you, right? You’re currently being held hostage.”
“I put the pieces together,” I began pacing the width of the tunnel, and a bewildered William Sr. stared, keeping his gun pointed at me. “You do realize I’m an Army veteran and you’re asixty-year-old man, right? There is no scenario where you win in a fight.”
He straightened the arm holding the gun, “You do realize there is no scenario where you make it out of here alive, right?”
I crossed my arms and looked at him. “Okay, say you kill me. Then what… what’s the plan? Or the purpose? If I’m gonna die, I’d like to know why.”
He stared at me for a moment and looked like he was trying to put a puzzle together based on his expression. “You’re seriously dating my daughter?” He asked after a moment, clearly off his scary kidnapper script.
I shrugged, “She finds me delightful. And a little annoying, and obnoxious…”
“Can you shut up for five minutes?” William Sr. bellowed, cutting me off.
I raised my hands in feigned surrender, “Honestly, I don’t think I can.”
“Let’s just get this over with,” he mumbled and fired the gun.
Was it possible to have sandpaper for eyes? Because I fully believed I did as I tried to pry them open. My body had been through hell over the last twenty-four hours. Forty-eight? There was no way to be sure.
William Sr. fucking shot me. Like, damn man, I know I wasn’t shutting up, but I had been drugged. The least he could have done was cut me some slack. Nope, the idiot shot me.
