I was never close to my mom. Not the way a child should be close to a parent. She was always distant with me and never hugged me. We’re not the type of family that says I love you or that you’re proud of the other. We’re a very distant family, and this just shows me how distant we truly are.
“Repay him for hitting me?”
“You deserved it. He wouldn’t have done so if you didn’t.”
“You know what? Fuck this!” I scream this time as I tug at the dress, trying to rip it off my body. When I get it free, I slide out of it and find my regular clothes to put on.
“What are you doing?” she asks as I grab a bag and start packing a few things.
“I don’t need this! I don’t need to live here. I’m an adult.” She laughs, and it grates on my nerves.
“You have nothing. Where will you go? How will you live?” she taunts.
“I’ll figure it out,” I tell her as I pull the pins from my hair and shake it out before piling it on top of my head and securing it.
“You’ll be back in a day,” she laughs again. I toss the bag over my shoulder and head out of my room and down the back stairs so I don’t have to face my father again. When I get to the bottom, I walk out the back door and down the dark sidewalk. I sniffle as I go, not knowing what I’m going to do. I have a little money saved up in a second account they didn’t know about, but not much.
I walk to the end of the driveway, and that’s when it happens. Something is placed over my head, and I scream. Not that anyone could hear me out here with the party going on inside.
My hands are pulled behind my back as I scream louder.
“Help! Help me!” I scream as my arms are secured behind my back. Before I know what’s happening, I’m tossed into the back of a car. Doors slam before the engine starts, and we take off.
Chapter 5
Royal
It was too easy. It shouldn’t have been this easy. What the hell was she doing out there by herself at this time of night? We didn’t plan on taking her just yet, just doing a little recon, and there she fucking was. Like it was meant to happen for us.
She sits with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her arm is chained to the wall at the abandoned warehouse we stay in from time to time when money is tight, and we can’t get a hotel room. The bag is still over her head, and I can tell it’s getting harder for her to breath.
Pulling my mask into place, I walk over and pull the bag off her and toss it to the side. She looks up, tears leaking down her cheeks as she looks up at me. She looks terrified, afraid of what I might do to her.
“What do you want?” she asks in a shaky tone.
“Money.”
“I don’t have any,” she says softly. She doesn’t, but her dad does, and we know it.
“Your family is rich,” I remind her.
“My family is, not me.”
“They’ll pay,” I tell her. I see the pain in her eyes as she looks up at me, and that’s when I know something is off. Jeremy walks in, his mask over his face too, and comes to stand next to me.
“Everything good?” he asks as I look at her. I nod my head and pull out the burner phone we bought.
“Yeah, just need to make the call,” I tell him.
“We should wait a little while. At least overnight.”
“And do what with her?” I ask, nodding toward the girl.
“Leave her here. She isn’t going anywhere,” he says.
“I’ll stay here to be sure,” I say. Jeremy shrugs and gathers his things before heading out. I drop and sit with my back against the wall, playing some stupid game on the burner phone.
“They’re not going to give you money,” she says softly.
