Deeper and deeper we went into the woods, until he finally pulled over. He took the keys out of the ignition and got out of the car.
I watched him storm around the front of the car, and that’s when I made my move. Despite all my internal protestations about not forgetting my leftovers, I abandoned them and launched myself across the seats, my head nearly colliding with the driver’s side window.
But I didn’t care. I ignored that just like I ignored the pain shooting through my knee as I bashed it against the center console. The only thing that mattered was opening the door.
I was a mess of limbs, dress, and wig as I tumbled out of the car. Jumping to my feet, I raced off into the dark. I got maybe four steps when the guy snatched me off my feet and threw me over his shoulder.
“Let me go!” I shrieked, a bit surprised at the volume I managed to get with how tight my throat felt. “Let me go, damn it.”
I didn’t know if it was comical or downright infuriating when my kidnapper spoke with a single, flat syllable.
“No.”
That was the long and the short of it.
I kicked and thrashed a bit more, but I was exhausted,and my heart was about to beat right out of my body, so I gave up and hung limply.
“Don’t run again,” the man growled before setting me down on a stump.
“Ican’t,” I wheezed.
I didn’t expect him to grimace again and look almost guilty.
What exactly was going on here?
Well, I wouldn’t find out unless I asked. This was real life, and people didn’t usually actually break into a villainous monologue to explain their actions.
“I’m not really sure what this is all about,” I hedged between slow, deep breaths.Calm down. Calm down. You are a gentle stream. A glacier gently drifting through the ocean.“But it’s not too late to change your mind.”
Maybe I was full of hope, but I didn’t get the impression that he was a super-violent man. The guilt over the state I was in and him keeping his hands to himself after that initial throat grip were little clues my hyper-aware mind picked up on and pieced together.
Then again, it could just be desperation influencing me.
I’d find out soon enough.
That was horrifying.
Breathe. In for eight. Hold for seven. Out for eight.
I was doing nearly as well as Ben had at the breathing exercise. My chest felt like it was both about to implode and crack right in two from the force of my heart.
My doctor had warned me about this. He’d told me I needed to avoid stress, adrenaline, and anything too strenuous, then prescribed me muscle relaxers and beta blockers. I’d brought them on my date, and I really could use them right now, except they were in my damn purse.
“I don’t really have a choice,” he snarled as he paced in front of me.
Goosebumps rose all along my arms, and I was surprised my body had enough spare energy for that. Was I going to faint again? I felt like I was.
“I have to kill the bastard that killed my baby brother.”
Exsqueeze me now?
The man sounded unhinged, so feral.
It was more than his tone. His posture had changed, his head twisting this way and that like he was listening for something. All I could hear was the rushing of my blood within my own ears.
“It’s a matter of honor,” he continued, but why did it sound like something was in his mouth? Something making his tongue do extra work to articulate? “He was the baby of the family and now he has no grave. His soul knows no home. I have to… I have to…”
It was now completely apparent that this was no random carjacking. I’d been taken for a reason, and that reason could only be Ben. Even if it was a case of mistaken identity, this man had kidnapped me because he thought Ben was the man who killed his brother.
