Chapter Five
Worth
Exactly at five in the evening, the phone in the cottage rang, and I ran to answer it. Megan had been calling me every day like clockwork since she’d left for London. She didn’t need to keep checking on me, but I was happy for the distraction. The last few days I’ve been getting spooked much more easily than when they’d been here last week. I knew it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but it almost felt like I was being watched. I knew I was paranoid about Terrence coming after me, but with the legal issues and restraining order I’d finally gotten, I didn’t believe he’d risk it.
I still felt weird, though.
“Hey, sis, how did you like Hamilton last night?”
“Bubby, it was amazing! The King was so great, and the theatre was beautiful. I wish you could have been here. I know you’ve been wanting to see it, too.”
“I’ll see it one day, but I’m glad you’re having a good time. Did Jeremiah like it, too?”
Megan laughed, and I could hear Jeremiah groan in the background, “He liked that they had a bar in the theatre, that’s about all I can say about that.”
I laughed and then spent the next half hour listening to my sister chatter about what they’d already done and their plans for the rest of the week.
“Now, I won’t be calling you the next few days, we’ll be camping and decided to leave the phones off. Are you going to be okay? I can keep my phone on if you need me for anything.”
“I’ll be fine. You guys left me with enough food in the cottage to feed an army, and I’ve got plenty of books and things to keep me entertained. I’ve started running again and using the weight machine in the third bedroom. I’ll be perfectly safe here while you two get back to nature.”
I giggled, and she giggled in return. Then we said our goodbyes and hung up. As I looked out the open door to the back porch, looking out into the vineyard, the hair on the back of my neck rose. There it was again, that feeling that I couldn’t shake. I closed the door, locked it for good measure, and then checked all the other doors just in case. There was a slim chance for rain for the next few days. Good enough reason to stay inside and locking the doors was just smart.
If I told myself these things enough, I might not let the feeling I was being stalked get to me. But I knew that feeling and I’d never been wrong before. I needed to plug my phone in, to make sure it wouldn’t be dead if I needed it. Maybe I just needed to work off some of the feelings I was still working through from leaving my past behind.
I went into the workout room, plugged in my phone, and hopped onto the treadmill. I turned on the new playlist I’d created on Pandora, then started jogging a slow pace, to begin with. Before, I had been able to run half marathons and 5ks for fun. My stamina was shit now, but I could get it back. Just like everything else, I was determined to get all of my life back. It would just take some time and effort. I had plenty of time now, and I was committed to the effort.
When Lady Gaga came on singing about jumping into the deep end, I picked up my pace. I was jumping into the deep end. I could drown, or I could swim now. Whatever happened to me from this moment forward was all my choice. The music picked up and built to the big finish, and I increased the speed again. My heart was pounding, sweat poured off my brow, and plastered my shirt and sleep pants to my body. I wasn’t running on a treadmill anymore. I was chasing the life I’d lost so many years ago. I was chasing down who I was or had wanted to be but never became.
The song changed to a faster song next, and I kept going, even though I felt my heart trying to exit my body through my throat. I could keep pushing, keep going. The sun was setting, and twilight was taking over the world outside. I could run until dark. As the sun eventually left the world outside in shadow, I moved to slow down the machine so I could cool off, but my hand never made it.
I was snatched backward off the treadmill so fast that one of my shoes stayed behind and flew into the wall with the force. I was thrown onto the ground face down and a black bag placed over my head, tightened with a string around my throat. I was still winded from running and my respiration was so fast, every breath pulled the bag into my nose and mouth, suffocating me. I hated having my face covered. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t catch my breath like this.
I tried to grab the hood to get it off, but my hands were roughly jerked behind my back and tied together at the wrists and then at the elbows. I couldn’t move anything now except my legs. My mind was slowly catching up to my situation, and I realized this might be my only chance for escape, so I kicked out to the side, thinking that was where the person was. I hit empty air, over and over again.
That was when I heard a low laugh coming from the opposite side. I kicked that way, but it was no use. I didn’t have the breath or stamina to keep it up. All of my strength had been used up running before they had even gotten here.
How had they gotten in? Who was this, and why were they doing this? I had a good idea the answer to at least one of those questions.
“Why are you doing this? What do you want?” I took the chance to ask. It couldn’t hurt at this point, right?
I was so wrong.
The only answer I got was a kick to the ribs that had me doubling over and losing even more precious oxygen in my lungs. The kicks didn’t stop at one or two. They kept coming, and I retreated into my mind as I often had with Terrence. As I was being slid across the room with blow after blow, I could think objectively about my situation now that I’d retreated. I was feeling light-headed before, but now I fought the feeling of being sick on top of it. I might aspirate if I did that, and I didn’t want to die at all, but especially not drowning on my own vomit.
The last thing I felt was a kick to the head. My last thought was, I hope this kills me because I don’t think I can take much more.
* * *
I heard music.Not loud and not soft. It sounded like classic rock, maybe? I couldn’t get my mind online enough to recognize the song, but I was sure I’d heard it before. Starting a slow inventory of my situation, I noticed the hood was gone, but there was a blindfold covering my eyes. My hands and now my feet were bound, hogtied. Next, I noticed the vibration under me and realized I was on the floorboard of a car, or maybe the back of an SUV, sport utility vehicle, since there was no bump like there would be on the floor of a backseat.
I tried to move a little to see if my bonds were loose, but they weren’t. I was caught. By moving slightly, I noticed a blanket covered me. Maybe if I moved slowly enough, the blanket would slip, and a passing car or truck might notice me in here and call the police. It was a risk, but I had to take it. I could only guess what I’d face when we got to our final destination, and I’d have no chance then, I was sure.
I started ever so slowly to try to reach the blanket. It took some time, but I finally got a little piece of it in my grip and began to pull. But in order to get it to move more, I had to let go and try to get another grip on it further up, and that took even more maneuvering. Before I knew it, I was panting with the effort. I felt the blanket weigh heavier and heavier on me and knew I was about to have a panic attack. I tried to slow my breathing and keep my heart rate slow, but it was so hard. I couldn’t even manage to move a God damned blanket. I was useless.
“It’s no use trying to move around, Worthington. No one’s going to help you. There’s no one else on this road for the next thirty miles or so. Just lay back and relax. After everything you’ve done, you should have known you’d have to pay the piper sometime.”
The deep gravelly voice from the front of the car made me stop instantly. It sounded familiar for some reason, but that couldn’t be. I didn’t know any kidnappers, did I?
