Chapter 23
After exiting Mr. Wok’s Drive-Thru Palace, Gwenyth’s jeep got no further than three lights down the street before it stalled. Hitting the dashboard with the heel of her hand, she cursed the engine, and tried to restart the ignition. No luck.
Sighing, Gwenyth reached into her purse and switched on her cell phone. When it made a series of three loud beeps, she flipped it over and peered down at it. Low battery. Snorting humorlessly, she tried once more to ignite the jeep’s engine. “How much worse can this night get?” she muttered to herself.
A few moments later, a white sedan eased up next to Gwenyth on the nearly deserted side street and coasted up beside the jeep. Swallowing nervously, she took the keys out of the ignition and wrapped her fingers around the key on her ring with the sharpest edge to it.
Devin disembarked from the white sedan and walked slowly toward the jeep. Gwenyth could tell he was wearing something akin to cowboy boots for she could hear every click of his gait pounding towards her. Determined not to get cornered inside of her own automobile, Gwenyth slammed opened the driver’s side door and stood up. “Devin.”
Devin stopped a few paces back from the jeep’s door and grinned. His smile was unnatural, his eyes the same fathomless pits they had been at their last meeting. “The name’s Devin Green, Mrs. Tremont, but perhaps you already know that.” His gaze flickered around the empty street. “Getting kinda dark, don’t you think?”
Gwenyth ignored the chill bumps making gooseflesh of her skin and concentrated instead on figuring a way around the larger man. “Are you threatening me, Devin?” she asked quietly.
The lawyer smiled. “No ma’am, I never threaten.”
“What do you want from me?”
Devin’s sickening gaze roamed the length of Gwenyth’s body. “What do you think I want?” he said just as quietly.
Gwenyth needed to hear no more. With a strength she didn’t even know she possessed, she slammed the jeep’s door into Devin’s legs and knocked him to the ground. Without looking back, she then fled into the night.
* * * * *
Candy paced the length of her living room. There was no answer at Gwenyth’s and Sam’s and she knew that Gwen should have been home by now. Candy thought back on every word of conversation that had passed between them before her best friend had left. Gwenyth had definitely mentioned picking up Chinese food on the way home. That could only mean Mr. Wok’s. It was her favorite.
Decision made, Candy picked up her car keys and bolted toward the front door. Just as she was about to close it behind her, the telephone rang. Sighing in relief, she sprinted towards it. “Hello? Is that you, Gwen? Are you okay?”
“Candy? What’s goin’ on? Where’s my wife?”
Candy’s hand flew to her throat. “Oh my God, Sam. I never should have let her go home alone. I’m so sorry.”
“Candy, calm down. Where’s Gwen?”
“I don’t know!” she cried. “I don’t know!” Candy began pacing the length of the floor as she recanted what she knew of her best friend’s whereabouts. “I thought it would be okay to let her go alone! It’s a drive-thru restaurant for pete’s sake!”
“Candy, listen to me. I am less than two minutes from Mr. Wok’s, alright? Do not go anywhere. Lock your door, then call Detective Anderson and tell him what you told me. I’m goin’ after Gwen.” Sam clutched the steering wheel. “Do you got that, sweetheart?”
“Yes. J-Just bring her back, okay Sam?”
“I will. And Candy…”
“Huh?”
“You did a good job. Don’t blame yourself.”
* * * * *
“There’s no use in running, bitch! I’m gonna catch you.” Devin’s inhuman laughter echoed through the alleyway.
Gwenyth clutched her keys tightly in her fist as she dashed through the shrubbery of an adjacent office building. It dawned on her that the jingling sound the keys made no doubt gave her location away to Devin Green, but she wasn’t about to give up the only makeshift weapon she had on hand to silence them.
Gwenyth knew that Devin was gaining on her. She could hear his triumphant laughter, hear the heels of his boots clicking on the alley pavement behind her. Of all the sections in and around Hyde Park, why did her jeep have to give out within the confines of the sole deserted one?
The clicking of Devin’s boot heels drew closer and closer until Gwenyth was certain she would be overtaken at any moment. She was tiring, her energy was rapidly depleting. She knew she wouldn’t be able to hold him off for much longer.
And then something extraordinary happened. Something she hadn’t been expecting at all. Something rather ordinary as life goes, but that something gave her energy she desperately needed. The life within Gwenyth moved for the first time.
She could feel it, that tiny little being she and Sam had created together, letting her know that it was there and that it needed its mama to keep going. It was as if the baby was telling her that she simply couldn’t give up at this point.
