And with it went my only lifeline.
I began crying uncontrollably, but my captors didn’t take any pity on me. Instead, one gruffly said, “Shut the fuck up,” and then he covered my head with some kind of hood, pitching me into darkness.
They left me alone as I rolled onto my side and sobbed into mygag. My hands were bound in front of me, but the second I lifted them to try and get the hood off, I felt something sharp at my throat.
“Do it and I’ll cut you. He said bring you back, but he didn’t say shit about doing it in one piece.”
I froze as the tip of the blade trailed down my throat. When I felt it snag on the first button of my shirt, I stiffened. Then it was popping the button off.
The second button followed.
Then the third.
I squeezed my eyes closed and let out a moan of denial.
“Knock that shit off, Spears.”
“The order was to bring him back. Didn’t say we couldn’t have some fun along the way. It’s a long drive to Chicago.”
Bile rose in my throat. They were taking me to Chicago?
Despair had me folding in on myself, not caring about the knife anymore. There was only one reason they could be taking me back to Chicago. Father might be dead, but there were plenty of men who’d be happy to take his place.
I stopped listening as the men argued and searched out that place inside my head where I wouldn’t hear them anymore. There’d be no hood, no gag, no van…
Alstroemeria… friendship.
Amaryllis… splendid beauty.
Anemone… fading hope.
I let out a sob when I realized it wasn’t working. From the time I’d been handed a book with stunning pictures of all kinds of flowers, along with their meaning, I’d recited the list of flowers in alphabetical order whenever I’d needed to block out what was happening to me. But I could still hear the men bickering; I could still feel the floor of the van beneath me and the rocking motion that went with the vehicle taking turn after turn. The gag was still there, as were my bindings.
I felt a keen sense of betrayal by my own mind as I lay there and tried to accept that I would never see my brother again. Because there was no way Dante was going to be able to find me asecond time. It’d been sheer luck that he’d managed it the first time.
My body began to shake violently as this new reality crashed down on me. I had no idea how long we drove for, but it felt like hours.
“What the fuck?” I heard one of the guys say. “What is this asshole doing?”
The man sounded annoyed, and I felt the van slow.
“Just go around him!” one of the men sitting near me said.
“He’s in the middle of the fucking road,” came the response.
“Idiot probably broke down,” a third man grumbled.
There was a brief moment of silence as the van slowed even more, then someone yelled, “He’s got a gun!”
A split-second later came the squealing of the brakes. I rolled forward, then back as the van careened out of control. I heard a chorus of yells and curses, along with several popping sounds. One of the guys grabbed my arm as the sliding door was opened.
“Wait… wait—” I heard the guy named Spears yell, then there were another few popping sounds and then silence.
Complete and utter silence.
I lifted my hands to try and get the hood off but froze when a hand closed around my arm. I tried to scramble back, but the hold on me was firm.
“It’s okay,” I heard a man say, then he was pulling me to an upright position. I could feel fingers at the base of the hood. It was removed a few seconds later and despite it being dark outside, my eyes still felt the need to adjust. There was enough light from the dome light inside the van to make out the man who was working to release the gag.
