His concerned gaze vanished in an instant and was replaced with the grim expression of a killer.
He crouched down and wrapped his hand around my injured wrist, squeezing it. Pain like I’d never felt before flared to life, sharp and hot. It moved from my wrist up to my elbow as tears ran down my cheeks.
“Hailey…” He pulled the Taser close to my face and I whimpered. “Not to be cliché, but if I can’t have you, then no one can.” Before I could do anything, he shoved the Taser into my ribcage and my entire body convulsed. My head whipped back and cracked on the brick wall behind me and everything went black.
OceanofPDF.com
Sixteen
When I came to, that fight-or-flight instinct kicked in and my eyes flew open in panic. A headache the size of Texas throbbed at the base of my skull, but it was just a close second to the deep throbbing pain in my left wrist. I peered around frantically, trying to get my bearings. I was lying in the back seat of Bryce’s car ... we were moving. It was then that I remembered that Ethan had the tracker on Bryce’s car and it gave me one small shred of hope.
“Awake?” Bryce looked back at me from the front seat and I swallowed hard, trying to assess what the fuck was going on.
He’s going to kill me.
My ribs hurt from where he Tased me, but I didn’t think they were broken. Looking down, I noticed that my ankles were tied together; so were my hands. He tied my forearms together with rope, avoiding my injured wrist.
How fucking thoughtful.
“Bryce. Where are we going?” I decided at this point that my ex-husband was a full-on narcissistic sociopath with major delusions of grandeur and I was going to have to just roll with it or he would hurt me worse.
He glanced back between the seats again and grinned at me. “Somewhere tropical. A surprise trip just like you used to love.”
My stomach sank.
Bryce use to tell me to pack a bag and he’d take me on these wild and expensive vacations. All part of the plot to lure me in.
“Really?” My voice squeaked. “Right now? I haven’t even packed my bag.”
My bag. My backpack! Slowly sitting up—fuck, my ribs hurt—I peered in the cargo trunk area and sighed in relief at the sight of my bike and backpack.
Bryce looked at me through the rearview mirror. “I bought you all new things. Besides we won’t be coming back to this shithole ever again. Best to leave that stuff behind.”
Ever again.
“Bryce…” I hedged. “Why wouldn’t we come back? I’m getting my nursing degree. It’s really important to me—”
“You’re so selfish!” he shouted suddenly, causing me to jump. “It’s important to you. What about what’s important to me. You never think about me.”
He tipped the speedometer to ninety miles an hour and I was half tempted to reach my tied arms around his neck and fucking strangle him to death. But then I’d probably die in the roll-over. I wasn’t buckled in.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” I lied. I’d once found medication in Bryce’s gym bag. I thought he’d been having an affair. He’d been acting so fucking evil to me I thought he must be going somewhere else for sex, but all I’d found was the bottle of pills. He’d nearly caught me, but I’d remembered the name. Later when Googling them, I’d learned they were antipsychotics, with an off-label use for depression. I figured he was depressed and chalked it up to that. Now I wondered … Bryce had some major skeletons in his closet and he’d hidden them from me.
“You’re right,” I placated him. “I’m sorry. So how long will we be gone?”
He exited the I-10 and headed for a seedy part of town, the ones where drug dealers and prostitutes lived.
His posture relaxed. “Forever. It’s amazing what you can get for cash in Costa Rica. Right on the beach for less than fifty grand.”
My heart knocked so loud in my chest I thought I might faint as adrenaline rushed through me.
Costa Rica.
“Wow. On the beach?” I tried to keep my voice even, not be too peppy because he would know that was fake. “But I don’t have my passport.”
He slowed the car to a crawl and pulled into a motel. There were a few prostitutes out front and my stomach rolled into knots. Bryce pulled around the back and parked the car. Only an old dude smoking a cigarette could be seen, and from the looks of him he wouldn’t care what was going on here.
“I got us new passports,Jane.” He reached into the glove box and handed me a passport.
