Chapter One
Saturday, August 13, 2022
8:45A.M.
“IknewI should’ve let Baz micro-chip me,” Jessica James mumbled from where she sat, tied to what was surprisingly a very comfortable chair. It actually looked new. Like maybe these looney tunes idiots stopped by Walmart as soon as they had the bright idea to commit a felony.
Yes, yes. Let’s dothat.Let’s kidnap the pregnant woman.
Perfect. But she’s gonna need a comfy chair.
Walmart! Score!
Of course, imaginary conversations aside, JJ’s comfort didn’t really matter when there were a couple of nut jobs staring at her from across the room, likely trying to figure out what phase two of their grand kidnapping plan was since they breezed so smoothly through phase one.
To keep her mind off her fear, JJ imagined what their checklist looked like.
Empty room. Check.
Comfy chair. Check.
Silky rope. Check.
So far, they were three for three if that was their goal because here she was, the only thing in the empty room.
Except for the chair and the rope that kept her strapped to it.
Oh, and them.
Honest to God, if JJ hadn’t encountered the guy with the wild red hair and beady eyes for herself, she would’ve thought someone was playing a practical joke on her. It seemed almost surreal. Seriously.
As far as criminal masterminds went, she got the feeling neither Cheerleader Barbie nor Chucky—he looked eerily like the serial killing doll—was dealing with a full deck. Based on their hushed voices, they weren’t exactly sure what to do next.
She imagined their timeline, although she seriously doubted they’d given it any consideration.
7:30 a.m. - kidnap the pregnant woman from the bakery.
7:30 - 8:30 a.m. - drive to secondary location, deliver pregnant woman to a comfy chair, and tie her up.
8:30 a.m. - stand around and figure out what to have for breakfast.
9:00 a.m. - go get breakfast.
9:30 a.m. - eat breakfast, determine how to proceed.
JJ doubted they’d made it further than that, considering it probably wasn’t nine yet. She didn’t know for sure, only that it was 8:43 a.m.—according to Chucky’s watch—when he was finished tying her up. That wasn’t too long ago.
Normally, by this time on a Saturday, JJ would be having breakfast with Baz. Sometimes, they ate while they worked on the couch, their laptops in front of them, and the news on the television. And when it wasn’t too hot or muggy, they sat on the back porch and enjoyed the sunrise, but getting up before the sun was a rarity for her on her days off. She was far too tired to do that at the moment, being that she was seven months pregnant, and sometime in the past week, it felt like the peanut growing inside her had doubled in size. And she was pretty sure the baby thrived on her getting at least ten hours of sleep each day. Since she rarely got seven, JJ realized she wasn’t getting nearly enough.
Maybe she could make time for a nap this afternoon. If and when these looney tunes got tired of holding her captive.
If her Saturday had gone as planned, she would’ve completed her original task, which involved dragging her butt out of bed to run into town so she could get her favorite pastry—the miracle known as a cronut—before the bakery ran out. There was only one place she knew to get them, and that was at Batter & Bliss. Ramona Weber, the proprietor of JJ’s favorite bakery, made them only one day a week—Saturday—and JJ had been showing up like clockwork to ensure she got her fill.
Man, she wished she hadn’t dropped her cronut.
Unfortunately, when she should’ve been driving home to enjoy that morning routine with Baz, her day had taken a bit of a turn. A turn that resulted in the beady-eyed guy with the wild red hair tying her to an upholstered chair with a rope that was pulled underneath it. All she had to do was stand up, turn around, kick the chair over, and she would be free to go.
Not that she would do that. Not yet. Right now, she was curious what the creepy redhead and the wacky blonde girl had in store for her.
