What I needed was Lakelyn.
I sprinted home in record time, knowing I needed to own my shit. Taking off when we had plans tonight was a dick move, one I was about to right. However, her house was bathed in darkness as I approached. I knocked softly and listened for any sign of movement behind the door. It felt too early for bed. Maybe she was at my place? Turning on my heel, I jogged across the street, only to abruptly stop.
“What the shit?” I questioned. “Had I really been that preoccupied that I didn’t lock up?”
The foyer light was off, but a sliver of pale light coming from further inside the house peeked through the crack of my open front door. I shook my head at my stupidity and went inside, noting nothing seemed out of place except for the groceries I had failed to put away earlier.
“Now, where did I leave my phone?” I asked out loud. Mocking myself as if I expected an answer. Its absence was noted in the kitchen after I put the groceries away in their rightful home, so the next obvious place was the bedroom from when I changed into my running gear. “Speaking of which.” I pulled my damp T-shirt over my head and headed toward the shower.
The ceiling fan light was on, illuminating my bedroom as I entered, and laying on the bed sucking all the air out of my lungs with merciless force were the tabloid magazines I wanted to burn. The only reprieve was the relief I felt when I spied my phone and keys on the bedside table.
“Shit.” Lakelyn had called and texted with zero response from me for hours.
I hated the thought of her thinking I was avoiding her after we’d had sex. And yes, while I had needed time to wrap my head around the tabloids, she didn’t know I’d seen them and had to wonder what had happened to our plans.
I slid my fingers across the glass screen and tried calling her. I selfishly wanted to hear her voice, but she didn’t pick up.
During the next few minutes of showering, I couldn’t shake the gnawing feeling taking root. I dried off quickly, threw on fresh clothes, grabbed my phone and keys, and headed back across the street. Only then did I notice the edge of my driveway had been chewed up by a vehicle’s tires, leaving remnants of mangled grass in its wake.
First, the front door, and now this. What I initially brushed off as my own dumb-ass mistake was no longer an isolated incident. My priority was Lakelyn’s safety before checking my doorbell footage.
Since I wasn’t above using the keyless entry, I barged inside without hesitation.
“Lakelyn,” I called out. “Lakelyn, are you here?”
There wasn’t a single light inside her place, and it didn’t bode well for my racing thoughts. After a quick run-through of all the rooms, I headed back outside. Something was off, and I couldn’t ignore the feeling percolating in my gut.
I dialed Lakelyn’s number and paced the driveway. It wasn’t until I pressed re-dial and walked onto my property that my attention jerked around at the faint sound of a phone ringing nearby. My mouth went dry, and my heart nearly stopped because the ringing in my ear synched up flawlessly with the ringing coming from some feet away. I followed the sound until it led me toward the front door, where I crouched.
Lakelyn’s phone was hidden amongst the bushes, and my worst fears materialized at that moment.
The thought of losing another person I loved was paralyzing.
The realization that I loved her and hadn’t gotten the chance to tell her brought me to my knees because something was seriously wrong with this picture.
Chapter29
Lakelyn
Every inch of my body ached, from the hair on my head to the tips of my toes. My head throbbed so severely I could barely open my eyes, and my throat felt raw with dryness. It wasn’t the first time I’d woken in whatever darkened abyss hellhole I was being kept in, and I was sure it wouldn’t be the last. Each time I came too, I was in the same position, cloaked in darkness—which was both a blessing and a curse.
With my arms bound together over my head, duct tape covering my mouth, and my feet tied together and anchored in a manner that prevented me from bringing my knees to my chest, I wasn’t exactly in a position that made escaping my restraints a reality. The only sliver of hope I had was that I wasn’t somewhere remote if the random banging noises and sounds of foot traffic were of any indication.
How exactly I got into this predicament still remained fuzzy. Flashes of being at Boden’s before waking up in a place where time all but stood still filled me with more questions than I had answers. And the longer I lay there without understanding why, the more my thoughts wandered.
Being scared was one thing; surviving was a completely different beast, and my body sought refuge in the form of sleep.
* * *
The never-ending darkness had made me lose all sense of time, while the thunderous sound of my thoughts had me spiraling. It was suffocating, and I hated to admit it, but the vicious, repetitive cycle had started breaking me down.
Breath by helpless breath.
A dark, dangerous path I was all too familiar with loomed around the corner, threatening to suck me into the depths of despair if I didn’t hold strong and ignore the voice gaining traction. The bright spot that kept my hopes alive and thriving was Boden. Given the time that had passed, he had to have figured out something was seriously amiss with my absence by now.
Unless something had happened to him?
Had it? I began to question.
