Page 41 of Haze's Jewel
She grasps my arm back as I ease her down into a chair. “It’s my asthma acting up. I have an inhaler in my purse.” I hold the purse for her, and she digs through it, becoming ever more exasperated when she doesn’t find it.
“Should I call Vapor to bring you one? Do you need me to get you to hospital?” I ask, worried because she’s still struggling to get her breath.
“I’ll be okay, I have one in the car, I’m keeping spares everywhere,” she says as she pulls her keys out.
I snag the keys out of her hand and get to my feet. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
She nods, but looks anything but okay.
“You stay here, I’ll run out and grab it.”
I watch her pick up her purse again, mumbling in halting breaths that she was sure she had one in there.
I see an elderly lady watching us, “Ma’am, my friend is having an asthma attack. I’m going to get her inhaler. Would you be able to sit with her until I get back?”
“Dearie me, don’t you think you need to go to the ER?” the woman says as she sits down beside Trix.
Trix shakes her head, “I’ll be fine once I get my inhaler, it looks worse than it is.”
The woman and I both share a look, and she says, “Don’t worry dear, I’ll call for the medics if need be.”
Not wanting to waste another minute, I turn and run for the car. People are staring at me because I’m literally running at breakneck speed through the mall. I speed through the door and bolt into the parking lot. I know exactly where we parked, but just before I reach the car someone runs into me, sending me sprawling onto my ass on the pavement.
“What the hell? Watch where you’re going,” I shout as I roll to my feet.
The man who knocked me over is standing next to an open trunk, I shoot him a dirty look as I make to go to Trix’s car. I’m stopped by a big burly arm slamming into my chest. Then quick as a wink, he picks me up and tosses me into his trunk. For a second, I’m too shocked to respond. Staring up at him, I don’t recognize his face.
I quickly catch my breath and stammer, “Who the hell are you?”
“Rick. Remember, I made an appointment, Annalese.”
My mouth falls open in shock as he smirks down at me. “You can’t do this. My friend needs the medication I was fetching from her car.”
“Too damn bad. There’s a bounty on your head and I intend to collect it.”
I try to jump up out of the trunk. “You’ve got the wrong person. I swear. There is no bounty on my head. I’m a complete nobody.”
He gives a laugh, shoves me back roughly, then with a practiced movement wraps a cable tie around my wrists and slams the trunk shut.
Laying there in the dark, I try to remember all the television shows I’ve ever watched about women being locked in a trunk in an effort to brainstorm my way out of this situation. I vaguely remember that trunks now have emergency latches, so I grope around trying to find one. Thankfully, my hands are tied at the front of me, allowing me some movement. I scrape my knuckles and break a nail, but can’t manage to find any lever, latch, or button that might open the damn trunk.
Knowing that my pregnant friend is back at the mall gasping for breath because I didn’t manage to get her the medication she so desperately needs, fills me with hopeless rage. I’m worried about it, until I realize there were dozens of people around to help her but no one to help me.
Yeah, I need to worry about my damn self at this moment. The appointment Rick made was to get a tattoo, not to abduct me. And if I have a bounty on my head, why wait two weeks to collect it? Literally nothing about this situation made sense.
That is until we pull off the highway onto a smooth surface that seems like it might be a parking lot. I begin to panic, because this is how it always ends when a woman gets abducted. They end up in an empty lot somewhere and are raped and tortured and then killed by some scumbag serial killer. God, I don’t even want to think about how many assholes are roaming around abducting and murdering women on any given day.
***
After around half an hour the car stops, and bright lights shine in through the cracks where the trunk door meets the body of the car. There are muffled voices and then the door lifts up. The lights are coming down from above. Yeah, we’re in a parking lot alright. Pushing myself up a little, I can see it’s a big empty one. Why am I here? It all just seems so surreal.
All the pieces of the puzzle suddenly click into place when I see my stepbrother and my ex-fiancé standing there staring down at me.
I can’t believe they hired a professional thug to track me down. That disbelief turns to anger in a heartbeat. “Why the hell are the two of you so obsessed with me? Trevor, you should have moved on by now. Hell, you had one foot out the door when we were together.”
Trevor smirks but it’s Greg who answers. “You’ve been a bad girl, Annalese. Now that dad is gone, disciplining your wild spirit falls to me. Unlike you, I’ve never been one to shirk my duties.”
My mouth falls open. Besides being shocked, I’m honestly bewildered by his words.