Page 88 of Coerced
If Aria needing some time to get to a place where she felt comfortable enough to share the full story of what led her to Steel Ridge was the biggest hurdle we had to overcome, I’d consider myself lucky. Over the last few years, I’d seen how trying things could be and actually had been for a majority of my coworkers. If all I needed to do was exercise some patience with Aria, to give her time to understand and accept she could trust me, I could give her that.
And why wouldn’t I?
Except for that, everything else between us was great. Even this issue didn’t exactly pose a problem for us. It was simply that I’d had it on my mind more now over the last several days, since she’d shared what she had when we were out at the fall festival last week. Given that I was really beginning to develop deeper feelings for her, it affected me to see her experiencing that distress.
I turned onto our street and made my approach toward our driveways. I knew she only had to work at the deli earlier today and would have the evening off. I was hoping the two of us could have dinner together and maybe take the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood.
Just as I pulled up, I noticed three of the kids from the neighborhood were in Aria’s driveway with Sasha, their bikes laying a few feet away from them. Though I found it odd that Sasha was outside when she didn’t normally dothat, I noted Aria’s open garage door and assumed she had to be working on unpacking again.
I parked in my driveway, exited my vehicle, and immediately moved toward Aria’s house, so I could say hello to the kids and kiss my woman.
But as I crossed the land between our properties, the kids—Jason, Ryder, and Ryan—looked up at me with concern in their expressions.
“Hey, guys. What’s going on?” I asked them.
Ryder stood, pointed at Sasha, and answered, “We were out riding our bikes, and we saw her out. We knew you had cats, but we’ve never met her.”
“She’s not my cat. She’s Aria’s cat,” I explained, pointing toward Aria’s open garage door, thinking it was even more strange that she allowed Sasha to walk outside without going up to the boys and introducing them to her.
“But she left,” Ryder said.
“Yeah, she left,” Ryan confirmed.
I glanced behind us and noted her car was still in the driveway. “What do you mean?”
Jason stood with Sasha in his arms. “We were all the way down at my house when we saw her leave.”
“You mean, she walked somewhere?”
They all shook their heads, but it was Jason who answered, “No. She got in a car.”
I tipped my head to the side, something twisting in my gut. The last thing I wanted to do was scare these kids, so until I knew exactly what was happening, I had to keep my cool. “How long ago did she leave?”
Jason shrugged and Ryder said, “About fifteen minutes, maybe.”
Her car was still here; Sasha was outside. It was far toounsettling. “Okay. She’ll probably be right back, then. I’ll take Sasha inside for her. You guys did an awesome job watching her, and she seems to like all of you.”
All three boys wore proud smiles. “Thanks, Pax.”
“No. Thank you.” I took Sasha from Jason’s arms and turned toward the house as the boys hopped on their bikes again.
Once inside the garage, I quickly assessed the situation. There were multiple canvas paintings strewn about, and I immediately recalled seeing these the last time Aria was attempting to unpack her things still in storage containers. I would have thought she was interested in hanging them up, but from the way they were tossed together, that didn’t seem likely.
“What happened here, Sasha? Where’s your mom?” I murmured as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and moved to walk inside, still holding Sasha. I was almost there when I noticed Aria’s phone sitting on one of the shelves. I picked it up and carried it inside with me.
Once there, I set Sasha down, but she didn’t walk off. She stuck close to me while I pulled up the footage from the cameras outside my house. There was one that captured the last twelve or fifteen feet of Aria’s driveway, and I was hoping I’d be able to see who she left with.
It didn’t take long to find the footage I needed, and when I did, my stomach dropped. Because not only did I see two men get out of a car and walk up her driveway, but I also recognized one of them. He was the same guy who’d stalked Aria and followed her home from the pub that one night.
Bile rose in my throat.
I fast-forwarded through the footage until I saw themen walking back toward the vehicle, Aria with them. And when she turned her head to look back at my house—the look on her face almost like a desperate plea to help save her—I could no longer remain calm.
With my pulse pounding in my ears, the blood rushing in my veins, I found Aria’s keys, hit the button to close her garage door, and moved to the front door. Sasha followed me, clearly distressed.
I crouched down at the front door, brought my hand to the top of her head, and promised, “I’m going to find her. I’ll bring her back soon.”
Sasha meowed in response.