“Who are you?”
“You can call me John.”
That wasn’t his name. She could tell by the way he smirked. Refusing to talk to him anymore, she stared out the window. Maybe she could catch the attention of someone next to them and mouth the wordHelp.
Her father would have called the police by now, so they would be looking for her. Why hadn’t she given him Cooper’s number? Had he returned to the house? If so, he’d know she was gone, and he wouldn’t stop until he found her. She took more comfort from that than knowing the police would be searching for her.
Unfortunately, her dad hadn’t seen her leave, so he didn’t know what kind of car she was in. Where were they going? How would Cooper even know where to look for her? He didn’t know who this man was.
About twenty minutes after he’d taken her, he turned into a grocery store parking lot and stopped in a space next to a white van. Surely, he didn’t mean to buy groceries.
“You try to get out, I’ll shoot you. You try to call for help, I’ll shoot you.”
Would he, though? People would see him. They’d call the police. Should she try to get out and run?
“And then I’ll go shoot your father.”
That was the one threat that had her staying in the car when he got out. He walked around the hood, keeping his eyes on her the entire time. When he reached her side of the car, he walked past her. What was he doing? The moment she decided to look back and find out, her door opened.
“Out.”
As much as she wanted out of this car, the fear of the unknown had her frozen where she sat. She had a really bad feeling about this. When she didn’t move, he jerked her arm, pulling her out. Before she could get her bearings, she was shoved into the open door of the van he’d parked next to. This had to be a different one from the van he’d put Livie in since the police had that vehicle now. Did he just go around stealing white vans?
Bad things happened in the backs of nondescript white vans, and panic seized her. She fought back, tried to kick away from him, tried to bite the hands holding her down. When her teeth bit into the skin on his wrist, he slapped her.
“Damn it.” He wrapped his fingers around her hand, holding it down to the floor, and she felt cold metal circle her wrist. She fought harder, and he laughed as the click of the handcuff sounded. “Just have to wipe my fingerprints from the car, and then we’ll be on our way.”
The van’s sliding door closed, and she turned on her side. She was handcuffed to an iron hook secured to the floor. She yankedon it, but there wasn’t the slightest give to the hook. How was she going to get away? And where was he taking her? Why hadn’t she kept her phone in her pocket instead of leaving it at her dad’s? The man hadn’t searched her, so she could be calling the police…or Cooper. Wouldn’t they have been able to track her phone?
The driver’s door opened, and the man got behind the wheel. “Ready for your adventure, sweet Kendall?”
Adventure?By the cheerfulness in his voice, you’d think they were off to Disney World. She refused to answer him. It was dark in the back, and all she could see was a bit of the windshield over the top of the seats. Nothing but black sky. She didn’t know where they were going, or what he had planned for her.
She was scared. Petrified. Had she been this afraid the first time he’d kidnapped her? She didn’t think so. She’d been too young to know and understand the things an evil man could do to a young girl, but she was a woman now, and she knew. Oh, God, she knew. She hated the tears that burned her eyes and fell down her cheeks. If she was going to survive this, she had to be strong. She had to use her mind.
It seemed like he drove for hours, too long to be left with her dark thoughts. As much as she tried not to think of all the research she’d done for her podcasts, the evil she’d learned people were capable of, she couldn’t stop those images from flowing through her mind like a horror movie reel.
She didn’t know what he’d intended to do with her when he’d taken her years ago, and she didn’t know what he intended now. If she knew, she could plan for whatever was coming. The brave part of her thought that. The frightened part preferred to stay ignorant.
When the road changed from a smooth highway to an obviously bumpy dirt road, she tensed. About five minutes later, the van stopped. Wherever he was taking her, they had arrived.How long had they traveled? Two hours, give or take. How would Cooper even find her?
He leaned around his seat. “You just be patient. I’ll come back and get you soon. I need to get things ready for you.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. When he uncuffed her, she had to make her escape. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know where she was. While she waited, she thought of what she needed to do, then visualized doing it. It could work.
She guessed ten minutes passed before the side door slid open. She gave herself a pep talk while she waited for him to work the handcuff off her wrist.You can do this. You got away from him before. You can do it again, Kendall. Be brave. Be strong.
“I’ve waited a long time for you,” he said as he backed out of the van.
Now!She reared up and pushed him with every bit of strength she had, which with the adrenaline rushing through her was more than normal. She felt like Superwoman when he stumbled and fell on his back. Yes!
She jumped out of the van, flew past him because hell yeah, she was Superwoman. Not bothering to try and get her bearings, she just ran straight ahead. She didn’t stop, not even when he fired his gun, the bullet whistling by her ear.
“I’ll shoot you in the back if you don’t stop,” he yelled.
Not happening. She could hear his feet pounding on the ground behind her, and he sounded too close. Ignoring the burn in her leg muscles, she ran faster. He fired the gun again. She prayed he wasn’t aiming at her, that he was just trying to scare her into stopping.
Although it was dark, she could see the outline of trees a few yards ahead. If she could just get to them, she could lose him. Her heart was pounding like a racehorse, her lungs and legsburned, but she didn’t stop. A few more feet and she would reach the trees. She could hide until daylight.