Yeah, a sick and twisted cloth.
Her thoughts whirled in a swirling cloud of chaos as she fought to make sense of what had happened. Dustin McVey, the man who’d stalked her and then broke into her hotel room a year earlier, had been foster brothers with this man. And for some reason, the jerk felt the need to randomly kidnap her for…what?
“Is it money you want?” she had to ask.
Almost everything in life came down to money.
But the man simply laughed, the sound as cold and evil as any she’d heard, while he continued driving her closer to Hell.
“Money would be great, but no. That’s not why you’re here.”
“Then why?” Scottie challenged back. “Why did you kidnap me? What…” She had to swallow before this next part. “What are you going to do to me?”
She was utterly terrified to hear his response, but she had to know. Scottie needed to know what this man’s plan was for her so she could better figure out a way to thwart it.
“Funny thing about that,” the asshole spoke up again. “This…taking you…was never part of my life’s plan.”
“Then why?”
“Because my brother isdead!”he revealed angrily. “And it’sall your fault!”
Dizziness struck as Scottie processed what the vengeful man had just told her. He blamedherfor Dustin McVey’s death?
“I-I didn’t even know he was dead!” she argued loudly.
I can’t believe no one from the prosecutor’s office called to tell me.
“He’s been gone a few weeks, now. Killed by another whack job at that horrible place they put him in. A placeyouput him in.”
Everything finally began to make sense. It was a sickeningly warped version of sense, but all the pieces were there.
McVey died by the hand of another patient in a place where he was forced to live for the next twenty-plus years…because of her. Only it wasn’t her fault.
It was his.
“Dustin was only in that place because he terrorized me,” she told him bluntly. “Yourbrotherbroke into my hotel room, shot my bodyguard, and would have abducted me just like you did if he hadn’t taken a bullet, too.”
“He wouldn’t have been in that place if you would have just gone with him when he asked, instead of fighting the love and affection my brother wastryingto show you!”
Love and affection?
This guy was as looney as McVey.
He’s also just as dangerous.
As he continued ranting on about how her stalker’s blood was on her hands, Scottie used the man’s distraction to try to find a way out of this mess.
First up, she needed to find something sharp enough to cut the ties binding her ankles and wrists, or at the very least, something heavy, like a flashlight or tire iron.Anythingshe could keep hidden away to use later…as a weapon.
But as she scanned the space around her with vigor, Scottie discovered the crazed man hadn’t left anything to chance. Unlike the movies, the van’s beveled floor was completely bare. She didn’t see a toolbox or screwdriver. Nothing hung loosely from the curved metal walls.
Scottie’s heart sank with a heavy, impending doom as her chances of escaping continued to dwindle with each mile they passed. There wasn’t a single freaking thing she could see to help her break the plastic ties and escape. And if she couldn’t fight back or at least try to run, her only other option was to give up.
No! I will not give up!
She’d made a promise to her and Chase’s unborn baby, and Scottie was damn well going to keep it. The problem was she didn’t know how.
“You want to know the best part of this whole thing?” The man behind the wheel tossed out the rhetorical question. “I almost didn’t take the job.”