“What job?”
“The shit-paying newspaper job I took to write about that benefit dinner the shelter you work for put on. I came damn close to skipping out, but when I saw you from across the room, I knew.”
A flash of a memory struck, and the final piece of the horrifying puzzle clicked into place. This was the man who’d been watching her as she and Chase talked near the buffet table the night of the benefit auction.
They’d been standing there, casually talking about getting together to catch up. Then Chase left with Lucky to fulfill the job for which they’d volunteered. And that’s when she’d seen him.
Scottie remembered glancing up and seeing the bright flash from a man’s camera.Thisman’s camera. He’d been standing across the room, watching her. And now…
“It was fate!” her abductor exclaimed. “I mean, what are the chances, right? But I saw you, and I immediately knew who you were. I saw you, and I knewexactlywhat Dustin would have wanted me to do.”
Did he really think fate had led this man to hurt Chase and kidnap her?
Sounds about right, given your close relationship with shitty, shitty luck.
But even as the negative thought drove through Scottie’s mind, she felt an instant denial. One that grew stronger, making her even more determined than before.
She didn’t care about luck. Not the good or the bad. She only cared about protecting her baby and making her way back to Chase…alive.
As Dustin McVey’s psychotic foster brother kept talking about how it was fate that he’d found her, Scottie tuned him out and focused on doing anything and everything she could to survive.
Miles later, she’d all but given up hope. But when she laid her head back down in near defeat, she saw it.
There!
A few inches down from where her bound feet lay, a piece of metal jutted up from the van’s floor. It was small and square in shape, and there was a small circle cut out in its center.
The metal piece was some sort of built-in base someone could use to secure a small hook, like a bungee cord.
Her eyes grew wide, but she didn’t dare let the renewed hope coursing through her show. She had a chance—arealchance—to at least cut her ankles free.
Going painfully slow, Scottie slid her body lower. Inching her way closer to her only chance at freedom, she used her abductor’s verbal rage to cover any sounds her movement made.
A few terrifying minutes later, she felt the sole of her slightly heeled boots strike paydirt. Scottie lifted her bound legs up just so, positioning the taut center of the plastic tie over the metal square’s upper edge.
She moved her legs back and forth, praying the sawing motion would work as planned. The angle in which she was laying made it hard to see her progress. But when Scottie felt the hard plastic strip begin to loosen its hold, the hope she’d allowed herself to feel began to soar.
“Almost there!” The man driving announced as if it was wonderful news.
For him, it probably was.
The van’s wheels began to slow, and Scottie could tell they were preparing to turn. A quick glance out the windows showed more of the same kind of trees as before. Tall, thick, and seemingly never ending.
If she could get her ankles free and manage to make it out of the van without being caught, she might actually have a chance to get away.
A plan formed in her mind as the final threads of the woven plastic broke free. Scottie’s feet shot forcefully apart, and it took herculean strength to keep them from slamming down against the van’s metal floor.
She froze in place for fear the crazed man who’d taken her would see. He was still talking, though. Mostly about himself and McVey and how nothing in their screwed-up pasts had ever been their fault.
Glancing up, Scottie discovered her new position made it possible for her to see the guy’s rearview reflection. Not his full face, but she could see the man’s eyes, which was enough.
As long as he kept looking forward…
Unprecedented fear raced through her entire system as the wheels beneath her slowed to a near-stop. She couldn’t lay around and wait for them to reach what would, no doubt, be her life’s final destination. So instead, Scottie slid her body even lower, bringing her feet as close to the door as she could get.
The van began to turn, nearly stopping fully in the process, and she knew this was her only chance. Her focus shot to the latch keeping the back doors secured, and she took precious seconds to visualize the plan.
Scottie gave one final glance upward, toward the rearview mirror. The man was watching the road ahead, oblivious to what she was about to do.