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“Finally awake, Princess,” he says.
God, I always hated that nickname. I make a disgusted noise, even through the tape blocking my mouth.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. You’re happy to see me again,” Aaron says with that awful smirk.
I’m anything but happy.
“I’d take the tape off your mouth, but I bet you’d just rip me a new one, right? Always did have a mouth on you,” he says, the annoyance in his tone evident. “Yeah, I think I’ll keep that tape right where it is. You never did know your place. And I think I like you like this. Quiet. Bound up, so you can’t run from me. It’s much fucking nicer than when we were in college.”
Oh, dear god. He actually believes that.
I make a noise, wiggling again.
Aaron gives a short, barking laugh. “No use in doing that, Nora. No, we’re going to go away for a while.”
I stiffen.
“Oh, are you worried about the stupid fucking cowboys that you’ve been whoring yourself out to? Don’t worry. They won’t give a fuck about you. I bet they only liked you for the land, same as I did.”
The statement makes something inside me, brittle and sharp, break. I freeze, my mind racing. What does he mean?
I give a little grunt, wiggling again. I think one of my hands is only halfway in this zip tie. If I can just get it free…
I start to work on it, my eyes glued to the front seat.
Aaron, however, doesn’t seem to notice that I’m slowly working my way out of his bounds. “My dad told me to find you, you know. That night during sophomore year. He heard about the Foster Ranch from someone who had been scouting nearby. Yours is the property with the pretty little stream running through it, right?”
We do have a stream. And the water rights to it.
“Yeah. That’s the one. So, I got close. My dad wants that land, Nora. My brothers have all made names for themselves in the real estate world. You know the only one who hasn’t? Me. So I thought that if I could get this land from precious Nora Foster, I’d finally be able to keep my head up at the dinner table. Really show dear old Dad that I’m just as worthy of the real estate biz as any of my idiot brothers.”
His brothers, while cruel, are considerably smarter than he is.
“I was gonna marry you, Nora. You would have said yes, because you were eating out of my palm. And then those two bitches,” he spits, referencing the sweet freshman girls who told me about him cheating on me, “had to go and ruin it.”
I roll my eyes so hard, they’re practically in the back of my head.
You’re the one who ruined it, asshole. You couldn’t just keep that shit in your pants.
“They wanted me to make them feel good. Make them feel important, like they belonged on campus. Hell, it was just a rite of passage.”
Oh, my god. How on earth did I date this fucking asshole? I wiggle my wrists and silently cheer when I feel one of them break free. Even though the other one still has the zip tie around it, I can finally move my fingers. I slowly bring my hands forward, flexing them to bring some blood flow back into them. Aaron still hasn’t noticed.
“We’re going to go away for a while, Nora. Then, when you’re missing and your dad is desperate, I’m going to show up. I’m going to tell everyone that I saved you, and you’re going to fucking smile and nod and sign over the rights to your fucking ranch.”
He’s delusional.
“You’re going to fucking smile and nod and—” He pauses. “The fuck is that?”
My heart leaps into my throat. I hope it’s the cops. Dear god, I hope he’s speeding or something, and that’s a state trooper.
“Who the fuck does this guy think he is?” Aaron snarls. “Fucking dick in a silver 4Runner…”
I go still. No. There’s no way.
All of their trucks are so much nicer. There’s no way that he would take my car. There’s no way that they would come for me at all. They don’t know where I am. They don’t know who took me…
The cameras.
