Page 74 of Pretend it’s Forever

What was he going to do with me?

It wasn’t as if killing me or hurting me would get him what he wanted. Maybe he would ask for a ransom note? But my brothers and sisters would never let him get away with it. They would find him and end him. They wouldn’t even let the judicial system have its way because it had already failed us more than once before. And as for Carson? I held back a soft cry.

No, Carson wouldn’t allow it to happen either.

He had already threatened to kill him more than once, and I knew he wouldn’t stop until he found me.

But I couldn’t wait for them.

They didn’t even know I was gone. I’d have to do this myself.

But how?

Where the hell was I?

We had to be going up a hill of some sort, because my ears continued to pop with the elevation changes, and as we took a sharp turn, I slammed into the side of the trunk and blood seeped down my face.

I would be okay. I had to be okay.

My girls needed me.

Carson needed me.

And fuck, I needed myself.

I had so many plans, and I wasn’t going to let my terrible decision in one man and a choice of what I thought was forever ruin this.

And then we stopped.

A slam of a car door.

Boots crunching on gravel.

Fear coated my tongue, and my pulse raced to the point I was afraid I would pass out, but I needed to remain calm. I needed to get out of this.

“There you are,” Cale said as he opened the trunk, and light began to seep around my blindfold.

His fingers brushed along my shoulder, and I flinched, pulling back from him.

“Fucking bitch. You think you can just get away from me like that? No, that’s not how this works.”

“You are going to just lay here for a bit longer, and think about what you did.”

I tried to scream through the gag, but he punched me in the gut, and then slammed the trunk lid back down.

Pain rocked through me, and I nearly threw up. The gag fell from my mouth, and I knew if I screamed, he would just hurt me more.

I needed to figure out exactly where I was, who was around, and then I would make more noise.

But for now, I needed my bearings.

He opened up the trunk once more, stuffed the gag back in my mouth even as I screamed, and then he slapped me.

He hit me once, twice, and on the third time I blacked out.

By the time I woke again, there was darkness, nothing.

I would continue to scream, behind the gag, anything I could do, but nobody would hear me.