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I didn't answer, letting the silence hang heavy between us.
12
Daphne
Terror wiped my brain blank.
I was going to die. This man I’d entertained kissing again was going to kill me.
And I wasn’t even brave enough to fight.
If I fought, he’d kill me. And while my life lacked the excitement I so desperately tried to inject, it was still mine.
When we slowed down, like we were getting off the motorway or nearing a location, I started struggling again, shouting and pulling at my restraints. I was lucky he didn’t tape my bloody mouth.
Why hadn’t he?
But just my luck, we were not in fact stopping. My hopes of a swift and imminent rescue were dashed. We drove for about thirty minutes and that’s when I started pleading. I’d heard that you could humanize yourself and it would trigger empathy or something.
So, I started talking. And talking. And talking some more.
“Look. You don’t have to do this. Remember the night we met? Well, I was out with my best mate, Talia. We grew up just down the road from each other. She’s like my sister. Honestly, I’m all she has. She has a very strict no new friends policy, so she will definitely miss me.”
When there was no response, I kept going.
“I have a gran. She’s older now. We found a nice place for her. Costs a bloody fortune though. I’m trying to come up with the extra cash to keep her there. She looked after me after everything with my mum, so I sort of owe her.”
Still no response.
“But I wasn’t going to be deterred. “I have a sister too. She’s getting married soon. I was with her and her fiancé Travis. When you took me. Please, she must be beside herself. Please let me call her. I won’t say anything or give anything away.”
God he was like talking to a stone wall. Zero emotion. Nothing but a hard, cold blank.
But then the dense silence was broken by his deep baritone. “What, no parents who love you? Neither of them are going to call and check on you?”
All courage and hope and will to try whooshed out of me then. He’d landed a fatal blow and didn’t even know it.
Terror and hopelessness made for a merry cocktail and wound around my spine. The first tear slipped down my cheek and despite myself, I couldn’t make then stop after that.
I knew. I was going to die and possibly no one other than Talia would worry about me for days.
A little over an hour later, we finally stopped.
Oh God. Where the hell were we?
He hauled me out of the car and cue the panic flailing. I dug my heels into the gravel driveway as he tried to haul me toward an enormous, ivy-covered Tudor manor.
Oh hell no.
He was not dragging me into some Beauty and the Beast type castle. With nothing else to try, I threw my head back, making contact with his chin. And giving myself a ringing headache. He must have been surprised, because his grip loosened.
The moment his vice grip loosened around my waist, I took off blindly. Running for my life with the literal devil on my tail.
I’d run track and field in school, so I had a quick start. But he was faster. And enormous. And I had no idea where I was going.
His stomping footsteps behind me had me darting wildly, but it was a fool’s errand. He caught me easily.
When he reached me, he yanked me back against him and hissed in my ear. "You try to escape again, and I'll shoot you myself."
