"Claire?"
Her breathing was erratic as she said the next four words, words that made me feel sick to my god damned stomach "They found her phone."
"Who?"
"Some girl from the high school found her phone on the sidewalk at the park at the hospital, it's smashed to hell" I could hear other voices in the background as she fought over the noise to tell me "She took it to the police station and the same guy I spoke to earlier answered it when I called, they are sending an officer over. I think you need to be here, Ashby. I…" her voice was full of tears I was unable to shed. "What if something has happened to her? What if he has taken her again?"
In the background, the sound of someone whispering to her made my insides go cold as Claire gasped loudly. Sending shivers down my spine.
"What is it?" When she stayed silent, I screamed, "Answer me right fucking now, Claire!"
"It's her mom, she's here."
Ending the call without another word, I just stood starring at the bed we had shared last night and again this morning, still unmade. Exactly how we had left it.
I had a bad feeling about this.
A really bad feeling.
With my blood turning to ice, I threw myself back into my truck.
There was something cold, something cold and metal around my wrists. That was the first thing I became aware of when I awoke. What the hell happened?
I vaguely remembered the screeching van and then just nothing.
A deep throb on the back of my head made my eyes ache, and I hadn't even opened them yet.
I had been on a run, got back to the apartment. I definitely remember getting back to the apartment. Luke had been taking a delivery from the local brewers with their fancy flavored ciders. Then… then I had showered. No, wait, that was yesterday. I had been on a run, and then... the van had pulled up.
What happened after that?
What the hell…...where am I?
There was somewhere I had been planning on going after my run, where was that?
Ashby.
Memories of leaving him, not one ounce of me had wanted to, but I had to return Luke's car.
I was going to go back to Ash's cabin in the woods, or he was going to come and get me. After I had been on a run. This is why running sucked. Look at where it had gotten me.
Where was that exactly?
What time was it?
Taking a deep breath, pain radiated throughout my entire body. From head to toe. I felt like I had been hit by a ten-wheeler truck.
Opening my eyes with trepidation, I was confused further with what I came face to face with.
Where the hell am I?
The hard-cold tiles beneath me were uncomfortable to sit on.
How long had I been here?
What time was it, what day?
A small blue lamp in the corner was lighting the room that would otherwise be bathed in darkness. Nerves wrecked my body.
What the fuck is going on?
Am I in the high school locker room showers? No, this looked different, a lot older, and the tiles had been white when I had been in school. These were brown, and some had parts where they were missing altogether.
What the hell is this place?
Scenes from a Saw movie Claire had made me watch years ago flashed behind my eyes, but I had to quickly push them away.
No good could come from images like that in my head.
Not at a time like this.
Why am I here?
Trying to move the metal encasing my wrists tugged, looking upward, my hands had been cuffed to what I think is the pipe to the showers that lined the walls. My head couldn't turn at the right angle to see if my assumption was right.
My eyes scanned around the room. Looking for, well looking for anything.
Any sign of where I was, a door.
God damn anything.
How was I going to get out of this?
More importantly, who was responsible for me being here?
Consciousness had come and gone in the hours that passed, and I was losing track of time.
Each time I awoke, the throbbing was that little less intense. Dulling as time was passing.
I think it had been hours but with no real way to know for sure. In reality, it could have been days or just minutes.
My mouth was as dry as a bone. I needed a drink. Water.
Attempting to move the handcuffs along the pipework, I was just an inch away from being able to press the dial to turn the showers on, the only way I could see being able to get something to drink.
Maybe I could stand up?
Or maybe if I could twist my legs and use my foot to press it?
It was in that moment that I noticed for the first time that my feet had been bound with, was that rope? How the hell had I not noticed that before?
Panic was starting to rise to astronomical levels.
Who had done this to me?
Was it him, my dad?
Was he punishing me for leaving, for escaping the prison he dared called a home?
Was he here, back in White Church Creek?
The sound of metal scratching echoed around me, hurting my ears, and my body instinctively folded over. Trying to make myself as small as possible.
A low chuckle came from the darkness before a heavy, uneven footfall entered the small shower room I was in.
The sight of Brandon Matthews limping towards me made my blood run cold.
This was quite possibly worse than it being who I had originally thought, my dad.
"Surprised?" Raising his eyebrows at me, he smirked evilly, "Cat got your tongue, Nala? Or I guess Brandon got your tongue, huh?"
All I could do was watch him, every little mannerism he made, every inch that he moved.
Unable to speak, unable to move. Hell, I barely even blinked.
Limping into the middle of the room, he just stopped suddenly. Just standing there, watching me. Like some kind of predator.
"Are you not excited to see me?" Was he serious right now? "You see, I saw you at the grocery store, and I have got to say Nala, I was shocked. I didn't think I would see you step foot in this town ever again, especially with how your shit head father stiffed mine and then boom, there you were."
"I almost came after you, to England, but I have been biding my time. Waiting for the perfect moment. You're all mine now, nowhere to go, no one to save you, Nala. You and me forever, babe, just like you were paid to be, my wife."
Closing the gap between us as he had spoken, each stumbled step had been like a bullet through my heart. Every hair on my body was standing on end, fear-filled me. He was crazy if he thought I would ever marry him. I would rather be back there.
"I will never be yours" My voice may have sounded confident, but as the words left my mouth tears began to fall, silently from my eyes.
Of course, he didn't miss them, no, the bastard smiled at the sight of them.
"You can't keep me here forever," my voice didn't even sound like my own as I spoke. I had never felt fear like this before.
My own dad may have been dangerous, a monster, but Brandon was a whole other level.
He laughed, a venomous spine-tingling laugh. "Well, my dear, that is where you are half right, half wrong. You see, the only other people who know about this old shower room that has been blocked off by a fake wall and some lockers when they did a remodel back in the 1970s is me, and the principal" how did he know? "Well, and my father too, but that's neither here nor there. What is important is the fact that no one is going to look for you here"
"They will assume you have just disappeared, just like last time, and let me tell you, after what damage was caused to that little biker boyfriend of yours when you left five years ago, well, he won't make the same mistake again."
"What are you talking about?"
"Figured he wouldn't tell you?" he gave me a toothy, evil smile that made me want to vomit "He's my half-brother."
Half-brother?
No.
He had to be.
"You're lying." There was no way on this planet that Ashby was related to this evil specimen before me. It just couldn’t be true.
"Scouts honor, I didn't know, of course, my father's dirty little secret he knocked up the high school, crack head. Bought her a little cabin in the woods, he lives there now, but you know that, of course. Anyway, he came to my father for help, to try and find you. We knew where you were, of course. Knew you had flown to England with your dad. What was it your Mom had done to you again? Fed you drugs to keep you skinny? Shame that she isn't here now. You could do with it again," the way his eyes roamed my body filled my throat with acid from my empty stomach.
At that, I wanted to roll my eyes. Yeah, I maybe ten pounds heavier than when I was in high school, but that was only weight I would have carried if Mom had not of been doing what she had done to me. If she hadn't drugged me with appetite suppressants, she hadn't had a say in what we ate since we arrived in England. She barely even looked at me.
"Well, after he did that, he had to be punished. So, because of blabbing his mouth about his heritage, my father took away the only family, blood family he had left in this town, well almost all of them."
Did he mean his Uncle Daryl?
He really was dead, wasn’t he?
"I asked him once, begged actually, to end him as well. But you see, what I didn't realise is that my father had a better plan, a better way to ruin Ashby Bronx's life. Let him live. Wallow in the sadness that his life is. Everyone always leaves him. Always. And you, my dear Nala, are no different" I think I am going to be sick. "You were always mine, it's what was meant to happen, and now I have you back, I am not letting you go, anywhere."
"You were at his cabin," he said as a statement and not a question "Very interesting little show you put on, on his motorcycle yesterday afternoon, can't wait for our own"
Not allowing what he had said to register fully about watching Ashby and me. He couldn't taint that. I wouldn't allow him too. But he was insane if he thought I was going to let him touch me in any way. Even if I was handcuffed, I would never let him. Ever.
"Tell me, was it good? I bet you imagined it was me, didn't you" bending his knees, so he was almost face to face with me. If my legs had not of been bound with rope, I would have kicked him.
I needed to escape, I needed to get out of here.
"You disgust me," my voice spat, quieter than I had intended it to be.
A cold finger ran down my cheek, sending unpleasant shivers throughout my body.
"As soon as they stop looking for you, me and you are taking our own little road trip. Just the two of us. Forever. We have a big house in Arizona, you are just going to love. A lot of security, so don't go thinking you will be able to escape, and it will be more than your father had, Nala."
Standing up suddenly, I flinched at his movements as he just watched me, nothing but evilness filling his eyes.
Shooting a hand out, he turned the shower on. Dirty water rained down on me, and I should have been disgusted, but all I could do was try and catch some in my mouth. Water for survival, I had to get out of here by any means necessary.
He laughed, watching me as my tears mixed in with the water as he kept pressing it over and over again. Each and every time it stopped; he would push it again.
I was soaked to the bone and would no doubt be shivering in no time.
“They’ve almost given up on you, the police think you ran away again, just like I told you they would” opening a bottle of water, he pressed it against my lips.
Letting him pour it into my dry mouth, I just watched him.
No emotion showing.
I had to conserve energy.
Survive Nala.
He seemed to have given up on punishing me with turning the water on from the shower above to drink. He was not a good guy, and he never would be.
No.
Please be lying.
Please.
I needed to get out of here.
Ashby.
Oh god, Ashby, please find me. Please.
Do not give up on me.
Do not give up on me, Ashby …. . I was coming back to the cabin. I was coming back to you, for you.
Throwing the half-drunk water bottle across the room, he seemed so smug.
“It will only be a matter of days, and we will be able to go. I’m thinking we can stop on the way, somewhere remote. The dessert, maybe? Sooooo many choices.”
My mind was running a hundred miles a minute.
If he did take me from here, I would get away.
I would escape.
I would.
He could not keep me a prisoner forever. I had escaped a living hell before, and you can bet your ass I would do it again.
A cold hard slap across my cheek stunned me. “Whatever It is you’re thinking, forget it. You will never get away from me.”
“You can’t keep me here forever, Brandon” With no idea how long it had been now, I knew it had been days, but for all I knew, it could have been months.
No, If it had been months, someone would have found me by now.
Please
I would have heard the students walking the halls, if it had been months.
Right?
I could feel my spirit dying.
The image of Ashby in my mind was fading.
The lack of food playing tricks on me.
Ashby.
Please not have given up on me.
Please still be looking.
Please still be mine, even after this.
I need you to be mine and for me to be yours.
Ashby………
When I woke up, I knew he was in the room with me before I even opened my eyes.
I could feel him there.
I knew that those hard and cold eyes were on me.
"Wake up," a hard slap across my face had my eyes springing open "No time for sleeping, Nala."
I was about to say something back, tell him to never touch me again, when a sudden sound made both Brandon and I freeze. Someone else was here.
I started screaming.
"HELLLLPPPP MEEE!!!!"
"Shut the fuck up," his hand clamped over my mouth as someone stood watching us.
I couldn't make out who exactly it was, but I could see their silhouette. It was too dark in the usual locker room behind this one. Was it someone who could be an ally or another enemy?
Suddenly they moved, and the sound of their feet started to run, and in a flash, Brandon followed them, dropping his phone on the floor in the process. The screen would have broken without a doubt.
My handcuffs almost felt tighter as I tried to tug them towards a joint In the pipework. Using all of my strength, I tugged and pulled, but it was no use. I was too weak; the lack of food was making me so very weak.
Be strong Nala.
Be god damned strong.
I could hear shouting and banging coming from the other room.
Whoever it was that had stumbled upon us was a woman. But that was all I could tell. Who was it?
Brandon's cell phone lit up on the floor with an incoming call. I needed to get to the god damned cell phone.
Pressing my feet against the tiled walls, I pushed them at the same time as pulling my hands, the pipework began to move, bend.
Again, and again, I tugged.
It was working.
I just needed one bigger tug, and I was going to be free.
I could escape this hell and get back to Ashby.
Brandon's hand suddenly wrapped around my throat from behind. Cutting off all of the air and with one squeeze, my whole body started to go limp.
"Oh, Nala, bad move. That was a very bad move, babe."
Shock filled me, and as I was unable to suck any air into my lungs, my eyes to begin to bulge.
Peaches: MC Romance (The Unholy Confessions Book 1) Page 20