by Amber Lynn
Chapter 26
The next week flew by like a whirlwind. Brayden grew more annoyed each day Trevor popped up without an invitation. Willow’s shoulder would be relaxed as she played with Connor, but the second his friend walked into the room, she stiffened. She never said anything about being uncomfortable around him, even when asked, but it was clear she didn’t like the other man around. It didn’t help that he’d taken up residence on one of the couches.
Brayden had told Trevor to get lost, but the guy was like a tick that got a good bite in you and already had his head burrowed in your skin. Sadly, no amount of oil or flame got him to back out. He wanted more answers to what Brayden was doing hiding Willow and Connor and why they weren’t just going to the police. For some reason, he didn’t understand the danger of losing Connor.
Or the fact that Brayden didn’t want to lose either Willow or Connor. He didn’t understand the connection he felt to them, but he wasn’t about to let the outside world in until they were ready.
Willow wasn’t like other people. She could adapt. He had no doubt of that, but he saw the struggles to understand things. Her brilliant mind made her one of the smartest people he knew. Being locked away had prevented her from learning how to react to situations and read people.
She couldn’t pick up clues from expressions and gestures. Every time she tried, her forehead creased as if her brain sped up to find a solution to whatever question was in front of her. It happened dozens of times a day. Brayden wanted to reach over and rub the furrows until they erased but touching her was a dangerous game.
Not that he didn’t touch her. He’d been the first to reach for her hand, but since that moment, she sought his out often. They’d sit down to watch movies with Connor, and she’d curl up next to Brayden with their hands firmly clasped.
Her touch drove him crazy, and yet at the same time, he didn’t want to lose it. His body’s wants and needs were driving him to distraction, which showed in the two games and practices every day. If he didn’t wake up and get his head on straight, his coach was going to kill him. He hadn’t said it that plainly, but it was pretty clear in the growls and death stares in his direction.
“Are you sure about this?” Trevor asked from the passenger seat of the car.
It was bad enough that Brayden was distracted on the ice. Driving around with his thoughts on the woman in the backseat was sure to cause a pile up.
He couldn’t help it. In the apartment, her sweet smell lingered everywhere, but in the enclosed space of the car, it tried to suffocate him. Every breath reminded him of the lust coursing through his veins.
“We have to see if anyone recognizes her. I’m not leaving them here when we’re halfway across the country in Minnesota.”
Brayden had spent a lot of his sleepless nights trying to figure out what to do about the upcoming away games. The ones in the states were easy. He’d just hire a private jet to fly her and Connor to them. He’d verified the passengers wouldn’t go through security at the airport.
But they were crossing the northern border for a couple of games. Without identification and passports, he didn’t think she could travel into Canada, but he kept trying to come up with a solution.
The important thing was he didn’t want them alone in his apartment. Another city, hundreds of miles away seemed more secure, even if he couldn’t be with them for a few days.
They were on their way to the zoo, which had some big light show for the holidays. With Willow’s now short hair that she’d dyed a medium shade of brown and blue eyes, he didn’t think anyone would recognize her. She wouldn’t go unnoticed, though.
Her long hair and purple eyes made her seem younger. The new haircut brought out her cheekbones and her face in general. It showed that she was all woman underneath the barrier she’d built up. Not to mention the thick long hair had covered breasts that made his mouth water. He’d been attracted to her before seeing through her defenses, but his whole body tightened seeing her curves.
His eyes kept lifting to the rearview mirror where he could see her staring out the window at traffic. She catalogued everything. He wouldn’t be surprised to hear an immediate answer if he asked her later how many cars they’d passed.
“Yeah, about that trip. How exactly are you going to work that out? You guys don’t have ID, do you?” Trevor turned to look in the backseat. “Wait a second. How did you guys get here without ID? I don’t see you guys hitching rides, and I’m pretty sure you have to had ID for buses and planes.”
Trevor hadn’t been given much of the story. Brayden didn’t know every detail, but he did know the answer to that question. Since it was Willow’s story to tell, he let her decide what she wanted to share.
“I asked people I thought would be sympathetic to get the tickets,” she said with no inflection.
Brayden had bristled hearing that. She explained she looked for women who reminded her of her grandma. If he thought he could trust her take on sympathetic people, that would be fine, but even looking for elderly women wasn’t a safe option for her. The fact that she had trouble reading people meant her conclusions couldn’t be trusted.
“Really?” Trevor said, raising an eyebrow when he looked back to Brayden.
It was hard to say what Trevor had picked up after watching them over the last week, but her silence or matter-of-fact responses were hard to miss. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize she wasn’t a people person.
“She carries a knife in her boot. She may be small, but if one of the old women got out of hand, she could probably handle herself.”
“Really?” Trevor said again, staring at Brayden with a new look in his eyes.
If Brayden was a betting man, he’d say his friend thought he’d completely lost his mind. He wouldn’t be wrong, so Brayden just shrugged.
“I bought it at the first store we found. I know the right places to stab someone, even if I only have a pencil, but I thought the knife would make the task easier.”
Again, no inflections in her words, even though she was talking about potentially killing someone. She might as well have been reading the forecast.
“Really?”
In contrast, every different “really” Trevor uttered had plenty of meaning. The latest one clearly said he thought Brayden needed to seek mental help. Brayden kept his eyes on the road, but he could feel the harsh stare from beside him.
They’d made it to the parking lot, so if Trevor felt the need to rush out of the car and get away from the crazy, Brayden wasn’t about to stop him. When Brayden parked, the opposite seemed to happen. While Brayden got out and helped Willow and Connor, Trevor stayed glued in his seat.
Willow looked around them at the crowds and seemed nervous. She didn’t show what she felt often, but when she was nervous her hands always wrung together. Connor had eyes as big as saucers as he looked around and saw the bits of decorations and lights he could see from their spot. The energy in him was contagious.
“Do you mind giving us a few seconds?” Brayden asked. He had to deal with Trevor before the idiot ruined the outing. “Why don’t you go get some cocoa or something.”
He handed Willow some money and smiled down at her. She looked lost, but she nodded. The stands with food and drinks weren’t far, only a dozen or so feet away. He didn’t want her to leave, but he had to deal with Trevor. The idiot probably had 9-1-1 already dialed on his phone.
“With marshmallows?” Connor said as he pulled on Willow’s arm.
She didn’t hide the fact being away from Brayden wasn’t what she’d planned, but she couldn’t disappoint Connor. Brayden didn’t plan for his conversation to take more than a few minutes, so he hoped to be back with them before they even had their cups.
Opening his car door, he slid in his seat and let out a frustrated sigh. Trevor put himself in the situation, so he couldn’t fault anyone but himself.
“Dude, you need to call the police.”
Trevor sat straight, staring out the window in fr
ont of him. He’d mentioned the idea a few times, even after he heard the reason why they weren’t.
“She’s a sociopath, maybe even a psychopath. How do you know she’s even who she says she is? She could’ve researched Willow Jamison and stolen her identity.”
It had been a while since Trevor’s psychology degree saw the light of day, but Brayden wasn’t surprised. He’d never questioned the truth when he saw it with his own eyes. Trevor hadn’t seen Willow before she’d accepted Brayden’s help. There was no doubt in his mind that she’d been hurt and was in fact Willow Jamison. There were too many details in the story she couldn’t have made up.
Before Brayden could share that information, someone pounded on the window next to him. It was a soft sound, from a tiny fist. He looked down to see Connor there with tears streaming down his face. No sign of Willow.
Hurrying to open the door, he picked Connor up and rubbed his back as the kid cried on his shoulder. Words were coming out of his mouth, but they were so muffled he couldn’t make them out.
“Shh. Connor, it’s okay. Where’s Willow? Did you get separated from her?”
Brayden searched the crowd in the distance. He couldn’t see Willow letting Connor get away from her. She was always so careful about keeping him close.
“Sh-She took her. My mo-mmy. Gun.”
Each mumbled word felt like a cut against Brayden’s skin. The public space should have been safe.
“What’s going on?” Trevor asked as he joined them.
Brayden glared at him, blaming him for the fact he wasn’t there when Willow needed him. They’d have words later, but finding Willow was the top priority.
Chapter 27
Willow had been three people back in the line for hot cocoa when she felt something hard poke her in the back. Her nerves were already on edge with all the people around her. Crowds had always been one of her least favorite things because of how people brushed into each other and the voices collided to the point it was hard to make a single one out. She’d thought about whirling around to question the person behind her, but she’d heard the voice whisper in her ear.
“If you make any kind of scene, I’ll shoot the kid.”
The woman’s voice sent a chill down her spine. She didn’t deal with Gayle as much as her husband, but she knew the voice. And she knew if she was anything like her husband, she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot her son.
“You haven’t made this easy and will have to be punished for that, but right now we need to get out of this zoo without anyone noticing.”
It was easy to tell when Connor realized something was wrong. His arms wrapped around Willow’s leg, holding on for dear life. She needed to think, and she couldn’t do that if she was worried about him.
“Just take me, and I won’t make a scene.” Her voice sounded more confident than she felt.
Gayle laughed. It sounded normal enough, but Willow knew it was pretend. It wasn’t like she had any room to make demands, but she wouldn’t let them get their hands on Connor again. It was surprising enough that the missus was the one out collecting them.
“Like I have need for a rugrat,” she scoffed and pulled on Willow’s arm. “Leave him if you want. Once Greg’s feeling better, he might want him, but he’s only going to get better if you come home.”
Willow listened to the words, not really following. She patted Connor on the head to get him to look at her. As she was pulled along, he was being dragged with her because of his hold. She hated seeing the tears in his eyes, but she needed him to listen to her. They spoke without words for years, so she pointed towards the parking lot where they’d left Brayden. If she couldn’t protect Connor, she knew he would.
Connor understood, she could see that in his eyes, but he hesitated leaving her. She smiled and mouthed “please.” She could deal with the nightmare she knew laid ahead only if he was safe.
His arms unleashing her moved in slow motion, but he eventually let go and ran off. With all the people around, she hoped he’d find Brayden. They were still in the parking lot, basically. It was cold enough they had a few stands with drinks and food before you got into the actual zoo.
“Well there’s a weight off of you,” Gayle said, pulling Willow harder. “Get in the front seat and buckle in.”
The latter instruction seemed silly, but Willow followed it. Connor was still too close to disobey. She hadn’t expected them to be only a couple of dozen feet away from Gayle’s car.
When the woman moved around the car into the driver’s seat, she settled with the gun in her left hand pointed across her at Willow. She had no idea that Willow wouldn’t do anything that could jeopardize Connor’s safety. Gayle was the boy’s mother, but Willow cared for him as if she was. The fact that a person who struggled with emotions could care more than someone she knew had them always confounded her. Gayle had never hidden the fact she doted on Greg and hated Willow. Even when Willow had saved her life.
The woman before her looked nothing like the woman she’d first met with only peach fuzz on the top of her head. The chemo had hit her hard and made her frail. Willow figured that was the reason they hadn’t immediately moved to Austin.
Gayle’s brunette hair had grown back in thick thanks to Willow. And the woman had never offered a bit of gratitude. That didn’t really bother Willow. She would’ve probably only made her anger seethe more as the years went on, because Willow wouldn’t have responded right.
“What’s wrong with your husband?” Willow asked as the car lurched out of the parking lot.
She’d let the statement roll around in her head during the frantic motions, but it didn’t make sense. Greg had never been sick. In the years she’d known him, he hadn’t even had a cold. She tested his blood regularly, as he asked, and made sure he was one of the healthiest people in the world.
Since Willow was looking at Gayle, she saw her hard, green eyes turn her way. As she’d grown accustom to, she diverted her eyes, so she didn’t look directly at her.
“Did you really think you could leave him without something happening to him? He’s barely eaten a thing since I let you out.”
If Willow thought she was confused before, the new declarations tipped her over the edge. What was she talking about? Willow hadn’t thought Greg would be happy about her leaving, but not eating? That made no sense.
Not to mention the idea that Gayle had let her out. Greg and Gayle had both been out of the house when Willow had used a screwdriver she’d found to take the doorknob off the locked door to the upstairs of the house. If Gayle had helped her, one, that would have been insane given how the woman treated her over the years, and two, wouldn’t she have just left the door unlocked?
“You didn’t let me out.”
“For as brilliant as you are with the chemistry stuff, you really are clueless. I left the screwdriver for you to find and got him out of the house. He hated being away from you, so neither of those tasks were easy. Thankfully, one of his investors threatened to pull money if he didn’t show up for a dinner party. Even the money was starting to dim when it came to you.”
Willow sat there, trying to make sense of any of that. When she failed, she sat there quietly, not sure she wanted an explanation.
“Ugh,” Gayle groaned. “I hate when you go silent like that. It’s creepy. I’ve sat upstairs watching you on the cameras. You do know about them, right? He left you to your work, but he sat upstairs in his den and watched you.”
She did know about them. He installed them after Connor was born. She’d assumed it was so he could keep an eye on his son, even if he didn’t show any affection to him, but she never really thought about them after that day. Part of her was surprised they weren’t installed sooner, so he could make sure she was working and not plotting her escape.
He was in the basement with her in person enough around that time that the cameras didn’t matter to her. She focused on the work in front of her. It was the only thing that made sense to her.
“He gratified hims
elf watching you.”
Willow had been lost in her own thoughts, watching where they were driving. She thought the conversation was over, so she didn’t expect the words.
He gratified himself? That had to be a mistake. She’d told Brayden her kidnapping wasn’t like that, and it never had been. Whatever Gayle thought she saw, she had to be wrong.
It was more likely she wanted to get a rise out of Willow. She’d already said she hated when Willow got quiet. That’s why she said that. It had to be.
“Did you hear me?” Gayle asked when Willow remained motionless. “Whenever he wasn’t down there with you, he came upstairs and locked himself in the den and masturbated. The only time he left you was to beat off while he watched you and talked about all the things he wanted to do with you.”
Shaking her head, Willow decided the woman was completely deranged, and it was best to continue ignoring her. They were heading the wrong direction, which seemed more important. Instead of heading away from the city, the logical move, they were driving deeper into it.
“Do you not understand what I’m saying?”
Willow felt the gun jab into her side. She thought about the knife in her boot. Connor was safely away, but she didn’t think she could get to it without being noticed. She definitely couldn’t use it before Gayle pulled the trigger, so she considered the rest of the car.
Chances were it was a rental, judging by the Maryland plate she’d seen when thrust into the car. It didn’t seem like Gayle had spent much time in it. There weren’t the signs of use she noticed in Brayden’s car. His car was clean, and had a strong scent of leather, but she saw the fingerprints on the screen in the dash and specks of dirt on the floormats.
Gayle’s car smelled clean in an imitation way, like someone had sprayed a fake pine scent to cover up other smells. It also looked like it had been recently wiped down. Willow could see swirls of a cleaning solution on the dash in front of her. With Gayle busy supposedly planning Willow’s kidnapping, she wouldn’t have stopped to clean her dash.