by Julia Derek
She considered me for a few moments, then she said, “If you come around here, you can use the phone over there.” A stubby finger with purple nail polish pointed at a phone on an end table a few feet behind her.
“Okay, thank you,” I said. I walked around the oblong reception desk and lifted the receiver of the phone she had indicated.
For a moment, I couldn’t remember my mother’s number in L.A., but then I closed my eyes, forced myself to calm down, and it came rushing back to me. I punched it into the keypad.
Not even two rings later, my mother picked up the phone.
“Hello?” Her voice sounded tired and strained.
“Mom, it’s me, Elle.”
She pulled in her breath. “Elle, where are you? Are you okay?”
“Yes, Mom, I’m fine. I’m at the Lenox Hill Hospital here in Manhattan. Me and my boss were abducted by some strange men and a woman, but we managed to escape from them.”
“You were kidnapped? Dear Lord. We heard from your building manager that your apartment was all trashed and that it looked like it had been broken into. We’ve been so worried. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, Mom. Like I said, we managed to escape. But Chase got shot, so that’s why we had to find a hospital to make sure he was taken care of. He’s in surgery right now.” Just the thought of what Chase was going through this very moment made me feel all tense and teary-eyed again. Oh, God, please don’t let him die.
“Chase? Who’s Chase?”
“Chase is my boss, the guy who was kidnapped with me. One of the guys who took us shot him in the side as we ran away from the house they kept us in.”
My mother gasped. “He was shot? Are you okay? Were you hurt?”
“No, Mom. I’m fine. At the moment, I’m mostly worried about Chase making it through his operation. They’re also giving him a blood transfusion because of all the blood he’s lost.”
I inhaled through my nose to make the tightness that was rapidly spreading within my chest to lighten, or I would for sure have a panic attack. Chase had to make it through. He couldn’t just leave me after what we had gone through. I wouldn’t allow him to leave me. We needed to make sure these bastards paid for what they had done to us. To him.
“Dylan and Nina and I and everyone else have been so worried, Elle,” my mom said. “The police have been looking for you ever since we reported what happened to your apartment and that you didn’t board your flight home.” She snorted with disdain. “Well, at least that’s what the person I spoke to at the NYPD claimed was going to happen when I finally got hold of them… The search would start immediately. I’m not so sure he just said so only to get me off the phone.”
“When did you report it?”
“That same evening when you were supposed to have dinner with everyone. Anyway, Gabi and her boyfriend jumped on a plane back to New York yesterday just to help the NYPD to get things moving. They’re in New York right now. What was the name of the hospital so I can tell them where you are?”
“Lenox Hill Hospital. It’s on the Upper East Side.”
“Okay, I’ll call Gabi and tell her that. Don’t go anywhere. Is it safe where you are right now?”
“Yes, Mom, there are tons of people around me, so no one can get to me. The only reason they managed to get me in the first place was because they took me by complete surprise. They won’t be able to do that a second time, I can promise you that.”
I wasn’t about to give my mom more details —as in me being drugged by them—or she’d freak out. She’d find out soon enough anyway.
“Okay.” She didn’t sound one hundred percent convinced that I was safe, but there was nothing she could do about it. “Well, make sure you stay right there then. I’ll tell Gabi and her boyfriend to hurry up to get to you and then take you to the police.” She paused to take a deep breath. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, Mom, really, I’m fine. No one can get to me where I am. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that Chase will be fine, too.”
“I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you both, baby. I’ll tell the police that you’re okay then and that you’re at that hospital. I’m sure they’re gonna want to ask you lots of questions. Do you have any idea who these people might be?”
That familiar cackling laugh rang through my head then. Unfortunately I still couldn’t place it.
“No, I don’t. The men we dealt with told us the person responsible for our abduction is a woman, though. She was standing next to me at one point and laughed, but it was so dark in the room where we were being held that I couldn’t see what she looked like.” Again, it was better not to tell my mom that the woman had also been holding a gun pressed to my head in that moment. When she learned that, she would totally freak out and launch into a tirade of upset words and gasps. “I thought I’d heard the laughter before, that’s all.”
“You thought you’d heard it before?”
“Yeah, it sounded very familiar.”
“But then you must have some idea who we’re dealing with, right?”
I sighed. I really wished that I did, but I didn’t. I told my mom so.
“Well,” she said, “hopefully the police will be able to dig up enough information for you to figure that out. I should hang up so I can call Gabi and have her come find you, so you’re not alone there.”
“Yeah, that might be good.” It would be nice to have someone I knew to be with me while I waited for the doctors to be done with Chase.
“Well, I’m so glad that you’re okay, baby,” Mom said. “You don’t know how worried Dylan and I and everyone else have been. Please don’t move until Gabi and Nick get there and call me when they do so I know that you’re guarded and safe, okay? We’re obviously dealing with some very disturbed people here. Who knows what they might do next.”
Yeah, there was no arguing about that one; especially the woman seemed deeply disturbed. And very dangerous.
“Trust me, Mom, I won’t go anywhere. Not until I know that Chase is okay. And I think it’ll be a while before I’ll find that out unfortunately.”
“Okay, good. As soon as we hang up, I’ll call Gabi then. It should only be a matter of time before she gets there, all right? Promise me you’ll call me as soon as they reach you. That way I can be sure you’re okay and I can stop worrying.”
“I promise, Mom. Oh, can you ask Gabi to bring a pair of pants and a sweater with her for me? And sneakers? It’s not much left of my shoes.”
I gazed down at my heels, surprised to see that my three-inch heels were mostly intact. Must be great quality. I should remember for any future shoe purchases, I noted dryly. My ripped, dirty skirt and sweaty pink silk blouse hadn’t fared as well. The sight of them made me feel gross. People who saw me must think I was a junkie or streetwalker. Or both.
“Of course, baby. Any special kind you’d like?”
“Just some type of yoga pants. Something comfortable. I really, really need a change of clothes.”
“You got it, baby,” Mom said. “Anything else I should tell her to bring?”
“Yeah, cash so I can buy something to eat.”
“I’ll tell her that. Don’t you worry. She’ll be there soon. She’ll get you everything you’ll need.”
We exchanged a few more words, then we hung up. I threw a glance at the heavy-set nurse behind me to see if she had overheard my conversation. There was no way of telling as she was in the middle of a conversation with a couple of women standing before her like I had done when I’d gotten to the desk. But somehow I didn’t think she’d care either way. She looked like a person who’d seen and heard it all already. Surely, working in an emergency room, abductions and shootings, even being drugged by thugs were nothing unusual.
At least we’d both gotten away alive. I forced myself to get going. I could only hope it would stay that way.
Chapter Twelve
Feeling exhausted suddenly, I walked with heavy steps up to the waiting room the nurs
e had mentioned to wait for news about what was going on with Chase. Gabi and her boyfriend would surely find me there as easily as on any other floor. I found a water fountain in the corridor on the second floor and greedily drank from it. I hadn’t realized until I spotted it how thirsty I was.
When I got to the waiting room, I plunked down on one of the many orange plastic chairs there, making sure I kept my legs together so no one would get a view of my underwear. As short and torn as my skirt was now, it would be easy, especially when I was sitting down. There were only a few people there—a couple of older ladies, a woman with a crying child in her lap, and two men. One of them was obsessively checking his smartphone while the other was reading the newspaper. At the moment, neither of them seemed to even have noticed that I’d entered the room. But that could change, so I made sure I kept my legs wrapped tightly together. I couldn’t blame them if they thought I was a junkie prostitute who’d escaped her pimp or something and therefore was used to being gawked at.
Now that I was calmer, I remembered how I had looked when I’d caught my image in store windows as Mike and I were dragging Chase to the hospital entrance. It hadn’t been a pretty sight. My blond, normally straight hair had been a hot mess of sweaty knots and the bruise on the right side of my face had begun to bloom, surely darkening by the minute now. I could only imagine that my eyes were completely bloodshot from stress and lack of sleep. Combine all that with my dirty blouse, torn miniskirt and heels and my skank look was almost complete. All that was missing was some bright red lipstick and heavy eye makeup.
It was really amazing how accepting the nurse behind the counter had been of me. Then I thought about the fact that she hadn’t seen the lower half of me, which was likely the most suggestive part, and changed my mind. If she’d seen that, maybe she wouldn’t have asked me if I was Chase’s wife, but just assumed that I was a hooker and he a client.
I was glad that I’d gotten a chance to speak to my mom. It wouldn’t take long now until the bastards who had done this to me and Chase were caught. Staring into the gray-painted hospital wall opposite me, I again found myself wondering what it was that they had wanted from us and again had no clue. It infuriated me that I still couldn’t remember why that cackling laughter felt so familiar to me. If only I could place that, I was sure I’d be able to figure out why she’d abducted us. Did the drugs the thugs had used on me have something to do with my difficulty to remember? I didn’t think so. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried my best to make myself relive that unpleasant laughter. I needed to remember where the hell I’d heard it before!
But as exhausted as I was, my brain didn’t work very well, so it was hard for me to even clearly hear the laughter in my mind. I kept trying though, as it kept me occupied. I needed to have my thoughts occupied or I’d think about Chase, worry about what was going to happen to him.
I sat on that chair, pondering who we could be dealing with for the next thirty minutes. I hadn’t gotten any closer to figuring it out when Gabi and a good-looking, well-built guy with a navy baseball hat entered the waiting room. The last time I had seen her, she had been a platinum blonde and now she had reverted back to her honey brown curls again, so it took me a few seconds to realize it was actually her.
At the sight of me, Gabi lit up, her chocolate eyes shining with excitement and warmth.
“Elle!” she said and strode up to me, her high ponytail bouncing against the collar of her jean jacket. I got to my feet and we embraced in a tight hug.
“It’s so good to see you again,” I said when we pulled away from each other. I was about to add that changing her hair back to its regular color had been a good move. She looked much better as a brunette than as a blonde, softer and more natural. But then it struck me that going blonde might have been part of her recent undercover assignment, not something she had necessarily chosen to do on her own, so I changed my mind. Besides, it was rude. “Thanks for coming here to try to help us,” I said instead. “That’s a long way to come.”
Gabi made a face like she thought I was crazy. “Don’t even mention it. Of course we’d come to help. Police departments get to things a lot quicker when pushed a little. They had barely gotten started on your search when we spoke to them last night.” She gave me a conspiratorial little grin and then pointed to the good-looking guy next to her. “This is Nick, by the way. My boyfriend. Nick, this is Elisa.”
Nick and I said hello and shook hands.
“We were both so relieved to hear that you guys managed to escape,” Gabi said. “Those guys sound like some really bad people.”
“Yeah, you could say that again,” I replied dryly.
She held out a Gap bag filled with stuff to me. “After I spoke to your mom, we ran into a Gap and bought a few things for you. I hope it fits you okay.”
I smiled big at her and took the bag. “That’s so nice of you. I’m sure they’ll be fine. Thank you.” I wrinkled my nose as I motioned toward my messy, torn outfit. “I so need to get out of these things. Let me go find a bathroom so I can change.”
“Okay, but we’ll go with you and wait outside while you change,” Gabi said. “Just to be sure no one else gets their hands on you. Until we figure out who’s behind this and what’s going on, you should be on your own as little as possible.”
“Yeah, that’s probably wise,” I said. “I think I saw a restroom right outside the waiting room.”
The three of us walked out of the waiting room and into the long corridor and soon found a restroom that I entered. There were only three toilet stalls in there and it didn’t seem like any of them were occupied. But they were tiny, so staying on the outside and cleaning myself would be a lot easier. I just had to hurry up in case someone decided to come in here.
A look in the bathroom mirrors made me yelp. I looked even worse than I’d thought. Crazed, bloodshot eyes stared back at me from a pale face that was bruised on one side, as though someone had punched me there. My blond hair was in severe need of a brush, and some of it was stained with something red and sticky. It took me a few moments to realize that it must be Chase’s blood. When I did, a shiver of discomfort rolled up my spine.
Oh, Chase, you’d better make it out of that OR alive!
Turning on one of the faucets, I stepped out of my pumps and quickly removed my dirty, sweaty blouse and threw both away. Then I splashed water and soap onto my upper body, paying special attention to my armpits, neck, and back. I rinsed off the blood from my hair and washed my face. I kept glancing at the restroom door, praying it wouldn’t all of a sudden open and that I’d get to keep my privacy just a little longer. I ripped some paper off a towel dispenser and dried all the wet parts of my upper body. I desperately wanted to remove my bra and throw it in the wastebasket where I’d put the blouse. It was now both wet as well as sweaty, but I wasn’t about to stand there topless even for one second. Surely it was only a matter of time until someone came in and spotted me. I decided it was safer to continue inside one of the cramped stalls after all.
I took some wet towels, one with soap on it, and moved into the nearest of the little stalls. Getting out of my torn, tight skirt turned out to be the biggest challenge, but eventually that and my underwear were on the floor and I could complete my military cleaning.
When I was done, I opened the Gap bag to see what Gabi had gotten me. I pulled out a soft pair of blue sweats, a white T-shirt, a black hoodie, and a pair of sneakers. There were even socks and a pair of underwear in there. No bra or brush, unfortunately, but I was still pleased that Gabi had been thoughtful enough to get me new underwear. I wriggled into all the clothes. Then I put on the sneakers that were a little too big, but that was okay. Rather too big than too small. I left the tiny stall and put the rest of my old clothes on top of my blouse in the wastebasket.
I looked at myself in the mirror. Not bad. The Gap clothes fit me well. If only I could get hold of something to untangle my hair with, I’d look almost normal again. Well, except for that nasty bruis
e, that is… I ran my fingers through my damp hair to smooth it out as much as I could. I only managed to make it look marginally better.
I left the bathroom a minute later. Gabi and Nick had remained there, waiting for me.
“There you are,” Gabi said and gave me the once over, more anxiously than critically. “How does it fit? Are the sneakers okay?”
“It’s all good,” I said, smiling at her. “The shoes are a little big, but that’s totally okay. I just tied them really tightly. Besides, I like it that I’m able to move my toes finally. Running like a maniac in pointy pumps is not the best thing for your feet.” I smirked to emphasize my point. “I just wish I could do something about my hair, like brush it. It’s still a mess.” I pointed at it.
Gabi’s eyes went up to my hair. “It doesn’t look so bad. Do you want me to try to find you a hairbrush?” She removed a hairband that she’d worn around her wrist and extended it to me. “Or maybe you can just put it up until we get you back home?”
“Thanks,” I said and took the hairband from her. “This will do. I’ll be right back.”
I walked back into the bathroom and the mirrors. I gathered my hair and tied the hairband around it, making sure some of the front parts weren’t pulled back and placed strategically in order to cover the bruise on the side of my face. The less attention I drew from people, the better.
I returned to Gabi and Nick.
“All good for now?” Gabi asked.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Can I just call my mom and tell her you’re here now?’
“Sure.” She handed me her phone and I called my mom, then gave Gabi back her phone. “Why don’t we go find the hospital cafeteria and get you something to eat?” Gabi suggested. “You must be starving.”
Yeah, I could probably use something to eat. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave the waiting room. Would the doctor who operated on Chase find me if I was in the cafeteria? Even though my stomach had begun to emit some gnarling sounds, I really didn’t feel any hunger.