Not Letting Go

by R B Hilliard

  “Shocker,” Reyn wryly replied.

  I should send Gage a text telling him to meet us at Max and Ellie’s. Then again, maybe not. He will probably want to stay and hang out with Max. That’s the last thing I want. If I had my way, he would still be where I left him this morning…in our bed waiting for me.

  Seven minutes later we pulled into the grocery store. I wanted gum. “You want me to get your pickles for you?” I asked Ellie.

  “No. I have to assess the selection.”

  “Aren’t all pickles the same?” Reyn asked.

  Ellie gasped. “You must come with me, Reynolds, so I can educate you on the finer points of pickle picking.”

  I rolled my eyes at them. “I’m getting gum. Meet you at the check-out line.”

  Bobby got out and stood beside the car. “I’ll be right here. Try and make it quick.” he told us.

  Five minutes later Ellie had her pickles, I had my gum and we were ready to roll. We exited the store and were laughing about Ellie’s pickle obsession when we noticed Bobby lying face down on the parking lot beside the truck.

  “Bobby!” Reyn shouted. Before we could stop her, she took off running.

  “Stay here,” I told Ellie as I took off after Reyn. I was halfway to Bobby when Reyn squatted down beside him and checked for a pulse. Something felt wrong. “Reyn! Stop!” I shouted. That’s when everything tilted on its axis. I heard Ellie gasp behind me, but before I could turn to check on her, Zeke stepped out from behind Bobby’s truck with a gun pointed at Reyn.

  No!

  “Well look what we have here, boys? Princess Piper and her pathetic friends,” a woman’s voice said rom my left.

  I knew it was a trap!

  Standing off to my side with a gun trained on me was Selina. I glanced over my shoulder to check on Ellie and my heart stuttered in my chest. Stupid, stupid Lester had a gun pressed firmly against her temple. The fear in her eyes was palpable and I wanted to scream, to rage…to hurt someone…but I couldn’t. We were surrounded on all sides. I had nowhere to go and everything that I had tried so hard to prevent was happening right before my eyes.

  “Let them go, Selina. We all know it’s me that Dooley wants, not them. So just let them go.” Where in the hell is a policeman when you need one? On second thought where is anyone? I scanned the parking lot for someone to shout “Call 911” to but it was empty except for a few parked cars.

  “Nice try,” Selina sneered. Her eyes darted to Zeke, who now had his gun pressed to the back of Reyn’s head. “Before this turns into a complete shit show, let’s get going,” she commanded. “You!” she shouted at Reyn, “Get over here. You, too, Prego,” she nodded at Ellie. Selina slithered up next to me and shoved the barrel of the gun into my ribs. “Try anything funny and I will blow away one of your friends. Got it?” I nodded my head while fighting back the desire to tell her where she should stick her gun.

  “What did you do to Bobby?” Reyn asked.

  “Nothing permanent, yet,” she replied before ordering Lester to get the van.

  “B-but Dooley said just Piper and no one else,” he stuttered.

  “Shut the fuck up and get the van!” she shouted. Abandoning any further argument, Lester hunched his shoulders, tucked his gun in the back of his jeans and took off into a run across the parking lot.

  This is bad. Ellie was shaking like a leaf next to me. Not only was I worried about her but also the baby. Wrapping my fingers around Ellie’s, I calmly said, “Selina, she’s pregnant. Nothing good can come from you kidnapping her. Let her go.”

  “I know exactly who she is and what she means to you. So, I think I’ll keep her thank you very much.” With that, she gave me a maniacal grin and I realized that she seemed to have completely lost touch with reality. Three terrifying words came to mind when I looked into her eyes… bug-fucking-nuts.

  A white cargo van pulled up next to us and Ellie whimpered.

  “Get him in first,” Selina directed. Lester jumped out of the van and helped Zeke lift Bobby into the back. I felt something brush against my hand. Making sure not to move my head, I shifted my eyes down and to my right. Reyn had her cell phone and was moving it from her purse to her pocket. Yes!

  Selina’s eyes were still focused on Lester and Zeke, so I carefully slid my hand into my purse and felt around for my phone. When I couldn’t find it, I started to panic. Then I remembered that I had taken it with me when I went to find Joss and must have left it in her bathroom. Shit! At least Reyn has hers. As I pulled my hand from my purse it scraped across something sharp. My nail file! The night that I tried to break into Gage’s room I must have dropped it into my purse instead of my nail bag. Slowly, I pulled it from my purse and slid it into the front pocket of my skirt.

  Before I knew what was happening, the purse was being ripped from my arm and the gun was back in my ribs. “Any more trouble from you and I will shoot one of your friends. I know what you’re trying to do,” Selina snarled. “Good thing I caught you. Everyone into the van and hand me your purses. Now!” she shrieked. We handed over our purses and crawled into the van. This had just gone from really bad to incomprehensibly worse.

  I expected Selina to crawl into the back with us but surprisingly she didn’t. I guess she didn’t think that three women and an unconscious man could do much damage. Well, she would be right! As there were no seats or seatbelts in the back of the van, we had nothing to hold on to. Every time Lester took a turn we were tossed around like a bunch of rag dolls. Somehow I managed to secure Ellie between my legs and grab on to a short loop of cord that was attached to an eyelet in the floor of the van. I placed my other hand across Ellie’s chest and belly and the diamonds from my ring winked up at me.

  Shit!

  “Ellie, can you slide my ring off my finger and slip it into my bra?”

  “Good thinking,” she said, sliding it from my finger. “We don’t want you to lose a finger when she gets a look at this beauty. She’s nuts enough to do it, too.”

  “Damn straight she is,” Reyn said. She heaved Bobby between her thighs and wrapped her legs around his waist. Evidently his dead weight was enough to secure her to the floor.

  “What are we going to do?” Ellie whispered.

  “I don’t know.” I peered across the van at Bobby. Still out cold. “What do you think they did to him to make him go down like that?”

  “Probably stunned him. Max says if you use a high enough voltage it can knock someone out for up to an hour.”

  Remembering that Reyn had her phone, I mouthed for her to check it for a signal. She pulled the phone from her back pocket and looked at the screen. Unfortunately, she shook her head a moment later. Damn!

  “Do you have Max’s number?” Ellie whispered.

  She mouthed “Yes.”

  “Type him a text and tell him who has us. Also, let him know that we are headed toward South Carolina. Then hit send. As soon as we get a signal it hopefully will automatically send.”

  “How do you know we are heading south?” I asked her.

  “Because I am not directionally challenged like some people I know. Listen, Piper, if something happens to me or the baby…”

  I placed my hand over her mouth before she could finish. “Don’t,” I told her. “Nothing is going to happen. I won’t let it.”

  She mumbled something under my hand and when I wouldn’t let up, she bit me. “Owww, you hag.”

  “Quit being a cow and listen to me,” she harshly whispered. “If something happens to me, tell Max I love him more than anything in this world.” I opened my mouth to protest but she cut me off with a pinch to my leg. “And if it comes down to me or the baby, save the baby.”

  Her words made me spitting mad. It felt like she was giving up. Oh hell no! Fisting my hand in her hair I jerked her head around to where we were eye to eye. “You listen to me and you listen well. Nothing is going to happen to you and I mean nothing. I will die before I let anything happen to you or this baby. Do you understand?” Her
eyes welled with tears. I gave her a good shake. “Tell me you understand.”

  “I understand,” she whispered.

  We were suddenly jerked sideways as the van crunched across some gravel and stopped. Everyone except for Bobby sat up to get their bearings. Quickly, I pulled the nail file from my pocket and slid it into my bra. “Hide your phone in your boot,” I told Reyn. Hopefully they wouldn’t look there, at least, not at first.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  They kept us waiting in the back of the van for a long time. It was dark, the air was stale and claustrophobia was starting to set in. I was beginning to think that they were going to leave us in there to suffocate and die. Vehicular suffocation was not high on my bucket list.

  “Why isn’t Bobby waking up?” Reyn whispered.

  “Probably because his neuro pathways are all screwed up,” Ellie replied. Both Reyn and I stared at her as if she had sprouted three heads.

  “You know this how exactly, Dr. McLellan?” I asked.

  Before she could answer the van door slid open and blindingly bright sunlight streamed straight into our eyes.

  “He’s still out!” Selina shouted. “We’ll get them first and then come back for him.” She waved her gun at us. “Everybody out and no funny stuff or I’ll shoot.”

  Reyn scooted out first. Next was Ellie. When it came my turn, Selina dug her nails into the underside of my arm and yanked. I jerked away in pain and she reared back and clipped me with her gun. Ellie and Reyn both cried out as blood spurted from a gash in my forehead just above my left eyebrow. How I ever thought that Selina was beautiful is beyond me. The woman standing in front of me was a hateful, crazy bitch with a score to settle.

  “Dooley said not to touch her, Sel,” Zeke warned.

  “She tried to hit me! I was just defending myself!” she shouted at him.

  Yeah, right.

  “Let Lester deal with her. You get everybody else.”

  Her eyes cut to me and shrunk into tiny slits of hatred. “Fine,” she huffed and stormed over to Reyn and Ellie.

  Blood dripped into my eye and I wiped it with the back of my sleeve.

  “She got you one good,” Lester observed as he grabbed my arm. “Dooley is not going to be happy.”

  Who cares! I wanted to scream. If Ellie and Reyn weren’t with me I would have grabbed Lester’s gun and seen what damage I could do. Instead, like a good little prisoner, I let Lester lead me around the van and up a steep drive. We paused at the top in front of a dilapidated two story farm house. This was a genuine paint peeling, shutter hanging, rotting wood kind of farm house. Standing on the top step of the porch with a big smile on his face was none other than Dooley Shane.

  Mexico my ass.

  He clapped his hands together and smiled in utter glee. That is, until he saw the blood dripping off of my face and the smile immediately vanished. His eyes shifted and widened in obvious surprise when he noticed Ellie and Reyn behind me. Then they darkened in anger. A storm was clearly building. “What is the meaning of this?” he demanded.

  “Ask Selina,” Lester growled. Dooley shifted his glare from Lester to Selina.

  “You said to get Piper. Well, here she is!” She responded, flinging her hand in my direction and dramatically rolling her eyes at him.

  “I said get Piper and no one else, Selina. I said not to harm a hair on her body. Did I not?” Dooley said through clinched teeth.

  “She tried to attack me! What was I supposed to do? Let her?” Selina angrily spat back.

  This may very well be the calm before the storm. I need to watch myself here.

  Dooley’s beady, black eyes swiveled back to me and he let out a frustrated sigh. “You, my dear, are trouble with a capital T.” Instead of going on the attack or trying to defend myself. I gave him nothing. Not a damn thing. He tipped his chin and quirked his brow at me. Still, I gave him nothing. “My, my, someone has grown up a bit since I last saw her,” he quipped. The desire to claw his beady eyes out was powerful, but it was overwhelmed by the need to get my friends to safety.

  Carefully, I chose my words. “Before this goes any further and we get to a point of no return, you could have Lester drop Ellie and Reyn off someplace safe.” He appeared to contemplate what I was saying so I pushed further. “Look at her, Dooley.” I pointed to Ellie. “She’s pregnant. Do you really want to be responsible for something happening to her or the baby she’s carrying? Neither of them have anything to do with us.” I had him. I could see I was making headway when his phone rang. Shit!

  Dooley’s eyes remained glued on mine as he answered and paused to listen to the person on the other end. His eyes shot to Reyn and I knew. He knows about the phone. But how? Who would do that to us? “Got it,” he said as he punched the end button and placed the phone back in his shirt pocket. He stared down at his feet for a second before lifting his head and turning to Lester and Zeke. “Search them all for phones and weapons. If they fight you, hurt but don’t kill them. Selina, inside with me, now.”

  “Why can’t I search them?” she whined.

  “Because I need you with me.”

  Ellie waddled up next to me. “Did what I think just happen really happen?” she asked under her breath.

  “Yep.”

  “Shiiiiiit. Someone is a rat.”

  “Yep.”

  “Follow me, ladies. It’s time for a strip search,” Zeke said with a shit-eating grin.

  He directed us up the creaky, wooden porch stairs and through the front door into a large open foyer. An awful smell hit me as I walked through the door and I couldn’t help but notice that the inside was as bad as the outside. Whew! Holy stinking lung cancer, the smell!

  “Someone obviously enjoyed their cigarettes,” Ellie whispered.

  “No kidding,” Reyn whispered back. A few beats later she said, “I bet Cas is the rat.”

  Ellie glanced over at me and shrugged. For some reason I didn’t think it was Cas but if it wasn’t, then who was it?

  I could tell that the house had once been beautiful but those days were long gone. The walls that were once white now bore brown and yellow stains. Directly across the foyer stood a large staircase flanked by two large decorative doors. To the right was an empty dining room and a study of sorts appeared to be to the left.

  “Lester, follow behind. We wouldn’t want one of them trying to bolt on us. Up we go,” Zeke said and began climbing the stairs. Having no other choice, we followed after.

  When we reached the top of the stairs I could see four doors off of a central hallway. Two were on the right side of the hall and two were on the left. Zeke directed us down the hall and through the first door on the left. The only thing in the room was a rotting mattress from what was probably once a king bed.

  “Strip,” he ordered.

  The last person who had ordered me to strip was Gage. It was on the night he found me crying outside behind the garage. Gage. Does he know I’m missing yet? Hopefully Max got Reyn’s text and told him. Just the thought of what Gage would do when he discovered that Dooley had us, made my chest tighten. And Max? He would go berserk when he learned that Ellie and Bruiser were in danger.

  “I’ll take off my clothes, but that’s it. No bra and definitely no panties.” Ellie said and stubbornly folded her arms over her chest.

  “You’ll do what I tell you,” Zeke growled. He stepped toward her and pointed the gun right between her eyes. “You don’t get it, do you? I don’t give a rat’s ass who you are.” Like a lover’s caress, he trailed the gun between her breasts, over her burgeoning belly and between her legs. “Or who you belong to.” He traced the gun back up to her belly and kept it there. “And I don’t give a shit about the brat you’re carrying.”

  Seeing that this was quickly heading in a very bad direction, I decided that I somehow needed to get Zeke’s attention away from Ellie.

  Lester obviously felt the same way because he said, “Zeke, Dooley said to check for weapons, not accost the pregnant chick.” As
if challenging Lester, Zeke pressed the gun harder against Ellie’s stomach which caused her to wince.

  “I’ll strip first!” I shouted. “Do you want a partial strip or full on nudity?”

  “Full on,” Zeke replied and relaxed his grip on the gun.

  “Partial,” Lester interjected.

  I stared between the two of them and waited. Please choose partial. I really don’t want to get naked in front of these two losers.

  “Dooley will kill you if you get to see her body before he does,” Lester warned.

  “Tough shit. He said to search them. He didn’t say how. Did he?”

  “Typical,” Reyn mumbled.

  “What did you say?” Zeke scowled as he turned in her direction.

  “Nothing,” she replied.

  “No. Tell me what you said,” he commanded. He stalked over to where she stood and held the gun up to her chest.

  Reyn gritted her teeth, looked Zeke square in the eye and repeated, “I said typical.”

  He leaned into her and quietly said, “Strip, bitch.”

  “I hate you,” she spat.

  “Strip,” he repeated through gritted teeth.

  Surprisingly, she didn’t argue. Instead, she pulled her cute pink sweater over her head and let it drop to the floor.

  “Why are you doing this?” I asked. “You can pat her down and you know it!” If I didn’t stop him, not only would he debase my friend, but he would discover that she had our only way out of this mess.

  Zeke pointed the gun at Ellie. “Shut up or I will shoot prego.”

  Fuck!

  “Keep going,” he said, directing the gun back to Reyn’s chest.

  We watched Reyn unbutton her pants. As they were tightly tucked into her boots, I could see this was going to present a problem and hoped that she had some sort of plan.

  “Boots first,” Zeke ordered.

  Instead of complying, she pushed her pants over her hips and slid them down her legs.

  “I said boots first,” he growled. The gun in his hand shook as his anger built and I could tell that he was seriously on the edge. Please don’t do something stupid.