by Harley Reid
Within seconds, the dots appear, followed by his reply.
Ethan: OK. See you soon.
A wave of emotion takes control of my face contorting into a huge grin as I reach the front of the queue, stuff my phone back into my pocket and lean against the cool chrome.
Leaning against the long counter stacked with machines, carafes of blended coffee beans and a vast selection of toppings and flavourings, I wait for the barista to tear herself away from the conversation she is currently having with her colleague about the guy she went out with last night for long enough to take my order.
Normally I would be polite. I would stand and wait for her to notice me and then quietly go on my way but today, I’m itching to get back to Ethan, and if that means I have to tap my nails on the countertop impatiently then so be it.
"Good morning Miss, what can I get for you today?" The young girl forces a smile and tries to pretend that she is happy with me interrupting her very important conversation, but the little frown lines tell a different story.
"I'll have one large cappuccino and a large caramel Frappuccino to go please." The smell of freshly baked muffins draws my attention to the glass case beside me, "And two of those apple and cinnamon muffins please. They smell delicious."
"Coming right up." She rolls her eyes and begins working on my order.
As I wait for my order to be called, I’m tempted to watch in case she decides to spit in my drink but instead, I gaze out of the giant glass windows, watching the people passing by while hypnotised by the thick whir of the frothing machine behind me.
A couple of minutes later, I'm handed two paper cups and a bag of muffins. I pass her a ten-pound note and toss the change into the tip jar with a clink.
I know Ethan is cutting weight, but one muffin won't hurt, and we’ll burn the calories off later anyway.
I’ve never had a huge sexual appetite but with him it feels like I can never get enough. Some people are addicted to drugs and alcohol, but I guess I’m addicted to him, and I can’t wait to get home for my daily fix.
I'm about to leave when the door chime goes again, and I'm suddenly face to face with my old flame again.
I don't have time for this and what else is there to say?
Rushing to put some distance between us, I sidestep around him and heading for the street, my pace quickens. Crossing to the other side of the road, I wait for the approaching car to pass before looking back but he is nowhere to be seen.
As I approach the faded trail leading back through the woods to the house, a sharp pain explodes in my head. The drinks fall to the floor with a thud and suddenly the coffee-stained ground lunges towards me as the world fades to black.
Where am I?
I slowly blink my eyes open, trying to force them to focus enough to give me at least a small clue.
“Ow, my head.” I groan, wincing as the pain in my head pulses.
Ethan. The last thing I remember is walking to the coffee house to grab me and Ethan some breakfast. After that, everything goes a little foggy.
Brrrr, it’s freezing in here. Goosebumps prick my skin as all the hair on my body stands to attention. The cold plastic ties around my wrists digging into my trembling hands.
Was Peter there? Little fragments of memory bubble to the surface. I remember seeing him but when I try to recall the conversation, my mind draws a blank. Why was he so far from home? Was he there to see me? What did he want?
The damp, musty air is so thick I can almost taste it. Nausea rises up in my stomach.
When I try to move, every muscle in my body screams at me, telling me to stop. A throbbing pain vibrates in my head and instinctively I reach to touch it. Oh my God, what’s going on? My heart races, making the pulsing in my head louder.
Darkness surrounds me, making it impossible to see where I am. My eyes have adjusted to the darkness in the windowless room, but everything is blurry — The last time my vision was this bad was after a night out with Lexi. I’d drank way too much and just like now, all I could make out were blocky shapes and shadows.
Sliding my knees in between my arms, I curl up into the foetal position and begin to rock backwards and forwards.
“It’s going to be okay.” I repeat to myself, over and over again. “It’s going to be okay.”
The ceiling creaks under the weight of footsteps as dust falls from above — okay, so I must be in some kind of basement… That means, there should be a staircase somewhere that leads to the main house.
Maybe., just maybe, I can figure out where the staircase is and try to sneak out without them knowing. Considering I can barely move, it’s probably a bit ambitious but what else am I going to do?
I could appeal to their better nature and make myself seem more human to them but that barely ever works in the movies.
Sinking back against the cold, concrete wall behind me, I sigh. I’m going to die!
A door slams, making me jump, followed by the fast thump of footsteps on the stairs.
Noise echoes around the room, making it difficult to tell which direction it’s coming from but as I glance to my left a shadowy figure emerges from the darkness.
The figure moves towards me in silence but stops before I can make out who it is.
Tightness grips my chest, as though someone is trying to squeeze all the air out of my lungs.
I gasp for breath. Waiting for something to happen — nothing.
“Hello,” I whisper, trying to mask the fear in my voice. I’m an anxious mess but I don’t want them to know that.
I lift my gaze, willing my eye to focus. “What…what do you want from me?” I stutter.
He takes a step closer, mumbling under his breath.
“Please let me go. I promise I won’t tell anyone about this. I don’t even know what you look like.” In a matter of seconds every chance of not showing weakness has disappeared. I just want to go home. “My boyfriend will be worried.”
“Does your boyfriend know that you had breakfast with another man this morning?” A deep voice yells from across the room. How does he know where I was this morning? Why does his voice sound so familiar? Why does he even care? “I thought you were different, but you’re just like her.”
Who is he talking about?
Before I can ask, he’s gone, and once again I’m alone.
I need to figure out how to get out of here before it’s too late.
Manoeuvring my head so that I can gather some of my t-shirt material into my mouth, I bite down and try to pull my wrists apart, hoping that my strength will be enough to snap them but it’s no use. The pain is overwhelming.
I feel around on the floor, looking for something sharp that will help me saw through the restraints but there’s nothing.
I need to find another way.
Then I remember some of the self-defence training that I did with Ethan. He taught me how to apply downward force against someone’s arms when they grab you and the momentum should be enough to break their grip. Without thinking, I sit up as straight as I can, raising my arms above my head. I swing down as fast as I can, drawing my elbows back as I hit myself in the stomach.
It worked! The pain is excruciating but my swollen wrists are free. I can worry about the pain later once I’m safe.
I place my hands on the ground and slowly push myself to my feet as I steady myself against the wall.
Listening for any sign of footsteps above, I head in the direction of the stairs, stumbling and bumping into things as I go. When I get to the bottom of the stairs, I hear faint murmuring from the other side of the door.
He’s coming back.
Knowing that I have the element of surprise, I move myself underneath the worn slated staircase, hoping that once he enters the room I can get out before he realises. The tickle of a hanging spider web brushes against my face as I wait for him to come down the stairs so I can sneak out behind him.
Waiting until he is a couple of metres away from the bottom of the stairs, I make my move, stu
mbling as I get halfway up the stairs. I glance back to see him heading in my direction, clambering up the stairs as fast as I can.
His hand grabs my ankle, yanking me back down the stairs. I grab on to the slats of the stairs, praying that they are strong enough to stop me being dragged back down into the darkness. There’s a crack of light ahead and I only need to make it up a few more steps before I’m in the main house.
I kick frantically with my free leg, trying my best to get him away from me and finally, his grasp loosens.
I glance back to see him in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.
Closing the door to the basement behind me, I look around the kitchen and then move into the living room — honestly, it’s not much of an improvement. The furniture is mismatched and ugly, the small windows look like they haven’t been cleaned for years and are accompanied by dead flies scattered across the sills. It’s like something out of a horror film.
Crossing the living room, I find myself in the hallway. I try the front door, but it doesn’t open. He must have locked it.
Scouring the hallway for the key to my safety, I pull out the drawers, rifling through all the papers and junk, my hands still trembling but there’s nothing. Then just as I’m about the bang on the windows to try to attract the attention of passers-by, a hand snakes around my body, another covering my face with some sort of rag.
As I breath in the sweet scent with a hint of nail varnish remover my head starts spinning.
I try to get away, but my limbs are too heavy to move. My body goes limp as I’m lowered to the floor, finally getting a glimpse of my kidnapper.
“It’s you…” I croak, as everything fades to black.
Half an hour has passed since I spoke to Mia. She should be home by now. Has she gone to Africa to pick the beans herself?
I’ve never been a patient man and the only reason I agreed to let Maddie go on holiday with her friend and their family was so I could have a couple of days alone with her, but I can’t shake the worry that is gradually taking hold of me. It’s the same feeling I get when I’m about to set foot in the octagon against an opponent I know will be a challenge. What can go wrong, she’s only going to the coffee shop down the road? I remind myself.
To distract myself, I put on a video game and start playing, hoping to hear the door go any moment, but fifteen minutes later there is still no sign of her.
I check my phone.
Nothing.
Where the fuck is she?
Placing the controller down on the table in front of me, I pick up my phone, but it goes straight to voice mail when I dial her number. Maybe she’s got no signal. When she goes into the village, she always takes the trail through the woods to save time so she’s probably on her way back right now.
Pacing the floor, I wait.
And I wait.
Then I wait some more.
After trying her again, I decide to call Lexi to see if she knows anything.
“Hey, you two love birds sick of each other already?” She answers jokingly.
“She left for coffee about an hour and a half ago and she hasn’t come back. I’ve tried calling but it just goes straight to voice mail. Have you heard from her?” The words spew out of my mouth at warp speed and Lexi goes quiet for a second.
“I haven’t spoke to her since yesterday. Have you checked the coffee shop?” Yes, I’ll drive there and see if I can see her.
“I’ll head there now and call you back.”
“Fuck that. Mia doesn’t just go A.W.O.L. without a reason and if my sister is missing, I can’t just sit here waiting for you to call me back. I’ll drive over now and meet you at the house.”
The line goes dead and I race to the hallway, grab my car keys and head into the village.
It takes five minutes for me to reach the coffee shop and not wanting to waste time parking, I abandon the car directly in front before rushing in. There’s no sign of her anywhere so I join the small queue and hope that the waitress knows something.
There are two people in front of me and luckily, they are both ordering something pretty simple so I get to the front quite quickly and I’m greeted by a very flirty young lady with flame red hair.
“I’m looking for my girlfriend.” My tone hopeful.
“Look no further.” Her smile fades as she realises it’s not a chat up line.
“She came in a while ago and she hasn’t come back. She’s around five-four, dark blonde hair which would have been tied back, shorts and t-shirt with a pair of brown boots.” She stares at me blankly. My phone! I pull my phone out, scrolling through my gallery until I find a picture that we took in the limo on the way to the fundraiser and shove it in her face. “Have you seen her?”
“Oh yeah, I remember her. She was in here about an hour ago.” Her expression changes and I see pity in her eyes. “I hate to break it to you, but she was here with some other guy, and they looked pretty friendly.”
Fuck! Why would she do this to me? She knows what happened with Sam.
“This guy she was with… What did he look like?” I ask, resisting the urge to smash the whole place up.
“Oh, dark hair, good looking-ish but he had a giant chip on his shoulder. I’m pretty sure I heard her call him something like Paul or…”
“Peter?” I interrupt.
“That’s the one. They talked, she ordered and then they left.”
I told him I’d fucking kill him if he messed with her again. How could she choose him over me after how he treated her?
“Okay, thanks.” I leave with my ego bruised and drive back home to drown my sorrows.
As I pull into the courtyard I spot Lexi’s Audi and see her standing on the porch. The last thing I want is to have to explain to her that Mia has run off with someone else and I got her worried for no reason, but she’s now sitting in my car and I have no choice.
“No way. Mia wouldn’t do that. If she met with him there had to be some other reason.” I’ve never noticed this before but she’s really expressive and waves her arms around a lot when she talks. “She really likes you, there’s no way she’d leave you for him.”
“So, you’re saying the staff at the coffee shop are lying?” I spit, not being helpful in the slightest.
“Here, I’ll prove it.” She whips her phone out and taps the speaker button as the sound of ringing fills the small space.
“What do you want Lexi?” My blood boils when I hear his voice and I want to drive over to his house to beat the shit out of him.
“Is Mia with you?” She asks calmly as I try to be as quiet as possible.
“No, I haven’t seen her.”
“Liar. I know you met up with her this morning and I need to speak to her.”
“Fine, okay. I did see her this morning. I asked her to marry me and she chose him. There! Are you satisfied? Humiliate me all over again, why don’t you.”
My stomach somersaults. I can’t believe she chose me over him. I can’t believe I ever doubted her.
“Do you know where she went after she left the coffee shop?” Lexi asks, sounding like she’s holding back tears.
“No, she raced away from me and headed for the woods and I haven’t seen her since. Why what’s going on?”
“It’s nothing, we just can’t get hold of her and thought she might be with you. Thanks Peter.”
With that, Lexi presses the big red button, and we sit in silence, realising that shit just got serious.
For three hours we drove around the streets looking for any signs of where she could be. We even traced her steps through the woods, but we found nothing. I was hoping that we’d get back to the house to find her sitting on the sofa wondering what the commotion was about but when we returned, the house was silent.
Knowing how important it is to get missing people found quickly from the whole situation with Sam, I called the cops, but they didn’t want to know. We’ve got to wait until she’s been gone for at least forty-eight hours before they’ll even create a
report.
What the fuck am I supposed to do for forty-eight hours?
“Do you still have that tracker thing on your phone?” Lexi asks as she pours us both a coffee and sits opposite me at the dining table.
“Lexi you are a genius!” When she moved in, I made her install a tracking app on her phone so if anything happened to her and Maddie I’d know where to find them but in all the panic, I’d completely forgotten about it. “I’m not sure if it will tell us exactly where she is, I guess it depends on where it was when it was turned off but it’s worth a try.”
She scoots her chair around next to mine, it squeaks on the floor with every movement — a sound I quickly come to hate more than fingernails down a chalkboard — and we wait.
The buffering symbol spins on the screen for what feels like an eternity and I’m seriously contemplating throwing the stupid thing at the wall when it beeps and zeros in on a location which looks to be in the middle of an estate not too far away.
Without saying a word, both Lexi and I stand and head for the front door, desperately hoping that Mia will be there. Safe.
We pile in the car and I drive, not giving a shit about speed limits. All I care about is finding my girl and making the bastard who took her pay.
With Lexi directing me, we soon reach our destination. A grimy street lined with run down terraced houses, rubbish strewn everywhere made even more ominous by the threatening grey cloud that has now rolled in.
As we pull up outside, it doesn’t take me long to recognise the house in front of me as the place I spent the first few years of my life after losing my parents.
Overwhelmed with emotion, I’m not sure how I feel, or what to think but as I approach the front door with Lexi trailing behind, I’m hopeful that I’m not about to come face to face with who I think.
Taking a deep breath, I knock on the door and push Lexi out of sight behind me. Moments later, I can just about make out the clink of the chain being taken off and the door opens slightly, letting his face come into view.
Shit! Why did it have to be him of all people?