Zoe opened the bathroom door, but unfortunately there was no Wade there. She let out a sigh of disappointment as she left the bathroom and padded toward the bedroom where she left her bag. She pulled out an oversized T-shirt she’d brought to sleep in and a clean pair of underwear. Once more she thought about going downstairs, but she had to remember that she wasn’t here to distract Wade. She was here to help him. Even if that meant staying out of his way.
For a moment, she heard voices downstairs and straightened. She strained her ears and could definitely tell Wade was talking to somebody. Maybe he was on the phone? He must be on the phone. Probably calling the office to check in on something.
She rubbed at the back of her neck and walked over to her cell phone to check for any messages from her mother. Nothing from Diane, but there was a missed call. The number didn’t leave a voicemail, but they sent a text.
Zoe was about to shut the door to give Wade a measure of privacy when another sound came to her. She frowned as she grabbed a pair of shorts from her bag and put them on quickly. Poking her head out into the hallway, she didn’t see anything. She made it a few steps down the hallway before she saw it. The window to one of the spare bedrooms was open. She stepped closer to the doorway and squinted. It wasn’t just open. It was broken. How long had it been like that?
She backed away. If someone had broken in, then they might still be—
An arm wrapped around her neck; something covered her face as she was pulled back. She wanted to scream, but the hand over her face prevented her from even taking a breath. She tried making noise in other ways, kicking her feet out. Because the hallway overlooked the lower level, she didn’t have to make a lot of noise. Just something. She aimed for anything. His shins, the floor, the walls.
But as she struggled, the need to breathe got worse. She tried to pull her head back away from the man holding her, but it was no use. Then he shifted, and she was able to get half a gulp of air in before his other arm tightened around her throat. His forearm and bicep tightened, cutting off airflow completely. Once again she tried to kick as hard as she could, but he bent back until she couldn’t touch the ground at all. She tried to open her eyes until she realized they weren’t actually closed. It was the world that was getting darker. She tried to scratch and claw his arm, but a few seconds later, everything faded to black.
Wade stared at Tara in horror. “What do you think I’m going to be sorry about?” he demanded.
Her lips started to tremble as she crossed her arms in front of herself. “I didn’t know what to do. I’m sorry.”
Wade took a step closer and stopped himself just as he was about to grab Tara. “If you don’t tell me what’s happening right now, I swear to God—”
“Do you love her? This would be so much easier if you didn’t love her.”
Zoe. Wade bolted away from Tara and up the stairs. He took them two or three at a time as he ran for where she’d taken her shower. “Zoe!” he called. But there wasn’t any response.
He saw her bag open on the bed and her cell phone on the dresser, but not her. He checked and saw that she wasn’t in the bathroom and started going room by room until he found the broken window. He ran to it and looked over the side just as a pair of brake lights retreated from the house. “Mother—”
He turned and ran out of the house. His Lexus keys were still in his pocket, thank fuck. Even though he could start driving right away, the few second delay had still cost him. He couldn’t see the car anymore. Through the darkness, he hadn’t been able to see the make or model either.
Slamming the car into reverse, he jackknifed around before pushing the car into drive so hard he was worried the gearshift would break off. While speeding down the road, he picked up his phone. He needed to call the cops, but he couldn’t stop. He tried to dial nine-one-one, but the car hit a bump and he immediately hit eight instead of nine. No. He couldn’t lose Zoe because his goddamn fingers weren’t working. This wouldn’t be the thing that fucked him up, goddammit.
He tried to delete the number he’d dialed, but his phone started to ring. He didn’t care who the fuck it was. They were going to get the cops for him. He answered the phone and brought it to his ear. “I need the police.”
“Whoa, what’s going on?” asked Harper’s familiar voice.
Wade approached the first turn coming off the main street. He looked both ways, and on the right, he saw the faint glow of some brake lights. It could be them; it could be some random car. He slammed on the gas and jerked the wheel, sending the back of the car fishtailing out, but he was able to get it under control and keep going. “They took her, goddammit,” he yelled into the phone. “Someone came into my house and they took Zoe. I think I’m following them right now, but I don’t know.”
“Okay, okay, we’ll figure this out,” said Harper in a voice too calm for his fucking nerves right now. “What kind of car was it?”
“I don’t know!” he screamed. Why was she asking all these stupid questions instead of calling the police?
“Get yourself together,” snapped Harper.
He heard something firing up in the background. “What is that? Where are you?”
“I’m on my bike. Listen, I’m right down the street from your house. You take the main street going north. I’ll go south. Stay on the phone with me, though. As soon as we find them, we’ll stop them. Got it?”
North, north…. That was the direction he was going. Good. “Got it.”
“All right. We’ve got this, Wade.” She still sounded calm, and it was less frustrating now. He still wanted to call the cops, but he knew it would take them too long to get there. And if they didn’t have any idea what to tell them, what good were they going to do?
He pushed the gas pedal down to the floor until the car in front of him was close enough to make out. “Following a car. The old Chevy.”
“Is it the right one? If it is, I’ll come your way.”
He had a sinking feeling as the car put on their brakes and moved over, apparently happy to let him pass by. Wade also pushed down on the brakes as he passed, looking over at whoever was driving the other car. At first it was too dark to see anything, but then a streetlight illuminated the interior for half a second. There was no sign of Zoe inside, and the driver was currently yelling what Wade could only guess was a variety of obscenities at him. “It’s not the right car.” Sure, Zoe could be in the trunk, but this guy didn’t seem scared at all. He hadn’t tried to out-drive Wade or anything. Had he gone in the wrong direction? Had they turned off somewhere? By now Zoe could be anywhere.
Wade slammed on the gas once more, and his fingers tightened on the steering wheel. God help this town if he wasn’t able to find his Zoe.
Zoe would never consider herself a morning person, but she usually didn’t wake up feeling as if she were going to vomit. Something jostled her entire body, and aches and pains brought her fully awake. Her eyes popped open, and she was abruptly reminded that this wasn’t exactly morning.
She tried to take in everything around her. She’d seen enough movies and tech TV shows to know that observation skills were essential. Assuming she got through this, she’d have to tell the police everything she could remember.
She glanced over and saw the man driving the car. He must’ve been the man who grabbed her, but honestly she’d never gotten a good look at his face before. He was a skinny guy with sunken-in cheekbones and scraggly arms. She was almost embarrassed that he got the jump on her, but she would have to dwell on that later.
The car went over another bump, and her shoulder rammed into the side of the door. She tried to adjust herself in the seat, but the way her hands were tied behind her back made adjusting herself almost impossible. She just tried her best to keep her muscles tensed and prepared herself for the next time she was going to be unceremoniously tossed around the front of this car.
The car was important. What kind was it? It was dark, and she couldn’t make out the color of the hood in front of he
r, but she saw a Ford logo. She supposed knowing that was better than nothing.
She wasn’t that far off the ground, so it must be a car and not an SUV. She was getting a good enough look at this guy’s face that she would be able to give an accurate description to the police, but she also knew the fact that he wasn’t hiding his identity wasn’t a good sign.
She might as well fish for some information. “What do you want with me?”
The guy gave her an annoyed glance but didn’t answer her. He seemed wholly focused on driving. From her little glance at his odometer, he was going faster than eighty miles an hour on a country back road. Even if he wasn’t planning on murdering her, she’d probably end up dead anyway thanks to his driving.
Another wave of nausea hit her, and she swallowed it back. She could handle this. Even if she couldn’t, Wade would have the entire state police force out in force soon enough.
“I can help you. Just—”
“Shut up,” he snapped at her. “If you want to get out of here alive, shut the hell up.”
Her lips tightened, and she forced herself to be quiet. All she wanted to do was scream and yell and beat him, but she had no free hands, and what good would screaming do? Crash the car? She’d probably end up dying. It wasn’t as though he’d taken the time to buckle her in. On second thought, crashing would probably be preferable to letting him take her wherever he was planning.
She had no idea who he was, and considering this was a small town, that meant he wasn’t a local. Which meant this probably had to do with Wade, which probably meant it was money related. A ransom? Who would’ve ever thought that she’d be worth anything for a ransom?
No, she couldn’t let this guy get any farther with her. She would rather risk a car crash and take her chances. She couldn’t grab the wheel, but maybe if she moved just right, she could kick him. She was just trying to figure out how to contort her body to do that when the roar of an engine sounded behind them. She craned her neck to get an idea of what it was, hoping she could try to find a way to signal that she needed help. But when the vehicle went by, she realized it was a motorcycle. The rider had a dark-tinted helmet, and she would be surprised if they could even see the road, let alone her.
As the bike sped away, she knew she couldn’t rely on some passerby to help her. She rested more and more of her weight on her right shoulder as she got ready. Once she started moving, he’d be able to tell what she was doing. She had to get into position quickly, then hit him as hard as she could, hopefully in the head. She took a deep breath and tried to get all of her strength together when the car hit something. It was so loud and sudden, the car jerked and swerved on the road, but it didn’t stop.
Zoe looked out to see what they hit, but there was nothing on the road behind them.
But when she looked out the windshield, there was something in front of them. The motorcyclist had stopped in the middle of the road. As they approached, still at breakneck speeds, the biker got back on the bike and took off fast and hard until Zoe could hardly see them anymore. And then the car hit something else. No, something was hitting the car. One, two, three and then four things slammed into the car rapidly. Her heart sunk when she realized what was happening.
This biker was shooting at them. She had no idea who this person was, but considering she wanted the car to crash, she would have to take advantage of it. As the driver fought desperately to regain control of the car, she leaned over as far as she could and leveraged herself up, her shoulder aching at the awkward position as she kicked her feet out. She was nowhere near the man’s head, but she was able to get to the steering wheel. The quick jerk sent the car flying to the left, shifting so hard at first she was sure they were going to tip over.
As the car screeched around, her body was thrown into the dashboard. Her vision went bright for a moment, and by the time it cleared, the car was bouncing up and down, signaling that they’d gone off the road. The driver apparently wasn’t getting paid enough for this shit because he was suddenly pushing open the car door and jumping out, even as the car kept rolling along with her inside it.
The car was slowing down as it went through more and more thick grass in the random field they’d crashed into, but she didn’t want to wait to run into a tree for a full stop. She was able to use her bound hands behind her to leverage herself toward the driver seat, where she could reach with one leg and put her foot on the brakes. It was only when the car came to a stop that she let her head fall back. Breathe. This was over for now. She could finally breathe.
A few moments later, a silhouette appeared next to the driver side door, and Zoe couldn’t even muster up the energy to be surprised.
Harper looked her up and down. “Are you okay?”
Zoe frowned, trying to make sense of everything. “How?”
“I was coming to meet you in town, remember? Wade is out looking for you right now. Are you okay?”
“Wade. I need to tell him….” She trailed off as her head started to hurt more.
Harper frowned. “You’re not okay. Don’t worry, I’m going to get an ambulance here for you. You just sit tight.”
An ambulance? She didn’t need an ambulance. She’d be fine. Except when she opened her mouth to say that, no words came out. She let her eyes drift shut. Maybe an ambulance wasn’t the worst idea….
Wade was about to lose his mind as he waited for somebody to come out and tell him something about Zoe. He’d been able to see her, albeit briefly, when he reached the site of the accident. Harper had stayed with her until the ambulance arrived and told him about the man who escaped out of the field. Even though Wade desperately wanted to find the son of a bitch who hurt his Zoe, he couldn’t bring himself to leave her side. After what almost happened, he never wanted to leave her side again.
To make tensions worse, Zoe’s mother had shown up to the hospital, along with the pastor from her church. Bill something or other. He was worried that they were there to talk some sense into Zoe, maybe perform some sort of exorcism on her as though the only reason Zoe would choose to be with him was because there were demonic forces involved.
But after an hour or so of sitting in silence, he saw Pastor Bill reach over to take Diane’s hand in his and realized that the pastor being there wasn’t about Zoe. He was there for Diane.
Well hell.
A nurse came into the waiting room. He ignored her at first because the last dozen or so times that had happened, the nurses had been calling patients back. “Mr. Maxium? Your wife would like to talk to you.”
Diane and Bill stood too but the nurse gave them an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. She just asked for her husband.”
Diane’s face fell, and she nodded as she sat down. Wade wanted to give her some comfort, but he had no idea what to say and was too antsy to get to Zoe.
When he made it to the hospital room, he felt his blood pressure rise with each step he took closer to Zoe. She was lying on the bed with her eyes closed. Objectively, he saw her hair was a mess and there were dark bruises on her face from the car accident. But she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
Her eyelids opened and she turned to face him. A soft smile curled her lips.
He let out a sigh of relief. “I thought you were going to break up with me,” he blurted.
She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. “Hello to you too.”
“I mean, you asked to talk to me and not your mother. I figured….”
She shook her head, wincing at the small movement. “No. I just… I wanted to talk to you.” Her hand reached out for him and he took it in his.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about your mother. Her boyfriend is in the waiting room, taking care of her.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Have you been drinking?”
“Not a drop. She and the pastor are out there holding hands like high school sweethearts.”
Realization dawned on her face. “No wonder she kept going to church. She always said she loved Pastor Bill, but I
didn’t think…. Well then.”
“I guess love is in the air,” he murmured.
She laughed awkwardly. “Your insurance is crazy,” she said as she changed the subject. “They’ve been doing so many tests and scans.”
“I made sure the chief of medicine knew that you were priority number one.”
“And the police, too, I’m guessing?”
“Tara was the one who sold the Chinese the information. She’d charmed an employee into giving her access. Apparently her new boyfriend owed a lot of money to some bad people. The reason she didn’t leave me until the wedding was apparently because she needed more time to steal from me. When she thought her boyfriend was going to be murdered, she somehow convinced the loan shark to take you as a way to pay him back a hell of a lot more than he was owed.”
Zoe reached up and rubbed her forehead. “How does she get all these men to just do things for her? I’m lucky if I get over thirty percent on a tip.”
He had to squeeze her hand a little tighter. “The difference is that you’re not trying to use your power for evil.”
She scoffed. “Was Tara the one leaving the boxes of ‘confessions’ around? She stole from you. It wouldn’t be a far leap if she wanted to send you to prison.”
“I tried to ask her, and she didn’t have any idea about the boxes left in the woods.”
“Great,” muttered Zoe. “I was really hoping this was all going to be behind us.”
“You’re safe. And since I’m never letting you out of my sight again, you’re going to be safe for the rest of our lives.” Her eyes widened and he realized what he said. He thought about taking it back, but didn’t. He didn’t want this to end after two years. He wanted Zoe to be with him for as long as she was willing to tolerate him.
“So you’re absolutely certain that you want to stay married to me?”
“Not a doubt in my mind.”
“Not a single doubt? Not even one tiny fraction of one?”
Well fuck, now he was starting to feel self-conscious. “Not even a fraction of a doubt. Why? Do you not want to be with me?”
Lucky Liar Page 15