Just as I reach the door, Hugo grabs me, knocking the phone from my hand. The pain I caused him wasn’t enough. If anything, it’s only made things worse. Way worse.
“Ash!” I scream as Hugo drags me backwards down the hall by my hair.
“Shut your mouth before I shut it for you,” he whispers, bending down to me, his forehead pressed against mine. “Do you understand me, Laura? Don’t fuck with me. Do what I say. Do you understand?”
I whip my head back around to Mel. “Call the police! Call Dad!” I scream. But she’s not even moving now.
“No one is going to be saving you, especially whoever the fuck Ash is. We were meant to get married this spring. This spring is our wedding, Laura. Had you just forgotten that?”
“Don’t.” I struggle as he pins my hands together and pulls some tape from his pocket. “What are you doing? You don’t have to tape my wrists.”
“Oh,” he laughs, “don’t I? Do you expect me to believe that you’ll just sit nicely on the journey back?”
“I’m not going back with you!” I yell. “I’m not! I’m not! We’re not engaged anymore.”
He rips off another length of tape and slaps it across my lips. He carries me down the hallway, out the back door, and into the darkness of the alleyway. There are no street lights out here. No people. I try to scream, but it’s useless. He tosses me into the front seat of the car and slams the passenger door shut.
“Do you know how much you hurt me, saying you’d tossed the ring away? But I’m a patient man, Laura—you obviously weren’t thinking straight at the time, and I found it in my heart to forgive you.” He pulls a large sparkling ring out of his pocket and forces it onto my finger. “Do you see what that is?”
I yell in pain as he rips the tape off my mouth. “Why are you doing this to me?”
He shoves my hands in my face, the giant diamond inches away from my eyeball.
“Tell me what that is, you stupid girl.”
“I don’t know,” I cry. “I’ve never seen it before in my life.”
“It’s a fucking contract, Laura, an agreement that you will be my wife and do what I say until you die. And I’m going to marry you, whether you like it or not.”
“I don’t want to marry you anymore. I’ve already told you that. I want to experience life.”
“Experience life?” He sneers. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You know exactly what it means. I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m a woman, and I can sleep with whomever I want.”
I don’t hear his reply. He’s yelling too loud. Everything happens so fast. He punches me in the face, and I go into complete shock.
He veers out onto the road, jamming his foot down onto the accelerator. My face throbs. I can’t think. I can’t speak. I thought he loved me. I thought he was going to be the one to protect me from everything I was scared of in this world.
I turn in my seat to look at him, but I can’t find words. I don’t even know who he is anymore.
“Oh, don’t be like that.” He sniggers. “I wanted our reunion to be nice. I wanted this to be an amazing surprise for you, but you decided to be difficult.”
“You knocked Mel out, and now you’ve kidnapped me. What part of that did you think was going to be nice?”
“Dollface,” he laughs, “things don’t always go to plan. You know that. You weren’t meant to mind coming with me. Mel wasn’t meant to try and get between us. I wasn’t meant to get caught with my cock in some other girl’s mouth. But it happened, and now we’re here. So let’s just make the best of it.”
“The best of it?” I yell. “Can you hear yourself?”
He swerves around the corner, entering the highway at tremendous speed.
“Slow down! We’re going to crash!”
“So what if we do?” he laughs. “At least then we’ll die together.”
“Where are we going?” I whimper. “Where are you taking me?”
“We’re going to get married this spring, and you’ll be wearing all white because no matter what he did to you, you’ll always be my shy, little virgin. Remember that, Laura. You can’t erase what we have, no matter how many men you open your legs to.”
“You cheated on me!” I scream, tears streaming down my face. “I never cheated on you, and I never would’ve because I freaking loved you.”
“Oh, shut your mouth, you stupid little slut.”
“I’m not a slut. I’ve only slept with one other guy, and what I feel for him I never felt for you.”
“You’re going to regret saying that, Laura. You’re going to regret all of this.”
“No, I won’t!” I scream. “Let me go! I don’t love you anymore.”
***
Over an hour passes. At one point, I try to open the passenger door, but it’s locked. I don’t know if I would’ve had the courage to jump, but it would’ve been nice to have the option.
“Say something, Hugo,” I whisper.
“Stop trying to get away,” he growls. “You’re wasting your energy.”
“Please, just let me go.”
He places his hand in my lap and smiles. “I can’t do that, Laura; I told you that. I can’t ever let you go. I love you too much.”
The car aggressively swerves off the highway, and now we’re driving down a dark, winding road.
“Where are you taking me?”
“That’s none of your concern. Let me do all the thinking; it always works best that way. I speak. You listen. Got it?” He pulls off to the side of the road and yanks on the hand break.
“Hugo,” I whimper, “I’m scared.”
“Why?” He smiles, ripping the tape from my wrists. “Have you forgotten who I am?”
“You’re not that person anymore,” I cry, tears spilling down my cheeks. “I’ve never seen this side to you.”
He sniggers, leaning into me. “And I’ve never seen this side to you,” he whispers, running his thumb down and over the hickey on my neck. “But people change, I guess.”
Urban Climber 2
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Copyright
No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places, events, brands and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any similarities to persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
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Copyright © 2015 S.V. Hunter
All rights reserved.
First Edition: May 2015
Urban Climber Page 12