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Chapter Nine
Betty
Life,honestly, could not get any better than this. I’m sitting on the porch swing in the gorgeous sunshine, looking out over the mountain as it falls away from me. This little home of Hawk’s couldn’t be more perfect, and I’m not surprised I never figured out where it was all these years. I don’t even think this street—if you can call the gravel road that extends up the last little bit from the main road to his cabin a street—even has a name. If it did, it might as well be called Hawk Boulevard. I like the sound of that.
I giggle, nestling more deeply into the swing. Hawk is upstairs taking a long shower, something he enjoys more than I would’ve ever expected, and then we’ll spend the afternoon hiking through the lush forest, or making dinner together in his surprisingly well-stocked kitchen—a gift of Mr. Grimm, I’m sure—or he’ll maybe even indulge me in another one of my fantasies. Only now all my fantasies have endings to them I never could have imagined when I first dreamed them up.
Hawk seems to be endlessly willing to indulge me, and I…well, I’ve just never experienced that before. Plus, even though he’s been firm about his complete lack of interest in taking me out into the wide world, I can’t imagine he’ll stay that way. The world should be enjoyed! Every day an adventure! At least, that’s what it seems like to me. Hawk says he’s seen a different side to the world, and I believe him, but I also hope that one day he’ll be open to seeing my side too. Especially if he’s willing to see it while we’re walking hand in hand down a boardwalk in Cannes…
I’m just drifting off to sleep when I hear the cheerful notes of my telephone, the ringtone one I recognize very well. It’s Mr. Grimm’s office, which makes me smile. Mr. Grimm hasn’t called me all week, and I can’t wait to tell him how wonderful everything is.
I pick up the phone with a cheerful, “Hello, Mr. Grimm!”
“Betty, thank god you picked up. I didn’t know if you would.” I blink in surprise, because it’s not Mr. Grimm on the line, it’s his son.
“Lewis?” I ask, but he’s already rushing on.
“Look, I know you’re having fun playing house up there with Hawk, but Dad never expected you to stay up there that long. He’s hired and fired three temps since you left. They’ve all been horrible. He’s pissed as hell. I thought you should know because—I don’t know—because he needs you, not someone who doesn’t know anything about the business. Can you just come back to help him? He’s really in a bind.”
“Oh my god, of course!” I jump up as I’m talking, and dash quickly back into the house. Hawk is still in the shower—I can hear the water running—and I think for a moment about yelling for him. “Well, shoot,” I mutter.
“What is it?” Lewis asks quickly.
“Oh, it’s just that Hawk’s in the shower, and I don’t want to bother him with dragging me downtown, but I don’t have a car. It’s fine, I’ll just wait—”
“Oh, c’mon, it’s always the tourist season up there with the falls so close. I bet if you called a ride service, there’d be one in the area. Your phone is GPS activated, so they can find you, even if that shack of his doesn’t have an address.”
I roll my eyes—Hawk’s beautiful cabin is hardly a shack, but before I can point that out, Lewis keeps going. “Seriously, I wouldn’t ask you if the old man wasn’t losing his shit without you. He needs you. And you know he’s been there for you—”
“Of course, he has,” I snap back. How can Lewis think I’m not grateful? The idea’s preposterous. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Goodbye, Lewis.” I hang up before he can say anything else to irritate me further, and immediately scroll to my car ride service. I open it up—and sure enough, there’s a driver within a half-mile of me. I eagerly order it, then dash off a note for Hawk. I won’t be gone long, I’m sure, and I could even go shopping while I’m in the city. It’ll be an adventure!
I grab my purse and am out the door as soon as I see the car change direction on my app and head my way. It’s a black crossover SUV, which makes sense up here in the mountains, and it rumbles into view far more quickly than any ride I’ve ever ordered in my life—even in downtown Seattle, where they gather like bees to honey. The comparison makes me smile, given Hawk’s nickname for me, and I trot the final steps down the lane to the driveway.
The car pulls up, a gleaming back high-end vehicle with tinted windows, and the driver grins and waves, rolling down his window. “Betty Richardson?”
“Yes, that’s me,” I announce happily, and wave my phone at him. I open the door and prepare to slide inside, then I blink in surprise. “Oh!”
There’s another man already in the vehicle, and as I hesitate, he lunges for me, yanking my phone from my hand and grabbing my wrist. He hauls me in before I can even scream, and the car takes off. I struggle until he smacks the back of his hand against on my cheek, hard, the pain so shocking I freeze—then he hauls me the rest of the way inside, slamming the car door behind me. The door locks snap shut with an audible click, and panic surges through me. I’m trapped!
“What are you doing?” I gasp, my mind racing as my heart starts pounding a million miles a minute. I struggle upright, ducking away from the man beside me, realizing belatedly he has gloves on—gloves, and he’s let me see his face! It’s no good if he’s let me see his face, I know from all the TV cop shows I’ve seen. If I’ve seen his face I can identify him, and if I can identify him—
I can’t think about that. I picture Hawk’s face in front of me instead, stern and gruff, telling me there are dangerous people in the world and that I have to be smart, I have to be safe. I can be smart and safe, I decide, though my hands have started to tremble. I brace myself against the far door.
“What do you want from me?” I ask, dismayed as the man beside me grabs my purse and dumps the contents all over the back seat.
“Oh god!” I shrink back when he pulls a switchblade and, with a flick of his wrist, pops it open. He then slices open the lining out of the bottom of my purse and shakes his head as he rips out a tiny piece of metal, something that looks like it belongs on a circuit board. “What is that?”
He takes the knife and cuts the little device in half. The blinking lights go dark. He then lowers the window and tosses it onto the dirt road the vehicle is speeding down. “It was a GPS tracker. Now it’s junk, and so is this.” He twists my phone, cracking it over and over until it’s as useless as the thing he removed from my purse. Did Hawk put those there? Dumb question. Of course, he did. He did it as a way to protect me. Now that it’s destroyed, Hawk has no way of tracking me, no way of finding me.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To see an old friend, sunshine,” he smirks at me as he closes the window, and I cower back.
“Who?”
“You’ll see soon enough. For now, sit back and relax. You ordered a car ride through the mountains, and that’s exactly what you’re going to get. And then, once we’re nice and far away, we’ll let you out. That’s when the real fun begins.” He lets his jacket fall open and my eyes drop to his waistband, where a gun is holstered.
I nearly swallow my tongue. “But why are you doing this?” I ask again, the words sounding feeble and lost. Just like me. Hawk warned you about this, I tell myself again, the words now shriller in my mind. He warned me! He said there was danger around every corner and in every car, and so what do I do—I get in a car I don’t know that just so happened to come roaring up a bare five minutes after Lewis Grimm called.
