We got him.
He’s in jail.
You’re free.
That was what I needed to hear so that I could finally feel like I could breathe again. Never mind the fact that I needed to hug my kids. God, my eyes watered even thinking about how badly I ached to see them, how badly I missed them.
My nose burned even as I forced in a few deep breaths, trying to keep them from falling in the middle of my class. The last thing I needed was to start sobbing in Professor White’s lecture, he already hated me.
Feeling the edge of a panic attack curling its sharp claws into my mind, I got out of my chair, making a silent exit out of the lecture hall so I could get myself under control. Thankfully, the hallway outside was empty as I walked toward the emergency exit to get some fresh air.
Again, I was so over everyone watching me. The lurking stares, hushed whispers, and snide comments were enough to make my skin crawl. I just needed a few minutes of silence to get my panic under control.
Then I’d go back to living my life as normal as possible.
After I took a few minutes for myself.
The skin on my neck prickled to life as I got to the end of the hallway, a millisecond before I felt the weight of eyes on my back. Glancing over my shoulder, my breath caught in my throat when a pair of eyes from my past stared back at me, from only a foot away.
“No—” I gasped as Danny slammed his fist into the side of my head, disorienting me. I crumpled in the next heartbeat, my body going numb from the sheer power behind the punch to the soft part of my head behind my ear.
Fuck.
My brain felt like I was looking through the water in a pool as I rolled over onto my back, looking up at the ceiling.
Danny’s sadistic face blocked my vision, his smile stretched too wide, too sharp. “Miss me, baby?” He hissed as his hands gripped my hair, pulling me across the floor toward the exit.
No.
No!
My voice was stuck in my chest, paralyzed with disorientation as I tried to grab at the door frame he pulled me through. His sick chuckle, with the edge of mania lacing it, assaulted me as I saw a black truck idling at the curb a foot away.
Fight, Frankie! For the love of God, fucking fight!
I knew what would happen if he got me into his truck without anyone seeing. The emergency exit he pulled me through was at the back of the building near the faculty parking lot, which was almost empty by this time on a Friday afternoon.
Fuck.
Fear gripped my heart so hard I thought it would stop beating completely as he opened the back door and lifted me into it, shoving me face down on the floorboard behind the front seats. He was so much stronger now than he had been before,and even then, he beat the daylights out of me every chance he had.
I was in serious trouble.
Finally, my body reconnected to my brain, as fear took over and I kicked my feet out at him, fighting to get my body out from the cramped space, but I was still sluggish.
“No, Danny. No!” I screamed as something wrapped around my ankles, and then they were bent toward my ass and within the next second both of my wrists were shackled to it, hogtying me.
His body pressed against my back, and his hot breath hit my neck, making me freeze with fear as nightmares assaulted me from times in the past when he would immobilize me like this. “Mmh, I missed you, baby. I missed you so fucking much. But you’ve been so bad. So fucking naughty. A whore. A slut.” His hips pushed against my legs, and I could feel his hardness, making bile rise to my throat. “I’m going to make you pay for it.” I screamed again, right before he shoved a rag into my mouth and then duct taped it there, muffling my screams to near silent grunts. “Every single thing you did for them, you’re going to do for me. You’re going to make it up to me, Frankie. You’re going to make this right.”
I sobbed against the rag, flailing against the floorboards as he pushed his dick into my leg again and then chuckled.
“I can’t wait to feel you break for me again. It’s been too long.”
With that, he got off my back and shut the door with a resounding thud that sounded a lot like a gunshot, ending my life.
He had me.
And I was utterly fucked. Hopelessness clawed at my throat as he started driving, pulling away from the school and racing down streets I couldn’t see to a destination I didn’t know.
