If he took me, if he got free with me like this, I was dead.
I’d never see Emmie and Toby again.
I’d never feel the warmth of their hugs, or hear the joy of their giggles again.
Days ago now, I walked out of our home, waving goodbye, blowing air kisses at them in the window as I drove away to go to work, and I didn’t know at the time that those were the last memories I’d have of them.
I didn’t know those were the last hugs and kisses.
I would have held on tighter.
I would have made it last longer.
I would have memorized every single freckle on their perfect faces to hold me over, had I known.
Had I known then what I knew now, I would have told them how much I loved them more than the automatic reply I gave them on my way out the door, worried about work and life and everything else I had to do that day.
I would have meant it more.
Because it was the last thing they had from me.
I was terrified as Danny rushed through curves, hardly slowing down at turns before speeding off. I tried to pay attention, mapping out the path he took as he raced through the drive, but I couldn’t see anything from the floor, and I couldn’t break through the ties around my ankles and wrists. Yet I never stopped trying. The ties dug into my skin, burning the flesh, but still I fought.
He muttered to himself in the front seat, spitting menace my way as he slammed his fist into the steering wheel.
“You thought you won, huh?” He sneered, looking over the center console at me, “The police, DCFS, your new boyfriends? None of them matter!” He screamed, slamming his fist into my head again, even though I didn’t do anything, I couldn’t do anything but take it. “You’re mine! You’ve always been mine!From the first moment I fucked your virgin body, you were mine!”
I tried to scream, to fight, to break free. I couldn’t just stay still as he drove me further from my life, spiraling out of control with every mile he drove. As his rage grew, the insults he hurled my way became more vile. “You ruined everything, Frankie!”
I fought against my binds, feeling the hard outline of my phone in my jeans pocket, fumbling with numb fingers from the tight restraints as I finally worked it free.
I knew if he looked back over the console at me, he’d see me with my phone, so I tucked it between the seats the best I could and swiped my finger over the fingerprint. It vibrated in my hand, signaling that I got it unlocked.
I took a deep breath, forcing my brain to work as I used muscle memory to open the phone app without looking. I had no idea who I had called last, but pressed the call button twice to dial it, hoping it was one of the guys as I turned the volume all the way down so Danny wouldn’t hear the feedback.
Chancing one glance at the screen, I nearly screamed with relief when I saw Travis’s name with the timer started above it, meaning he picked up.
I forced the phone back into my pocket with the microphone up so he could hear everything. Even though I couldn’t hear his strong voice, I instantly felt brave knowing he was hearing me.
Hearing Danny scream obscenities at everyone around us as he drove, ranting his sick plans for me.
The truck made a quick turn, and I slammed my head into the door, making my neck burn from the impact, and then it came to a stop. The first full stop since we left the college.
Danny got out of the truck, and then the door behind me opened, and he pulled me by the ties on my ankles, ripping me from the truck and throwing me into the snow on the ground.
Instantly I recognized the worn paint on the back porch of my rental, and I looked around to see that he drove through the open gate as he stomped over to it, swinging it shut, locking us away behind the tall privacy fence.
I rocked, trying to roll over on my side to see my mom’s house, but the fence was too high from my spot on the ground. The cold wetness of the snow seeped through my clothes and soaked my skin, freezing me to the bones as Danny stomped back over to me, dragging me by my elbows.
I screamed, hot searing pain shooting through my shoulders as they bent in the wrong direction and then the wind was knocked out of my lungs when he threw me across the floor in the living room, slamming the glass sliding door behind him and locking us inside the house.
Earlier in the morning, I had stood in the same room, watching Chief Weller discover Danny’s hidden cameras with Travis and Eli’s warmth and strength around me, comforting me.
Now I was freezing cold, paralyzed with fear as he started destroying the place in his anger.
“You made me look like a fool!” He screamed, ripping open cabinets, pulling bottles down, throwing glasses across the room to shatter against the wall, yanking papers off the fridge and walls, ripping up memories as he spiraled.
His madness was everywhere, infecting the walls.
