Page 41 of Booked for Kidnapping

The vehicle was still warm from the drive to the beach, and I snuggled into the seat before putting on my belt. Bradley closed my door and circled the vehicle. He snagged a plastic bag from the front before joining me. “I got you a roast beef sandwich since that was the closest thing I could find to one of your favorites. There are also a few drinks in there. The roast beef is heavily accompanied by cheese and horseradish.”

He had me at roast beef, and I grabbed for the bag before digging inside, snagging a rather large sub, which had been tampered with. I wouldn’t ask where he got the jar of horseradish, but I appreciated it. He’d gotten me a variety of fruit juices, and I opted for the cranberry to become my first victim. I delayed eating long enough to slather on the horseradish before beginning the serious work of devouring my breakfast in record time.

Bradley’s father got behind the wheel and laughed. “All right, Bradley. You were right. The horseradish was a necessary acquisition.”

“I’m just glad you picked a grocery masquerading as a twenty-four hour gas station. I almost regretted having gotten the sandwich in the airport. Don’t choke, Janette.” Bradley took the cranberry juice I’d selected, twisted off the cap, and closed it again, holding onto it. “I guess watch where you drive, Dad. And if you spot another one of those stores, we better stop. I don’t think that’s going to be enough.”

I expected to get halfway through the sandwich before it won and I passed out, but I would do my best to meet his expectations. Swallowing, I reached for the juice, and he removed the cap so all I had to do was drink and hand it back to him, so I could resume eating. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. So that you’re prepared, your parents are the unhappiest of our circles. Mickey and Beatrice have been fighting because Mickey thinks a lot like I do. Neither one of us were willing to give up on you, so we’ve been doing the majority of the work. Beatrice thinks you’re stubborn, but she’s determined to be realistic about the situation. Mr. Tawnlen has led the charge regarding therapy, but he’s more like me and Mickey; he wanted us all prepared for when you showed back up, but he’s also been trying to prepare us if your body showed up. Your dead body, that is. I don’t think he’s prepared us enough for your living body. I’m not feeling very prepared,” he admitted, fiddling with the cap before screwing it back into place. “I thought about running away to Hawaii.”

“Hawaii?”

“Hawaii.”

“Why Hawaii?”

“Well, if we’re on an island, preferably one with few other people, I’m not going to lose you.”

I could see benefits to escaping to an island with few other people, although the idea of an uninhabited island was enough to make my skin crawl. I glanced at Bradley, who couldn’t seem to stop smiling. “Mr. Hampton? I think he needs therapy,” I said, before giving my sandwich my full attention.

“Oh, I know he needs therapy. That’s why we have been keeping a close eye on him. After you see a doctor, if you want to go to Hawaii for two weeks, I’ll tag along and get a tan while you amuse yourselves. Two weeks might be long enough to give sufficient warning for the grouches back in New York.”

That didn’t sound promising. “Was it meeting with Senator Westonhaus about the donation? I mean, I didn’t tell anyone because people were already pissed at me about the funeral.”

“That’s part of it.” Bradley’s father started the car. “Two weeks might get you ready to meet with everyone and clear out the air.”

In a way, understanding there were problems we would need to solve helped more than it hurt. I expected problems. Someone couldn’t vanish for so many months without problems cropping up, assumptions being made, and tempers flaring. That my disappearance was tied to a senator actively working on a bill meant to enslave many Americans wouldn’t help my cause any. But I might be able to overcome those challenges with some time, effort, and a few heart-felt apologies. “I’m not apologizing for helping to catch the goats.”

Everything else would be addressed in time.

Bradley snorted, and then he laughed. “There was a video of you wrangling a goat, and you looked so happy to be playing with a goat. As such, we now have several goats that currently live with your parents. It was a bit of a failed peace offering. I suggested if word got out they had goats, and you heard about the goats, you might show up. They were offended, but they’re now the grandparents of our new pets. The goats are part of why they’re not talking to me right now. Apparently, they expected you to magically appear about ten minutes after agreeing to house the goats for a while.”

“You bought goats?”

“I bought us goats. I bought an entire little herd of goats. We have three girls and a boy. And we’re apparently going to end up with baby goats, and I should be sorry about this, but I’m really not.”

“You really bought goats?”

“Ajani likes the goats. She rides them. I harness trained your fluffy goddess, and she tolerates it because when I harness her, we go to visit the goats. Your parents are actually really tired of me coming over to play with your cat and the goats.”

Bradley, in the span of almost nine months, had lost his mind. I could understand how the stress might get to him, but to buy goats? “Mr. Hampton?”

“I encouraged the goats. You were really happy in the video, and we thought if we found you, you’d like to have goats.”

I regretted my memories of the goats—and the subsequent shooting—were fragmented at best. “You should question me properly about everything leading up to the goats,” I stated between bites of my sandwich. “Maybe I know something useful.”

Bradley chuckled. “We plan to do that after you’ve gotten rest. Right now, you’ll eat, rest, and relax. I’ll get Dr. Mansfield flown in as soon as she’s able, and I’ll reach out to a few contacts here to use their equipment and some staff, then you can go through a medical exam done by someone you trust. The therapists we’re seeing have been pretty clear about that. We need to work within your comfort zone, and adding a lot of unfamiliar elements, like medical staff, might be a problem.”

“I mean, finding out it’s been almost nine months was a shock, but I don’t think I’m going to be that much of a mess.” I took out some of my annoyance on my sandwich, decided I needed more horseradish, went for the jar with the same general voracity of a frenzied shark, and doctored my sandwich until the horseradish stood a chance of slaughtering my taste buds. “I will not react well if you leave. I have figured that out on my own.”

“People are social, and after nine months of being alone, that doesn’t surprise me,” Bradley replied, staring at the jar of horseradish. “They didn’t feed you anything spicy, did they?”

I thought about it, scowling as I realized I hadn’t had a single speck of spice since I’d been kidnapped. “Not that I can recall. And I think I got so bored before I escaped I kept forgetting to eat. They provided a cooler with things to make sandwiches between sessions of gassing me out, and they’d provide something hot after. I think I ended up only eating the warm food, usually steak, because it was in front of me. They provided books, but at one point, I used them to create castles. I have mastered building arches with books.”

“You stopped reading books?”

“Oh, no. I’d read them once or twice before they joined the pile. They never provided enough books. Honestly, I cost them a fortune in newer releases. I think they were just going to the local bookstore and buying out the stock of anything even remotely interesting and keeping track of what they’d already gotten. Honestly, I want to go rob the place just for the library. Because the room I was kept in? It’s now a library. A good library, too.” I polished off the rest of my sandwich and sighed my contentment before stealing my juice back from Bradley. “For the first while, it was like a really good vacation. I had access to a decent tub, they kept it stocked with stuff to make bubbles, and they decided good behavior should be rewarded with cake and coffee. That part? Honestly, I didn’t mind it. It was just damned lonely.”