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My tongue seems to swell at her confession, and I barely get out my next set of words without biting it off. “What do you want?”
I can practically see the smile on her lips, “Ten thousand dollars. Then I’ll let her go. Meet me at the abandoned offices near Riverside park at five, and we can do the exchange. If you call the cops or anyone follows you, I will know.”
I don’t hesitate in answering her, “Okay, fine, just, please… please don’t hurt her.” My stomach knots, my insides twisting until there is nothing but a painful ache in the pit of my gut.
“Oh, don’t you worry. As long as you bring me the money your bitch and that baby inside of her will be unharmed.”
“Baby?” I gasp, giving my shock away.
“Yes, baby. It seems like the stakes have gotten higher. Be here, or I kill them both.” Before I can say anything, the line goes dead. My heart sinks into my stomach, and a wave of nausea overtakes me. A baby. I’m having a baby. Lily is pregnant, and Laura has her in her clutches. Laura? How the fuck can it be her? I never considered the blackmailer to be her. I think back on how long I’ve known her; she has always been a friend, and so was her husband. Could he be involved in this too?
For a second, all I can do is stand there and think of all the ways I’ve let Lily down.
I have to save her and our baby, but how? I’ll give Laura every dime I have if it means keeping Lily safe, but how can I trust anything she says now? I’ve been so wrong about this woman that I thought was my friend, and if she is capable of blackmailing and kidnapping, then I don’t want to think about what else she might do. It feels like I’m going to pass out, everything coming at me all at once.
No! I have to devise a plan, come up with a way to save her, to save our baby.
My hands are drenched in sweat, and I worry that the bag filled with cash is about to slip out of them. I grip onto the strap of the bag a little bit tighter as I walk into the abandoned office building Laura has sent me to.
A million scenarios race through my mind, and most of them are not good ones. Most of them end with Lily getting hurt or worse. If anything happens to her, I will never forgive myself. I will never get over it. I know I will not survive this kind of loss again, not when I barely survived it the last time. I have to save Lily and our unborn baby.
My heavy footfalls echo through the empty halls, and I strain my ears to hear anything else besides them, to hear any sign of Lily being here. A sign of her being okay. Please let her be okay. Please let this all work out. I called the cops right before arriving and told them to give me a ten-minute head start. Explaining the situation to them was terrifying.
Grinding my teeth together, I continue walking down the hall until I hear what sounds like muffled crying. Instantly, my slow walk turns into a run, my eyes darting to the doorway of every room I pass.
“I don’t know what he likes about you,” I hear Laura’s venom-filled voice ahead and stop when I reach the door. I find Laura staring a scared Lily down, her blonde hair sticks to her tear-soaked cheeks, a thick piece of duct tape over her lips. There’s a tiny cut above her right eye, and her hands are bound with what looks to be rope.
“Aw, look who’s joined us?” Laura snickers and looks from Lily and up to me. A glint of metal catches in the light and dread consumes me. She takes the knife and tips Lily’s chin upward with the blade, forcing her to remain looking at her and nowhere else.
“Here’s your money, give her to me, please,” I try and hide the fear pulsing through my veins, but it’s impossible.
“You are so stupid, you know that? I’ve been hitting on you for years, scheduling our meetings so that we can be alone, and you never took the chance. Idiot. We would have been good together. I figured you just didn’t want any woman,” she giggles, “I thought you might be gay. But then I saw you with this skank… when you could have had me.”
“So, this is all over you being jealous?” I probably shouldn’t taunt her, okay I definitely shouldn’t but I also need to keep her talking.
“More like offended,” she quips. “I mean, come on, look at her. She has nothing on me.”
