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Wren
Winter was beginning to thaw in Manhattan.The air was still crisp, but it wasn’t as biting. I loved it, though. I’d be sad when it started to get warm. There was no way I would be spending my lunch hours in the park under the beating summer sun. This girl was not built for the heat.
As I approached Good Music at the end of my break, I was lost in the warm sun and the cool air, optimistic, and more than looking forward to tonight. A young boy and his pregnant mother were stopped on the sidewalk so I had to dodge around them. My eye caught on an RV double parked, and I shook my head. They were going to get a ticket. And who brought an RV to the city?
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the woman called from behind me. “We got in your way.”
I turned back to smile at them. “Don’t worry for a second. Have a good day.”
The little boy waved. His blue eyes were so big and round, I couldn’t help waving back. His mother’s head jerked to the side, then so did mine. But it was too late.
A man the size and shape of a wall wrapped his arms around me, plucked me from the sidewalk, and shoved me into the RV. I tripped over my own two feet onto a threadbare bench anchored to the floor.
“Wha—?” I rose to my feet, but the man shoved me down again. He was gentle about it, but I still slammed on my butt since he was nine feet tall with arms like tree trunks.
The pregnant woman and her son hurried through the door, then the wall-man slammed it shut, locked it, and threw himself into the driver’s seat. We were moving a moment later.
“What are you doing?” I cried. “Who are you? Wha—?”
The woman brought her finger to her lips and shushed me. It shocked me so much, I actually quieted. Then she squatted in front of the boy, ruffled his hair, and smiled. “Go up to the loft and put on your headphones. Watch your show, okay?”
He nodded, eyeing me for a split second, then climbed a ladder to a narrow loft above the driver’s seat. The woman spun to face me when the boy was safely tucked away.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said.
“Just kill me?” Oh god, why would I even suggest that? I was terrible at being kidnapped.
“No, of course not.” She actually laughed, as if that was so silly. Then she sat down on the bench, a foot of distance between us. “My name is Chrysanthemum. The man drivin’ is my brother, Rascal. The boy is my son, Sparrow. He has a bird name like you.”
My eyes rounded. “You know who I am?”
She mimicked my expression. “I don’t look a little bit familiar? Even the eyes?”
Hers were icy blue, and her hair was a pale blonde. She was tall and lanky, even with the round belly. The man had been just as blond and icy, but not even close to lanky.
“Are you related to Callum?” I breathed.
She clapped once and grinned. “You got it. When we were little, they called us the trips. Rasc got big, I got girly, and…well, Callum got gone, so our triplet days ended. But we looked just alike for a while there.”
Any other day, I’d love to be hearing about Callum’s life from his sister. But not this day—not when I’d been shoved in an RV and driven god knows where.
“Where are you taking me?”
Her smile dimmed. “Oh, we’re not goin’ anywhere. Rasc is just makin’ circles so we can talk uninterrupted. I told you, we’re not gonna hurt you. This meetin’ is just to say hi and talk. Cal won’t take my calls, and Ireallyneed to talk to my brother. I’m hopin’ I can appeal to your heart and you’ll ask him for me.”
My skin prickled when I thought of what Callum’s reaction to this would be. I knew he wouldn’t take kindly to it, and I really didn’t want to be the messenger.
I’d play along with anything if it meant I’d get out of this RV. I hadn’t glanced around much, concentrating on my captors instead, but from what I saw, it was old, but spotlessly clean. Everything should have been replaced years ago, but the floor wasn’t sticky and the air smelled like lemons. So at least I didn't have to worry about being infested with bugs when I left here. I just had to worry about actually getting the chance to leave.
“Why do you need to talk to Callum?”
She might have said she wasn’t going to hurt me and they weren’t taking me anywhere scary, but the windows all had cardboard over them and shehadsent her kid away. I didn’t trust this woman, and I was terrified of the wall-man in the front. I’d play along, though, if it meant I’d escape with my body parts intact.
“Well,” she laid her hand on her rounded belly, “I’m havin’ a baby in two months. The dad abandoned me, tellin’ me he didn’t believe the baby’s his.” Her eyes misted, and it jabbed at me. I knew all too well what it was like to have a baby with a man who shirked his duties. “He knows damn well he forced himself on me.”
Her voice caught, and tears slipped down her cheeks. And I...well, I was affected. This situation was terrifying, but I was human. Seeing her in pain, with her big belly, knowing what she had coming, it made me raw for her.
“I’m sorry,” I rasped.
