Chapter 12
The Bait
The pair was startled awake the following day by someone banging on her apartment door. Willow pulled away from Nolan a little.
“Are you expecting anyone?”
He gave her a half smile. “This is your place.”
“Oh, right,” she smiled sleepily at him.
He got up and pulled on a pair of sweatpants. When he headed toward the hallway, she asked, “Where are you going?”
Stopping in the doorway, he looked at her. “To answer the door.”
“As you pointed out, it’s my door.”
“Yeah, but I know you take a while to wake up. It’s safer for me to answer anyway, so just take your time, and we can talk when you get out of the shower.”
“That sounds ominous.”
Nolan walked back to her, leaned down, and gently kissed her lips. “We can talk about last night after you are finally safe. When you are ready, we’ll finish planning for later today.”
Willow looked up into his eyes. “Okay.”
He smiled down at her, then headed toward her door as the knocking started again, sounding more insistent. He closed the door behind him, leaving her naked on her bed.
Willow stretched as she heard Nolan talking to another man. Their voices remained low, so it didn’t sound like there was anything particularly worrisome. She finally got out of bed and walked right into her bathroom. Once the water warmed up, Willow stepped in, wishing that Nolan could have joined her. The water felt good, so she spent a little extra time waking up as she washed herself. When she was done, Willow dried quickly and returned to her room to prepare for an interview.
Nolan figured the company was still monitoring her, so he contacted someone to set up an interview with her. It set up the plan because he suspected they were still tracking her emails. His communications were nearly impossible since he didn’t rely on technology. Since they had not escaped at the same time, he figured they would not expect the pair to work together. No one at the facility had witnessed her ability to walk through walls, and when they had checked on Nolan, they had not seen her in the room. Given their history, Nolan was sure they wouldn’t expect them to work as a team.
Dressing for an interview, Willow applied some makeup and styled her hair. It was simple, but she knew it didn’t matter.
It’s not an actual interview, so no one will care how I look. This whole thing is just for show, anyway.
She exited her room and saw Elliott and Nolan talking at the kitchen table.
Elliott looked up at her. “It’s her decision, Nolan. Not yours.”
“What’s my decision?”
Nolan frowned at Elliott. “Nothing. He’s just trying to …”
“Nolan,” Willow said sternly, “I need to know what you are talking about.”
His expression was pained, but Elliott babbled, “They aren’t going to take you back to the facility where you were because they know it’s compromised. We don’t know where they will take you.”
“That’s fine. I trust Nolan.”
Nolan looked surprised, but Elliott was nonplussed. “If you are unconscious, you won’t be able to communicate with him. And that means we won’t know where you are going. That’s why I’ve told him we need a tracking device on you.”
“I have a cell.”
Elliott shook his head. “Something they can’t track or block.” He pulled something out of his pocket as someone else knocked on the door. Without looking, Elliott said, “It’s Levi.”
Willow looked skeptical. “How could you possibly know that?”
“His smell,” Elliott said as Nolan said simultaneously, “We can smell him.”
She looked between them as Nolan finally relented. “Fine, give her the device, but if anything happens to her because of it, there will be a steep price.”
Elliott looked at Nolan over his glasses. “I’m as scared of you now as I was when you were a teen.”
“Prick,” Nolan said, walking toward the door.
“High praise from you,” Elliott said, then turned his attention to Willow and gave her the gadget.
It was smaller than a phone, but the screen was far more advanced than any phone she had ever seen. “Is this the next model of cell phones?”
Elliott shook his head. “I would never give humans my work. It’s far more interesting watching them muddle through science. You can have it until Nolan brings you back, but I’ll need it as soon as you return.”
“How does it work?” She turned it over in her hand.
“You don’t have to do anything. I’m only loaning it to you as a tracker.”
“Oh, okay.” Willow looked at it briefly, then slipped it into a pocket.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite geek.” Levi’s voice boomed as he strolled into the apartment. “Where did you disappear to?”
Willow looked at him. “I’m surprised you made it back in time.”
“I had a little extra incentive to return.” He looked at Nolan. “Besides, this company is directly competing with some of our departments. If I’m here taking them down, it’ll make Jace look that much better. Two birds and all that.”
“Oh,” Willow looked at him, feeling she mostly understood what he meant.
Nolan walked in and placed a hand on Willow's back. “As much as I hate to say it, we should let Willow get going.”
She got up on her toes and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be fine.” She then looked at Levi and Elliott – the first was smirking at Nolan, the second was looking out the window with his cheeks a little pinker. “Thank you both. I appreciate your help. See you later.”
When she turned to leave, Nolan joined her, resting his hand on her lower back. As soon as they were out of sight of the other two, he pulled her into a kiss. It was tender, and for a moment, Willow was lost in it. When he pulled away, Nolan rested his forehead on hers. “Take no unnecessary risks. Please promise me that.”
“I promise.” She kissed him back.
“So that you know, you look amazing. Although, you may need to touch up your lipstick.” He pulled her close to him, then backed her against the wall.
With a giggle, Willow let herself get lost in his arms momentarily. “That was nice, and you’ve given me something to look forward to when I get back.”
He gave her a chaste kiss, then finally took a step back. “I know. I need to let you go. Good luck with the interview. Stay safe. And I’ll see you soon.”
She squeezed his hand and left before the pressure made her rethink the decision.
The following two hours went far too quickly, partly because the interview went surprisingly well.
If it were an actual job interview, I would feel pretty good about it. Perhaps Nolan will help me get a job after all of this. She cringed at the thought. No, I’m not going to ask him to support me right now. It’s enough that he’s enjoying spending time with me. Besides, I still have a lot of money to use until I find a real job.
Her confidence was high as she entered the café and ordered a green tea. As she sat in the same chair as the last time she was in the café, Willow was entirely relaxed. Unlike last time, she smiled about the previous day as her eyes looked over a few emails. The job hunt still wasn’t going well, but the young woman could accept the rejections without thinking it said anything about her worth.
Nolan had told her not to worry about it, but Willow knew that her money would eventually run out, and she didn’t want him to think she was just interested in his money. She didn’t want to appear weak in front of him. Still, the rejections didn’t sting nearly so much, which she attributed to having Nolan in her life for the last few weeks. Life felt a lot better now as if the abduction had turned everything on its head.
She was just closing her emails when someone passed by her. There was a sting in her arm, and Willow turned to see who had done it. Her vision blurred, and she didn’t have a chance to do anything as she slumped forward.
Despite being unable to move, Willow was very aware of what was happening around her. Someone said that they were a doctor and would handle a medical emergency. Hands picked her up and took her outside.
She felt soft seats under her, automatically knowing she had been put in a car.
It’ll be okay. Nolan will save me, and then these people will lose everything.
The thought kept her spirits high as Willow had no control over the situation. They were on the road for a while, but she had no idea how long the trip lasted.
When they stopped, she felt the air rush as the doors opened. She was roughly pulled from the car, her head hitting the door as the people carrying her had no interest in protecting her.
The men nearly dropped her when a menacing voice said, “Well, well, it looks like you guys need a more direct warning about messing with women like her.”
Although she couldn’t move her muscles, Willow’s heart sang at the sound of Nolan’s voice. Her joy was quickly quashed when she heard the doctor’s voice.
“I wondered if you had somehow charmed her into helping you. What did you do? Promise her money? A position in one of your family’s companies? Your hand in marriage?” This got a harsh laugh, and Willow’s heart sank. She didn’t think Nolan was using her, but the thought of him asking her to marry him – she couldn’t imagine him asking her. But now that it had been spoken, she realized she wanted it.
“No, Matt. I just promised to get her out and take care of her.”
“Ah, the poor, spoiled rich boy has failed. I guess you never saw that coming. After you lorded your superiority over everyone when we were young, you were fooled by someone you thought was weak.”
“And you weren’t any better. Did you ever tell her that you had a crush on her? No. I may have treated her poorly in high school, but you were cruel to her. You catfished her, nearly causing her to have a breakdown.”
The doctor got mad at this. “When I tried to express my interest in her, she just said she wasn’t interested in dating. She wouldn’t have fallen for my fake account if that hadn't been a clear lie.”
Willow was stunned to hear this. For years, she had thought Nolan had been behind the catfish that had ruined her reputation her senior year. Instead, it was some random guy …
Matt Henkle. The guy in biology who kept trying to get me to date him. He was the one who did that to me?
Nolan countered, “And if you weren’t such a creep, you would have accepted when she said no the first time. Like most women, I’m sure she could sense something was off with you. And, oh look, she was right about it.”
“Shut up! You will never understand what being a scholarship kid was like because your parents had money. Everything was handed to you! I earned my place.”
“Funny because I recall being valedictorian. You weren’t even in the top ten.”
“That’s because it was rigged! The whole thing was unfair, and…” He stopped. “No. We aren’t going to talk about this. Farewell, Nolan.”
“You know, I thought you had potential. I tried to help you. Yet, this is how you repay me. You will always be inferior because you do everything for the wrong …”
A gunshot rang out, and Willow felt her heart pump faster. She couldn’t react normally, but some of her abilities were still clearly reacting to the situation in a way that she would expect. And she knew that Matt had just shot Nolan.
Please be okay. Please, please, please .
She felt her body being set on the ground, and then all she could do was wait until something else happened.
There was screaming around her; a few times, she heard loud sounds of what she thought might be bodies hitting the ground.
Please mean what I think it means.
A few tense minutes passed, then she heard Nolan, and her heart sang. “Matt, you will never learn, so there’s only one place for a guy like you.”
“I won’t go to prison! I’m too valuable; the company will never allow me to be put in prison.”
“Funny. You used to say that no one could touch you because I was willing to help you, to show you the ropes when we were in middle school. I even believed you freshman year when you said Willow wasn’t interested in me, convincing me she thought I was stuck up and not worth her time. When you confessed you were in love with her, I thought you may have lied to me, but I had treated her too badly by then. I knew she would never believe me, so I got worse. That was all my fault, but you played your role, and you played it well. How fitting that she forgot you. Because you still are just some petty little man playing at being important.”
Matt spewed a steady stream of insults, but they were short-lived. There was another thump on the ground near her. Then Willow felt arms lifting her gently off the ground.
She felt something warm touch her forehead as Nolan softly said, “I’ve got you. Everything will be okay. I swear.”