Unafraid (Amber Ridge #1)

Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

J esse watched Aspen as she hugged Mrs. Gerald. Burt probably thought he was rude. He was barely looking at him…barely listening. What was he saying? Something about the wrong type of pepperoni being delivered and it was too spicy for customers?

When was the hour up? He was ready to leave, and he was ready now.

Jesse nodded at something Burt said, not entirely sure what he was agreeing to, before looking back at Aspen. She sipped her coffee and cringed. When she lowered the mug, her gaze collided with his, and for a moment, he couldn’t breathe.

Would that feeling of breathlessness when he looked at her last forever?

“Hey, is your sister okay?”

Burt’s words finally had Jesse looking at him. “What?”

“Your sister.” Burt nodded behind Jesse. “I think she passed out, and looks like your friend caught her.”

Jesse turned his head to see Holden with his arms around his sister. She was grabbing her head and she looked pale. Shit. Was it her chronic fatigue?

He moved toward his sister, putting a hand on her back. “Hey…are you okay?”

“I’m not sure.” Clara grabbed her head. “I just feel…really lightheaded all of a sudden.”

“Is it the fatigue?” Holden asked, his arms still around her.

“I don’t know. It kind of feels different.” Clara frowned at him. “You need to be watching Aspen.”

Shit.

“Go,” she pushed, shoving Holden’s hands off her. “I’ll go outside with Mom.”

Her mom’s arm replaced Holden’s, and they both stepped out of the shop.

Jesse turned to look for Aspen, only to walk almost straight into Karen Davies. Her hair was disheveled and…was that a bruise on her left eye? “Karen—”

“Get her out of here.”

Cold slipped over his skin. “What?”

“Aspen’s not safe. Dylan asked me to drug her at this very event and deliver her to him. I said no. He wasn’t happy. Then tonight, I saw him outside with someone…some woman.”

Dylan was here?

His gaze shot back to where she was standing—but she wasn’t there anymore.

The fuck . Where was she?

He looked around the room. There were too many people, and none of them Aspen. Panic crawled up his throat, choking him, but he pushed it down. She had to be here.

“I’ll check outside, you check inside,” Holden said from beside him.

He pushed through the crowd to the place where she’d been standing, his gaze searching.

Nothing.

He scoured the crowd, checking every face.

Less than a minute later—less than sixty fucking seconds—and he knew, she wasn’t here. The realization hit him so hard, his knees almost caved.

He ran outside, pulling his phone from his pocket and calling her number as he moved. It rang out.

Holden rounded the building and shook his head at Jesse.

Gone. He’d taken his eyes off her for one fucking minute and she was gone.

The dull hum of a car engine swelled in Aspen’s foggy mind. Where was she? And why did everything hurt? Her stomach, her head…it was like one big ache.

She scrunched her eyes before opening them, the brightness immediately making her snap them shut again.

Someone cursed, and her entire body froze.

Dylan.

For a moment, she had to remind herself to breathe. To suck one breath in after the next.

Little things started to come back to her. The Tea House. Her mother. The room as it blurred around her. Then nothing.

Now she was in a car with Dylan. Maybe on the floor of the back seat. It didn’t matter that she didn’t remember how she got here. Or that everything hurt and she had no idea why. What mattered was that she was here now, and she needed to get out .

Dylan cursed a second time, and the car made a sharp turn, sending her body into what she could only assume was the bottom of the seat behind her.

Slowly, she forced her eyes open. They wanted to snap shut again, but she refused to let them. Definitely the floor of the back of a car, and she was facing the front.

She tested her wrists, moving them just a fraction. She wasn’t bound. If he didn’t want to bind her, why wouldn’t he have put her in the trunk? Did he assume she wouldn’t wake up?

Her belly rolled, and she just kept herself from grabbing her stomach.

You can’t be sick now, Aspen. Hold it together.

He must have drugged her. How? The last thing she remembered drinking was her coffee. Could someone have slipped something into it? Who? Mrs. Gerald wouldn’t have. Her mother?

The thought made her belly roll a second time.

No. She’d sipped her coffee before speaking to her mother.

Something pricked at her thigh.

Silently, she reached down. Her fingers brushed over cold metal. She wrapped her fingers around it.

A key. A key for what, she wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter. It was all she had; the end was surely sharp enough to use as a weapon.

She gripped the key with her fist, the end pointing out.

Bile crawled up her throat at the thought of what she was about to do. But what was the alternative? Let this psychopath take her God knew where and kill her? She’d end up like his ex, but she probably wouldn’t make it out alive.

She took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heart.

You can do this, Aspen. You have to. You don’t have any other options.

One last deep breath and she shot straight up.

Dylan’s gaze swung to her in the rearview mirror. “What the fuck?”

A wave of dizziness almost had her dropping back down again, but she locked her knees and swung her fist, nailing Dylan in the temple.

He cried out and the car swung. Aspen screamed and grabbed onto the back of Dylan’s seat. The car hit a telephone pole hard, bashing her head into the seat padding before she flew back. Then there was stillness. For a second, she didn’t move, shock rendering her completely motionless.

Silence filled the air, making the ringing in Aspen’s ears loud.

She lifted her hand, biting back a whimper at the sight of the blood.

Oh, God. Had she killed him? Was it possible to kill someone like that?

With trembling arms, she pushed herself up to her knees on the back seat. Dylan was hunched over the wheel, seat belt still on and completely still.

She focused on his back. It was moving. He was breathing…he was alive.

She had to get out.

Her fingers wrapped around the door handle and she pulled, but it didn’t budge. She tried again, then the window. Still nothing.

Crap, crap, crap.

She crawled to the other side. Same thing.

Her gaze shifted to the front. It was her only way out.

Slowly, she climbed onto the center console. Her knee slipped, landing in Dylan’s side, and she froze, holding her breath, expecting him to wake—he didn’t.

She crept onto the passenger seat and tried the door. It opened. Thank God! Quietly, she pushed it farther open, wincing when the hinges creaked. She was about to step out when strong fingers wrapped around her ankle and tugged, dropping her to her belly.

“Aspen—”

She screamed and kicked, nailing Dylan in the face. He growled and she fell out of the car and slammed into the concrete.

Pushing up to her feet took every scrap of energy she had, but she did it. Then she ran, her feet pounding against the ground with each step.

Familiar shops bordered the street. She was still in Amber Ridge. But none of them looked open. It was Sunday evening in a small town—of course everything was closed.

“Get the fuck back here, bitch!”

Her heart crashed against her ribs at Dylan’s shouted words, and she almost stumbled to the asphalt. She shot a look behind her. He was already out of the car and following.

Shit.

She turned a corner and tried the first business door—a bookstore…locked. She tried the second store. Also locked. As she moved, she reached into her back pocket for her phone but it was gone. Dammit!

A big business sign across the road caught her attention.

Sky’s Doggy Daycare . The lights were on. That meant someone was there, right?

She took off, sprinting across the street. When she pushed on the handle, it opened, and relief shot through her system.

She all but fell inside and slammed the door closed behind her. She looked for the lock, but there was only a key lock with no key.

Dylan appeared across the street. Their eyes locked.

She spun and ran around the front counter and into a dark hall. She passed a bathroom, a few medium-sized rooms with dog beds, and a couple more with toys. But none of the rooms had anywhere to hide.

A door leading outside to what looked like a backyard caught her attention. Hope lit her chest. She tried the handle…locked. Jesus .

A door opening near the entrance sounded, then his voice. “ Aspen . Get the fuck out here.”

Panic tried to seize her lungs, but she breathed through it. She needed to hide. Someone had left the front door unlocked and the light on…so someone would come back. And that someone might be able to help her.

To the left was a big open wet area with individual dog bathing stalls. And at the end of the hall was a kitchen.

She was out of rooms. She had to choose between the kitchen or the shower stalls.

She ran into the wet area and chose a bathing stall that was second to the end. Even though there were no doors or curtains, there were side walls that shielded her from the hall.

She grabbed a bottle of soap…then she waited.