Chapter 4 #2
He stares at me a long moment. Beneath his pinched together lips, his tongue runs over his teeth. I’m not sure if I’ve made my point or if I’ve pissed him off more.
“Try to call your friend.” He gestures to my hand gripping the phone. “Call her.”
“Fine.” I take a few more steps back and punch in Megan’s phone number .
I’m going to have to get a new phone after this. I can’t be certain her phone isn’t being tapped by the detective. It’s the reason I haven’t called her in all these months. No matter what phone I use, if they’re tapping her cellphone, they’d know it’s me.
But since I obviously can’t stay here anyway, my location being found out isn’t going to be the worst part of tonight.
It rings.
And rings.
And rings.
Her voicemail never picks up.
“You call Alexander.” I point to him as I end my call. “If he’s helping her, she might be with him.”
He tilts his head to the side, like he’s not thrilled by my giving him directions.
After a heavy sigh, he pulls his phone out of his back pocket and hits a button. When I reach for it, he pulls it out of reach. He’s put it on speakerphone so I can hear the call ringing.
And ringing
But his call goes to voicemail.
A man with a heavy voice much like Rurik’s states his name and that’s all. Rurik ends the call without leaving a message.
“Guess he’s busy.” He slides the phone back into his pocket. “No more wasting time. I have work to do.”
He gestures toward the door, my bag swinging from his hand as he moves.
“No.” I stumbled back a step. “I’m not going with you. ”
He turns tired, annoyed eyes on me. “This discussion is over. I’m out of patience.”
“Patience? You mean you possess some?” I move behind the TV tray I use as a table in the living room as though it can somehow protect me. But he keeps coming at me.
With no other options, I grab the tray and throw it at him while darting to the left. He merely swats it away like some errant fly and snags me up as soon as I’m within reach.
The door is only seven feet away, but it might as well be in another county.
By some miracle I get out of his grip, but it only lasts a moment before his hand sinks into my hair, fisting at my scalp. I’m pulled back into the stone wall that is his chest, nearly knocking the air from my lungs.
I wince as his hand tightens. He’s going to rip my hair out by the roots if he keeps this up.
He frog walks me back to the kitchen and shoves me until my face is pressed against the wall. Pushing my palms against the flat surface, I shove hard, trying to get away, but he only presses his body against me. Squishing me.
“You’ve caused a lot of trouble because of your recklessness. That ends now. You’re going home and sorting everything out.” He lifts his hips back from me and in the next second I hear the distinctive sound of a belt buckle being undone.
“When I tell you we’re leaving, you come. You don’t run away. You don’t throw things at me.” There’s a little growl at the end of that sentence as he rips the belt from his jeans .
My entire body clenches at the sound, and I start my struggle up again.
“Stand still!” He pulls my hair, sending a shockwave of heat through my scalp.
“Please. Just leave me alone.” Tears well up in my eyes as his fingers remain in my hair.
“I will, once we’re home and I drop you off. Then you can be Alexander’s problem.”
He grabs one of my wrists and then the other, pulling them hard behind my back. I wait for more pain, for him to do something to me, but he rests his chin on my shoulder.
“Behave, Mira, or the next time I take off my belt it will be to teach you a lesson you won’t forget.”
While my mind swirls around the meaning of that statement, he wraps his belt around my wrists, binding them together. As soon as I figure out what he’s up to I restart the struggle against him. But he’s practically Goliath, and I’m all out of rocks.
“Let’s go.” He jerks me away from the wall and throws open the door. Somehow, he manages to grab my bag that he dropped before leading me down the steep stairs.
There’s only a streetlamp that illuminates the porch, and by the time we’re street level we’re shrouded in darkness. There’s some commotion around the corner, probably coming from the movie theater if it just let out.
I think to scream, to call out for help, but Rurik squeezes my arm, letting me know he’s already considered I might do that. And I shouldn’t.
When we get to his car, a black SUV that looks like everyone else’s SUV in this town, he opens the passenger door.
Don’t get taken to a second location.
The tips and tricks taught to us growing up flash through my mind. If I get in this car, I may not actually be going home. Alexander could be anyone. I still have no proof Megan is safe and with him.
“I have a nice spot in the back I can tie you down if you’d prefer.” His voice, deep and raw, sends shivers through me.
I wish I could say it was all fear. But I’m a sucker for a good voice. And he has a damn good voice.
“I don’t want to go.” I look up at him, hoping he can see how sincere I am in this.
“I don’t care.” He bends forward and picks me up like I’m some three-year-old who can’t climb into her seat and plops me in the car.
I try to wiggle to get comfortable, but with my hands bound behind me it’s impossible.
“Safety first.” He winks as he reaches over my body and snaps the seatbelt into place.
“At least undo my wrists!” The door slams on my request and I’m stuck watching the mammoth of a man walk around the front of the car to his side.
The whole vehicle dips when he climbs in. He shoves my bag between our seats to the second row before starting up the car.
I lean back and close my eyes, wishing I had left town last night. I got comfortable. This is my fault.
As we drive through town, I search for ideas to get out of this mess. But I won’t get very far if I can’t even get out of this damn car.
We pass the Dive Bar as a crowd of guys stumble out, laughing and slapping hands. None of them are familiar, not that they’d hear me screaming from inside the moving car.
Another block down and Brad walks alone, rubbing his wrists.
Rurik grunts and pulls the car to the side of the road, a few feet away from Brad. He looks up just as Rurik gets out of the car, his face blanching.
“Rurik! What are you doing?” I hit the door with my shoulder, which only results in hurting myself.
Rurik walks right up to Brad.
“You hit her.”
Brad sees me sitting in the car, the bandage on my head, and the throbbing bruise on my chin and his eyes go wide.
“It was an accident, man. I was trying to get the other guy. She got in the way.” Brad tries to take a step back. Having sobered up since his little brawl at the Dive Bar, he’s not so brave.
“You hit her,” Rurik repeats.
He grabs Brad by the front of his shirt and throws his right fist into his face, sending Brad flying onto his ass. Rurik steps over Brad, leaving him sprawled out on the sidewalk, and heads back toward me.
The storm in his eyes still brews at dangerous levels when he catches my stare.
The car dips again when he climbs back in. On the sidewalk, Brad is slowly rolling to his side .
“You didn’t need to do that.”
“He hit you.”
“You’re kidnapping me!” I shoot him with a laugh, because at this point if I don’t laugh at his insanity I’m going to start sobbing.
Rurik looks over at me, his eyes going to the bruise on my chin then the cut on my forehead. His jaw tightens.
“You can let me go. Really. I’ll call Megan and get everything straightened out. You don’t have to do this.” I soften my voice. “I have cash in my bag, I’ll wire it all tomorrow first thing.”
He shifts out of park and peels away from the curb.
“I said I was taking you home, and that’s what I’m doing.”
I turn my head and stare out the window at the passing scenery, chewing on my lower lip. As he turns onto the highway that leads to the airport the clock starts running down. I have exactly twenty-five minutes to formulate my escape.