Chapter Twenty-Seven
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B ristol washed her face in the bathroom sink and patted it dry. Hands curled around the edges of the sink, she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Eyes red and puffy. Nose pink. Heartbreak etched into every feature.
“Pull yourself together,” she ordered herself, and straightened. She was a big girl. She would get through this.
Yeah, it hurt that TJ had just walked away after everything they’d shared and that she probably wouldn’t ever see him again. But he’d made no promises. She’d done this to herself by getting attached to a man who clearly had intimacy issues and plenty of other baggage that made a healthy relationship impossible. This awful ache in the center of her chest would fade. She would get over it.
She had to keep telling herself that, or she would fall apart.
To keep busy while she waited for someone from CPS to come get her—she was hoping Cassie—she wiped down the bathroom, stripped the sheets from the bed and threw them into the washing machine with the dirty towels. Kind of like getting ready to check out of a VRBO, only worse, because her heart was hurting, and she had no idea where she would be going after this. Or for how long.
She just wanted her life back so she could heal and then make everything go back to normal. Or at least as normal as possible, since it could never go back to the way it had been before this.
In the kitchen entry, she stopped, another wave of pain washing over her. The coffee TJ had made them was still in the pot, her now cold mug sitting on the countertop. She dumped them both out and washed them by hand before wiping down the work surface, trying not to think. But even the stupid crumbs on the counter from his toast put a lump in her throat.
He felt something for her. She knew he did, no matter how much he wanted to pretend he didn’t. For him to say what he had in the shower—
Men say a lot of things when they’re having sex , a cynical voice in her head scolded. It doesn’t mean anything.
“For him it does,” she said out loud, refusing to believe otherwise.
Little good it did her.
She went into the living room, ruthlessly smothered another surge of sadness when she saw the rumpled blankets she and TJ had curled up beneath together on the couch last night. She shook them out. Folded one, then the other. Still not satisfied, she picked up the dented pillow and shook it too. Punched it a couple times for good measure.
She heard the front door handle turn.
She spun to face the entry as the door opened, and an unfamiliar man stepped inside. Tall. Muscular. Brown hair cut short in the back and a bit longer in the front. He stopped just inside, staring at her as he closed the door.
A faint tingle of alarm ran through her that he hadn’t said anything. “Are you...with CPS?”
He hesitated just a fraction of a second too long. “Yes. You ready to go?”
The warning tingle became a blaring siren.
Her gaze darted to her bat where she’d left it propped against the TV console table. She whipped around and lunged for it.
Too late. Her hand had barely touched the handle when he knocked it from her grip and grabbed her around the torso from behind.
She shrieked and tried to bash him with her elbow. He clapped a steely hand over her mouth and clamped his arms tighter around her, the force compressing her ribs until she couldn’t breathe.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” His low voice was so calm it sent cold corkscrewing up her backbone.
She fought harder. Twisting and thrashing. Trying to bite his palm or fingers, fighting to wrestle free of his hold.
But he was too strong. Before she could even suck in enough air to let out another scream, he had a wide piece of tape across her mouth and her hands wrenched behind her back.
He secured her wrists with more tape, her continued struggles having no effect whatsoever.
The instant her arms were secured, he reached into her back pocket and plucked her phone out, then dragged a hood over her head, plunging her into instant darkness. Terror exploded through her. Blind, bound, and gagged, she kicked at him, lashing out with all her strength.
She missed him, hitting nothing but air.
A heartbeat later, her world turned upside down as he flung her over his shoulder and started carrying her toward an uncertain fate.