Chapter 32
CHAPTER 32
SAVANNA
I’m not sure how long I’m out, but when I open my eyes, we’re on the interstate.
My head is pounding, and dizziness threatens to swallow me, sending my stomach roiling. I know I’m bleeding before I reach up and touch the spot just above my temple where the gun hit me. Sure enough, my fingers are red and sticky when I pull them away.
I’m so screwed. I should have done something more when I had the chance. I should have alerted Brody in some other way. I should have stayed inside in the first place.
Most of all, though, I should have told Nate I love him.
“There she is,” Vincent says from beside me. It’s apparent from his tone that he’s calmed down since I screamed at Liam. Fingers brush across my forehead, moving through my hair a second later so he can push it out of my face. “You have a nice nap, bear?”
The fact he thinks what I had was a nap is disgusting and delusional. I wish I could tell him he hit me so hard I blacked out, but I’m pretty sure it won’t help my case.
Shifting in my seat to get as far away from him as I can, I press myself against the door, watching the outside speed by. “Where are we going?”
“Baby bear, I told you,” he coos at me as though nothing has happened. As though I haven’t been gone for six months. It was always the same after he hurt me. The period of sweetness, the soothing, the lull of a promise he wouldn’t do it again. “It’s a surprise.”
I don’t look at him. I’m frozen in my spot by a glimmer of hope. When I shifted, I realized my phone was in my back right pocket. If I can get it out, there’s a chance I can call for help.
Nate will know by now I’m gone. Liam would have made sure of that. They’ll have the police searching for me. If Nate answers his phone, maybe I can get Vincent talking and he’ll tell me where we’re going.
I chance a glance his way. His eyes are focused on the road, his fingers tapping the wheel to the tune of whatever rap song he has playing in the background. I always hated listening to his music, but the way he’s bopping his head to the beat has me feeling a surge of gratitude for it.
Keeping my eyes semi focused in his direction, I slowly shift my arm behind me, craning my wrist so I can grab my phone and pull it out with the tips of my fingers. I nearly lose it when it suddenly comes free, but I wriggle my entire body in a feigned shiver in order to keep my hold on it.
“Can we turn the AC down? I’m freezing.”
Vincent’s eyes flash to me and he grins, turning the AC down a notch. “California girl now, huh? Can’t stand the cold. I’ll admit, bear, the place has grown on me the last couple of weeks.” He nods appreciatively. “I heard they got snow in the mountains back home the other day, meanwhile I’ve been sweating my balls off. I could get used to it out here.”
I use his ramblings as cover to shift in my seat, making enough room on the edge that I can set the phone down for balance while I hold it and maneuver it with one hand. Another look in his direction tells me he’s watching the road, not what I’m doing.
I’m about to answer him to keep him distracted from what I’m doing when he suddenly swerves sharply to the right. I yelp in surprise, narrowly managing to hold on to my phone.
“Sorry bear. Almost missed our turn.” He chuckles sheepishly. “That would have been a shame. I can’t wait for you to see where I’m taking you. It’s gorgeous.”
“Great. I’m excited,” I say distractedly, swiping through my phone to get to my contacts.
“Me too, baby bear. You know, I was so damn happy to see that video.” He glances my way and I’m quick to look at him, trying my best to smile, though it isn’t easy given the circumstances.
“I forgive you, you know. For everything. Leaving without a word, not calling for the last six months, letting the internet see you in your underwear.” Vincent sighs, but it’s not entirely unhappy. “That one was a little harder to forgive than the rest, but it led me to you, so I can’t stay too mad.”
I swear he wasn’t always this delusional. I mean, looking back, he wasn’t well, and there were some definite psychopathic tendencies, but I wonder if leaving him made him snap in a way I didn’t realize he could.
Glancing out the front window, I fight the sick feeling in my stomach. “I appreciate that. So now that you’ve found me, what are we going to do?”
“Don’t you want to know how I found you?” he asks, smiling proudly.
I nod when he looks in my direction. Does it matter? No. But I need to keep him talking. The longer he talks, the safer I think I am.
“It was genius. I went by your apartment building, and there was a neighbor outside looking at the construction. The woman couldn’t stop chatting my ear off and was more than happy to tell me about the firefighters that saved the day.” He’s grinning wildly, and while his eyes are focused on the road, there’s a sinister glint in them that has a true shiver sliding down my spine.
I steal a glance down to my phone, finding my contacts and scrolling through. With Vincent this distracted, I feel safe enough to find Nate’s number, hitting the call button. I see it come up dialing, and suck in my bottom lip, praying it connects. A second later it does, and I know he’s picked up. On this secondary highway, however, and this close to the mountains, I worry that I may lose the connection at the worst possible moment.
“She told me about this place that firefighters hang out. Said if she were fifty years younger, she would frequent it daily, and pointed me in the right direction,” Vincent continues, his fingers tapping the steering wheel. “I went that night, thinking I’d strike up a conversation with some guys at the bar, see if they knew anything. Imagine my surprise when I heard your name not fifteen minutes after I sat down.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, letting one tear slip down my cheek. I know the catalyst for him being here was the video, but to know if some neighbor of mine had just kept her mouth shut, he might never have found me, causes a lump to form in my stomach.
In that moment, I hear a quiet beep, and without thinking, open my eyes to look down at my phone. I must have tightened my hand around it and bumped the keypad button because it’s on the screen along with Nate’s name.
“What are you doing??” Vincent bellows, a hand suddenly gripping my other wrist, jerking me towards the driver’s side.
I shriek in surprise, dropping my phone between my seat and the door.
“Stop!” I cry out, twisting towards him because he’s giving me no choice with the way he’s turning my arm. “Stop! I’m not doing anything! You’re hurting me!”
“You were doing something,” he growls, releasing my wrist.
He only lets go of it so he can reach over me and pat the seat beside me before he grabs my other wrist, pulling it towards him. As he does so, he’s all over the road, paying more attention to me than it.
“Hands over here where I can see them, bear. Why don’t you put them right here?” he suggests, placing the hand he’s holding over his crotch. “Fuck yeah, baby, right there suits me just fine.”
I swallow the bile that comes up my throat. I can feel him getting hard beneath my hand, but it doesn’t surprise me. Control always turned him on. Maybe I can use that to my advantage, though. It makes me sick, but if I’m going to survive, I need to do what I have to.
“You know, Vin, if you tell me where we’re going, I might be inclined to have a little fun while we’re on the road,” I purr to him, using the sexiest voice that I can muster. My stomach churns at the thought of it.
“Bear,” he whines, but his hips lift in response to me. “I wanna surprise you.”
I lean closer to him. “You still can. I won’t know what it looks like until we’re there. I just want to know where it is that we’re going.”
Running my hand down the length of his thigh to entice him, but also so I don’t need to touch the growing bulge in his pants any longer, I look around for the gun. It hasn’t been in his lap since I came to, and I’m not sure where he put it. Apparently he doesn’t think I’ll put up much of a fight while we’re in the car.
Glancing in the backseat to see if he ditched it there, the vehicle behind us catches my eye. But it isn’t actually a vehicle.
It’s a crotch rocket.
My breath catches in my throat. I would bet my life it's Liam. A bet I realize I’m going to need to make.
“Okay, fine, we’re going up there,” Vincent says, nodding to the mountain beside us.
There's a large pasture between it and us, and I’m guessing there’s a road that will lead us to the other side before we start climbing. I need to do something before we get off this highway and onto some back mountain road.
“I’ve been staying there. I know you’ll love it, bear.” His hips lift again, eager for me to do what I told him I would. “Now touch me, baby. I wanna feel your hands on me.”
I’m not sure if it’s that I know Liam is behind us, the prospect of heading into the mountains with this psycho, or the thought of touching this disgusting piece of shit that has me feeling strong enough to rebel.
“Fuck you, Vincent.”
I’m about to punch him in the dick, but he sees the move coming and grabs my wrist, twisting it so hard that I’m screeching. Blinding white pain shoots through my arm, hot enough to make me want to vomit. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, beyond the pain, I know it’s broken. It’s a warning from him. To bend to his will and stay in line.
“Does he make you scream like that? Huh? Does he know what you like? That you like being punished? Does he make you beg for it, Savanna?” Vincent spits at me in a tone that chills me to the bone, releasing his hold on me.
Despite knowing it will only spur him on, I whimper as I drag my arm away, another stab of pain, worse than before, shuddering through me.
“I hope you enjoyed him while you had him because you’re never going to see him again,” he rages, the nice guy fa?ade vanishing. “I’m going to make you scream and beg until you can’t take anymore, and then I’m going to do it all over again until you are completely broken, destroyed, and on death’s door.”
With each word that comes from his mouth, I get angrier and angrier. I hate this man. He controlled every aspect of my life for so long, and I let him, but I won’t let him control me any longer. If death is what he wants for me, it’s going to be on my terms, not his.
He sounds inhuman when he snarls, “I’m going to make you beg for me to end it, Savanna.”
“No,” I seethe, my chest rising and falling heavily, clarity as clear as a sunny summer day easing the brutal throb in my head as my body prepares for what I’m about to do. “You don’t get to hurt me anymore.”
Grabbing the wheel with both hands, my one arm rippling with pain, I pull hard to the right.
I know Vincent doesn’t see it coming when he yells, slamming on the brakes, but it’s too late, the damage is done. We’re sent careening into the ditch and pasture beyond. As the car starts its first flip, I hope my phone is still connected, and Nate can hear me because I don’t know if I’ll ever get another chance to tell him.
“I love you, Nate.”
It’s all I can manage before I start screaming as the car flips, and everything in it gets thrown around. There’s a loud pop, and white dances in my vision as the airbags go off. Then something large smashes through the windshield, but I can’t tell if it was coming in or going out. I know the roof is caving in more and more every time we land on it, but I stay rooted in place thanks to my seatbelt.
That doesn’t mean I don’t feel like a rag doll being tossed around in a washing machine.
The sound is something from a horror movie. Metal scraping, crunching, cracking, grating on every nerve I have left. It feels like it takes forever, but also happens in the blink of an eye, time feeling like a strange, unruly concept.
Then it’s over. The car stops, the ride is done, and the only sound I can hear is someone shrieking. It won’t stop, and I need it to stop, because it’s horrifying to listen to.
I turn my head to the left to see if it’s Vincent, but he isn’t there. The only person in the car is me.
I’m the one screaming.
Sucking in a breath, I contemplate doing it again because I know I’m on the verge of a major meltdown, but find some scrap of strength left to swallow the urge.
I need to get out of the car. Before it catches on fire, or Vincent comes back with the gun, or something comes down from the mountain to eat me because I’m a sitting duck and the scent of blood is all over me.
I look around the car, trying to figure out why everything looks so weird when it hits me. I’m upside down.
“Oh God,” I gasp, hating the thought of being upside down even more than the thought of something coming to eat me.
I’m stuck in this small, tight space. It hurts to breathe. It feels like someone is sitting on my chest, making it impossible to pull air into my lungs.
No. No, I need to breathe. I can’t melt down right now.
Closing my eyes, I focus on trying to breathe to a count of four, but I only make it to two. My chest is on fire. Hanging upside down is doing nothing to help. In fact, I’m starting to feel a little woozy and lightheaded.
“Savanna!”
Nate. Oh, sweet, wonderful Nate. The man I love. I need to hold on, I need to tell him that I love him. I need to make sure he heard me.
“Savanna!”
Turning my head towards my window, or what’s left of it, I blink slowly at the face that drops in.
Not Nate. Liam.
“Liam,” I say, but my voice doesn’t sound right.
“Yeah, it’s me. Listen, don’t move, okay? We’re going to get you out as quick as we can,” he says urgently. “Can you tell me what hurts?”
I can’t hold my head the way I need to in order to see him, so I stop trying to crane it. I do, however, see movement come through the small sliver of window that’s left and then feel his fingers at my neck.
I whimper. “Chest. Arm. Head. Maybe everything. Liam?”
“I’m here,” he says, but I already know that because he hasn’t taken his hand away.
My stomach lurches with fear. “Vincent?”
There’s a pause before he answers. “He won’t be able to hurt you ever again, Sav.”
“How do you know?” I ask hoarsely. Though it hurts to do so, I turn my head again, trying to peer at him, then beyond him. There’s hardly any space for me to see through, but if Vincent is out there, if he’s close, he could hurt Liam while he’s on the ground trying to help me. “I don’t want him to hurt you. Liam, he has a gun—”
“Sav,” he interrupts in such a way it demands my entire attention, pulling me back into the moment. “He went through the windshield. He isn’t going to hurt anyone. Ever again.”
For one heartbeat I stare at Liam, unable to comprehend his words. My body understands before my mind, a breath of relief whooshing out. Safe. My family, my friends, my love. All of them are safe.
The motion sends a flurry of pain through me so severely I become nauseated. I stop craning my neck, my eyes closing as I manage to say, “Liam?”
“Yeah?”
“Tell Nate I love him, okay?” I whisper.
I’m pretty sure if I could cry right now, I would, but there are no tears. There’s nothing but pain. Even the relief was short-lived. I think I might be teetering on the edge of death. Which scares me. More than being scared of dying, I’m scared that I won’t be able to live. To live and experience all that life may have had to offer with Nate. With the friends I’ve met, and the ones I haven’t seen in too long. With my family.
“He heard you, Sav. But you’re going to tell him yourself as soon as he gets here, okay? He’s almost here.” I can hear fear in his voice, and it makes me think that whatever he sees can’t be good.
“Liam?” I say, the dizziness beginning to make the whole world spin. I don’t know if I can take it much longer.
“Yeah?”
My mouth feels like I’ve eaten sand. I lick my lips, tasting blood. “How bad is it?”
He blows out a big breath. “I’ve seen worse, but it’s not good. You need to get to a hospital.” That makes me smile. Leave it to Liam to give it to me straight. “But you’re a survivor. You’re going to be fine.”
That’s the last thing I hear before I succumb to the darkness.