11. Giselle
ELEVEN
GISELLE
A Helping Hand
Wow.
Holy halibut, cloud nine, trick-on-a-stick, wow.
After our rom-com moment on my porch, our date had taken an intense turn when Ben had a panic attack in the car.
I’d been more than a little alarmed, but then my teacher instincts kicked in, and I helped him through a breathing exercise.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t acutely aware of his impressive musculature when I put my hand on his chest to help him focus.
I didn’t want to objectify him! Even though I’d tried my best to banish that thought from my mind, I kept thinking about the heat of him, and how my palm had risen and fallen with his breathing.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d called off the date and gone home to his children. I knew it was a bad idea to ask out one of my student’s parents, especially one who was very clearly still grieving his wife.
But I’d been selfish. I’d been so caught up in trying to do something for myself, to be brave, that I’d forgotten how it might affect another.
And yet… I wasn’t really sorry. Did I feel guilty?
Absolutely. But as I sat in the car with my rear end slowly warming, my belly full, and my cheeks hurting from smiling, I had to admit it was the best night I’d had in years .
I loved my job, my career, my life, but this had been something only for me and me alone.
Ben was so sweet. So kind. Did I see pain in his eyes, and did he sometimes linger too long between words, his mind drifting somewhere that I would guess was pretty awful?
Yes. But how could I fault him for that?
He’d been through something truly heinous and had come out on the other side to be an amazing father who was raising a wonderful little human being.
Being so damn giddy around a person was such a freeing sensation. The flutters of twitterpation were tiny shocks of a past life that had gone off to leave me in the dust. It was welcome. Exhilarating.
I was a little sad that the night was ending, but man, it was a brilliant beginning to the new leaf I was trying to turn over. Contented, I punched my address into the car’s GPS just as the driver-side door opened.
A hand twisted into my wig, yanking me back, then went for my throat instead.
What the fuck?
I opened my mouth to scream, but then the hand let go of my throat to clamp over my mouth.
“Be quiet,” hissed a voice that did not belong to Ben.
Oh shit, were we being carjacked?
With me in the car?!
He stared at me like he was waiting for something. Once my brain came back online, I nodded slowly.
“Good,” he said, then peeled out of the parking lot.
I was in shock. It was all that could explain the borderline preternatural calm that settled over me.
I was a first-grade teacher, not an action star or badass hero, but I’d trained for what to do in the unfortunate and terrifying event of a school shooter. Perhaps that was why I wasn’t freaking out, and why my breathing was so steady.
Jeez, what bad luck did I have? My first date in years, and I was being kidnapped.
All I could do was hope the guy would ditch me on the side of the road once he felt it was safe for him.
And I was going to let him. Ben’s car was not worth my life.
Besides, during dinner, it seemed like money wasn’t an issue for him.
Granted, he’d be shaken up. A panic attack, then both his car and date stolen all in the same night? I wouldn’t blame him if he never left the house again.
Life really liked to pick on some people.
The man was cutting in and out of lanes, not even using his blinker. While I got that he was in a hurry—after all, he was committing a crime—he was going about it all wrong.
“It would be better for the both of us if you put both hands on the wheel, since you’re in an unfamiliar vehicle.”
His head snapped in my direction, brown eyes boring into me with a fair amount of incredulity.
“Eyes on the road, please.”
He didn’t comment, but he did look straight ahead. There was a very direct rage radiating from him. It almost looked like he was vibrating.
Was there any chance this wasn’t random? Was Ben involved in something dangerous?
No, I didn’t believe that.
I wished I had my phone, but it was in my purse, which Ben had gone to get. Damn, talk about a chain of really bad luck.
We drove in complete silence for far too long, and every single minute seemed like its own personal epoch. Five passed, then ten, then fifteen. We weren’t only headed out of the city but out of the suburbs completely.
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
I didn’t normally use much profanity unless the situation called for it. And this situation definitely called for it. Somehow, I’d suddenly jumped genres from a meet-cute to a high-stakes drama. I really wanted to go back to my slice-of-life experience, thank you very much.
“You’re acting calm, but I can hear your heartbeat going crazy,” the guy said as he pulled onto the highway.
I nodded, before my brain caught up with his words. Was he being literal or metaphorical? Surely metaphorical, right? There was no physical way he could actually hear my heartbeat.
The guy didn’t look like the type for abstract speech, though, so I answered him as if he were speaking quite literally.
“I’m recovering from a hyperthyroidism episode, specifically called a thyroid storm,” I said slowly and carefully.
My speech did sound pretty measured, but honestly, most of it was from me barely being able to draw in a full breath.
I had to concentrate on every single inhale and exhale to get a single ounce of oxygen into my body.
The man grimaced. “I’m sorry you got involved in this and are now in the middle of things.”
Involved?
Maybe it was the teacher in me, but that seemed like a very pointed and specific word choice. A word choice that meant this wasn’t a random carjacking, but rather a targeted action.
Had I stepped into something so much greater than myself? I hoped not. Really, I had enough on my plate. And sure, grand larceny along with a kidnapping wasn’t exactly small potatoes, but I would take it over some giant mafia or criminal scheme any day.
“What do you mean?” I asked carefully. My temples throbbed from my heart hammering so hard, and the pulses made me dizzy. I needed to calm down, but it was growing harder to do that by the second.
The man didn’t answer me, and we continued to speed along the highway.
Time moved strangely. Sometimes it felt like we had just left the restaurant, and I was in some sort of strange fugue state; other times it felt like we had been driving for hours, and I was about to pass out from exhaustion.
I flickered between those two extremes, and it made me feel like I was going to be sick.
Damn it! I didn’t want to lose all the good food and calories I’d managed to get down. On top of stealing Ben’s car and ruining our date, this guy was also sabotaging the progress I’d made towards my weight goals. Sure, it was just one meal , but it had been a rich meal and very calorie-dense.
If I got lucky and he did drop me off on the side of the road, I’d have to make sure to grab my leftovers before he sped off.
That impulse was so silly that I chuckled at myself, which made the man look at me sharply. I shrugged. However my mind chose to deal with the stress of the situation was my business, not his.
Granted, that stress increased exponentially when he signaled to get off an exit that led towards the state park.
Oh, we were in the country -country.
I didn’t have to be a true crime fan to know that was bad.
I thought about opening the door and just flinging myself out onto the exit, but given my fragile frame and that I’d just gotten out of the hospital, I was sure I wouldn’t survive it.
That didn’t mean I couldn’t do it once we got on a back road that led through the woods.
Yes, I’d be risking getting lost or even attacked by a wild animal, but it was better than being taken to God knew where by a random man who didn’t have good intentions.
I didn’t know if it was my body language that gave me away, or if the man had come to the same conclusion, but as soon as we slowed down and pulled fully off the highway exit, he hit a button on the door that made my side of the car click. Had he just hit the locks?
I’d thought my heart was already beating as hard as it could without me passing out, but it turned out that there was a whole new level that I was unfamiliar with. It swallowed me whole as soon as I heard that muffled click.
I grabbed the door handle, but nothing happened when I pulled it.
Fuck me.
I glanced back at the man, and this time I knew my expression was one of pure fury.
Because I was fucking pissed. I’d burned myself out to the point where I had ended up in the hospital, and only recently had I promised myself to be better to myself.
And now this jackass was blowing up my life for who knew what reason.
If I’d had my purse with me, I’d have hit him over the head with it, but I had nothing.
I was nearly overcome with the urge to slap him.
Maybe I needed to calm down.
As satisfying as it would be to deck the man, I didn’t.
At least he looked a little contrite about how upset I was.
Although he had put his hands on me when he’d first entered the vehicle, he hadn’t since, and he had also apologized.
Perhaps there was a chance that this could end somewhat amicably between us.
I really did not care what happened to the car.
Maybe this was a sign from the universe that I shouldn’t date.
“Sorry.” Goodness, if he didn’t sound like one of the kids from my class when I caught them doing something mildly naughty.
But this went beyond mildly naughty. In fact, this was a total nightmare, and the only thing keeping me from spinning off into the stratosphere was the fact that I really had to focus on my breathing even more now.
My chest was growing tight, and my palms were clammy as we pulled onto a dark, narrow dirt road that was little more than a hunter’s trail. The only illumination was the headlights from the car.
Deeper and deeper we went into the woods, until he finally pulled over. He took the keys out of the ignition and got out of the car.
I watched him storm around the front of the car, and that’s when I made my move. Despite all my internal protestations about not forgetting my leftovers, I abandoned them and launched myself across the seats, my head nearly colliding with the driver’s side window.
But I didn’t care. I ignored that just like I ignored the pain shooting through my knee as I bashed it against the center console. The only thing that mattered was opening the door.
I was a mess of limbs, dress, and wig as I tumbled out of the car. Jumping to my feet, I raced off into the dark. I got maybe four steps when the guy snatched me off my feet and threw me over his shoulder.
“Let me go!” I shrieked, a bit surprised at the volume I managed to get with how tight my throat felt. “Let me go, damn it.”
I didn’t know if it was comical or downright infuriating when my kidnapper spoke with a single, flat syllable.
“No.”
That was the long and the short of it.
I kicked and thrashed a bit more, but I was exhausted, and my heart was about to beat right out of my body, so I gave up and hung limply.
“Don’t run again,” the man growled before setting me down on a stump.
“I can’t ,” I wheezed.
I didn’t expect him to grimace again and look almost guilty.
What exactly was going on here?
Well, I wouldn’t find out unless I asked. This was real life, and people didn’t usually actually break into a villainous monologue to explain their actions.
“I’m not really sure what this is all about,” I hedged between slow, deep breaths. Calm down. Calm down. You are a gentle stream. A glacier gently drifting through the ocean. “But it’s not too late to change your mind.”
Maybe I was full of hope, but I didn’t get the impression that he was a super-violent man. The guilt over the state I was in and him keeping his hands to himself after that initial throat grip were little clues my hyper-aware mind picked up on and pieced together.
Then again, it could just be desperation influencing me.
I’d find out soon enough.
That was horrifying.
Breathe. In for eight. Hold for seven. Out for eight.
I was doing nearly as well as Ben had at the breathing exercise. My chest felt like it was both about to implode and crack right in two from the force of my heart.
My doctor had warned me about this. He’d told me I needed to avoid stress, adrenaline, and anything too strenuous, then prescribed me muscle relaxers and beta blockers. I’d brought them on my date, and I really could use them right now, except they were in my damn purse.
“I don’t really have a choice,” he snarled as he paced in front of me.
Goosebumps rose all along my arms, and I was surprised my body had enough spare energy for that. Was I going to faint again? I felt like I was.
“I have to kill the bastard that killed my baby brother.”
Exsqueeze me now?
The man sounded unhinged, so feral .
It was more than his tone. His posture had changed, his head twisting this way and that like he was listening for something. All I could hear was the rushing of my blood within my own ears.
“It’s a matter of honor,” he continued, but why did it sound like something was in his mouth? Something making his tongue do extra work to articulate? “He was the baby of the family and now he has no grave. His soul knows no home. I have to… I have to…”
It was now completely apparent that this was no random carjacking. I’d been taken for a reason, and that reason could only be Ben. Even if it was a case of mistaken identity, this man had kidnapped me because he thought Ben was the man who killed his brother.
I tried to imagine Ben being purposefully violent to anyone, but I couldn’t.
I would be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about Ben’s broad hands gripping my thighs so hard they bruised, or gently resting around my throat in a firm but tender sign of dominance, but I’d banished those thoughts out of my head.
It was the respectful thing to do. Ben was still processing his grief.
It simply wasn’t right for his son’s teacher to drool over him.
Even if he was so freaking drool-worthy.
I had no idea what to say to the man. Heck, I didn’t even know if I should say something.
It turned out I didn’t have to worry about it, because a vicious howl split the air, echoing hard enough to compete with my racing heartbeat and the blood rushing in my ears.
I jumped, and I swore that was the nail that would seal my coffin, but my kidnapper relaxed visibly, and tipped his head up to the star-strewn sky.
“Finally,” he muttered.
And then he turned into a giant wolf!