4. He’s Coming For Me
Chapter 4
He’s Coming For Me
MEGAN
I t’s a good thing that one of Mr. Fabre’s love languages seems to be food because we do indeed stop at the next rest area on the highway.
“Get Miss Taylor whatever she wants, Eddie. She’s eating for two. My daughter and I are going to stretch our legs. Oh, and get me a coffee with creme and get Naomi a burger or something.”
“I don’t want a burger,” Naomi objects. It’s the first thing she’s said in over thirty minutes.
“You haven’t eaten in hours, beloved. Eddie will make sure it’s something you like.”
I have to turn away because I can’t stand to watch the weird as fuck dynamic between Naomi and her father. The more I watch them, the less angry I am with her and the more pity I feel.
Her father is so passive-aggressive that every word he speaks seems to suck the air out of a room and light out of the sky.
“Hurry up,” Eddie the creep commands, nudging me hard with his hand.
“Get your hands off me!” I protest.
“Just move your big ass.”
The nerve of him.
I’ve got a great ass.
This is probably the only stop we’re going to make for the next few hours and I didn’t ask for it to simply grab a slice of pizza. I need to figure out a way to escape my captors or at the very least…get word to Hunter.
“You get the coffee and I’ll stand in line for my pizza,” I tell Eddie as we walk inside.
“I think you’re confused. You don’t give the orders around here, not to mention you have no money to pay for anything. We need to stay together so I can pay.”
“Then give me some cash so I can pay.”
Eddie cocks his head to the side already naturally suspicious of me. “Fuck, no.”
I have no choice but to stand in the long pizza line with Eddie the asshole breathing down my neck until I think of another plan.
“Hey, I need to go pee. Can you get me a slice of margarita pizza and a side salad while I go?”
“Do I look like I work for you?”
“I’m pregnant and I need to pee. Now do you want to get out of line and come watch me or do you want to get the damn food so we can get back on the road?”
“Where’s the bathroom?” He replies reluctantly scanning the area. I do the same, looking for a police officer, but I don't see any.
“How the hell should I know? I don’t even know where we are. I’m just going to look for the signs.”
“You’ve got five minutes.”
“You clearly don’t have a girlfriend. I’m going to need more time than that.”
“Ten minutes. Any longer than that and I’m coming in that fucking bathroom and pulling you out by the hair.”
“Aww, what woman broke your heart, Eddie?" I taunt, assuming he isn't going to put his hands on me in front of witnesses. "You don’t like us very much, do you?”
“I don’t like you.” His fist clenches. I've pissed him off.
Is it weird to take offense that Mr. Fabre’s henchman doesn’t like me? I mean one of my superpowers at the Blue Whiskey is that everyone likes me. That’s why I was able to effectively manage the place at my age and with minimal experience. What the hell did I do to him?
It doesn’t take me long to find the sign for the restroom and I make a beeline straight for it knowing that Eddie has his eyes fixed on me, at least until I’m out of his line of sight. Once in the bathroom, I get to work.
“Excuse me, can I use your phone? My battery died and I have an emergency,” I ask the first woman I run into.
“Oh, I’m sorry I left my cell in the car.”
“Okay, thank you anyway.”
I ask another woman who looks about my age knowing she’d never part ways with her cell like the older woman, but she acts like her house is on fire and rushes out of the bathroom apologizing along the way.
I’m getting frustrated that no one seems to want to help me and tears sting my eyes as I wash my hands for the fifth time.
My time is running out.
“Excuse me, I overheard you saying you need to use a phone.” A woman with a warm smile and a single, salt and pepper braid down her back approaches me.
“Yes!” I say brightly. “Yes, I do.”
“Here you go. You can make your call while I use the toilet.”
“Thank you so much!”
The woman unlocks her phone using her thumbprint and hands it over to me.
Suddenly it hits me that I’ve never actually pressed ten actual numbers to call Hunter–ever. I’ve always had his number stored in my phone and I just pressed his name.
Fuck!
What should I do?
I decide to go to the web browser application on the woman’s phone and search for The Blue Whiskey. The club hosts some nefarious people on any given Saturday night but thank God it’s still searchable in Google.
The Blue Whiskey
310-555-7822
I press the linked phone number and decide to continue with the call inside a stall just in case Eddie decides to actually make good on his threat and come inside the bathroom.
“Blue Whiskey,” a woman’s voice answers the phone after the first ring.
“Vita?”
Vita is a server who started a few months ago and I’d know her voice anywhere because she’s from Texas and has a distinct accent.
“Yes, who’s this?”
“It’s Megan.”
“Oh, hey Megan.”
Her response is quite casual and I figure that Vita has no clue that I’ve been taken.
“Um, is Hunter there?”
“No, he’s not.”
“How about Lena?”
“Is everything okay, Megan?”
I almost burst into tears but quickly regain my composure.
“What about Lars or Vaughn or Christian or–”
“Oh, wait, I think Christian is here.”
“Put him on please, Vita.”
“Okay.”
I hear a stall door open and then the woman’s voice who lent me the phone soon after.
“Excuse me, are you still here?” she says out loud. The two of us never have exchanged names.
“Yes, I’m in here,” I reply. “Can I just have another minute though?”
“Uh, sure.”
Finally, Christian picks up the phone.
“Megan?”
“Hi, Christian!”
“Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay. Naomi’s dad made me get in the car with them basically at gunpoint and we've been driving for hours.”
“We know.”
“You know?”
“There are cameras positioned all around the perimeter of your apartment building. But why are you calling here? Hunter is going to burn this city down if you don’t contact him.”
“Believe it or not I don’t know his number by heart and I’m using someone else’s phone. Listen, I don’t have a lot of time and I can't make another phone call. You’re going to have to reach him for me.”
“Megan, where exactly are you?”
“I’m at a rest stop in Arizona.”
“Do you know what part of Arizona?”
“No.”
“Can you run?”
“No, a man is waiting very impatiently for me to finish in this bathroom.”
“Don't leave that bathroom and tell someone in there to go get the police.”
“I thought about that but Christian but I haven't seen anyone out there. Plus, even if there is someone, I’m pregnant and I’m scared. I think this guy Eddie would hurt me and other people if he caught me talking to an officer. I just need you to tell Hunter that I’m fine, that I’m sorry, and that Mr. Fabre is hell-bent on taking me to New Orleans with them.”
Then I start to cry.
“Don’t cry, Megan," Christian says. "Just play along and keep calm if you can’t get away from them.”
“I’m just getting so tired, Christian.”
“We’re going to get you back.” His voice wavers with emotion. “I promise you. Hunter knows you’ve been taken. He knows it’s Fabre. And he’s ten steps ahead of him. We’ll bring you home soon, okay?”
Suddenly, I hear a thump on the bathroom stall door. I must have pissed off the owner of the phone, that is until I hear someone shriek, “You can’t be in here, dude!”
“Wipe your ass and get out of there now!” Eddie’s voice booms over everyone else.
I abruptly end the call with Christian and toss the phone into the sanitary napkin waste bin, then flush the toilet for effect.
“You’re making a scene,” I say as I nonchalantly open the door.
“What the fuck were you doing in there?”
He looks inside the stall behind me.
“Taking a shit.”
The Good Samaritan whose phone I borrowed stares at the two of us with fear in her eyes and luckily says nothing as I quickly wash my hands and walk out of the bathroom with Eddie on my heels. I hope she discovers where I've hidden her phone.
“Where’s my food?” I ask him, noticing that he’s empty-handed.
“I told you what would happen if you took too long.”
“Well, I’m still hungry and I’m not sure that Mr. Fabre would approve of you starving a pregnant woman because you have trust issues with women.”
“You don’t know anything about what Fabre would approve of. If his precious daughter wasn’t here, we would have left your ass in an alleyway somewhere a long time ago.”
A chill runs down my spine.
Because I'm leaning towards actually believing him.
“Well, his precious daughter is here and I’m her bestie, so?” I shrug my shoulders and smile.
“Just get your food and shut the fuck up.”
I smile triumphantly.
Not just because I’ve successfully irritated the hell out of Eddie but because I've made contact with someone back home and things are looking up.
Hunter is coming for me.