11. Audrey
11
AUDREY
I stepped out of the stall and nearly ran into a brick wall. “Oh, sorr?—”
There was a man standing in front of me. I didn’t even need to be looking at him to feel the creepiness coming off him in waves.
“The men’s restroom is across the hall.”
He grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the door. “You’re coming with me.”
“Wait! I haven’t washed my hands!”
But he didn’t care. He jerked the door open and pulled me through, keeping his grip tight around my arm. “Keep your mouth shut and I won’t put a bullet in your head.”
I sighed heavily. “This is so unsanitary. You know, you’re lucky I didn’t pee on my hands.”
He guided me toward the back, ignoring all the other customers and the attendant. “Keep moving,” he snapped when I tried and failed to squeeze down the hall at the same time as him with all the boxes lining the wall.
“I’m guessing you’re not with the other guys.”
“Not a chance.”
“So…that would mean you’re part of the first set?”
“First set of what?” he grumbled, stopping to face me.
“You know, the plan…” I hedged.
“Sure. We’re part of the plan.”
I cocked my head at him, unsure of the way he was talking. “You know, somehow, I don’t believe you.”
“Somehow, I don’t care.”
“If you’re part of the plan, how come you’re not taking Spencer, too?”
“You’re the easiest target.”
I rolled my eyes as he started dragging me along again. “And I suppose that’s because I’m a woman.”
“That and you’re worth more.”
That got my attention. “Why am I worth more?”
“That’s what your contract says.”
What the contract said…It would make sense that Craig had a contract. I would even believe that he wanted me to sign one, but he never mentioned that when we spoke, which meant something about this was very, very wrong.
“You know, I think I’ll just grab Spencer. Two for the price of one, right?”
But as I tried to step away, he tightened his hold on me and dragged me toward a van with a sliding door. As soon as it opened, Baldy’s words came roaring back to me.
Go for the most sensitive spots and fight with everything in you.
I could do that. Oh—and the yelling thing. That’s what he said. I needed to yell. I opened my mouth and let out half a yell, but a hand immediately clamped over my lips, shutting me up instantly. I was hauled bodily off my feet and swung up into the van and into the waiting arms of another man. I tried with everything in me to fight back in some way, but my arms were pinned at my sides.
Feet! I had feet!
I kicked out, hitting the man in the face, but the only thing that earned me was a rope around my ankles, latching me to a bolt on the floor. As soon as the man removed his hand from my mouth, I tried to scream, but a rag was shoved into my mouth and then tied around my head. My arms were latched behind my back and then the doors were slammed shut.
I huffed in irritation as I laid on the floor, and the van took off at a rather fast speed. This was definitely not how any of my characters would have ended up. I was supposed to play kickass roles, not the part of the damsel in distress. But what I couldn’t figure out was how I somehow managed to set up a kidnapping for myself and then got kidnapped for real. The irony was not lost on me.
If that was irony.
I never really understood the definition of irony, and so many people said it was used the wrong way. I was probably one of those people who used it the wrong way. And since I was laying in the back of the van thinking about the proper usage of the word irony instead of worrying about the fact that I had been kidnapped, that probably said more about my current psychological state than anything else.
If I was going to survive this, I had to start thinking like one of my characters. They were all strong women who knew how to take care of themselves. I had once played a woman who was tied to a chair and she had to work her way out of her bonds and then kill the ten men who captured her, all while bleeding out from a gunshot wound. If my character could do that, I could get myself out of this.
I started wiggling my wrists, trying to work my way out of the bonds, but it was difficult with the van hitting what felt like every pothole and swerving around every corner. At this rate, I was more likely to get a concussion.
“Son of a bitch!” one of them shouted.
I jerked my head up to see what the commotion was about. It was impossible to see from where I was, though.
“Take a right!”
The van took a hard right and I slid on the ground, crashing into the wall of the van. That was gonna leave a bruise. When the van swerved again, my body jerked the other way, and this time, my arms snapped somehow and the bonds broke suddenly, freeing my hands.
“I did it,” I mumbled behind the rag shoved in my mouth. I had no idea how I managed that, but I had done it and now I was one step closer to freedom. I grabbed the gag around my mouth and tore it off, then started on the ropes around my ankles.
As I worked them off, I kept glancing over my shoulder, sure that at any moment, they would turn around and catch me trying to escape. But as I tore the rope from around my ankles, I found they were still more focused on whatever was going on out there than me.
If I stayed in here, I was going to either die from their reckless driving or at their hands. I had to escape now. I got to my feet, grabbing the side wall of the van as I headed for the back door. This was insane. Hell, I was insane. Thinking of jumping out of a moving van was not only reckless but extremely…insane.
“Hey! She’s escaping!” the man in the passenger seat yelled.
I didn’t have time to think of a better option. I flung one side of the door open, my eyes widening in horror when I wobbled perilously close to the edge and nearly fell out. I grasped the top of the van just as I was about to slip out and took a moment to catch my breath, but that turned out to be a moment too long.
I was grabbed from behind, my hair being tugged hard as the man tried to pull me back into the van. I screamed—mostly out of anger and a strong desire not to be taken for a second time—then kicked with all my might, just like I did in my films.
Honking distracted me just as I sent a swift kick into the man’s stomach. I spun just in time to see Craig in my periphery leaning out the passenger window of an SUV, shouting something at me. I grinned at him, waving in relief. But that too was cut short when the door came swinging back at me, smashing my fingers between the door and the top of the van.
“Holy shit!” I screamed, trying not to let the tears welling in my eyes spill down my cheeks. “That really fucking hurt!”
The man grabbed at me again, but now I was really pissed. I threw my elbow back, hoping to catch him in the head, but my aim was all off. I got him in the shoulder, which worked well enough to break his grasp. I spied a crowbar on the floor and dove for it, not thinking twice as I jumped to my feet and spun, swinging with all my might as I screamed like a banshee.
I winced as the bar cracked against his skull, reminding me all too much of how fragile the human body was. The man dropped with a thud on the floor of the van right beside me. Kneeling beside him, I poked him with my finger, cringing when he groaned. At least I didn’t kill him.
Yelling drew my attention away from the man on the floor. I couldn’t concentrate on him when I had more important things to think about. I had to get my ass out of here. I flung the door open again, this time making sure the door didn’t come back to hit me. The SUV swerved back behind us and Craig stuck his head out the window.
“—jump—van—here!”
That was so broken up, but I thought I got the gist. “You want me to jump to you?” I shouted.
“—fucking—there!” Then he pointed wildly behind me, his eyes wide.
I spun around and gasped as the man struggled to his feet. It was now or never. I shoved the door open again and stepped to the very edge. This was insane. Absolutely fucking crazy, but it was now or never. I could make the jump.
The SUV lurched forward just as I bent my knees. I let out a scream as I catapulted myself through the air, landing with a thud on my belly on the hood of the SUV. Screaming as I started to slide, I grabbed the windshield wipers and held on for dear life as the SUV struggled to stay steady as traffic zoomed all around us. There was no way to slow down with semis roaring past us and cars acting like this was the Atlanta speedway.
“What am I supposed to do now?” I shouted at Craig.
He was already climbing out his window, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me closer to the passenger side.
“You have no idea how fucking cold it is out here when you’re driving eighty miles an hour!” I shouted.
“Then you shouldn’t have jumped on the hood of the fucking vehicle!” he shouted.
“You told me to!”
“No, I didn’t!”
“Can we argue about this when I’m not hanging off the front of the car?”
“It’s technically an SUV,” he retorted, earning a scalding glare from me. He glanced behind him, checking the traffic, then turned back to me. “Alright, we’re going to do this on three.”
“Do what on three?”
“I’m gonna pull you off the hood and through the window!”
I peered over the edge of the vehicle and swallowed hard. That seemed impossible, but what the hell? I could do this. I wanted to do my own stunts. There was no better time than the present to do just that. I nodded and took a deep breath.
“One. Two…”
On three, he yanked hard, pulling my body off the hood of the car. I hit the mirror with my hip and was almost inside the window when a semi went roaring past, honking his damn horn at us and scaring the shit out of me. I screamed and nearly fell to the road. I would have been squashed like a bug if it weren’t for Craig’s strong grip.
The yellow lines skated past me down below, each of them more dizzying than the last. Was this really what it was like for stunt people? Because right now, I sort of felt like I was going to throw up.
“Hey! Eyes on me!” he shouted.
I tore my gaze from the road and forced myself to pay attention to what was happening. The muscles in my legs were cramping from holding my legs up in a locked position so they didn’t drag on the road. Too much more of this and I would be flat as a pancake under someone’s car.
But with one hard yank, I was being pulled through the window and into Craig’s lap. It took a few seconds to get properly adjusted, and a bit of an uncomfortable face-in-lap situation with the driver, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Sorry about that,” I muttered, lifting my face out of his crotch.
Craig tugged me upright in his lap and held me against his body, hugging me tight. “What the fuck were you thinking, jumping out of the van?”
“I thought you told me to do that?”
“Hell no! I was telling you I was coming to you,” he smirked. “Where the hell did you get the nerve to do that?”
I shrugged like it was no big deal. “I always wanted to do my own stunts.”
He barked out a laugh, pulling me against him again. “Hell, girl. It’s been too long.”
“Maybe now you could introduce the rest of us,” the driver suggested.
I sat back and grinned at my old friend. “Sorry, I’m Audrey Hall.”
“Audrey Leigh,” Craig corrected. “Famous actress, but to me, she’s just a really cool chick who pulled me out of a really shitty situation when I was on leave.”
The man in the driver’s seat chuckled. “Oh, man. Reese is so gonna kick your ass.”
“She will not.”
“When she sees her, she will.”
“Sorry, who are you?” I asked.
“Alec. His teammate.”
“Teammate for…”
He cocked his head at me. “I thought you knew each other?”
“Well, I knew he was in the military. I figured he would be able to pull this off.”
“Can you get in the back seat and put your damn seatbelt on?” Alec snapped.
“Geez, someone’s grouchy,” I grinned at Craig, as I crawled over the center console into the back.
“That’s just because we had to send his wife home.”
“Why did you have to send her home?” I asked curiously.
Alec glared hard at Craig. “Because someone said this was a simple job.”
“It was supposed to be a simple job!” Craig argued.
“If it was a simple job, I wouldn’t be driving down the road without my wife!”
“Oh, is she not part of this?” I asked.
“No, she is, but this was supposed to be a simple in and out. Overnight job. That’s what you said. This is not an overnight job.”
“I know?—”
“If you knew, I wouldn’t be driving down the road without my wife!”
“I didn’t know then!,” Craig argued.
“You just said you knew!”
“I know now, but I didn’t know then! Geez, It’s not like I tricked you into coming!”
“And why does this make a difference?” I asked in confusion.
Alec looked at me in the rearview mirror and grumbled, “We have a kid at home.”
“Aww, you have a kid?” I smiled, leaning forward to look at Alec. “Boy or girl?”
He reluctantly glanced my way. “Girl.”
“And her name is?”
“Addie.”
“Aww, that’s such a sweet name.”
“She’s a real cutie,” Craig agreed. “Almost as cute as my kids.”
I gasped in excitement. “You have kids, too? How many? How old are they? What are their names?”
“Excuse me,” Alec interrupted, “but maybe we want to figure out who kidnapped you?”
“Well, I thought it was you at first. I mean, at the airport where you said it would happen and everything?—”
“You gave me the wrong day.”
“I did?”
He nodded, smirking at me. “I only got here because it was on the news that you were taken.”
“Yeah, and it was weird because I was so sure it was someone you sent.”
“Nope.”
I sighed heavily. “Well, I guess I was kidnapped twice. No, three times!”
He spun in his seat. “Three times? What the hell did you get yourself into?”
I shrugged helplessly. “I have no idea. But now Spencer’s with the second kidnappers. I guess he wasn’t worth as much as me, which is why the third kidnappers didn’t take him.”
“Well, aren’t you special,” he grinned.
“So, why would someone want to kidnap you?”
“Other than I’m famous?” I asked.
Alec snorted. “Wow, very humble.”
“That’s not how I meant it. I’ve made a lot of movies. People are always following me around and asking me for autographs. They can get very pushy. You’d be surprised how many enemies you can make just because you don’t want to stop for a picture every time you walk into a restaurant.”
“So, we should be looking at pretty much everyone you’ve ever come into contact with,” Craig laughed.
I thought about it for a moment, trying to figure out why they would come after me. But it wasn’t just me. That’s right. “It wasn’t just me,” I repeated. “They took Spencer, too. That has to mean something, right?”
“It could,” Alec nodded. “Bigger ransom.”
“Or maybe a project you were working on together?” Craig suggested. “Anything you might have done together that pissed someone off?”
“Not that I know of.”
“You said you were on your way to some live-action film. Who else knew about that?” Craig asked.
“It could have been anyone. I mean, the director set it up, but the cameraman was going too.”
“But he wasn’t taken. The first time,” Alec clarified.
I shook my head. “No, it was just Spencer and me.”
“That’s really bold,” Alec said to Craig. “Taking two celebrities at once…they had to have had a plan in mind. Someplace they were going to take them where they could stash them for a while where they thought they wouldn’t get caught.”
“Who were the second kidnappers?” Craig asked.
I laughed at that. “Well, I thought they were the good guys.”
“Why do you say that?”
“They were?—”
Glass shattered and metal screeched in the most horrifying sound as the world suddenly shifted around us. The SUV rolled side over its side, across traffic, slamming into other vehicles and hitting the barrier dividing the highway. My head slammed into the door before my body fell against it.
I could faintly hear the hissing of the engine as darkness crept into my line of vision, but nothing else seemed to register as something dripped into my eye and then I passed out.