CHAPTER 12
LANDRY
So far, so good. It had been over three days since Taken had started and I hadn’t gotten kidnapped yet, so I guess I could say I was doing pretty well. The team had decided that I would target Luke Bennet since I somewhat knew him from my history class. I had stalked him on all social media, relaying the intel to my team that he was on the Ivybrook golf team, lived in the Wellington Hall freshman dorms across campus, drove a silver Porsche Cayman GT4, and he had multiple photos on his public Facebook profile of takeout from Enoki—One of the sushi restaurants in town. Bingo.
It hadn’t been hard to find his email address on his LinkedIn, and I made a mental note to put all of my social media profiles on private the week of the games next year. Ken had downloaded some photoshop software, and less than an hour later, we had a perfect replica of an Enoki coupon for twenty percent off and free delivery. We had to make it tempting but still believable.
The next phase of the plan involved overnight shipping a custom Enoki polo shirt and ballcap. It’s funny the things you can get rush-ordered when enough money is involved.
I had been the one voted out of the girls to act out the part of the delivery driver, the group seeming to think that I would be somehow the best bet of luring him out of his room. According to his socials, he was into blondes for sure. Now, it was just up to me to figure out exactly how I would accomplish that. Of course, we first relied on the fact that he would fall for the fake email. And like the coupon, my act had to be tempting, but still believable enough that he didn’t put two and two together.
I already had my cover story. ‘ My daddy has a gambling problem, he stopped sending me my allowance, so I picked up a part-time job in town, oh please oh please don’t tell anybody because it’s so embarrassing, what ever can I do to convince you to keep this secret for me? ’ wink, wink. I mean, that was the short version. That, or I could just start crying. Men always get uncomfortable around crying women.
I had run the idea past the group and we were all in agreement that it might actually work as long as I stayed in character and didn’t push it too hard.
All I needed was to get him out into the hallway where Jared and Ken would be waiting around the corner. If I couldn’t get that to happen, I could resort to getting invited in, though I wasn’t sure where it would go from there. Was there a way to get chloroform on short notice? Maybe somebody in the group knew. Or was that too extreme? I didn’t see anything in the rules list about drugging people. Was chloroform even considered a drug? I had a lot of research to do for next year.
The faux uniform was set to arrive tomorrow, leaving us the rest of the day on Wednesday and Thursday to get this done. Everything was coming together slowly.
I hadn’t left the apartment since the games began, camping out with Olivia and Bexley in the two-bedroom apartment. Between Taken, TV, cooking, and studying, we weren't anywhere near running out of things to do.
Everything was going smoothly until I got a text from Debbie in the evening, asking if I could pick up her shift at the shelter tonight. I had purposefully asked off for the entire week because of the games, not wanting to risk the walk or the time spent outside of the apartment which would leave me vulnerable. But I hated saying no to Debbie, knowing that she was single-handedly running the shelter while also raising two kids as a single mother with a shortage of volunteers.
“Fuck.” I breathed out, throwing my head back against the couch.
“What’s wrong?” Bexley asked, her and Olivia both turning away from the television.
“Debbie asked if I could go feed tonight. Apparently, her son caught some sort of stomach bug overnight and she doesn’t want to drag him out of the house, and all of the other volunteers have already told her they couldn’t. They’re probably all playing Taken too.”
The room was met with silence, all of us thinking of how to handle the situation.
“I mean…” Olivia started, “We could totally go with you? I can drive us, that way we only have to worry about wa lking to and from the car and we can have power in numbers? Besides, we haven’t left the apartment in three days, I doubt they have anybody actually staking out our dorms or anything. We’ll just have to be super careful.”
I glanced over at Bexley, immediately spotting the hesitant look on her face. My gut reciprocated the feeling, Rory and Morgan’s words screaming across my mind. Maybe I could text Jared or Ken to see if one of them could follow us? They had offered, after all. I relayed the idea to the girls before sending a text to each of the guys.
My knee started shaking as I wracked my brain, trying to decide what to do. Was I seriously going to let Debbie drag her sick kid to the shelter? Or was I going to let the animals go to sleep hungry? Both thoughts made me nauseous, the guilt creeping through me. I checked my phone, seeing that an hour had passed without an answer.
“Hey guys,” I spoke, bringing their attention to me. “I think I’m going to go. I completely understand if you guys don’t feel comfortable, I’ll be totally, fine I promise.”
“Girl, are you crazy!” Olivia asked, “Of course we’re coming with you. Do you seriously think we would let you go by yourself?”
Bexley nodded her agreement, and my chest ached at the fact that these two girls were willing to go to these lengths for me. I used to have so many friends in high school, each more superficial than the next. And moments like these made me mentally slap myself for not having realized how deceitful each and every one of them had been. With the exception of Olivia, of course. She had been a breath of fresh air once I had finally stopped drowning in the sea of fake bitches .
“I’ll bring my taser and pepper spray!” I sing-songed.
“No weapons, remember? The last thing we need is to get disqualified after making it this far.” Bexley reminded me.
Damn.
“How fun, this is like an adventure!” Olivia squealed as we made our way out the door, not bothering to change out of our pajamas considering that nobody would be seeing us. Fingers crossed, of course.
The walk to the car felt like a low-budget version of mission impossible, all of us keeping our backs to each other as we made a dramatic show of assessing our surroundings, Olivia even going as far as holding up finger guns and humming the tune as we spun in circles.
We made it to the car, laughing our asses off as we got inside and locked the doors. The drive was less than ten minutes, the shelter parking lot empty as we pulled in. Neither Bexley nor Olivia had come here with me yet, but I let us all inside and showed them how everything worked as we divided and conquered to get done as quickly as possible. And yes, we did lock the doors behind us.
“So, what did you guys use as an excuse to your parents if you stop replying this week? I’m new to this whole ‘kidnapped’ thing but I’m going to take a wild guess that they wouldn’t let us keep our phones if they took us.”
Bexley asked.
Olivia and I chuckled, the three of us finishing up.
“I tell my parents everything, so they know all about the games. They know that anything goes this week and that I’ll be getting hammered at the after party on Friday regardless of the outcome, so unless I still haven’t called them by Monday, they’ll just be sitting at home cheering me on.” Olivia shrugged, dumping the mop bucket into the sink. “Why, what did you guys tell yours?” she asked.
“My parents would kill me if they ever found out about Taken, let alone that I was playing. My mom would have an aneurysm. I told them that I had been selected to attend a research trip on the coast and that we would have spotty cell signal for the entire week. They bought it though!” Bexley responded.
“Yesss girl!” Olivia exclaimed, turning to me
next. “Landry?”
I hesitated for a moment before answering. It was no secret that my mom had passed earlier this year, and that my dad and I didn’t necessarily see eye to eye. We had little to no communication at this point.
“I haven’t talked to my dad since April. He wouldn’t notice if I went missing for a week.” I finally spoke, the statement sounding more depressing than I had intended.
“Shit.” Olivia whispered, “I’m sorry babe. I wasn’t thinking.”
I forced a small smile. “It’s all good. Promise.”
We finished our rounds, the girls taking a moment to stop and pet each and every animal as I offered brief introductions. It was a warm feeling, watching some of the most important things in my life come together and mesh so well.
I locked up behind us, making my way to the passenger seat of Olivia’s G-Class and plugging in my phone in as she started it up. I heard Bexley’s door slam shut, mine being yanked open directly after .
“What the—” I started, but before my head was even fully turned, it was violently yanked back by the hair. Before I could process what was happening, I was being hauled out of the car and thrown onto the ground, the concrete shredding my bare knees and forearms as I tried to catch myself. I could hear Olivia and Bexley’s shouts coming from behind me, my mind spinning as panic laced my veins.
I tried to push myself up but a boot stomped down onto my spine, shoving me back down to the ground on my stomach as my arms were violently yanked back. I fought as I felt zip ties securing my wrists together and something was thrown over my head, rendering me blind and disoriented.
I heard my name being yelled, the sounds of a scuffle taking place around us as I was picked up and hauled into what I assumed to be a trunk right as it was shut and everything went quiet.
Tires squealed as the vehicle took off, throwing me from side to side as I was unable to brace myself with my arms tied in this position. Adrenaline raced through every inch of me, my survival instincts going into overdrive. I think I had just been abducted.
Son of a bitch.
—
They had put me in a fucking dog crate. I thought hostages were supposed to actually be treated decently? This was borderline barbaric and downright degrading. I couldn’t even sit up straight all the way, the top of my head hitting the top of the cage. And no pillow or even dog bed to sit on? Rude. My butt was going to go numb.
They had taken me to what I assumed to be a penthouse apartment in the city, my cage in the corner of the massive modern living room, locks on both latches keeping me in. I assumed there were at least a handful of bedrooms, though I hadn’t exactly been given a grand tour so I couldn’t be sure.
My location gave me a direct view of the living room to my left and the open-concept kitchen directly in front of me, with what seemed to be some sort of entrance hall around the wall to my right. Hallways stretched in both directions of the living room, the space large enough to fit a large leather sectional and marble fireplace. The place was classy, I would give them that, the entirety of it clean and free of clutter. I wouldn’t have thought anybody actually lived here if it weren’t for the few kitchen appliances on the counter and large pieces of modern artwork adorning the cream walls.
Thankfully, my zip ties had been removed so I could at least move my arms, my wrists raw and shoulders sore from the position I had been kept in. My cotton sleep shorts and strappy silk tank top hadn’t done anything to protect me as I had been thrown across the ground, the scrapes across my knees and down my forearms burning now that the adrenaline had worn off. So much for the excessive force rule, I guess.
But possibly worst of all, I hadn’t been wearing a bra. Note to self—always wear a bra if there’s a possible chance of being abducted.
I kept my arms wrapped around myself, trying to hide the fact that my nipples were visibly peeking through my white sleep top thanks to the slight chill in the apartment .
I had finally gotten a good look at my kidnappers once the bag had been removed from my head—One of the two guys was well-built, his size comparable to that of Kaptan’s, and he wore a backwards cap over his blond hair with jeans and work boots that I assumed had been the same ones that had pressed me down into the concrete earlier tonight. The other had a lankier build, his dark hair shaggy and nearly as disheveled as his slacks and dress shirt.
There were two girls accompanying them, and my best guess was that they had helped hold Olivia and Bexley back while I had been loaded into the trunk. One appeared to be of Hispanic descent, while the other was slightly shorter and had long ashy blonde hair a few shades darker than mine.
They hadn’t given me much attention after shoving me into the cage, congregating in the kitchen and celebrating their victory with shots and toasts. I sincerely hoped that they didn’t plan on keeping me in here for the next two days.
I heard the private elevator ding from the hallway to the right, the group hooting and hollering as who I assumed to be their fifth team member walked into the room.
I immediately recognized the head of dark hair and the tall frame beneath the black hoodie. Cashton’s green eyes met mine, and he didn’t seem the slightest bit surprised to see me. A cruel smirk pulled at the corner of his lips as he walked over to my crate and squatted down to my eye level. The sight had me scooting backwards as I tried to get as far from him as I could, feeling like a mouse caught in his trap. The malicious look in his stare was downright predatory.
“Fancy seeing you here, Princess.”
You have got to be fucking kidding me.