Chapter 26
“If you open that door and try to jump out, I’ll shoot you. Then I’ll go back to your father’s house and shoot him.” The man tapped the barrel of the gun in his hand against his leg, reminding her that he had it.
Kendall dropped her hand down to her lap. They were coming up to a traffic light, and she’d hoped he wasn’t paying attention. Her hope was that the light would turn red. If it did, she planned to jump out. She’d escaped from him once. She could again. She had to believe that.
“Who are you?”
“You can call me John.”
That wasn’t his name. She could tell by the way he smirked. Refusing to talk to him anymore, she stared out the window. Maybe she could catch the attention of someone next to them and mouth the word Help.
Her father would have called the police by now, so they would be looking for her.
Why hadn’t she given him Cooper’s number?
Had he returned to the house? If so, he’d know she was gone, and he wouldn’t stop until he found her.
She took more comfort from that than knowing the police would be searching for her.
Unfortunately, her dad hadn’t seen her leave, so he didn’t know what kind of car she was in. Where were they going? How would Cooper even know where to look for her? He didn’t know who this man was.
About twenty minutes after he’d taken her, he turned into a grocery store parking lot and stopped in a space next to a white van. Surely, he didn’t mean to buy groceries.
“You try to get out, I’ll shoot you. You try to call for help, I’ll shoot you.”
Would he, though? People would see him. They’d call the police. Should she try to get out and run?
“And then I’ll go shoot your father.”
That was the one threat that had her staying in the car when he got out. He walked around the hood, keeping his eyes on her the entire time. When he reached her side of the car, he walked past her. What was he doing? The moment she decided to look back and find out, her door opened.
“Out.”
As much as she wanted out of this car, the fear of the unknown had her frozen where she sat.
She had a really bad feeling about this.
When she didn’t move, he jerked her arm, pulling her out.
Before she could get her bearings, she was shoved into the open door of the van he’d parked next to.
This had to be a different one from the van he’d put Livie in since the police had that vehicle now.
Did he just go around stealing white vans?
Bad things happened in the backs of nondescript white vans, and panic seized her. She fought back, tried to kick away from him, tried to bite the hands holding her down. When her teeth bit into the skin on his wrist, he slapped her.
“Damn it.” He wrapped his fingers around her hand, holding it down to the floor, and she felt cold metal circle her wrist. She fought harder, and he laughed as the click of the handcuff sounded. “Just have to wipe my fingerprints from the car, and then we’ll be on our way.”
The van’s sliding door closed, and she turned on her side.
She was handcuffed to an iron hook secured to the floor.
She yanked on it, but there wasn’t the slightest give to the hook.
How was she going to get away? And where was he taking her?
Why hadn’t she kept her phone in her pocket instead of leaving it at her dad’s?
The man hadn’t searched her, so she could be calling the police…
or Cooper. Wouldn’t they have been able to track her phone?
The driver’s door opened, and the man got behind the wheel. “Ready for your adventure, sweet Kendall?”
Adventure? By the cheerfulness in his voice, you’d think they were off to Disney World.
She refused to answer him. It was dark in the back, and all she could see was a bit of the windshield over the top of the seats.
Nothing but black sky. She didn’t know where they were going, or what he had planned for her.
She was scared. Petrified. Had she been this afraid the first time he’d kidnapped her?
She didn’t think so. She’d been too young to know and understand the things an evil man could do to a young girl, but she was a woman now, and she knew.
Oh, God, she knew. She hated the tears that burned her eyes and fell down her cheeks.
If she was going to survive this, she had to be strong. She had to use her mind.
It seemed like he drove for hours, too long to be left with her dark thoughts. As much as she tried not to think of all the research she’d done for her podcasts, the evil she’d learned people were capable of, she couldn’t stop those images from flowing through her mind like a horror movie reel.
She didn’t know what he’d intended to do with her when he’d taken her years ago, and she didn’t know what he intended now. If she knew, she could plan for whatever was coming. The brave part of her thought that. The frightened part preferred to stay ignorant.
When the road changed from a smooth highway to an obviously bumpy dirt road, she tensed. About five minutes later, the van stopped. Wherever he was taking her, they had arrived. How long had they traveled? Two hours, give or take. How would Cooper even find her?
He leaned around his seat. “You just be patient. I’ll come back and get you soon. I need to get things ready for you.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. When he uncuffed her, she had to make her escape. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know where she was. While she waited, she thought of what she needed to do, then visualized doing it. It could work.
She guessed ten minutes passed before the side door slid open. She gave herself a pep talk while she waited for him to work the handcuff off her wrist. You can do this. You got away from him before. You can do it again, Kendall. Be brave. Be strong.
“I’ve waited a long time for you,” he said as he backed out of the van.
Now! She reared up and pushed him with every bit of strength she had, which with the adrenaline rushing through her was more than normal. She felt like Superwoman when he stumbled and fell on his back. Yes!
She jumped out of the van, flew past him because hell yeah, she was Superwoman. Not bothering to try and get her bearings, she just ran straight ahead. She didn’t stop, not even when he fired his gun, the bullet whistling by her ear.
“I’ll shoot you in the back if you don’t stop,” he yelled.
Not happening. She could hear his feet pounding on the ground behind her, and he sounded too close. Ignoring the burn in her leg muscles, she ran faster. He fired the gun again. She prayed he wasn’t aiming at her, that he was just trying to scare her into stopping.
Although it was dark, she could see the outline of trees a few yards ahead. If she could just get to them, she could lose him. Her heart was pounding like a racehorse, her lungs and legs burned, but she didn’t stop. A few more feet and she would reach the trees. She could hide until daylight.
Just as she reached her goal, something heavy hit her from behind, and she hit the ground, hands first. Excruciating pain shot up her left wrist and arm. “Hurt,” she said. Gasping for breath, she turned to see him standing over her, a triumphant sneer on his face.
“You should have never tried to run, Kendall,” he said coldly, grabbing her by the hair and yanking her up. “You belong to me, remember that.”
With her hair still in his fist, he dragged her toward the cabin. What would he do to her if he got her inside? She didn’t want to find out. She rushed at him and fought him with everything she had, clawing at his face as she tried to bring her knee up to where she could hurt him the most.
He laughed cruelly as he sidestepped, avoiding her knee.
“You’re only making it more exciting for me when you fight me.
” His grip on her hair was unyielding and brutal, and he dragged her across the yard and into the cabin.
Once inside, he let go of her hair, turned back to the door and locked it with a key.
He held up the key for her to see. “Both doors are locked with this, so you can’t get out, and the windows all have bars on them.” He put the key in his pocket. “You can’t escape.”
She stepped backward, putting distance between them. “What do you want with me?”
“Right now, I want you to go in the first bedroom on the right and put on the clothes laid out for you on the bed.”
What the hell? “No.”
He sighed. “You can change your clothes in private, or I’ll do it for you.”
Afraid he would do just that, she glanced behind her. The entrance to a hallway was between the living room and the dining room. At least, she’d be alone if she went to the bedroom. She could try to find a weapon of some kind. If she could knock him out, she could get that key in his pocket.
“I need to use the bathroom.”
“There’s one attached to your room.”
Her room was in her house, not this one. She didn’t want to turn her back on him, so she backed up to the hallway entrance before turning around. He watched her with an intensity that made her skin crawl. John, as he’d told her to call him, took a step as if to follow her.
“I won’t change in front of you.”
“Then you’d best go do it yourself. You have ten seconds before I rip off the clothes you’re wearing.”
She blinked. What kind of sick game was this?
Did she have a choice? Still afraid to turn her back to him, she stepped backward until she was in the room.
And there wasn’t a lock on the door. She pressed her forehead against the wood.
Cooper had to know she was missing by now and was looking for her.
She didn’t know how he’d ever find her, so it was going to be up to her to escape.
She scanned the room, looking for a chair she could put under the knob, but there wasn’t one. The only furniture was a white dresser and a bed. That was it. The pink bedspread and white lacy canopy was something a young girl would love. Did he have a daughter?
She walked to the bed, and when she saw what she was supposed to put on, her stomach somersaulted, and she swallowed hard.
The pink dress with ruffles was something she would have worn as a seven-year-old, except it was in adult size.
Next to the dress was a pair of Mary Jane shoes and white socks with a row of lace.
He was trying to make her a little girl again. She couldn’t put these clothes on.
The dress mocked her, a cruel reminder of a day she’d had nightmares about for years. Her hands shook as she reached for it, the fabric feeling like lead in her grasp. She threw the dress and shoes across the room.
“So creepy.” She walked to the bathroom.
That door didn’t have a lock on it either.
She closed it anyway, did her business and, after washing her hands, she splashed water on her face.
Back in the bedroom, she stared at the dress on the floor.
What would happen if she refused to put it on?
Did he mean it when he’d said he would do it if she didn’t?
The idea of him undressing her was motivation enough to do it herself.
When she unbuttoned her jeans, pain shot from her wrist up her arm.
She held her hand out. Her wrist was swollen but she could move her hand around, so it wasn’t broken.
Using only her good hand, she managed to change into the dress and Mary Janes.
In no hurry to leave the room, she sat on the edge of the bed.
She was both terrified and creeped out. So many questions.
Why had he come back for her after all these years?
Why did he make her dress up like a little girl?
What did he plan to do with her? Was he the man who’d taken Livie? He had to be.
The knock on the door startled her, and she yelped. When she didn’t answer, he opened the door. His gaze raked over her, and he smiled. His creepy smile and the weird glint in his eyes made her skin crawl. One thing she knew, he wasn’t right in the head.
She wanted to pull the cover from the bed and wrap herself in it, but she stood, trying to maintain some semblance of composure despite the fear coursing through her veins. “Why am I here? What do you want with me?”
“You’re here because you belong to me,” he said, his voice dripping with malice. “And as for what I want with you… Well, let’s just say I have big plans for you.”
She clenched her fists, trying to muster up some courage. “I don’t belong to you. You can’t just take someone and claim them as your own.”
His laughter filled the room, echoing off the walls. “Oh, but my dear, I can. And I have.”