Chapter 44
Jayna was in danger. Her heavy eyelids slowly opened. The remnants of the vivid dream still clung to her consciousness. Her head pounded, and she tried to raise her hand, but it wouldn’t move. Panic rose within her. This was not a dream. Why were her hands bound?
Her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Where was she? A fuzzy-headed drugged feeling clouded her thoughts. She inhaled sharply. The air was musty and smelled like apples. A basement, maybe a cellar? The chill of it seeped into her bones as burning fear crept up her throat.
A memory flashed. She’d been running late. Jamie and Derek were on the phone. The doorbell rang. She opened it. Why was Sonny at her door? He shoved in, taking the phone from her hand and smashing it against the wall. Then he grabbed her by the hair, pushing her against the wall. He shoved a cloth in front of her face—she couldn’t breathe. Then blackness.
Sonny.
Derek. He would find her. That thought flickered. Why, though? She was nothing to him. She would be the last person he’d send out a search party for. Yet she was certain he would.
Jamie... Jamie. She concentrated, visualizing her friend’s face. Jamie would know. Apples. Cellar. “Jamie, please hear me. Help me.”
The sound of a door creaking open was followed by footsteps echoed off the cement walls. Her breath hitched, and she strained to see through the murky darkness.
“Awake, are we?” Sonny’s voice was calm and deceptively gentle. Eerily gentle. “Guess the last of the Ketamine has worn off.”
“Sonny, why are you doing this?” Her voice cracked.
“Why?” Sonny flipped a switch, and a single bulb overhead flickered to life, casting shadows. “You really have to ask, Jayna?”
She squinted against the sudden light, her eyes adjusting to the sight of Sonny’s familiar face that was twisted into an unfamiliar mask. He didn’t look like the friendly paramedic who brought laughter into the emergency department. This Sonny was nothing like the proud grandfather showing off pictures on his cell phone.
“Lance loved you,” Sonny continued, his tone sharpening. “He was a wreck after you broke things off. You destroyed him, Jayna. And you didn’t even care.”
Her breath came faster, shallower. “Sonny, listen to me. Whatever you think I did to Lance, it wasn’t my fault. We’d only been on a few dates. Relationships end, people move on.”
“Not him!” Sonny roared, slamming a fist against the wall. Dust particles rained down, and Jayna flinched. “He gave everything to you, and you threw him away like garbage.”
“Sonny, please…you don’t have to do this,” she pleaded, tears pricking at her eyes. “I can talk to Lance. Apologize. We can fix it. Just let me go.”
Sonny chuckled softly. It was a sound devoid of humor sending another shiver down Jayna’s spine.
“Fix it? Like you fixed it when you broke his heart? You women are all the same. You use men, chew them up, and spit them out when you’re done.”
Jayna shook her head frantically, struggling to find the right words. This was not the rational Sonny she knew. His eyes were wild. She was not reasoning with a sane man.
“It’s not like that, Sonny. I honestly never meant to hurt Lance. Please, you have to believe me.”
Sonny stepped closer and crouched down. His face was mere inches from hers. She could feel his breath, hot and rancid against her skin.
“You think I haven’t heard that before? You think I don’t know your type? You play the innocent, but you’re nothing but a heartless bitch.”
Jayna flinched at the hatred in his voice, her sobs growing more desperate. “I swear, Sonny, I’ll do anything. I’ll talk to him. I’ll beg him to take me back. I’ll make it right. Just let me go. Please.”
“You sound just like Greta. She said all the same things,” Sonny’s eyes narrowed as his lips curled into a cruel smile.
“It’s too late for that, Jayna. Way too late,” he whispered calmly. Far too calmly.
He stood, towering over her once more. Jayna’s mind raced. She needed to find a way to connect with him. “What about your grandson? You showed me his pictures. You’re a kind man, Sonny. You save lives. You don’t have to do this.”
For a moment, Sonny’s expression faltered, a flicker of something almost human crossing his face. But it vanished as quickly as it appeared. “This isn’t about me. It’s about you. I have seen who you really are. Lance deserves better.”
“Sonny,” she said softly. She needed to try a different tactic. “You have a family. Think about what this would do to them if they knew.”
A flicker of something—guilt, regret—crossed Sonny’s face. For a moment, she thought she might have reached him. But it was fleeting; his expression hardened again.
“They’ll understand,” he said, though his voice lacked the conviction it had before. “They’ll understand that sometimes you have to do bad things for the right reasons.”
A suffocating wave of desperation surged through Jayna, stealing her breath. “This is wrong, Sonny. Deep down, you know it is.”
Silence stretched between them, heavy and tense. Sonny moved to a small table set up in the corner of the cellar. Various medical supplies were laid out neatly. He pulled a glass vial from his pocket and picked up a syringe, his movements methodical and precise.
“Lucky for me, they were setting up for MAID at the hospital yesterday.” He held up a vial of Midazolam. “The charge nurse was absolutely losing her shit trying to find it.”
Jayna’s eyes widened as she watched Sonny draw the clear liquid into the syringe. The man had killed Greta, and he was going to do the same to her.
“It’ll be painless. You’ll just drift off to sleep. I don’t need to explain the process. You know.”
She did know. She had assisted in the last medically aided death at the hospital. The patient, an 80-year-old man, was suffering from incurable cancer and tired of the constant pain. Once injected, she’d have less than 10 minutes before her heart stopped beating.
“Help me,” she screamed, her lungs burning with the effort.
“Jayna!” a voice shouted, muffled but unmistakable. Derek.
Sonny cursed under his breath, his eyes darting between Jayna and the door. “Stay quiet,” he hissed.
Summoning every ounce of strength, she screamed again, “Down here! I’m down here!”
Sonny moved towards her, but his eyes were trained on the stone staircase that led to the door. While Sonny had strapped her hands down, he hadn’t bothered with her feet. Big mistake.
Knees. Balls. Nose. Throat. The self-defence course came back to her. Hit a joint. Disable him.
With Sonny’s attention solely focused on the staircase, she lifted her foot and connected with his elbow, kicking hard. The syringe flew out of his grasp, skittering across the dirt floor.
“Son of a bitch,” Sonny howled, holding his arm.
Nose. She could still hear the self-defence coach in her mind. She raised her foot higher and kicked with all her might.
Crunch.
Sonny crumbled to the ground, blood pouring from his broken nose. He used his sleeve to swipe away the blood and reached behind him, grabbing the syringe.
“It’s over, Sonny.” Derek appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
Sonny laughed, a dark and twisted sound. “You’re just as pathetic as Lance. Running after a woman who doesn’t care about you. ”
Derek’s jaw tightened. He moved closer, his eyes moving from Sonny to her. “I’m not letting you hurt her.”
Sonny lunged toward Derek with the syringe.
“Derek, the needle, it’s lethal,” Jayna screamed.
Derek darted to the left when Sonny tried to jab him. Raising his right hand, Derek’s fist plowed into Sonny’s face, connecting with the already injured nose. The syringe went flying to the ground again.
Jayna watched in terror as the two men grappled, feeling useless with her hands still bound. They rolled across the floor, knocking over jars and tools off the wooden shelving, the noise echoing in the confined space.
Derek landed another powerful punch to Sonny’s jaw, stunning the paramedic. He quickly pinned Sonny down, breathing heavily.
“Are you okay?” He glanced over his shoulder after he grabbed a roll of duct tape off the shelf and bound Sonny’s hands behind him.
Jayna nodded, tears of relief streaming down her face. “Yes.”
The sound of sirens blared in the distance, growing louder. Derek stood up, rushing over to the cot. He grabbed scissors off the table and cut the ties from her wrists.
“It’s going to be okay. You’re safe now,” he said softly.
Jayna's hands were freed, but she didn't move immediately. Instead, she stared at Derek. He’d come for her. She threw her arms around him, clinging to him as if he were her lifeline. "I knew you would come," she sobbed into his shoulder, her voice trembling.