Chapter 5
Alani
My pulse is racing. At first it was from irritation, fielding the hundred questions Blaine was able to shoot in my direction between my dorm and the cafeteria, but then my friend pointed him out, the man I spent the night with.
An unexplained thrill ran through me at him being on campus a mere hour after I left him in his motel room.
Doing what I did last night, under the cover of darkness, is one thing. Being that same girl in the sober light of day is different.
How I managed to look at him and walk away, I’ll never know.
“What is he doing here?” Blaine snaps as if either one of us can control what another person does.
“Maybe he wanted to make sure I got back to campus safely,” I say, trying to find him in the crowd of people as I look out the cafeteria windows.
“He doesn’t exactly seem like the type to care if you’re safe or not, Alani,” he mutters. “Where did he take you last night? What did you do with him?”
The man could probably guess and he’d be right. What he doesn’t get to do is judge me, and the fact that he is is all over his face.
I walk away from him, forgetting about breakfast, and head to class.
I should skip. Having an eight o’clock class on a Monday morning was the worst idea ever, but when I made my schedule, I still cared about my future.
All of that changed the second I watched my sister’s video.
She harped on me to not get a job my freshman year at college because I need to focus on school.
She made sure to remind me that we didn’t have the money for me to fail a class and need to take it again.
I shove down that part of me that wonders if she’s doing creepy porn because she’s trying to pay for my education. I quickly conclude that she’d never do that, but then again, I never thought she’d be the kind of girl to do porn in the first place. The video proves otherwise.
Class begins and ends with me being no more knowledgeable than when I first entered this morning, but I refuse to feel guilty about it.
What does irritate me is that I wasted an hour of my life when I could’ve easily crawled into my bed when I got back to my dorm this morning.
Being the good girl comes with its own set of muscle memory, however.
Blaine is sitting on the bench right outside of my room, and it frustrates me even more. It’s not that it’s anything different from what he’d normally do. He always meets me out here, but for some reason, I’m no longer impressed with it.
I had every intention of eventually giving in to him because Blaine is safe. He comes from a good family. His parents are still alive and still married. He’s normal if not a little boring. It should be exactly what I’m striving for—comfort and safety.
“Hey,” he says, his eyes a little downcast.
I take a deep breath, wishing I was a big enough asshole to tell him to fuck off, but honestly, I’m more of an asshole for keeping him around.
I know he has it in his head that he loves me, but I think he just loves the idea of me.
We’re friends, but I’ve never given the boy the impression that there would ever be an us.
“I hate it when you’re mad at me,” he says, holding out a blueberry muffin, my favorite. “Forgive me?”
I take the muffin, my stomach growling as I give him a small smile. “Forgiven.”
I’m not a mean person, despite the thoughts I have. I’d respect him more if he gripped me by the throat and told me I was going to be his whether I liked it or not. I can’t really fault him for not being an aggressively violent jerk just because that’s what I seem to be into after last night.
“I thought you guys were heading out,” Blaine says as we leave the science building.
I pull my gaze from searching for the man and notice Landon and Rick approaching.
Landon looks me up and down as if he’s trying to determine if I’m hiding injuries or something. “Glad to see you’re in one piece.”
There’s a hint of something misplaced in his tone as if I’ve asked him to protect me, only to turn around and put myself in danger. It’s as judgmental as the way Blaine was looking at me earlier.
“On that note,” I say and break away from the group.
I pull my hand away when someone reaches for it, but the grip only tightens. I gasp when I look, expecting to find Blaine trying to stop me from walking away from him for a second time today. Only it isn’t Blaine.
I stare into dark, unforgiving eyes. “Hi.”
The word comes out on a squeak, and I feel foolish.
He doesn’t say a word as he pulls me toward the parking lot.
My pulse is racing as the guys call my name from behind me, but my feet move, obeying him without a word leaving his lips. He opens the door to his truck with a growl, using more force than he did last night to urge me up onto the seat.
I look, seeing Blaine, Landon, and Rick rushing toward me as he climbs behind the wheel. He doesn’t give them a second glance before he squeals out of the parking lot.
“That was rude,” I snap, rubbing at my sore wrist. “You hurt my arm.”
He doesn’t look at me as he leaves campus.
We don’t drive long, but like an idiot, I spend the time in the truck with him glaring at the side of his face rather than figuring out where he’s taking me. It’s utterly foolish to think just because he didn’t hurt me in any way I didn’t like last night that he isn’t capable of doing that today.
The truck jerks to a stop, making me throw my arm out in front of me so I don’t smack my head on the windshield.
“Are you fucking serious?”
Instead of apologizing or saying anything at all, he grips my same sore wrist and pulls me from the truck.
His steps don’t falter even when Landon pulls up outside of the fucking house he’s brought me to.
“Hey, asshole,” Landon yells. “What the fuck are you doing?”
The man kicks in the front door of the house, and when he shoves me ahead of him, I’m scared for real for the first time. It’s clear the house is abandoned. The furniture is filthy, some turned on its side with trash littering the floor.
He pulls me to his chest, and it isn’t until I fight to get away from him, needing to face him to yell at him, that I notice the gun.
Midmorning sunlight shines though the window, glinting off the barrel.
I open my mouth to scream when I hear one of the guys on the front porch, but he clamps his free hand over my face and pulls my back to his chest.
My heart is pounding as guilt swarms through every cell in my body. He’s going to kill them and that’s going to be on me. I could’ve fought him. I could’ve kicked and screamed while on campus, done anything to delay him from taking me to a secondary location.
“Close the fucking door,” he growls when all three guys enter the house.
Landon spins around as if he’s going to come to my rescue, but the gun angled under my chin stops him in his tracks.
“Fuck,” Blaine whimpers, terror in his voice.
“Fuck is right, little boy.”
“Just let her go,” Landon says, taking a step forward as he positions himself in front of his husband.
“Or what?” the man holding me challenges, as if he thought Landon was going to issue some ultimatum. “You, pussy boy, grab that rope and tie your friends up.”
Blaine looks down at the duffel bag, and it makes me realize this man is more prepared than I originally thought. This isn’t just some random house he picked while driving by. He made plans to bring me here.
“Quicker,” the man says, making me wince when he presses the gun harder against my chin.
Unwanted tears stream from my eyes, but the rest of my body is frozen in place.
Landon looks pissed beyond words, disapproval and blame in his eyes as Blaine ties him to one of the chairs. Rick looks terrified when he’s next.
“Your turn, Alani,” he whispers, pushing me away from him. “Tie your friend up.”
I glare at the man, wondering how he knows my name as I inch closer to Blaine. Landon was honestly the only one who could possibly be a hero here today, and of course this guy surmised that and had him tied first.
“It’ll be okay,” Blaine says, trying to assure me despite the threat of tears in his own voice.
“You’ll never get away with this,” Landon spits as I finish tying Blaine up.
“Sit,” the man growls at me, pointing to another chair.
I contemplate kicking him in the face when he bends to tie my legs then my arms to the chair, but I know the minuscule amount of pain I would cause him now will only lead to more pain on my end.
I search his eyes for something, any hint of humanity, but I come up empty.
He doesn’t say a word, but I notice how he keeps his gun ready to fire and his back to the wall.
It seems practiced, like this possibly isn’t the first time he’s done something like this.
Maybe he was involved in the abduction of that one girl who was found recently.
She disappeared the same day I came to campus, and everyone was talking about it the next day.
The fear that I could be taken, too, kept me inside if it was dark out for the longest time.
I watch as he pulls his phone from his pocket, pressing several buttons before holding it to his ear.
“Where the fuck are you?” he grunts into the phone, waiting for the other person’s response before speaking again. “You were supposed to be here hours ago.”
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” Landon threatens, interrupting his phone call.
“A complication,” the man grunts into the phone, ignoring the threat coming from across the room.
“Nothing for you to worry about. I’m sending you an address,” the man says to the person on the other end of the line.
“Piece of shit! Let us go!” Landon yells, fighting against the ropes.
I want to tell him to calm down, that the odds of getting the upper hand on this man are extremely low. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to any of them, because it would be completely my fault.
“I haven’t hurt anything but these sissy bitches’ prides,” he snaps into the phone.
“Sissy bitch? I’m a fucking United States Marine,” Landon counters, gaining a look of disgust from the man.
I hate that I still don’t know his name. It’s not that I even asked, and he refused. I never opened my mouth and made the request.
“Hurry the fuck up. I’m tired of babysitting,” he says before ending the call.
“Who was that?” I demand, but he doesn’t look in my direction. “Are you selling us?”
He scoffs but doesn’t bother giving me any further attention.
I glare at the side of his head, my ass growing numb. I picture tearing him apart, gnashing at him with my teeth, but that’s as far as I can manage. He tied the ropes so tight around me, I can’t hardly shift my weight in the chair.