Chapter Forty-Nine
PATIENCE
The sound of my son's screams echoed throughout the car.
“Hang on, baby, please. Hang on,” I pleaded with him as I struggled to unbuckle my seatbelt, maneuvering around the deployed airbag.
“Mom!” he cried. “Get me out, Mom!”
His gurgled sobs shredded my heart.
Clouds of billowy white smoke seeped from beneath the hood of my Honda CR-V as it lay in a ditch on the side of the road, a pungent odor filling my nostrils and causing widespread panic to set in.
Is it going to blow?
I had to get my babies out.
Finally freed from my seatbelt, I rubbed my stomach where it had dug into my skin, pulling tight on impact, and instantly felt sick at the thought it might have harmed our little peanut. The memory of Jett first using that term for our baby brought tears to my eyes, but I pushed them back.
“I’m coming, sweetheart,” I called out to Griffin.
I worked at the door, but it was jammed. Urgency coursed through my veins as I crawled between the front seats to get to Griffin. Tears streamed down his precious face as I scanned his body that was still secure in his booster seat.
“Hey, sweet boy, Momma is gonna get you out of here.”
“O-Okay,” he whimpered. “I w-want to go n-now.”
One part of my brain was telling me it wasn’t always good to move someone until they were checked out—even if they looked okay physically, which my son did— but the other half of it was saying get the heck out with all the smoke in the air.
Needing to make a quick decision, I unbuckled him and drug him into my arms.
Not willing to let him go, I scooted us toward the back door behind my driver's seat, praying it would open—thankfully, I’d unlocked the doors when I’d attempted mine. I pulled the handle and pushed, air rushing from my lungs in relief when it opened just wide enough for us to escape.
With my son securely pressed against my chest, I stumbled away from the vehicle, putting some distance between it and us in case anything should happen.
I really needed to try and flag someone down, but the embankment to get up to the road while holding Griffin looked monstrous right then, so I wandered the opposite way that was less strenuous toward a group of trees.
I just need a second to rest.
Collapsing to the ground, I cradled Griffin in my lap, both of us now crying together as I rocked us back and forth.
Frustration set in as I realized my phone was still back in the smoldering car. I hoped that Jett would realize how much time had passed even though I knew he was in a big meeting with all the guys at No Surrender.
But all three of us needed him.
Not only to soothe my son, but myself. Also, hoping my unborn baby could hear me, I began to sing softly.
The sound of someone clapping interrupted the lyrics. I snapped my head up from where it had rested on my son’s head to find the source of the female voice.
“Well now, isn’t that annoyingly precious.”
I stiffened at the sound of Sloane’s condescending, fake, and very venomous tone. With her foreboding presence and as her dark tone sunk in, the moments before I landed in the ditch came rushing back to me.
This wasn't an accident.
Hugging my baby tighter to my chest, I tried to drag in a deep breath.
A minute earlier, someone had come up beside us in the other lane and swerved into the passenger side of my car—and I had reacted.
I didn’t have time to think about who it was or why they’d done it, never imagining for a second it was intentional.
But now…
Blinking, I took in the woman glaring at us. She looked nothing like the rich, put-together person that she normally did. No, Sloane was now unkempt, frazzled, and her gaze seemed… unbalanced.
I realized after her next words that “unbalanced” was a kind way of putting it; deranged was a better adjective to describe her right then. Especially when she pulled a small handgun from her purse and began tapping it against her thigh.
“You always did think you were better than all of us,” she spat.
Was she serious right now? Me?
I wasn’t the one who was wealthy in high school, wore designer clothes, and had an expensive car from mommy and daddy, or who walked around like everyone else was beneath her.
That was her and her friends. They’d only let me hang out with them because Chaz had brought me into their circle. When he was done with me, so were they.
“Bitch,” Sloane snapped. “Are you listening to me?”
My son trembled in my arms, and I wanted to smack her for scaring him more than he already was.
When I didn’t answer, she grew more agitated.
“You deserve everything that’s coming to you after the problems you caused me.” The gun thumped faster against her leg as her words quickened. “That brat!” she screamed, bringing the gun up, and pointing at Griffin, her hand shaking in rage.
Instinct automatically kicked in. I shifted my son in my arms and twisted my body as much as I could so the delusional woman in front of us was as far away from him as possible.
It wasn’t enough.
Griffin burrowed further into me, hiding his face against my body, his tears soaking my shirt.
How could someone be so demented to orchestrate something like this and want to threaten a child?
I wanted to ask the question, but I couldn’t afford to provoke her into spiraling any more than she already had.
Not when my children’s lives were at stake.
Pressing my lips together so hard it was almost painful, I cocooned my son the best I could to shield him from her vile wrath, hoping it was enough to protect him until someone could find us. And while I hoped for my husband, anyone who could help us would be a blessing.
“Tell him to shut the hell up.” Sloane stepped closer and my body shook with two very dominating emotions: fear and fury. ”If he doesn’t shut up, I will shut him up.”
I rocked my son and whispered in his ear, “Shh, take a deep breath.” I softly brushed my hand over the top of his head. “I got you, sweet boy.”
His sobs gradually quieted, but his body still trembled like a mini volcano against me. I had never been one to project negative feelings like hate into the universe. I’d tried not to even do it with Chaz, but this was different.
She was threatening my innocent child and my unborn baby.
Right then, I wanted nothing more than to unleash on her and make her pay for the trauma she was inflicting. Sloane deserved something I didn’t want to articulate because I refused to be as evil as she was.
“Why are you doing this?” I stroked my son’s back. “Griffin is innocent. He’s done nothing to you.”
The woman let out a sinister laugh.
“No. You did.” She pointed the gun at my face, and I flinched.
“You ruined my whole life because you couldn’t give Chaz what he was entitled to as a father.
Now he’s decided he has no use for me. We were never going to create our perfect little family like we planned. He’s dismissed me and wants a divorce!”
Her eyes were dilated and filled with so much hostility that it petrified me to the core. I had no clue how to deal with someone who seemed completely out of their mind. Where was River when I needed her?
Or better yet… where was my husband?
“If I can’t have what I want, you won’t either.”
Sloane was now right in front of me, and I needed to come up with a plan to get us away from her because she was spiraling even further with every passing second. I tried reasoning with her, but that backfired in an epic way.
“Just walk away, and nobody has to know what happened here.” I softened my voice, hoping it would help. “Please. I don’t want anything to happen to my—”
I was about to say “babies.” That was the last thing I needed to do, as it might only make everything worse.
Can it get worse?
It could. And it did.
“Oh, I’ll walk away alright,” she replied, responding before I could finish. “But not without the brat.” Her voice dripped with venom again, sending a shiver rushing through me.
Griffin whimpered, slicing my heart to shreds.
Sloane leaned over and grabbed my son’s arm, trying to pull him from my grasp.
Homicidal rage burned through me, and I felt out of control. My body shook with hatred, a feeling so intense, and one I’d never felt in my life.
“Don’t touch him!” I screamed, unwilling to let my baby go.
“Momma, don’t let her take me!” he wailed.
In a flash, the gun was pointed at my face.
“Let the fuck go now!” Sloane yelled. “If you want him to live, you will say your goodbyes and release him!”
I was going to be sick. How could I let him go? But could I hold on and possibly let her…
I couldn’t finish that thought.
What do I do?
There were only two options, and they were both devastating.
But only one might keep me alive—or so I hoped. If I did this and she shot me anyway, the choice I was making would be for nothing.
If I got up and tried to fight, she may shoot me, and I’d die without anyone possibly knowing who took Griffin. That option made me feel like I was giving up on my son. I couldn’t breathe, the reality of what I was about to do was choking me alive.
Terrified to death, I prayed my son would one day forgive me.
I was about to put all my faith in the man I loved to fix this.
Sending a silent plea to the universe that I was doing the right thing, I cupped my son’s cheeks in my hands and looked into his face, willing him to understand why I was doing this, and for him to trust me.
“You’re a champ,” I began as tears rolled down both our faces. “Your daddy will find you; I know he will.”
He couldn’t talk, he was sobbing too hard, but I saw the hope and acknowledgment in his eyes. My baby knew his father would do what I was saying.
Come hell or high water, Jett would find him.
Before Sloane roughly pulled him to his feet, I yanked my necklace from around my neck, shielding my movements behind his little body so she couldn’t see, and slid the tracker into his pants pocket.
Griffin’s eyes widened, and I shook my head, signaling him to stay silent. God, my son was smart, keeping his mouth shut even with as petrified as he was.
Once he was no longer in my embrace, I surged to my feet and made one last desperate attempt to get her to stop this madness.
“You can’t be this heartless; he’s just a child.” My breathing came out ragged, and the panic inside me felt like it would consume me any moment now. “Please, I’m begging you, Sloane… just let my son go.”
“Not a chance,” she said, shutting me down instantly.
Her eyes suddenly caught something over my head, and a wicked smile curled the edges of her mouth. Just that look had my pulse skyrocketing.
“Are you finally going to do the job I paid you for?” she sneered.
I stiffened; there was someone else.
“My pleasure, I just wish the other bitch was here too.”
A chill slithered down my spine. Oh God. I knew that voice. Sheer panic bubbled up like a raging volcano and I didn’t know how to stop all my emotions from flowing over.
Looking at Griffin and knowing time was running out, I repeated, “Daddy will find you, Champ. I promise.”
Sloane let out a merciless laugh just as my son screamed, “Momma, watch out!”
Before I had a chance to react, something hit me in the head from behind, and I crashed to my knees. Pain sliced through my skull, the rocky earth dug into me, and my stomach turned over from the nausea that swam in my gut.
At a last-ditch effort to protect my children, I reached out for Griffin with one hand as my other cradled my belly. My heart lurched as defeat sank in, and the fading sound of my son’s cries for help echoed in my ears, piercing my soul. My vision blurred and everything began to dim.
You have to save him, Jett.
That was my last thought before darkness tackled me like a three-hundred-pound linebacker, and everything went black.