Chapter 29
29
H anna hummed as she refilled the bakery case to prepare for the morning rush. She looked up at the clock and saw that it was seven o'clock, time to open up.
Unlocking the front door, she went back into the kitchen to bring more cinnamon rolls out to the case. She carried out her tray of cinnamon rolls and smiled when her first customer walked in.
"Good morning, Jared. How are you? Want your cinnamon roll and coffee this morning?"
"I sure do, Hanna. Thank you."
She poured him a cup of coffee and slid that over on the counter.
He filled it with his fixings, which she knew by now was a lot of sugar and some creamer, as she pulled the cinnamon roll out of the case.
"You want it in a box to go?"
"Yeah, stick it in a box. I'm going to eat it in front of the guys at the job site."
She chuckled. "Well, that's kind of mean. "
"I know, but they did that to me yesterday. I didn't have time to get in here. Did Dad tell you he's put me in charge of the barracks project?"
"He sure did. Congratulations. How's that going?"
"It's going all right. I mean, I'm learning the ropes, but I've been watching my dad for years, and he's the best of the best, so I think it's all going to be good. And I know he's right here if I have any questions."
Her heart expanded hearing Jared's pride in his dad. And she thought Quinn was pretty great, too, so... She chuckled. "That he is. He's very proud of you."
"Well, thank you. Happy to hear that. Anyway," he dropped his money on the counter and lifted his coffee and the cinnamon roll. "See you later."
"You bet. I'll see you later, Jared."
He left and a couple more customers entered. Her day had started out in bed with Quinn, which was pretty great, so she had every expectation the rest of it would be wonderful. Unless things went bad with Tisha.
Her mom showed up just after lunch. "Do you need help here today, hon?"
"I could use your help, Mom. Thank you. I have some loaves of bread rising. I need to get them in the oven. And I want to get the dough made up and ready to rise overnight for buns tomorrow."
"Okay, I can get that going."
Hanna cleaned up out front in the store. She wiped down the counter, rearranged the doughnut trays, so they didn't look so empty until she could refill them, and generally made it look presentable.
She put on a new pot of coffee and then walked back into the kitchen. Her mom was already busy working on the dough, but she couldn't resist asking her about Quinn .
"So, did you have a good night last night?"
Her cheeks turned instantly red. Of course, her mom didn't know the extent of how good her night was, but still, the embarrassment was there.
"Yes, I had a good night. Quinn liked meeting you and Dad. Thank you for being so gracious and caring to him. Not that I didn't expect that you would. I know what great hosts you are."
"Well, thank you, honey. And we're just so happy to see you with someone good. I've been asking around about him, and of course, he's been here forever, but boy, nobody has a bad word to say about him."
Hanna smiled. "Well, he's a pretty great guy. He runs a good, tight business. Keeps to himself. Has a tight circle of friends. And he's raised two great kids."
"That's what I hear."
Hanna went out front and emptied the garbage from behind the counter, and checked the kitchen garbage can. She pulled that bag out of the garbage can, too. "I'll be right back, Mama. I'm just going to throw this in the dumpster."
"Okay, honey."
She dragged the garbage bags out the back door, lifted the lid on the dumpster, and tossed her bags in.
Suddenly, someone grabbed her from behind. She struggled and squirmed and tried to kick back. Her hands clawed the hands around her mouth. Then she felt a rag covering her mouth and her nose.
Suddenly, her arms felt heavy. Her eyes felt heavy. Her legs felt heavy. She wasn't able to kick anymore. And then she didn't feel anything.
H anna woke with a headache. She blinked, but her eyes were so dry, it felt like her eyelids were stuck to her eyeballs. Closing her eyes and rolling them around for a moment to moisten them, she tried again. It was dark wherever she was. She couldn't see anything. And the throbbing in her head was impossible to ignore.
Then she remembered that she was taking the garbage out and someone grabbed her. Her heartbeat increased and panic rose up her body.
She lifted her hands and found them to be tied in front of her, resting on her lap. She was sitting on what felt like a damp cement floor, propped up in a corner.
She struggled around. Her feet moved and weren't tied. That was good. She bent her knees and pushed herself up the wall with her shoulders.
"Don't. You. Move."
She froze. She didn't recognize the voice at all. She couldn't even tell if it was male or female.
"Wh...who are you?"
No answer.
"Please tell me who you are."
No answer.
She blinked a few times, hoping her eyes would adjust to the dimness of this room. Some shadows began to appear before her. But they were just that, shadows. She looked around to see if there was a window or a door. She saw a square on the far wall, but it was dark. Maybe a door or a boarded window. Her head pounded, and she tried clearing her head. "Please tell me who you are."
No sound. Suddenly, she heard movement from across the room. She froze. Was someone coming toward her? Whispers. There were two people here. Her breathing stilted as she felt the panic taking hold. They whispered a bit more, and it began to sound as if they argued.
“Find out.”
“Give me some fucking time.”
Heavy shuffling sounded across the room. Slow movements. And then she heard something thunk on the floor. Then a squeak. It sounded like somebody had moved a chair closer to her and sat on it.
She inhaled a breath and let it out slowly. Panicking would do no good now. She swallowed the lump in her throat and relaxed her shoulders. She needed to be strong.
When a voice finally spoke to her, it was slow and low. "I told you that you owed me money. And you little bitch, you are going to get it for me. Right now, I'm going to get that money from your rich boyfriend and your parents. They're going to pay us what that piece of shit husband of yours stole from us."
Oh, her heart hammered. Her throat dried up and a huge lump filled it. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. One of these crazy bitches got to her. Or two of them.
"I had nothing to do with Isaac's duplicity. I didn't know he was even doing that until somebody called me. I didn't even know that was a thing until somebody called me. Was it you who called me? You must have because you said you told me I owed you money."
"I don't care what you say. You were with him for a long time. You had to know what a piece of crap he was."
"Well, I did." She tried wetting her throat. "I mean, I didn't know he was doing this. We've been divorced for almost three years."
"Well, I don't care how long you've been divorced. He took money from me. And actually, I've done the checking. You were still married to him when he took money from me. Your divorce wasn't final yet when he took the first payment from me. That means you're complicit."
Her heart hammered in her chest. She tried to even out her ragged breathing, and she didn't even know what she could say to defend herself. This woman didn't want to listen to her at all.
"I had no idea he was doing this. I've been duped by him just as much as you have."
"Oh, really? Well, you know what he took from me? He took thirty-two thousand dollars from me. What did he take from you?"
She licked her lips. "Let's see. While we were married, he gambled away three cars, and I had to pay them off because we had loans on them even though he gambled them away. He almost gambled our house away. I've worked my tail off day and night to pay back his gambling debts so his fingers or legs wouldn't get broken by the thugs he gambled with. I was stupid to do it, but I did it. He's taken years of my life away from me. He's taken money away from me. He's taken a lot from me."
"Well, he took a lot from me, too. He took my dignity. He took my serenity. I can't trust anyone anymore because of him."
"Well, don't you think I feel the same way?"
"I don't care how you feel. Poor little you with your rich boyfriend. You can't trust anyone my ass. What I know is I want my money. That was my savings. That was for my retirement."
Her heart beat so hard it was painful. "I'm sorry that he did that, but I didn't have anything to do with it. Why don't you get an attorney and go after him?"
"Go after him for what? He doesn't have a job. He doesn't have a house. He doesn't have anything. What the hell would I possibly get from him?"
"I don't know. Put him in jail. Make sure he can't ever do this to anybody again."
"Oh, we're going to make sure he doesn't do it to anybody again. But first, we're going to get our money back."