Playing Pretend Box Set

by Natasha L. Black

  It had been getting dark when I left the bar, and the light was fading fast. It was going to be completely dark soon, making it even harder for anyone to find me. I wanted to scream out the window for help, but just as he had removed the handles both doors in the back of the car, he had also disabled the windows.

  I didn’t need to be blindfolded. I was just as much a prisoner now as I would have been if I were tied with a kerchief over my eyes. I tried not to panic. Brandon was a lot bigger than me, and a lot stronger. But what bothered me most about him was that he seemed to have lost his sense of reason.

  The Brandon I’d known before was selfish and arrogant, and he didn’t care how much he hurt me. But that Brandon wasn’t the kind of man to kidnap a woman. At least, I didn’t think he was. Perhaps I’d been with a psychopath the entire time.

  I knew it was him shortly after we started struggling, and I wasn’t sure if that scared me more than if I had been taken by a complete stranger. After all, someone who didn’t know me would be more likely to work with my parents for ransom or something.

  Brandon didn’t want ransom. He wanted revenge on me for hurting his pride, and he wasn’t going to stop until he had it.

  “You know you aren’t going to get away with this, right?” I said. “Once my husband figures out that I’m missing he’s going to be on your ass.”

  “Your husband!” he laughed. “That’s rich!”

  “You can say that, but he’s military, and he’s not going to take it easy on you,” I said. Drake had already punched him in the side of the head once before, and I was sure he hadn’t forgotten what that felt like.

  “You aren’t married,” Brandon said. I faltered slightly, but it was enough for him to catch it.

  “I am too,” I said. “You met my husband yourself, twice.”

  “You forget that I’m a cop,” he replied. “I do my homework.”

  “You were let go from the force. You aren’t a cop anymore,” I said.

  “Once a cop, always a cop if you ask me, and I’m glad for it. It proved most helpful when I did the research on your ‘husband’. You know, if you really wanted this to work, you might have told him not to use his real name,” he said. “Once I found out from one of the other guests at the gala what is name was, I went straight to the courthouse to find the records of your wedding.”

  “We eloped,” I clung to the story. I was starting to get the impression Brandon really did know the truth. Or, at the very least, part of the truth. All he needed to know was that I lied to him for anything else to be irrelevant.

  “It doesn’t matter how the hell you tied the knot. If you were married, then you would have records to prove it. And you don’t,” he said.

  “And you expect me to believe that you just walked into the courthouse and asked to see my marriage license? Then what? When they didn’t show you, you decided that had to mean that I’m not really married?” I sneered. I was going to do everything in my power to maintain the upper hand, but we both knew that I was fighting a losing battle.

  “Not at all, though that would have been a lot easier,” he said. “You forget that I have connections.”

  “Who?” I demanded. “Who the hell did you go to find my private information?”

  “That is none of your business. If you had any idea how people on the inside work, then you would know better than to even ask that question,” he said with a shake of his head. “You’re sick,” I said. “And I don’t believe you. You’re just trying to make me think that you know things about my life that you don’t. You weren’t there for the wedding, now you can’t get over the fact that I’m married and lost to you forever.”

  He laughed again. I knew the laugh. It was the same laugh that he used to use when we were arguing and he felt he was winning. The problem now was, I knew that I was losing. It wasn’t just a matter of who was right and who was wrong now.

  Brandon had clearly done more research on me than I ever knew, and he was now going to act on it. I didn’t want to think about what he might have planned. It scared the shit out of me to think about what he was capable of.

  He might not be a cop any longer, but he had been for years. He knew how crime scenes worked, and I had no doubt in my mind he would be able to get away with murder if he wanted. And, if he was telling me the truth when he said there were others like him working for the city, he’d have help doing it.

  “So what are you going to do?” I asked at last. “Murder me? Prove to the world that you had the last say in my life? Do you really think that this is worth all your time?”

  “Considering all that you cost me in life, killing you would not only be worth it, I would wish I could bring you back so I could kill you all over again,” he said as he looked in the rear-view mirror at me. “But if I were to do that, then you really would be lost to me forever.”

  “What do you mean, really?” I asked. “I already am. You and I are done and over with, and we are never getting back together. I don’t care what you think you know about me.”

  “At the end of the day whether you are married to that guy or not doesn’t matter,” Brandon said, flipping the conversation back around. “Because where we are going, we aren’t going to know anyone who can tell differently.”

  “You’re not making any sense,” I said. “Care to explain, or are you going to continue with your cryptic messages and hope that I eventually catch on to what you’re talking about?”

  “Alright, if you must be so impatient as to know now, then I’ll tell you,” he smiled in the rear-view mirror at me. “Tonight, we are going back to my place. You are going to be a good little girl and shut up or I’m going to have to gag you on top of tying you up.”

  “I’d like to see you try,” I warned, though I knew I didn’t stand a chance against him. Even though he had caught me by surprise in the alley, I wasn’t strong enough to fight him off even if I tried. It was another thing we both knew to be true.

  Hell, how many times had he proven his brute strength against me when we were together? Of course he’d be able to tie me up if he wanted to.

  “You will,” he promised. “And then you are going to sit down and shut up.”

  “So what? You’re going to just keep me as a hostage in your house and hope that the cops never show up? Like you said, whether I am married to Drake or not is irrelevant. He and I live together, and when he finds out that I’m missing he’s going to call them, and you know you are the first suspect on the list,” I said.

  I hoped I’d talk enough sense into him he would let me go. But I had a feeling that was nothing more than wishful thinking. Being an ex-cop himself, he would know that I would go to the cops first thing. And with all that had happened, even now he was the prime suspect.

  “From the looks of things there was trouble in paradise,” he said. “I saw the two of you in the bar, and I happened to be close enough to hear him tell you that things weren’t as perfect as you hoped. If he comes home tonight, as you say, I’m sure he’s not going to be looking to spend time with you.”

  “And you hope that we just broke up and never talk again? Is that it?” I asked. “He’s not going to be upset forever, and he’s going to start to wonder why I never came back to my own place.”

  “It’s going to be too late by then,” Brandon said as he pulled into the garage of his house. “By the time he figures out that you are missing, you and I are going to be on a plane heading out of the country. We’re leaving here, and we’re going to start our lives over somewhere else.”

  “I’m not getting on a plane with you!” I nearly shouted. “How the hell do you think you’re going to get me through customs?”

  Brandon sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you that I was a cop? There are so many ways around these things, and you’re going to find out just how easy it is to smuggle a person in or out of a country even if they insist that they don’t want to go. Trust me, you are going. Now let’s get inside.”

  He pulled a gun ou
t of the glove compartment and I cringed. Of course he would be armed. He turned to me and brandished the weapon. “I’m sure you know this means you’re going to be fucking quiet on the way from here to there. I would hate for an accident to happen.”

  “Fuck you,” I said. But, as he got out of the car and walked around the side to open the door for me, I knew I was going to have to oblige. Brandon wasn’t stable enough for me to trust with the gun, and it didn’t matter if he got caught for shooting me or not. He was clearly willing to kill me if I didn’t go along with his plan. If he couldn’t have me, no one else ever would.

  I didn’t want to die, and I wasn’t going to risk him killing me. I walked in front of him into the house and back to the room, then sat on a chair while he tied my hands behind my back.

  “Let’s just hit the restart button on everything, okay? We’re going to get out of here, and we are going to live happy lives far away from all this shit. You’re going to be happy with me, I promise,” Brandon said.

  “Never!” I replied. “I’m going to spend every day of my life trying to get away from you. You can’t just take me and think I’m not going to fight back!”

  “Listen, Hannah!” he snapped. “I have been very patient with you ever since that night you broke up with me. Now, you are going to realize that either I can have you, or no one can! If you want to try to get away fine, but you aren’t leaving me again unless it’s in a box!”

  I gave him a look of defiance but said nothing. I wasn’t sure if he was crazy enough to go through with his threats, and I didn’t want to find out. All I knew was that I’d lost a few things out of my purse in the struggle, and I hoped against hope that my phone hadn’t fallen out, too.

  The only person who could know I was missing any time soon was Drake, and if he did, he’d be able to track me through the GPS. I knew he was angry with me, but maybe, just maybe, he’d realize something was wrong.

  I hardly dared to think that it could turn out that way, but it was the only shred of hope I had left.

  And I was going to cling to it with everything I had in me.

  23

  Drake

  I left the bike a few blocks away from where Hannah’s tracker had stopped. I wasn’t sure if it was a rendezvous point, or if Brandon had reached where he was going to keep her, but either way, I knew I had to act fast. I had been trained to deal with hostage situations when I was in the military, and I knew every minute was precious.

  And this was especially true since we were dealing with a dangerous ex-boyfriend who had been stalking her for nearly a year. I was more than familiar with the things this sort of man was capable of, and I didn’t want to even let my brain go to the possibilities.

  Hell, for all I knew, she could already be dead and hidden somewhere, and he was using her phone. Perhaps he was going to stage the disappearance as an accident, or as something that had nothing to do with him.

  The cell towers would ping her phone as being in the area, but that was really as far as the cops would be able to go before having to resort to a guessing game. With the actual dot on the screen in front of me, however, I knew right where her phone sat, and I hoped she was with it.

  I crept through the dark, watching my back and crossing every street and alleyway as carefully and silently as I could. I also didn’t know if Brandon was working alone, or if there were other guys out here working for him.

  If he was on the police force for any length of time, he would know the importance of backup. But then, psychopaths often overestimated their own abilities when they committed their crimes, and he might think that he was smart enough to outwit anyone who tried to come after him.

  And, he might be right when it came to most people.

  But not when it came to me.

  My training was more than enough to take on a standard cop, no matter how corrupt they were. I didn’t care about any of the shit Brandon might have seen during his days on the force. I knew I’d been through worse, and I was willing to take him down now.

  I was pissed off and running on adrenaline. It didn’t matter how angry I was with Hannah, or how heartbroken I was about the situation I was in with her. I’d made her a promise, and I was going to keep my end of that promise even if it cost me my life. I was trained to defend those that couldn’t defend themselves and eliminate the bad guy. It was just another mission.

  She’d hired me for a reason, and I wasn’t going to let her feel like she’d made a mistake.

  Finally, I could see I was almost on top of the dot on my screen. The house right in front of me had to be Brandon’s. It stood between two other houses that were nearly identical in size, and all had the same beat up, rundown look to them. I had a feeling not many people in this area cared about where they lived.

  The house was entirely dark. It was only a single story which I knew was going to make invading it a lot easier, especially considering I was a party of one. The shingles were worn and missing in a few places, and the siding clearly needed to be replaced.

  I wished I’d been able to bring Brody with me. Or, at the very least, a gun. There was one packed away at Brad’s house I would get from him one of these days, but I didn’t have the time to go over there now. I didn’t even have the time to call Brody and tell him that I needed him to come with me.

  All I had managed to do was call the cops when I was on my way over, and I hoped they’d be able to find my location quickly. I didn’t know where I was going, so I’d only been able to give them an estimate.

  Now, staring at the black windows and the silent house, I hoped that I wasn’t too late.

  I crept up to the door and tried the knob. I wasn’t surprised it was locked. But I wasn’t going to break it down, either. I peered into the windows as best I could, then tried the door to the garage. I was surprised when that opened, and I slipped inside.

  The car parked within the building let me know Brandon had to still be around, and I had to really be on my guard. I expected it when I crept up to the house, but there had been a small part of me that hoped he’d left again. It wasn’t an unusual thing for a kidnapper to do, and he might fall into the realm of a normal abductor.

  I tried the door of the garage leading into the house and was once again surprised to find that it wasn’t locked. It put me on even higher alert. There had to be a reason he left the place open.

  Perhaps the locked door on the outside was to deter anyone from bothering the house. But the open side doors had to be a trick. I crept through the house, using the light on my phone as best I could. I didn’t open the flashlight, the screen was enough to help me see where I was going.

  The place was silent.

  I tried room after room, making my way toward the back of the house. All the doors were open until I got down the hall, then the far door on the left was shut. I tried it, relieved to find it unlocked.

  As soon as the door was open I saw the outline of Hannah tied to a chair. She looked at me and tried to cry out, but her mouth was gagged, and her hands tied behind her back. I flicked on the light and rushed to her, wrapping my arms around her.

  “Oh thank God! I was so scared,” I breathed. I didn’t say what of, but I went to work on the knots. They were tied very well. Clearly, this guy either knew what he was doing from his training, or he had done plenty of research before he went through with the kidnapping.

  Hannah yanked the gag from her mouth. “Is Brandon here?”

  “I didn’t see him,” I said. “The house is black and there didn’t seem to be anyone out there, but the vehicle is in the garage.”

  “Look out!” she screamed as she suddenly pointed behind me. I didn’t even bother to look back as I ducked out of the way, just as a bat came crashing down to the ground mere inches from my head. I was surprised he’d missed Hannah with it as well, but I didn’t waste any time throwing fists back at him.

  “You think I’d miss the chance to show you what I think of you with my girlfriend?” he asked with a sneer. “Come
on, show me what you’ve got!” Brandon swung the bat at me again and I ducked out of the way, this time letting it come down on a lamp in the room.

  The glass shattered all over the floor, but I grabbed the base and yanked it out of the wall, brandishing it in front of me. He swung the bat again, but this time I hit it hard, sending it flying to the other side of the room. Hannah screamed again, trying to get her feet untied from the legs of the chair.

  I wanted to help her, but there was no time with Brandon on top of me again. He tried to dive for the bat, but I grabbed his legs, sending him to the ground. I pinned him beneath me, hitting his face. But he knew how to fight, and he managed to throw me off him.

  He reached the bat and grabbed it, turning around just as I managed to kick it out of his hand. He didn’t try again, this time grabbing at my feet and sending me to the floor. He was on top of me in an instant, both of us grabbing at the other’s neck, trying to get the upper hand in the fight.

  I managed to get him off me, and we were both on our feet in an instant. He hit me hard, sending me into the wall, but I used the leverage behind me to thrust myself right back into him, this time sending him to the other side of the room.

  Another well-placed punch nearly knocked him to the floor again, and I managed to hit him right in the stomach, now knowing for sure that I was winning the fight. I was about to put him to the ground when he suddenly reached into the drawer of the nightstand he leaned against, yanking out a gun and pointing it at me.

  “Brandon!” Hannah screamed. “No!”

  He gave her a look, then cocked the gun as he turned back to me. I was sure he was going to level it and pull the trigger, but at that moment the sound of the front door breaking in caught all our attention.

  “This is the police! Hands in the air! Show me your hands!” an officer screamed as he burst through the doorway, his own gun drawn and already leveled at Brandon. He was followed by two other officers, all giving the same commands.