Abducted (Amber Alert Series Book 2)

by Sara Schoen

  I called them liars, but worst of all I said I hated them, and I never wanted to see them again. All that was because of anger, from the lies, the laws, and the arrests, but now I wanted nothing more than to be back at home. I had even been mean to James, and he was only doing his job. He took care of me like his own daughter. It hurt just as much to see me act out as it did for them. James had known my parents since they got married, and must have moved with them to Wilmington in order to know them that long.

  It suddenly made sense. They were so close, even though they never recalled how they met or previous times together. They were brought together by this event—but how? What would have brought them together? There was no way Steve would have taken a police officer, much less a chief of police. James did have a daughter, now that I thought about it, Jessi Sparks. She’s my godmother and went to college at Appalachian State, about four hours away from Wilmington, and then to another college so she could work for the FBI after she graduated. Jessi was even more closed off about her childhood than my parents were.

  My parents would talk about it, of course there were obvious gaps and lies to make up for the time spent in the house, but they would tell me stories about their childhood. My father eventually just stopped answering and let my questions fall to deaf ears, but Jessi never tried to come up with a lie. It was almost like she couldn’t lie, so she never responded. She laughed whenever I asked her about her childhood and then changed the topic.

  Does that mean Jessi was here too, or was it all a coincidence? James and Jessi could have met my parents before they were kidnapped, or after they were recovered. My parents would have had to stay in Virginia in order to testify in Steve’s case. They could have met James and Jessi after the case, too. It was just a coincidence, I said to myself, as I turned the page and had a piece of paper fall into my lap. It was worn by time and from being stuffed between the pages. I glanced behind me to make sure Damien had really left, and hadn’t been standing there watching me as he often did, before I opened it.

  In case you come back here Anna and I'm gone, I hope he didn't catch you first off, but I also want to tell you that I love you. I am going to meet you and Jessi in Charleston as soon as I can, but I know this beating is going to hurt the worst of any before. So don't expect me for a while, and in case he caught you, just know I love you and I will find Jessi. I'm sorry, I will try to send help, but you know how cops are... Good-bye Anna.

  “Well, there goes the coincidence theory,” I sighed, as footsteps started pounding on the stairs behind me.

  I quickly stuffed the note back into the book and shut it tight as Damien came upstairs. His chest was heaving, and his eyes were filled with worry that sent fear through my body. I wasn’t supposed to feel anything for him, but his worry gave me heartache. Crap, what was I doing to myself? I was falling in love with him.

  “We have to get out of here!” he said, going into my room and starting to rummage through the clothes he had given me.

  “What’s going on?” I asked as I walked over to him. He was busy throwing the clothes he had gotten me into a bag.

  “They came sooner than I thought. I thought for sure I had another week, but it turns out I don’t. We have to leave, Audrey.”

  “People are coming to get me?”

  “Yes, but I’m not letting them take you. I can’t, otherwise...” Damien let the sentence fall as he continued to slam things into the bag.

  “Otherwise what?”

  “Nothing! Just help me pack!”

  “No, I won’t help! They’re coming to get me, Damien. Why would I help you?”

  “Because your life depends on it like mine does,” he said with a shaky voice.

  “What?” I asked curiously, I couldn’t have heard him correctly. How did my life depend on it?

  “Never mind, Audrey! Just get out of here, I’ll come get you when I’m done packing—we have to leave,” Damien yelled in a panic. Now I understood my dad’s comment about my mother and him screaming down each other’s throats in this house. It was bound to happen, they couldn’t get their feelings straight, and it came back at them as anger. “Just go, Audrey, please. I’ll come get you,” he said, as he continued to pack things tightly into a bag.

  I just nodded and made my way into the other rooms. I accepted that I was going to be moved; it would be easier for me to escape when we were moving and he was distracted. I just had to time it right, and I’d be back home in no time. I just had to wait, but why was Damien in such a sudden rush to leave? What did he really have to lose?

  He wasn’t going to tell me anytime soon, I could tell. Maybe I could get that out of him too, if I played my cards right. I felt a mischievous smile curl my lips; I was going to escape, one way or another.

  Chapter 9

  I had never been in the other rooms before, and if I hadn't known better I would have guessed no one had ever been in them either. I stepped into one room and the bed was made, as if it had never been slept in. The walls were bare, and the only furniture was a desk and a bookshelf. The desk was completely bare. There was nothing on it or in it except a slip of paper with the drawing of a black dog. At least I think it was a dog; it had a circle for a head, long floppy ears and a stick body.

  "This was your father's room," Damien said from behind me.

  "Well, I guess my father isn’t much of an artist," I stated, as I started to look through the bookshelf.

  There were books stuffed into every possible spot that my dad could have found. The books seemed to progress as he aged, but suddenly stopped in his early teens. There was nothing past that to challenge him in reading; something caused him to not get any more books, and he was forced to stop.

  “Now I know why he always forced me to read. He couldn’t, so he made sure that I could.”

  “Sounds like a good guy. Now, let’s go,” Damien growled as he came into the room.

  “I just started looking.”

  “Correction, you just started learning about your parents for the first time, and now you actually care about them because you realize your life isn't so bad. Now get up, we have to go!” he said, pulling me up off the ground and from the bedroom.

  “What’s gotten into you?” I questioned, as Damien pulled me down the stairs and toward the front door.

  “Stay,” he ordered, as he dropped a bag by my feet and stormed off. He stalked toward a hidden door on the other side of the stairs. I could hear him rummaging around in the room, knocking stuff over, and crashing them to the ground.

  My feet carried me to the noise before my mind could process what I was doing. Each time I tried to look while Damien was out, the door was locked and wouldn’t open no matter how much I tried to force it. I felt as if it was supposed to keep me out, as well as keep whoever was inside trapped. I stepped inside to see the room at its fullest. There was a king size bed with white sheets and a rose petal heart in the center of the bed. A sheer white canopy cascaded over the bed and provided minimal light with the string lights that were wrapped around the bedposts. The rest of the rose petals were scattered over the room and accompanied by more candles that were meant to set the scene for a romantic night.

  “What are you doing in here?” Damien yelled once he turned to see me standing in the doorway.

  “I was just...”

  “I told you to stay put, Audrey, it’s for your own good!” Damien cried out, as he tried to push me out of the room.

  “You’re keeping me locked up. That’s not for my own good, Damien!” I said, side-stepping him and walking him into the room.

  “Audrey, stop!” Damien shouted, as I felt cool metal clamp onto my ankle, holding me in that spot.

  “What is this?” I cried, as I unsuccessfully attempted to remove my foot from the trap.

  “I tried telling you. There are some places he warned me not to go to in the house, and in some towns. He booby-trapped them in case I didn’t listen. He’s hiding his secrets as well as he can. Even the police couldn’t get
past them while searching the house.”

  “What’s the point?” I asked, just as a loud crackling reached my ears. I turned to see a small fire brewing in the corner of the room.

  “We have to get out of here. His plan was never to let you live. He only wants Anna,” Damien explained, as he smoothly released the trap and led me out of the room.

  “What are you talking about?” An explosion of fire covered up my cry as Damien’s hand clasped onto mine.

  “There’s no time to explain! Just come with me!” he ordered, as he pulled me from the room. He picked up the bag and tried to force open the door, but couldn’t open it. The door opened slightly, but slammed shut again. We weren’t able to get out, and the fire was rapidly expanding from behind us.

  “Damien, hurry up!”

  “I’m trying!” he grunted as he tried to force the door open. “It’s stuck!”

  Behind us the fire hit another accelerant and exploded loudly. The force shook the floor and caused the ceiling above us to rip apart. Wood splinters and drywall showered us as smoke filled the air.

  “Cover your mouth, Audrey! Don’t breathe the smoke in!” Damien warned, as he continued to try to pry the door open.

  There was a continuous pulling at the door as the fire continued to spread. When Damien finally forced the door open and shoved me outside. I tripped down the stairs and landed face first in the dirt. My head was spinning as heat started to scorch my back, but I didn’t want to move.

  “Audrey, you’re on fire. Roll over!” Damien said as he rolled me over as roughly as he could.

  I rolled a few feet and scraped my face and hands from the gravel. I came to a stop on my stomach and then felt something hitting my back lightly. I glanced up to see Damien hitting me with his shirt, so that the flames would die, but my gaze fell on the tightening of his muscles with each swing of his shirt. The way his arms flexed as he drew them back to let the shirt hit the flames. I couldn’t stop watching his abs tighten as he brought the shirt down. Every movement was elegant and mouthwatering.

  “Stop!” I said loudly, mostly to make myself stop thinking about Damien like that. I had to stay focused, play my cards right, and escape. I needed to stay focused; my life depended on it. “I’m fine.”

  Damien’s face went from worried to angry in a flash, making a stop at shocked along the way as he forced me off the ground. He roughly took my arm so that he could walk me to the car.

  "What are you doing, Damien? Take me home now!" I ordered.

  “I just saved your life, twice! You don’t get it, Audrey. Life here is better than it was back home!”

  “How so? I could be having sex with Mark right now,” I stated, annoying him even more as he shoved me in the car.

  “You really think that boy is looking for you?”

  “My parents are. So he would be, too.”

  “You’re ignorant.” Damien scalded as he slammed the door, closing off conversation for now as he packed the car for departure.

  I watched as the house, slowly at first then more rapidly, came ablaze. The glass of the windows shattered; the wood of the house caught flame quickly and slowly turned black. The wood was accelerating it somehow; probably another one of Steve’s booby-traps. Were we supposed to make it out alive? Damien and I could have been killed. Was that all a part of Steve’s plan? Damien slid into the car without a word and turned it on. He didn’t even look at me, just silently started the long drive toward the road.

  “What’s going on?” I asked curiously. The sudden change in demeanor had been enough to make me cooperate, but the house being set on fire was something I didn’t expect.

  “Your mother surprised him. He didn’t think that she would come out of hiding to find you, but he was hoping,” he said as he switched on the radio, and the reporter told the world that there was shocking news.

  "The Anna Cowles comes out of hiding to save her daughter, and Steve Bennett claims that he knows who did it and where to find them."

  My neck cracked, searing me with pain as my hand went to the burning area, as I looked at Damien. His hands holding onto the steering wheel with such force I could see the white of his knuckles. He looked as if he didn't know what to do. His eyes were darting frantically from left to right as he tried to decide where to go. He turned right and took off like a shot out of a gun without a second thought. I knew nothing about where we were going or what was planned. According to the reports and stories I heard as a child, and the ones I read from Garrett's journal, Steve never took the girls out of the house.

  That’s when I realized I wasn’t a part of the kidnapping of Anna Cowles. I was in for something much worse.

  Chapter 10

  Damien drove for hours, with no direction in mind, but he was clearly avoiding towns. The house had exploded in a loud pop when we pulled out of the driveway; I could only imagine how much attention it was getting. I had fallen asleep on the car ride to the house, but now I had to pay attention to where we were going. If I was going to escape, I had to know the area as best as I could. But this was nothing like South Carolina, and the temperature was drastically different.

  "Here, I got you a jacket while I was out the other day," Damien said, for the first time breaking the silence between us.

  He searched with one hand in the back of the car and pulled out a black winter coat. Without a glance in my direction he placed it in my lap and continued to drive. I stared at him for a few moments before I put on the coat and continued to shiver in silence as trees whizzed by and the sky started to darken. I continually glanced toward Damien as he drove. I couldn't understand how he seemed so calm after what just happened. The house was on fire, burning rapidly, and he just acted as if it didn't happen. What did he mean that Steve didn't plan to keep me alive? I had a strong feeling that Damien wasn't supposed to get me out of there, but the door was stuck, so was he supposed to die too? He did save my life—not that he'd hear me admit that—and I was thankful he did. Now if I could go back home and forget about this.

  "Anna Cowles is speaking out against having a stay of execution in Steve Bennett's case, even though her own daughter was taken by a kidnapper and he claims to know who it is," a reporter stated over the airwaves.

  "I sure wouldn't be able to do that, Chet," another reporter said. "I'd do anything to get my kid back home."

  "Even let a mass kidnapper and murderer out of jail for a few days?"

  "If that's what it took. Guards would surround him while he was out, I don't see the risk that Anna is talking about. He wouldn't be able to escape, so what's the problem?"

  "He did kill six or so cops when being brought into custody when he was finally captured. Anna was there, and is trying to make sure he doesn't have the chance again."

  "I still would let him out to help–" Damien shut off the radio with a look of disgust on his face. I could hear the sigh of frustration escape his lips.

  "You should just take me home, Damien. They won't know it was you, no one will believe Steve, and you'll be off the hook."

  "Someone clearly believed Steve, otherwise they wouldn't be putting out the story."

  "So he's just going to accuse a random person?" I retorted a little more rudely than I had meant for it to come out.

  "You don't know the whole story, so just shut up," Damien stated in a growl. There was something he wasn't telling me, actually it was probably a lot that he wasn't telling me. I didn't understand how it all connected to Steve, my family, or myself. It didn't make any sense that this man was helping a man he didn't seem to like, or maybe he did and hid it. Damien seemed to be neutral, but there were times when I thought that he actually hated Steve. So the question really became, why was he helping Steve? There had to be some reason for this man helping a psychopath. How had Steve gotten Damien to go along with it?

  "Then tell me the whole story."

  "You don't need to know."

  "You have me trapped in a car, going who knows where, I think it's my business."
<
br />   "Well, you're wrong. You've already been missing about two months, I knew I'd have to move you, but I wasn't planning on it so soon. I have a few places we are going to stop, and then finally make it to where we're supposed to be."

  "Where are we going?" I asked, for the moment dropping the topic of taking me home. I was growing frustrated with the same debate that we had been having for the last two months. I hadn't even realized so much time had gone by.

  "You don't need to know."

  "Then tell me what I need to know or can know," I spat, annoyed that I knew nothing, but Damien knew everything.

  "You only need to know that you and I will be together forever," he said with a seductive smile. "It will be of your own freewill, too."

  "In your dreams," I scoffed, as I whipped my head around to look out the window at the unfamiliar landscape.

  "Come on, Audrey. You can't tell me that you didn't find me attractive when I picked you up from that bar."

  "I didn't find you attractive," I stated with an even voice, impressing myself with how easy it was to lie. "Especially after you kidnapped me."

  "You came willingly,” Damien said, as I instigated the debate that would carry on until this was over, and possibly after I got home if word got around that I went willingly with him from the bar.

  “You’re holding me against my will.”

  “Do you even know the meaning of kidnap?” Damien asked with a smirk on his face that told me my logic wasn’t as accurate as I hoped it to be.