The Woman Trapped in the Dark

by J. D. Mason

James wiped his mouth, leaned back, and draped his arm across the back of the sofa. “Stop talking about kidnapping a woman?” He laughed. “We could go to prison, D. I know you don’t want to think about it, but what we did could get us life.”

  DJ’s stomach turned, but he breathed in deep to keep what was left of his breakfast down. They’d scared the hell out of the woman taking her like they did. DJ had been assured that all they had to do was keep her hidden until the end of the week. That’s all. He knew that she’d be all right when this was over. He just wished that she could know that, but the best thing for all of them was to keep their distance as much as possible. Nay would take her some food, but she wouldn’t talk to her and she’d never let the woman see her face. If they played it smart, then no one would ever know that they were involved in any of this.

  “We’re not going to prison. This will be over in less than a week. We’ll take that woman back to her house—”

  “You believe that?”

  “That’s what we’re doing, James,” he said defiantly. “That’s the only way this is going to end. Then we’ll get paid and get on with our lives. That’s it. It’s what I agreed to.”

  James’s dark eyes bore into DJ’s, threatening to derail his faith in the promise he’d been given. What they’d done was wrong. It was illegal and yes, if they were caught, then they could go to prison. He hated having to scare that woman like that. DJ didn’t want to think about what it’d be like if Nia had been in her place, but he couldn’t dwell on that. This woman was worth a lot of damn money. More than any of them had seen in their lives. When it was all said and done, James would walk away with five hundred thousand dollars.

  DJ challenged his brother. “As long as we don’t do nothing stupid, James, we’ll be cool. We’ll be rich. I can take care of my family and you can do whatever the hell you wanna do. But we cannot fuck this up.”

  DJ knew when he brought James into this that he was going to have to keep reminding him of that. James was a hothead, impulsive.

  “Oh, I’m cool, man,” James said casually. “I want my money, so I’ll do what it takes to get it. You just make sure that white woman does her part. You know how women talk.”

  “She won’t.”

  Naomi Simpson was her name. Her role was simple. Make sure to provide food and water to the other woman. Check on her twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. She wasn’t supposed to talk to her or even look at her. It wasn’t hard.

  “We’ll get together in a few days, the three of us,” DJ said calmly. “Just to be sure that we’re all cool.”

  James shrugged and started to get up to leave. “That’ll work,” he said leaving his mess on the table. “Put this in the trash for me,” he said, grinning.

  I Try to Hide

  ABBY JOLTED AWAKE, DISORIENTED, terrified. Poised to fight. After several moments she realized that she was alone and on a yoga mat on the floor of a small room. What had they done to her? The thought struck fear in her so strong that it was nearly paralyzing, and without warning she started to cry as she intensely focused on her body. Abby ran her hand down the front of her T-shirt and shuddered at the thought that came to mind. Rape! Had they—

  She collected herself enough to assess her body. Abby still had on the clothes she’d gone to bed in the night they took her, a pair of cotton shorts and her T-shirt seemed to be intact, and nothing seemed … She took several deep breaths. Abby reached inside her shorts to discover that she was still wearing panties. If they had assaulted her, she couldn’t be sure, but it didn’t seem like they had.

  Her stiff jaw ached from where she’d been hit, and there was a cut on the inside, tender and raised. She noticed it when she raked the tip of her tongue across it. Abby surveyed her surroundings, and when she saw the door, she shakily struggled to get to her feet and made her way across the room. It was a hollow steel door with a latch plate shielding the locking mechanism in the seam between the door and frame, screwed in next to the knob. Abby pounded her palm against it.

  “Hey!” She waited for a response. “Let me out! Let me … Help me! Somebody, please! Help!”

  She pounded until her hand ached and she was almost hoarse before finally giving up.

  Sunlight filtered through one small window near the top of a nine-foot-high ceiling. A window too high for her to reach and too small for her to fit through. A small air vent was at the opposite end of the ceiling. The walls were painted white but were concrete like the floor. Abby sat on the mat on the floor with her back pressed into one corner of the room, her knees drawn up to her chest, sobbing uncontrollably. This whole ordeal was like something out of a nightmare that she couldn’t shake herself awake from. What did they want with her? Why had they done this? Were they going to kill her? Why?

  Was she still in Blink? She didn’t know. Abby had been unconscious part of the time when they had her in the back of that car. She had no idea how long they’d driven before she’d finally come to. Suddenly it dawned on her that nobody even knew she’d been back in town. Abby had only planned on packing up a few more of her things to take back with her to Dallas, and spending the night had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. She hadn’t called anybody, not her father, or her best friend, Skye. The only person she’d spoken to about even being in Blink was Jordan.

  “You were supposed to wait,” he’d said over the phone, doing his best impersonation of being the boss of her.

  But Abby wasn’t accustomed to being told what to do. “I suppose I could’ve waited,” she said calmly, “but I didn’t want to. Besides, I needed to pick up a few other things and figured that today was as good a day as any to do it.”

  Jordan sighed deeply and took his time responding. “Things are different now, Abby. People know about us and precautions need to be taken where your comings and goings are concerned.”

  “So, what you’re trying to tell me is that I need a bodyguard?”

  “I mean like a bodyguard or two.”

  She found the whole notion ridiculous.

  “That’s just silly, Jordan,” she quipped. “Not to mention embarrassing. What would I look like coming back to Blink, Texas, with armed guards surrounding me? People would think I was acting like Beyoncé or somebody.”

  “I don’t care what people would think. You’d be safe.”

  “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

  Abby got it. He wasn’t happy about her leaving alone. But Blink, Texas, was her home. Of course she felt safe there, safer than she ever did in Dallas. She appreciated his concern, but it felt like overkill. Obviously, it wasn’t.

  Abby had promised to call him before she’d left the house the following morning to head back to Dallas. She’d promised to be back at the penthouse first thing, but what if she wasn’t? Abby put herself in his shoes. Jordan would call her, and when she didn’t answer, when she didn’t show up like she’d promised, he’d worry. A small light of hope sparked inside her. Jordan would come looking for her. He’d call the police and her father. It wouldn’t be long before the whole town knew that she was missing. The police would go to her house and they’d see that there’d been a struggle.

  “He’ll look for me,” she whispered. “He will.” She swallowed and fought to compose herself.

  Suddenly, it was all starting to come together. Since the Governor’s Ball a month ago, Abby had become the new phenomenon. She was the mystery woman on Jordan Gatewood’s arm that night, and the public had become more and more curious about her. Those men had found out about her too, and they’d probably been waiting for her to show up at the house or something. Ransom. This was about money. Abby had been abducted because of Jordan and who he was and what he had. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Jordan already knew. He had to know. They had to have called him and told him what they’d done and what they wanted.

  Instead of sitting here and falling apart, she needed to pull herself together. Abby took a deep breath and released it slowly, then dried
her tears. Yeah, she was scared. And she had no idea what these people were planning on doing to her, but she wasn’t dead yet, and Jordan or no Jordan, she needed to find a way out of here.

  “Think, Abby,” she murmured, scanning the room for even the smallest details. The blue mat was basic. There was no zipper or buttons on it that she could possibly remove and use to try to pry open that door and escape. Other than that, there was nothing else in that room.

  “Shit,” she said in frustration and pushing back panic.

  Abby had to pause to calm herself. What the hell was she even looking for? She looked up at the door. She’d picked the lock to her front door once with a credit card when she’d lost her keys. They’d made sure that she wouldn’t be able to pick this one.

  Just then, Abby heard noises on the outside of the door, the sound of another door opening and closing. Fear washed over her as she thought about those two men who’d abducted her last night. Her heart racing, she pushed back against that wall, bracing herself, recoiling and preparing to fight them again. Hot tears pooled in her eyes. Abby strained to try to hear voices, but there were none, just the sounds of heels clicking against the floor, getting closer to the door leading to this room.

  A key turned in the door and it was slowly pushed open. Abby was trembling but didn’t realize it. It was a woman, tall, lean with an almost boyish build, wearing black jeans, a long-sleeve gray V-neck shirt, and low-heeled black leather boots. Like the two men, she wore a black ski mask to hide her face, but long waves of blond hair hung down her back and shoulders. She cautiously entered the room, wearing dark sunglasses, carrying a clear plastic bag with a sandwich in it and a small bottled water. She set both items on the floor. Then stood next to the door and waited.

  “Eat,” the woman said.

  Abby glanced down at the sandwich and almost threw up just looking at it. She swallowed bile rising in her throat and then looked back at the woman.

  “Please let me go,” she begged. “Please. I won’t say anything. You don’t have to do this.”

  “Eat,” she repeated, sounding like a robot.

  “I don’t want this.”

  The woman seemed uncertain as to what to do next.

  “Please let me go,” Abby said, detecting what seemed to be a sign of weakness in this woman. “You’re a woman,” she continued.

  “Eat.”

  “Whatever you want,” Abby promised shakily. “I can get you whatever you want. Money? Do you want money?” Abby nodded. “I have money, and if it’s not enough, I can get more.” She sniffed. “Those other two don’t have to know and I won’t tell. I swear to God, I won’t tell.”

  “Eat.”

  Abby shook her head. “I don’t want to eat. Let me fuckin’ go!”

  Without uttering another word, the woman bent down to pick up the sandwich and the bottle. Abby sprang up from the floor and bolted, pushing the woman so hard that she fell as Abby raced past her, through the door, out into what looked like a dishwashing area of an old restaurant. She ran past rusted sinks and through a doorway that led to an open eating area filled with old wooden tables stacked with broken chairs toward another door next to a big window.

  Adrenaline drove her to run as fast as she could, as far as she could. Abby was getting away! She’d escaped! Sunlight flooded in, momentarily blinding her as she finally made her way outside. That woman was behind her. Abby could feel her closing in. She glanced at the car parked out front, and started to head out onto the road when she spotted another car barreling toward her. Abby pivoted and ran toward the wooded area behind the building.

  Twigs and thorns dug into Abby’s bare feet, but she didn’t dare slow down. Her chest burned.

  “What the fuck?” she heard a man say. “Dammit, Nay!”

  “Sh … she won’t get far!”

  Don’t stop! she commanded over and over again in her mind. Don’t fall. She had to go faster. Abby could almost feel the pounding of his steps behind her reverberating up through the ground, closing in—getting closer as she wound her way through the maze of trees with agonizing pain shooting through the soles of her feet from splinters embedded in them. She felt herself starting to slow down … or maybe he was speeding up—she wasn’t sure.

  “Just go, Abby,” she sobbed desperately. “Keep going. Keep—”

  She was grabbed by her shirt from behind and pulled down to the ground. Abby kicked and screamed as he lifted her off the ground by her waist. She clawed into his arms with one hand and reached over her head for his face with the other.

  He never said a word to Abby or to the woman.

  “Look at him!” she told herself, trying to turn to see his face, but he pushed her head down.

  “Get my mask from the car,” he told the woman as they made it back to the building. “Hurry up!”

  He stood there, holding Abby still fighting to free herself.

  “Stop it!” he demanded, shaking her like a toy. “I mean it!”

  The woman came back, and moments later, Abby was back inside that room and dropped on the floor. By the time she looked up, both were gone and the man was closing the door behind him. The sound of the key turning in the lock sent a chill up her spine, and Abby collapsed, exhausted, and afraid, and pissed at herself for getting caught.

  Abby crawled over to the mat. God! She’d almost gotten away. If he hadn’t showed up, she would’ve. This wasn’t happening. It was all too surreal and ridiculous. She was still waiting for the sound of the alarm on her phone to go off and to finally wake her up. Please let it go off.

  She had no idea how long she lay there, staring up at that small window before a thought came to her and reminded her of a time in the very beginning of their relationship when Jordan had asked her to be brave. He’d said that the kind of love that the two of them shared would take courage. It was a strange thought to have at a time like this, but somehow she knew that it had come to her for a reason. Abby had to be brave if she was going to make it through this. And if it did have something to do with Jordan, then she had to believe in him, believe that he’d find a way to get to her. She had to believe in the two of them. It soothed her, calmed her—thinking of him. And maybe it’d even keep her from going crazy.

  “If I don’t get out of here first, Jordan,” she murmured, “you find me, Jordan.” She sobbed softly, closed her eyes, and focused on a single thought: Please, find me.

  I Love You Now and Ever

  WOULD THAT WOMAN COME BACK? She was a whole lot taller than Abby, but that didn’t mean she was any stronger. Abby imagined herself lowering her head and barreling into the woman’s midsection with her shoulder, knocking her long ass down onto the floor, then running past her. She was more determined than ever to escape the next time. Abby promised herself that she would.

  As she lay staring up at the ceiling, exhausted, Abby drifted in and out of memories until she came to one that made her forget where she was, just for a little while.

  * * *

  Abby was anxious and she sensed that he was, too. It took everything inside her not to let instinct take over and send their lovemaking into a heated frenzy.

  “Look at me,” he told her, placing his hand beneath her chin and raising her face to look into her eyes.

  She nervously pursed her lips together and blinked, and then shyly averted her gaze. She had never felt more vulnerable or emotionally exposed.

  “No, Abby,” he gently demanded, insisting that she not turn away. “You look at me. You belong to me, sugah,” he whispered. “You belong with me.”

  Her breath quickened, and Jordan guided her breathing back to the same cadence as his. Slow, even, and steady. Abby lost herself in the soul of his eyes. She wondered if he was lost in hers. God! She hoped so. The tips of his fingers lighted a trail down her back, stopping at the curve above her behind. Abby pushed into him. Waves inside her caressed him, threatening to make her lose control and—

  Tantric. Jordan had been telling her about this. It wasn’t about
fucking, bucking, and pounding into each other, chasing orgasms—his or hers. It was about her. Him. The two of them together, meeting in the middle and erasing the world outside of this room. It was about a single moment and making it last for as long as it possibly could.

  She loved him. She trusted him. Still, he seemed to need even more from her. No other man had ever held her hostage the way that Jordan Gatewood had done. He had no idea of the depths of her obsession for him. It’d scare him if he knew. Hell. It scared her. So Abby worked overtime meting out manageable doses of herself to him, being careful not to come on appearing too needy or to cling to him the way she knew that she could if she wasn’t careful.

  Jordan braced his back against the headboard of the bed, bending one leg at the knee, pressing his thigh against her bottom to hold her in place. His other leg stretched long and relaxed in front of him. He was buried deep inside her. Abby pressed her chest against his, her lips less than an inch from his, but he wouldn’t kiss her. She’d lose her mind if he kissed her, and this would be over with entirely too soon.

  He steadied her and stopped her from speeding to the end too quickly. Abby tucked her lower lip between her teeth but held his gaze. Again, he guided her breathing until they breathed as one. Tears pooled in her eyes.

  “You feel so good,” she whispered, bracing her hand against his chest. “Oh, Jordan.”

  “I love you,” he promised her.

  She lost track of how long the two of them made love barely moving. Just when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, he hardened and expanded inside of her. Abby perched precariously between pleasure and pain. The ache low in her gut signaled that she wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

  She hesitantly raised her mouth to his and grazed her lips lightly across his. “I love you so much,” she said, with an unexpected tremble in her voice.

  His breath deepened as Jordan willed himself to stay still. And then Abby let her eyes close.

  “I’m coming, Jordan.” Her voice trailed off as she rested her chin on his shoulder.