Save Me (Taken Series Book 1)

by Cannavina, Whitney

  I can hear Sierra’s screams muffled by the door and I ache to be with her. I ache to hold her one last time before I die but I know what I have to do before I leave her forever. I aim again to hit the fucker who dare try and take my baby girl from me again and am knocked over by the front door I am leaning against. I can’t see the man’s face who stormed in but he’s yelling and he sounds angry. His voice is muffled in my head so I can’t really understand him as I start to lose consciousness. I try to shoot again before I completely black out but I can’t see straight so my shot misses its intended target most likely hitting a wall.

  I missed the newest intruder and he turns and storms over to me kicking me in the stomach where I was shot. It hurt like a fucking bitch. I grunt in pain trying not show how bad it really hurts. I try not to show my fear as I stare him down without really seeing him as darkness starts to descend. My fear is not for myself but for Sierra. I promised her I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. I promised her she was safe with me. Now there is nothing I can do as I bleed out right here.

  Before I can say anything or do anything more the guy pulls out his gun and shoots and I black out. I don’t here the screams coming from Sierra as she stays locked behind the door in the room I left her in. I don’t hear her cries as they break down the door to find her huddled in the corner in fear. I don’t hear her cries as they beat her or when she sees me lying in my own pool of blood dying from being shot three times. I don’t see the heartbreak on her face as she realizes there is no hope of ever seeing me again because there is no way I could live through this sort of trauma.

  There is no more hope for me or her. No more hope that she will be saved. No more hope that she will be found after this. They have gotten smarter and they’ve realized their mistakes the first time around and took precautions so it wouldn’t happen again.

  I lay here on the floor in a pool of my blood taking my last breath, my heart beating its last beat and I losing the last of my hope that Sierra will ever make it out of this unscathed. As the darkness pulls me under I feel light. I feel weightless and as if I am floating. I can hear the angels speak. I can hear the bells of heaven ringing. I can see the light from behind the veil peeking through trying to welcome me. I don’t know if I’m worthy of being here but maybe, just maybe this is where I am supposed to be.

  I can hear the angels telling me it’s all going to be ok. They tell me I’ll be ok and to come back to them. I try to follow the voices as I walk through the darkness towards the light. I stop at the veil unsure if I should continue. Then I hear a voice. A beautiful voice. It’s her voice. This must be heaven to have my baby girl here with me. The voice is on the other side of the veil. I must follow the voice. I spread the veil apart with my hands and look into the bright light. I can’t see due to the brightness but I step through hoping to find her anyways.

  The light fades to a sunny day with a picture perfect setting. I remember this day. It was last summer. We went to the beach as a group with me, Damon, Sierra, one of her friends who I could never remember her name because it was something foreign and two of our friends. We brought an ice chest full of sodas, water and sandwiches that the girls made for lunch. It was the first time I really noticed Sierra as a woman. Her and her friend laid their beach towels out after picking the perfect spot. It took them ten minutes to find it, walking up and down the beach while we carried all the heavy stuff. I was exhausted and ready to just go home by now. I didn’t sign up for all this nonsense. I wanted to relax at the beach watching all the hot chicks in their bikinis sunbathe, not carry everything all over the hot, soft sand.

  We set all the stuff down while the girls kicked off their flip flops and undressed out of their shorts and tank tops. When I looked up because our buddies were whistling, I about killed them. It wasn’t some hot chick in a bikini running by or sunbathing next to us. It was Sierra and her friend in their tiny, barely there bikinis. I mean this was less than a bra and panties. They were practically naked.

  I understand why my heaven would be this moment right here because it was heaven to me. God she was beautiful. Her tan skin, long legs and curves that made you want to run your hands all over. Problem was, every other man in the vicinity was thinking the same thing. Damon was pissed while I was turned on. Every man around us was near death by the looks Damon was giving because of the lustful gazes they sent the girls’ way.

  That day was when I realized Sierra was no longer a girl but a woman. A woman that turned me on beyond belief. That day I realized I truly wanted the forbidden fruit that she offered like Eve offered Adam. In Sierra’s case, it was her body she was offering up whether she knew it or not.

  That day was the greatest day of my life and the worst. Even though I was able to ogle her behind my sunglasses and act as her protector by staying close, I wasn’t able to touch her the way I craved and that made my day the most agonizing day of my life.

  I remember her telling me that she had just bought that bikini. It was a peach color that looked like lace you would see on a bra and panty set. The bottoms were almost like a thong with how little they covered. I was grateful, don’t get me wrong but I wanted to be the only one to see her in it and she filled it out just perfectly. She reminded me of a lingerie model from Victoria’s Secret but with more innocent.

  Because Damon wanted to make the rounds with the ladies he asked me to stay close to Sierra. I didn’t protest of course and throughout the day as we played in the water splashing each other and dunking each other in it I felt closer to her than I ever have. While her friend flirted with my buddies, Sierra and I talked when we weren’t goofing around.

  She told me of her hopes and dreams of the future. How she wants to help children with problems like I had. She wanted to be a counselor or work in child protective services saving kids with abusive families and put them in foster homes with caring parents who would treat them with respect. She wanted the children to get help with whatever emotional problems they had from the environments they lived in. She wanted to save them. I think she wanted to save me.

  I fell in love with her that day and didn’t even realize it. The fact that she could feel so strongly for children that were not her own and want to help them have a better future showed how strong and caring she truly is. I admired her. I looked up to her. I want to be as good a person as she was but I knew I never would be. I will never be as amazing as she is. I will never be anything again because I’m here. This is supposed to be heaven but this has turned into my hell. Realizing I never will see my baby girl again and knowing she will never be able to do all she aspired to do because of those bastards’ kills me all over again. She didn’t deserve this. She deserved so much more. She deserved the world. She had the world at her fingertips and now it’s been stripped away again. She’s in hell and so am I because there is nothing I can do to save her and nothing I can say to help her.

  I walk backwards, leaving the scene before me to reclaim the darkness behind the veil again. I don’t want to see this anymore. I don’t want to be here anymore. I regret that I couldn’t help her and I just want the darkness to claim me so maybe it could lessen the heartache in my chest. I continue backwards, falling farther and farther back into the darkness until I can’t see the light anymore. And then I crash.

  Chapter 9

  Sierra

  To say the sex was amazing wouldn’t be right. There are no words to explain how perfect my first time was with Forrest. I never thought I would be here in this moment of pure bliss, lying in my loves arms. I feel sated and content to just stay here forever.

  Forrest was gentle and caring. I’ve never seen this side of him before but it’s the most incredible feeling in the world to see it. Sure it hurt a little as he pushed through my walls but it didn’t take long before it turned into pure heat and passion. The erotic feeling and all the emotion we shared made me crash with such intensity I felt like I was floating out of my body.

  Then when we finally came down from our high, just lying
in his arms, hearing his heart beat to a steady rhythm was the best feeling on earth. Now as I lay tied up in the trunk of the car I was thrown in, I think back to those last moments I had with Forrest. The last moments I will ever have with him because he’s gone. Dead in a puddle of his own blood at the safe house where nothing bad was supposed to happen to us. Where we were supposed to be safe and still in each other’s arms dreaming of our future and what happens next for us.

  Waking up to someone banging on the front door at four in the morning was something neither of us anticipated. I was terrified that something bad was about to happen. I’m sure Forrest saw the fear in my eyes when he tried to assure me that everything was going to be ok. But it wasn’t ok. I had a bad feeling before he ever stepped out of that door and shut it behind his retreating form.

  I hid in the corner of the room and waited. I didn’t want to. I wanted to be with Forrest back in bed but I wasn’t. Forrest needed to answer the door. He needed to see who was here while he convinced me that it was going to be ok. He took his gun with him so he had to be ok. Right?

  Wrong. He wasn’t ok. I waited and waited for the shouting to happen but it didn’t. Instead it was quiet. Only hushed tones in which I couldn’t decipher what is being said.

  BANG!

  The loud pop of a gun being fired rings in my head. Was it Forrest or the other guy? Oh god! Is Forrest ok? I want so badly to go out there and see for myself that he is in one piece but am instantly frozen in my spot from a second shot ringing out.

  I can feel the tears stinging my eyes as I realize he’s come for me. He’s going to take me away from Forrest and from my family again. He will kill anyone and everyone to get to me and it seems as if that is what has just happened. I have to believe that Forrest will be ok. I need to believe it because if I don’t, I will break. I will have nothing left to hold onto in the hopes that I will be saved. If he kills Forrest, he will take me and I will never be heard from again.

  Another shot rings out and I scream. With their being a third shot then that means Forrest is hurt but I can’t help him. I know if I go out there I will be just another distraction. So I stay put in my corner and cry. I try to stay quiet just in case but as the fourth shot rings out I can’t. I sob and I scream because I know. I know that Forrest isn’t ok. I know he’s hurt and has been shot. There can be no possible way that he wasn’t shot after four gun fires ring through the house.

  Where are the police? I don’t hear any sirens. There is no way that one of the neighbors didn’t hear any of those shots and didn’t call the police. One shot fired I could see them not knowing for sure but four? They must know it was not just some fluke.

  The door kicks open and I scream some more. I scream at the top of my lungs as I try to crawl further into the corner so he can’t see me. He looks furious. His eyes look upon me with such ferocity it’s like he’s a demon from hell. He’s come for me and it’s not Forrest. It’s my nightmare. It’s Jeremy. He’s here to take me back to hell. I can’t let him take me this time. I need to fight back with all I have. I need to save myself and I need to save Forrest before it’s too late.

  As he stalks closer I ready myself. I close my fingers tight into a fist ready to swing when he is in reach. As he bends down to grab hold of me I swing. My fist connects but it doesn’t faze him. Jeremy just shoots forward and grabs my arms roughly pulling me to him than throwing me to the floor like a ragdoll.

  I try to crawl away getting nowhere as he comes up and kicks me in the stomach causing me to lose my breath and fall to my side on the floor. He kicks me again in the stomach causing me to curl into myself before he rolls me onto my back and climbs to straddle my chest. I try to shove him off me as I scream at the top of my lungs only to stop short as he smashes his fist into my cheek. He climbs off me before lifting me up and throwing me over his shoulder.

  “You thought you could get away from me that easily? You should have known I would find you. Your mine you bitch. Mine.” He growls to me.

  I scream for Forrest as Jeremy carries me out. I hit his back with my fists, I try to kick him with my feet but miss entirely before he throws me back down on the floor and ties me up with a piece of rope I didn’t see before. I kick and scream the whole time but he is so much stronger than me. He overpowers me and now there’s no way I can get away.

  God I hope Forrest is ok but since Jeremy has me, I know he isn’t. What I don’t know is just how badly hurt he is.

  I’m still screaming for Forrest and for someone to help me, making my voice grow hoarse as Jeremy throws me over his shoulder again and carries me out. I can hear the sirens coming but they are so far away I’m not sure they will get here in time to save us. As we enter the front entry way I see another man curled up on the floor moaning. There’s blood all around him and I turn my face to look away. Maybe he tried to help Forrest but was hurt in the process. I don’t know.

  As I turn to look away from the man on the floor I regret the action just as much as I am grateful for the person I see. Then I realize he’s not moving. He’s not doing anything. I don’t even see his chest rising and falling with his breaths.

  He’s dead. Forrest is dead. He lays in a pool of his own blood, helpless and wounded from being shot. He’s been shot several times that I can see. Blood seeps from his shoulder and abdomen but what worries me the most is he was shot in the head. His head is bleeding and I know what that means. That means he won’t come back from this. There is no saving Forrest from his fate. He’s dead.

  I scream. I thought I couldn’t scream any louder but I did. I screamed so loud that I hope Forrest can hear me in heaven. I hope he knows how much I love him and that I am so sorry. I call for him in hopes that maybe I was wrong. Maybe he’s not really dead. Maybe he just hit his head and that’s not really a bullet wound but it’s of no use. I just keep screaming in my sad, pitiful dread and sadness that I lost the one person I could love and see a future with. I scream for the loss of my future and of Forrest’s future.

  Forrest deserved so much more than an early grave. He deserved to feel love. True, unrequited love. Now it’s too late and it’s all my fault. I put him in this position. I killed him. If it wasn’t for him saving me he would still be alive. He would be at home safe and sound and his life would have gone on but no. He rescued me. He took me from this evil man and showed me what it was to be made love to even if I only got to spend a few hours in his arms.

  I continue to call for him as Jeremy carries me out of the house but Forrest never wakes. He never speaks, or opens his eyes or even twitches at the sound of his name coming off off my lips. I lose all my fight and determination to get away as my new reality sets in. I’ve been captured. Forrest is dead. Nobody can save me now.

  I cry soundlessly just letting the tears leak like a waterfall down my cheeks and onto the ground below me. The sounds of the sirens are getting closer but not close enough. They won’t be here in time. They are too late as it is. I don’t care if I am never saved but I wish they could save Forrest.

  It’s too late.

  It’s far too late.

  I don’t fight him as he opens the trunk or when he tosses me into it before closing the lid, locking me in the dark. I don’t make a sound as I hear the door to the driver side open and slam shut or when the engine is started. I don’t do anything but lay in the darkness and continue to let my tears fall.

  I don’t notice the bumps as I get jumbled around while Jeremy drives to our destination. I don’t hear the horns of the cars or the sounds of the city as it comes alive and everyone begins to start their day on the road headed to their jobs. I don’t even notice when we stop an unknown amount of time later. I barely notice the bright light of the sun as Jeremy opens the trunk effectively lighting up the space I occupy before being fully engulfed in the warm sun as he lifts me out and carries me from the car up the drive and into a large house. I do notice however that the house is surrounded by a tall wooden fence with giant trees following it so nobody can see insi
de. I don’t know where we are or how far this place is from the safe house but I don’t recognize it and I doubt anybody will ever find me now.

  I know that I will never see my family or friends again after this. I have officially disappeared forever. I wish I were dead. I wish I could follow Forrest into heaven and avoid this hell. I think about killing myself. I think about cutting my wrists, slitting my throat, hanging from the fan I’m sure is hanging in one of the rooms, or even throwing myself from the window head first. As soon as he unties me that’s what I will do. I will kill myself. I don’t care if it’s painful or long and slow as long as it’s ultimately effective because I know that my fate is worse in the hands of this monster. I know I will die a thousand deaths at the hands of Jeremy as he touches me in any way. I can’t stand it. I won’t. Today I die and my death will be a relief to the hell I will be living every day from here on out.

  As I contemplate my suicide I miss the tour of the house. That’s ok though because I don’t need to see what’s here. I will be dead in less than an hour as long as Jeremy just drops me off in a room like he did before at the other house.

  He takes me up a stairway to a room at the end of the hall. It’s empty with just a single bed and dresser. Jeremy tosses me on the bed and walks to the door closing it and locking it with a key.

  “That was a very stupid thing you did running away from me. Did you honestly think I wouldn’t find you?” I try not to listen because all along I knew he would. I knew I would never be free of him. He’s smart and obviously has resources beyond my understanding. He probably has someone on the inside. Someone on the force helping him and that’s how he found me. But if he does know someone and they told him where I was then that means it was someone working close to Forrest. Probably the mole that Forrest was worried about.

  I don’t answer because I know he doesn’t really want to hear it. Jeremy leans against the door and just stares at me. His eyes like lasers’ zeroing in on their intended target before they strike. I don’t know what he wants from me but I pray that he doesn’t try to take it from me now. I just want to be left alone. I just want my chance to end my life before he gets his chance to take what he’s been wanting from me.