Endgame

by Mandie Mills

  “Fuck.”

  “Told you.” She smirked. “Once you start moving away from the city the cell service sucks. Especially for my carrier.”

  “Fuck.” He repeated and tossed her phone into the catchall and dropped her purse at his feet.

  She bit her lip as she watched her very expensive and relatively new phone bounce around for a second before settling screen up. Thank God for shock proof cases.

  “What about your phone?”

  “I don’t have one.”

  “Who doesn’t have a phone?”

  “I don’t. Not anymore.”

  “Now what?”

  “I don’t know. How can you not have GPS?”

  “I have GPS. I just left it at home because I wasn’t expecting to end up on a fucking joyride today when I left my house.”

  “Just keep driving,” he snapped and picked up her purse again.

  “What’re you doing?” she asked as pulled out her wallet.

  “Looking at your driver’s license. To get your name.”

  “You could just ask me. You don’t have to go all overzealous security guard on my purse.”

  “You could lie.”

  “Why would I lie about my name? It’s in my wallet and in my phone. It’s the only thing I answer too.”

  “Fine. What’s your name?”

  “Elena.” She glanced over at him.

  “Are you telling the truth?”

  “I am.” She nodded. “What’s yours?”

  “Tom,” he said after a pause.

  “Are you telling the truth?”

  “Yes.” He gave her a look and she smirked at him.

  “Just checking.” She smiled as she turned her eyes back to the road. He put her purse back down at his feet and she noticed that he zipped it up before he tossed it onto the floor. That was considerate of him.

  There was another long, drawn out silence. He was staring out the window and his expression was hard and a little angry.

  Now that she’d had a few more moments to think she was still completely confused by what was happening. People didn’t get hijacked, not in real life. That kind of thing only happened in the movies.

  She didn’t know what to do. He still had the gun in his lap and he looked angry and distracted at the same time. She couldn’t get a measure of him from the brief interactions they’d had and she had no idea if he would actually use the gun on her.

  All she knew was that she’d been taken hostage by a man with a gun. He was forcing her to drive to some tiny little town in the middle of nowhere and she was alone and completely at his mercy.

  “Why?” she asked suddenly, breaking the heavy silence in the car. She couldn’t hold back any longer. The silence was making her think and thinking was driving her crazy.

  “Why what?”

  “Why did you hijack and kidnap me? Why are we driving to Midland? Why me? Why any of this?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” she asked pointedly.

  “Won’t.”

  “Just tell me something, please,” she said quietly, glancing at him as she continued to drive down the deserted highway. “One thing. Just tell me one thing, that’s all I ask.”

  He looked at her for a long time before sighing. “We’re going to Midland because there’s someone there I need to see. I hijacked you because I need a car and I kidnaped you because I need a driver.”

  “And that’s all you’re going to say?”

  “You really want to be questioning me while I have this in my hand?”

  She glanced down and saw he was now holding the gun with his finger dangerously close to the trigger.

  She just bit her lip and tried to stop the adrenaline from rising in her body as she looked back at the road. He hadn’t really answered her questions but he was the one with the gun so she would let it go, for now.

  “Can you please let go of the gun? I swear I’ll do what you say. Please?” she added when he just looked at her.

  “Fine.”

  He let go of the gun but left it on his lap.

  “Can we put the music on?”

  “Why?”

  “We’re in for a long ride together and I can’t drive in silence. If you don’t want to talk to me then I need the radio. I need the distraction.”

  After a pause he turned the radio on and started going through the preset stations. Most of them were static since they were far enough outside the city the signals couldn’t reach them. He started searching the frequencies for different stations and found three. Two were country and one was currently playing a Journey song.

  She was grateful when he left it on the Journey song.

  “You’re not going to tell me any more about why we’re going to Midland, are you.”

  “No.”

  She nodded and signaled to pass a slow moving compact car ahead of them. There was no point trying to force any information out of him. He was the one with the gun and he didn’t seem to be in any mood to talk.

  Chapter Two

  “Do you have a map in here?”

  Tom’s voice rang out in the silence, making Elena jump and swerve slightly as she unconsciously wrenched on the wheel.

  They’d been driving in silence for nearly half an hour and she’d zoned out as she’d tried not to think about what was happening and instead concentrate on driving.

  “What?”

  “A map. Do you have one?”

  “Glove box.”

  He opened the glove box and pulled out the map she had stashed in there. Her dad had taught her to always be prepared, and that included not only relying on technology to help her find her way.

  He could have just looked at her phone and used the GPS. They were well into the next county and she knew the cell service was a lot better here. For some reason there was a sort of dead zone around the outskirts of the city and it didn’t get better until you crossed county lines. She knew this, but for some reason she didn’t tell him.

  Maybe it was in the hopes that he’d give up when he couldn’t find his way. Or maybe it was the hope that he’d have to stop and ask for directions if he was lost and she could make her move to escape.

  If he stopped and someone saw her she could try and signal that she needed help. He could shoot her, but then he’d be committing murder in front of a witness. That was a much worse crime than kidnapping. She had a chance if she could get close enough to another person.

  For the entire drive she’d been sneaking her speed up over the limit every time they passed a side road or an off or on ramp. She’d been hoping there would be some bored cop looking to fill their ticket quota, and she’d had her eye out for a speed trap.

  There had been nothing. She’d passed four cars and had been passed by three.

  Seven cars. That was the sum total of other vehicles she’d seen since they’d left the city. At the moment there was no one on the road, not behind, in front or coming toward them. She felt as though she was completely alone and the rest of the world had somehow melted away.

  She kept sneaking glances at Tom as he tried to read the map. He obviously had no idea what he was doing as he flipped it this way and that, trying to use the index before giving up and trying to locate them by the highway they were on.

  “I don’t think we’re going the right way,” he said after a pause. “Highway 17 doesn’t go to Midland.”

  “We’re on Highway 2.”

  “We’re where?” he asked and flipped the map around again.

  “Highway 2.” she repeated. “We’re coming up on Whitvale.”

  “Whitvale,” he muttered as he looked for it.

  “Yes, Whitvale.”

  “It’s a town near what?” he asked after a long pause.

  “It’s a hamlet and we’ve passed it. Now we’re coming up on the county of Greater Eglinton.”

  “Greater Eglinton?” he asked as he searched the map. “Is there a Lesser Eglinton?”

  “I don’t thin
k so.” She smiled despite herself. It was kind of funny that the scary man with a gun couldn’t read a map. “Can you find it?”

  “I can’t even find Highway 2.”

  “How can you not be able to read a map?”

  “I can read a map. I just can’t find us on the fucking map.”

  “If you can’t find us then you can’t read it.”

  “You a map reading expert or something?”

  “Not an expert.” She shot him a look. He wasn’t angry and waving the gun around. He just looked frustrated, and that made him seem more human and less threatening. “If you can’t find Highway 2, then look for Highway 6. It intersects Highway 2 just outside the city so if you find one you can follow it to the other.”

  “Intersects north of the city?”

  “Yes, but the highway snakes around from the east and then goes north.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I’ve lived here since I was twelve. It’s really not that complicated.”

  “I can’t fucking find either of them.” She could hear the frustration levels in his voice rising. She didn’t know how short his fuse was, and not getting killed over his inability to read a map was high on her priority list.

  “Just one second.” She signaled to the right and slowed down. There was nothing behind her that she could see but the gavel on the shoulder would do quite a bit of damage to her car if she wasn’t careful so she started to cut her speed before she drove onto the shoulder.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Pulling over to give you a little map reading lesson.”

  “On the side of the highway?”

  “Relax, we’ll be on the shoulder.” She stopped the car, hoping she’d been careful enough that none of the kicked up rocks had scratched the paint of her car.

  She put the car in park and then put on her hazard lights. She undid her seatbelt and moved a little closer to him in her seat as he leaned over and extended the map out to her. After a moment he unbuckled his seatbelt and shifted so he was closer to her and they could put the map between them.

  First she had to get the map turned the right way. Then she had to put him on the right part of it. Only then could she point out the highway there were on. After a second she found both Whitvale and Greater Eglinton and followed the highway up until she found where it intersected with Highway 58. Highway 58 would take them up to Highway 82 and that would bring them to Route 4. Route 4 would take them into Midland.

  Midland really was the middle of nowhere and she couldn’t imagine who he would know up there. It might have been three hundred miles to Midland point to point on the map, but it would be closer to four hundred because of the roundabout route they’d to take. There was no faster way that she could see without some serious backtracking, and even then it would still take just as long or longer to get there. If they’d actually taken the eastern highway out of town they could have taken that to Highway 17 and jumped right onto Highway 58 and cut at least two hundred miles off their trip, but he’d said north so she’d gone north.

  “This is going to be a long drive,” she warned after she’d pointed all of this out to him. “Another six hours, at least.”

  “How long can you drive without needing a break?”

  “Well, I’ve never tested myself, but my bladder won’t hold out more than a few more hours.” She looked over at him. That was a mistake.

  He was leaning close to her, his hand on the side of her seat as he steadied himself, and his impossibly blue eyes were staring into hers.

  He was so handsome and virile that she froze.

  In that moment all she could think about was how the man with gun who’d kidnapped her was gorgeous, and staring at her with lust and desire in his eyes.

  A flush moved over her skin and there was a pulse deep in her womb. She had no idea what the fuck was wrong with her, but her body was reacting to him even as her mind was focused on the gun he’d tucked into his coat pocket.

  She shook her head and hastily began pulling away from him. The map slipped out of her hands and she didn’t think. She just reacted out of instinct and tried to catch it.

  She reached out and managed to close her fingers around the edge of it, but it spun out of her grasp and fell to the floor between his knees. The map was out of her reach, but her momentum was still carrying her forward.

  Instinctively she put her hands out to steady herself and ended up with one hand on his left thigh and the other on his groin. She’d caught most of her weight on her left hand so it was his thigh that took the brunt of the impact, but her right hand was still right there on his privates. She was about to snatch it away when she heard him suck in a breath and his cock suddenly grew hard under her hand.

  After a pause he gripped her wrist in his strong hand and stared at her, his eyes darkening slightly.

  “What do you want,” she almost whispered as she looked at him. His eyes were burning into hers and that damn flush and tingly pulse was back.

  “What do you think I want?” he asked as his gaze flicked to her lips and then back to her eyes.

  She knew exactly what he wanted.

  He gave her a wicked grin and gripped her wrist a little tighter in his hand. He wasn’t hurting her but he was letting her know that he was in control. He rubbed her hand over his erection a few times, then let go of her.

  She paused and took a deep breath. She had no idea what the hell she was doing, or why she was doing it, but she started to stroke her hand over him.

  He sighed and leaned back in the seat, watching her intently as she teased him.

  She was crazy. There was no other explanation.

  At that moment she was giving her kidnapper a hand job on the side of the highway. There was no way she could justify the situation in her head, but as her hand moved over his hard cock, the rough material of his jeans making it hard to feel the exact shape of him, she didn’t want to stop.

  She watched his face as she stroked him, wanting to see his reactions to her. She didn’t think about anything other than how hard he felt and how hot he looked. Her body tightened and a shiver of desire ran down her spine as he stared at her.

  His eyes darkened, his breathing sped up and he kept his gaze locked on hers as the pleasure started to show on his face.

  She closed her hand around him slightly, gripping his shaft as she stroked him. When he grunted in pleasure, she put a little more power into her movements.

  “Stop.”

  She bit her lip again and felt a flutter of nerves and excitement go through her. She pulled her hand away and waited as he undid his jeans and reached into his pants to pull his cock free. He was long and thick and perfect, and she felt another one of those dreaded pulses hit her womb as her lower body tightened and clenched.

  “Now.”

  She swallowed as she as she closed her hand around him. His skin was like hot silk under her hand and his cock was rock hard and pulsing slightly.

  She started to stroke her hand over him, gripping his shaft as she teased him. She kept her eyes on his, watching as he started to gasp slightly and stare at her with naked lust in his gaze.

  “Fuck,” he groaned, his eyes still locked on hers. “Make me come, Elena.”

  She started to twist her hand as she stroked up his cock, squeezing a little tighter as she reached the head, and releasing as she stroked back down.

  She heard him grunt, saw his muscles tighten as he gripped the door of the car with one hand and the seatbelt latch with the other. It would seem she’d found what he liked.

  “That’s it. A little more...Oh, fuck!”

  She held her hand still, keeping her eyes locked on his face as she watched him come and his semen spilled over her hand.

  When the pleasure had passed he opened his eyes and stared at her.

  She let go of his now limp cock and sat back in her seat. “There’s napkins in the pocket in the door beside you. I need a few too.”

  As he dug the
wad of napkins out of the door she just shook her head and sighed. As fucked up as it was, she was really turned on. Her entire body was tingling and even her skin felt sensitive. Her nipples were hardened peaks and tiny jolts of pleasure were shooting through her as they rubbed against the material of her bra. There was an ache deep in her body and she resisted the urge to squeeze her legs together as she felt a tingle move between them.

  She had no idea what the hell that had been. One second she’d been reading a map and the next she was jerking him off.

  He hadn’t exactly forced her to do it. He’d told her to, but he hadn’t threatened her. He didn’t have the gun in his hand and he hadn’t reached for it at any time. Had she done that because she wanted to? Or because she’d worried he would hurt her if she didn’t?

  * * * * *

  After they’d cleaned up Elena had gotten back on the highway and continued driving north. She didn’t want to think about what she’d just done and he didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk so the drive was silent.

  The radio station they were listening to started to cut out, and a few minutes later there was nothing but static coming from the speakers. The white noise was soothing but she wasn’t in the mood to be soothed. She needed music to distract her thoughts. She didn’t need to get sleepy.

  Reaching over she pushed the button on the radio, flipping through the stations. She passed several country stations and one that was playing a very techno sounding song. After going through every broadcasting frequency twice she shut off the radio. Country music was worse than silence.

  A few minutes later she felt a pressure in her bladder that quickly turned into the urge to pee. She tried to ignore it, but after another mile or so the urge became overwhelming. She wouldn’t be able to hold it.

  “I have to pee.”

  “Now?”

  “It’s not exactly something I can control.”

  “Just pull over at the next chance you get.”

  “You want me to pull over onto an access road and then what? There’s nothing out here.”

  “You can just go in the bushes. Or behind a tree, whatever’s there.”