Our friendship had, however, been enough to make Brock tell Emily to stop having Chelsea around all the time. He had a conversation with Emily where he told her he was hanging out with me now, and she was happy to try to focus Chelsea's attention elsewhere. I didn't know what else he told his friends or family about us, and I never asked.
It had been quite a while since we first started hanging out regularly, and we were just now getting to the point where we barely made physical contact. Last night, I made cookies in his apartment and we watched a movie together. Watching movies was something we did on a regular basis, and I normally kept a little space between us, but last night I snuggled up next to him for the first time. I had made myself go without touching him for so long that the relief of feeling his body heat was indescribable. I couldn't even watch the movie. All I could pay attention to was the electrical current I felt running through my body.
He was the epitome of a gentleman and seemed content to let me set the pace with our relationship, but when he walked me out that evening he joked with me about what a relief it was that I let him touch me a little bit. I found great joy in him saying that, because as the weeks had passed, I wondered if he had become content with us remaining friends. Don't get me wrong, any girl would be lucky to have him as a friend, but I wasn't trying to settle for that. I just didn't know how or when to take the next step now that I had made us wait for so long.
I wanted so badly to kiss him again. It seemed like an eternity since the last time we had, and I felt like it had been long enough. The night before, I eased into physical contact by curling up with him on the couch, and I thought just maybe tonight would be the night I kissed him.
It was Monday, which was my regular night to volunteer at the Happy House, and I had plans to meet him at his place afterward. I picked up dinner and was on my way there. I was near his studio in the industrial neighborhood when I got pulled over by the police. I sighed when I heard a siren, hoping it wasn't meant for me. I looked into my rearview mirror to see a black SUV right on my tail with a flashing blue light on the dash. I groaned and let my shoulders slump.
I didn't think I had been driving too fast, but I honestly didn't know what the speed limit was on these roads. Had I ever even seen a sign around here?
I pulled over, and the cop parked right behind me. The lights of his giant SUV shone brightly into my car, causing me to squint.
"Please step out of the vehicle, ma'am," I heard over a loud speaker.
It was humiliating being called out like that, but I looked around to find that we were in a deserted area of warehouses. I leaned over the console to dig in the glove compartment, trying to find my registration.
"Please step out of the vehicle, ma'am!" He repeated, with greater intensity.
"I'm getting my registration!" I said in a frustrated tone even though he couldn't hear me.
Before I knew it, he was standing by my car. "Step out of the vehicle," he said, shining a flashlight directly on my face. It startled me, and I flinched as I stared up at him. I couldn't see anything for the bright light that was shining in my eyes.
"I was trying to look for my registration," I said, squinting as I opened the car door.
"You don't need that crap," he said.
By the time it registered to me that it was an odd statement, he had already grabbed me. I resisted, and there was a physical scuffle, during which time I ended up in the arms of another man. I felt the tight pressure of his arms around my body but then felt a stinging sensation near my neck. I knew by his posture and the feel of it that it was a knife.
"Close her car door!" The man holding me yelled as he began dragging me toward their vehicle.
I wiggled and squirmed, doing my best to escape his grasp, but the pressure of the knife on my neck only intensified.
"What do you want from me?" I managed to squeak out.
"Just get in the truck and stop wiggling. We ain't gonna hurt you if you cooperate." He tossed me into the backseat, and by the time I knew what was happening, the other man was pointing a gun straight at me. It was nearly dark out, but I could clearly see down the barrel of the gun. It was the most frightening thing I had ever looked at. All I could do was stare into it, praying he didn't pull the trigger. My neck was still burning, and I grabbed it absentmindedly but didn't feel any blood.
Everything had happened so fast. One second, I was being pulled over, and the next, I was in the back of their vehicle with a gun pointed at me. The man who had been holding the knife to my neck came around to my side of the backseat holding a bunch of rope. I remember thinking that both of them looked the same. They were big, olive complected men who looked like they had just stepped off the set of a mobster movie.
"I'm tying your hands," he said in a matter of fact tone. He motioned with a flick of his chin to the other guy. "If you try any funny stuff, he'll shoot you, and don't think he won't."
My heart was beating uncontrollably. I was stuck in the back of their truck with a gun pointed at me. What else was I to do but give him my hands? He tied them tightly and made quick work of it, and the next thing I knew we were driving down the road.
I learned from their conversation that Leo was the man sitting in the backseat with me and holding the gun. I huddled into one corner of the backseat, and he stretched out comfortably as we drove.
The gun was constantly pointing at me, which made me extremely nervous. I was afraid he would accidentally pull the trigger when we hit a bump.
"Can you please just put the gun down?" I asked weakly. "I'm not going anywhere."
"She ain't going anywhere," Leo confirmed, talking to the guy in the front seat as he set it in his lap. He kept his hand on it just in case I tried anything.
"We ain't gonna hurt you," the driver said.
His promise seemed empty. I was so scared I couldn't even think straight. The adrenaline was crippling. I looked out the window as we merged onto the interstate. I wondered if I could somehow manage to flip over and grab the door handle with my tied hands. I pictured myself falling out of a moving vehicle and wondered if I could survive. I glanced at the dash to see that we were now going 80 miles an hour and figured jumping out wasn't an option. The door was probably locked anyway.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked.
"Don't tell her," the driver said.
Leo laughed. "She's gonna find out," he said. "It's not like we're gonna kill her. Mickey said we're just using her to get the boy to fight." Leo looked at me with a smile and a wink. "Everything's gonna be fine. You're just a little incentive."
"Are you talking about Brock?" I asked.
"Yeah, Mickey's been after him to fight this weekend. Everybody thinks that last one against The Hammer was a fluke—beginner's luck. Mickey's got a rematch set up for this weekend. He thought for sure your boy would agree for the right price. We stand to make millions if your man pulls another one off, and Mickey offered him a handsome payday, but so far, he's refusing. Our backs were against a wall."
"Our backs were against a wall," the driver echoed.
"Brock doesn't want to fight," I said. "You can't make him do that."
Leo laughed. "We can now that we got you."
We rode for a few minutes in silence. I had been so wound up with adrenaline that nothing made sense at first, but the reality of the situation was now beginning to set in. "Did you say the fights aren't till this weekend?"
"Yeah, Friday, why?"
"Because that's a long ways off!" I said. "I have to work tomorrow. I was supposed to be at Brock's right now. People are going to be looking for me."
"You can call in sick from Mickey's place," Leo said. "And don’t worry, we'll be in touch with Brock. He'll know what's going on soon enough."
I sat there thinking for a few seconds. "He has to go out of town this weekend, anyway."
Leo laughed. "Looks like he'll be canceling his trip."
"Is my neck bleeding?" I said, feeling the stinging sensation start up again.
"She was squirming," the driver said defensively. "I didn't mean to."
"Is it bleeding bad?" I asked nervously.
"No, but we wasn't trying to hurt you. I told him to use the backside of that knife, and he didn’t listen to me. We'll get you a bandage when we get to Austin."
"I did use the backside. I must have clipped her with the tip of it when she was squirming."
I didn't know what to say after that, and it seemed they didn't either. We sat there in silence for what must have been a half hour.
"I really need to pee," I said, finally.
"Well, you're gonna have to wait till we get there."
"I was trying to, but I don't think I can," I said. "I needed to go before you guys even picked me up. It's starting to hurt. I don't think I can make it any longer."
"She's just trying to get away," the driver said.
"No I'm not," I said honestly. "I'll just go right here in the truck if I need to."
"Don't you dare pee in Mickey's Cadillac!" the driver said.
"Yeah, Mickey wouldn't like it if you peed in the truck," Leo said. "I think we should stop and let her go."
"She ain't going in a gas station," the driver said.
"Just pull over on the side of the road and I'll let her do it behind a tree," Leo said.
"How's she gonna pee with her hands tied up? She can't get her pants down."
"We'll untie her for a second."
"What if she runs?"
"She ain't gonna run," Leo said. He leveled me with a questioning glare. "You ain't gonna run are you?"
I shook my head.
"Of course she won't," he told the driver. "Besides, I'll walk out there with her and keep the gun on her the whole time."
The driver let out a long, annoyed breath. "You sure you can't hold it till we get Austin?"
"It really hurts," I said honestly. "I'll go right here if I need to, but I can't hold it any more."
"Stop saying that! You ain't gonna urinate in the Cadillac and that's final. Just hold it for another minute till I find a good spot. Leo, you're taking care of this situation. If she runs and you have to shoot her, you're going to have to explain to Mickey why we got a dead girl on our hands."
"I'm not gonna run," I said. "I just need to pee."
We pulled over on a dark stretch of highway, and Leo came around to let me out of my side. I could tell by the way he handled me that he was compassionate—as compassionate as a kidnapper could be, I guess. He took care not to hurt me as he helped me out of the truck and untied the rope that was binding my hands.
We fell into stride with each other as we walked through a patch of grass to the edge of some woods. "I promise everything's gonna be fine," he said as we walked. "You need to trust me and just go along with what we say. Mickey has no intentions of hurting you. He's just got a lot riding on this fight."
I did not want Brock to fight, and the thought of him being forced to do so was more disturbing than thoughts of what would happen to me. I felt sick at the idea of watching him get in a cage. "I don't want him to fight," I said.
"It's gonna be all right," Leo said. "Your boyfriend's tougher than you think."
I didn't bother clarifying that he wasn't my boyfriend. I wanted him to be, so I figured it was the same difference.
"Just go right there behind those trees," Leo said, gesturing with a wave of the gun. He stopped, and I continued walking. "Stay close so I can keep an eye on you, though."
I didn't respond to his instructions. I had no intentions of running. Where would I go if I did? I believed him when he said they had no intention of hurting me, and I was confident that Brock would get me out of this mess, hopefully without having to fight anyone.
I had to pee so badly that it was painful. I stooped down behind a tree at the very edge of the woods, and stayed there for what seemed like a lifetime trying to get enough pressure to make anything come out.
"What's taking so long?" Leo asked after a few minutes.
"I can't go!" I said. "I need to go so bad that I can't make it come out."
"Maybe you need to relax."
"You think so?" I asked sarcastically.
"You better make something come out, or we'll just have to get back in the truck and wait till Austin."
"I can't wait till Austin! I'm already about to pop."
"So pee, then!"
"I'm trying! Just give me a minute to concentrate."
"It's already been like five minutes."
"Leo, please," I begged. "I'm in a lot of pain. Just be quiet and let me try to forget you're standing right there watching me."
He let out a huff. "Hurry up."
Chapter 16
It took a long time, and both men grew extremely impatient, but I was finally able to pee. You'd think being tied up and bound at gunpoint would be unnerving, but my bladder had been hurting so bad, that the relief of having it emptied overshadowed the negative feelings I had about going back to the truck. I felt like a new woman as I stood up, buttoned my pants, and headed for Leo's silhouette.
I let out a sigh of relief to offset the annoyance I'd no doubt be facing once I joined him to head to the truck. Just after I did that, something terrible happened.
I didn't know it was terrible at the time, though. At the time, it felt like I stepped on some uneven ground and my ankle rolled to the side. That wouldn't have been so bad, but it happened that the uneven ground I stepped on began rattling and moving. I was wearing shoes with a thin sole, so I could easily feel the movement beneath my foot. I let out a sharp yelp and stepped to the side instinctually, but it was too late.
The snake had been disturbed, and in the blink of an eye, it shot forward and latched its mouth onto my ankle. The following two seconds were quite possibly the longest of my life. It was extremely dark, but my eyes had adjusted enough to get a good look at the huge, nasty, scaly, tan-colored creature that sprang out to bite me.
Aside from being eaten by sharks or piranhas, a snakebite was my worst nightmare. This was a big, ugly looking one too. I kicked, and lashed, and screamed until I freed myself from it, and left it behind. I ran crying directly into Leo's arms. He had no other choice but to catch me. In shock, he asked me what in the world was going on while interjecting tons of profanities.
"A snaaaakkkkeee!" I wailed. "I gooottt biiiitttt!"
"What?"
"A snaaakkkkeee!"
I was so terrified that the creature had followed me out of the woods to bite me again, that I was literally climbing up Leo as if he was a tree.
"Are you sure?" he asked, beginning to high step toward the truck.
"I'm sure," I said frantically. "It latched onto my ankle."
He continued hobbling back to the truck with me in his arms.
"What's going on?" I heard the other guy yell impatiently.
Leo didn't answer his question. "Are you sure it was a snake?" he asked as he limped quickly.
"I'm sure," I said, still crying. "I saw it plain as day, and I heard it rattling when I stepped on it."
"It was a rattlesnake?" he asked with a sense of urgency in his tone.
"What happened?"
"She got bit by a snake," Leo said, interjecting a ton of f-bombs in the statement.
"How?"
"She stepped on it. Whatta we do?"
"Just get in the truck," the driver said as we made it over there. "We'll call Mickey from the road and see what he thinks."
Leo tossed me into the backseat. "You need to look at it and see if it even broke the skin," he said breathlessly as he climbed in behind me.
I slid up my jeans to take a look at the area where I knew I'd been bit. The interior lights were still on from us getting in, but they began to fade the instant the driver put the truck in drive and started to merge back onto the interstate.
"We need some light back here
!" Leo said.
I was staring at the spot when the lights came back on. I let out a gasp when I saw two red holes on the front of my ankle.
"She sure did get bit," he said, again, interjecting cuss words every chance he got.
"Maybe it wasn't a dangerous one," the driver said.
"She said it rattled!" Leo said. "Whatta we do? I gotta call Mickey."
The driver turned off the light, and I let my foot sink to the floor as Leo pushed buttons on his phone.
"I think I need a hospital," I whimpered, closing my eyes.
"Shhhhh," Leo soothed with the phone to his ear. "We're gonna get you fixed up. One of Mickey's good friends is an emergency room doctor. We got him on call and there's only 40 miles to Austin."
"What if I can't wait forty miles?" I asked, already feeling nauseous and light headed. "I don't think I can wait."
"Shhhh. Hey Mickey, we got a situation here with the girl. No, we got her. She's right here, but I think she might have been bitten by a rattlesnake."
I heard Mickey yell out over the phone and Leo took it from his ear for a second.
"She had to pee, and we pulled over to let her. We had to, or she was gonna go in the Cadillac. We stopped so she could go in the woods, and she stepped on a snake. (Pause) She heard it rattle, that's how. (Pause) Why don't you look it up on Google? I sort of got my hands full here. (Pause) She's right here. She's fine. (Pause) Pauly, turn on that overhead light again. Mickey Googled it. He said we need to check it to see if it looks red and irritated around the bite marks."
The overhead lights came on, and I put my foot on the console so we could get a good look.
"It looks pretty red, boss. (Pause) She's pretty shaken up."
"I don't feel so good," I said, leaning my head on the back of the seat.
"She says she don't feel so good, boss." There was along pause. I had my eyes closed, but I assumed Leo was listening to Mickey. "Okay," he said, finally. "Mickey says you're gonna be just fine as long as we get you back to Austin within two hours."
Finally My Happy Ending (Meant for Me Book 3) Page 11
