by Tiffani Lynn
At the end of the day I order my Uber and trudge back down the hill. Almost as soon as the Uber car pulls back onto the road after I get in, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. There’s something familiar about the driver, but I’m unable to see his face in the rearview mirror to see if I know him. His baseball cap is pulled down too low on his head and the only thing I can see of his is straight, black hair sticking out the bottom of the hat.
I pull up the Uber app to see what the driver’s name is and realize, to my horror, that my real driver hasn’t arrived at the pick-up point yet. Shit! I wasn’t paying attention and got in the wrong car, but who the hell else is out here picking up chicks on the side of the road? I could see if I were downtown and the wrong Uber picked me up, but out here in the middle of nowhere? Not possible. Alarm bells clang loud in my head.
Chapter Ten
Marina
“Sir.” Please let this be a mix-up. “Sir. I’m in the wrong Uber. Can you drop me off? I’ll tip you for your trouble.”
He doesn’t respond and a chill dances down my spine. Why doesn’t he respond? I decide I’ll jump if I need to, but I’m getting out of this car now. Something about this whole situation is wrong.
I reach for the handle and he finally speaks. “Locks from the outside. Added that feature yesterday. You can try all you want but you aren’t going anywhere. I’ve been planning this date for a while and you’re going to enjoy it.”
My heart thumps in my chest so hard I feel like you could hear it outside of the car. A fine sheen of sweat breaks out along my forehead and collar. What am I going to do?
“You’ve got the wrong girl.” My voice is shaking and my brain is telling me it’s a good idea to talk my way through this so the babbling begins. “I’m a lesbian. I don’t date guys so I know you have the wrong girl. Besides, I’ve been mucking the horses’ stalls all day. Don’t you smell the manure on my knees? It’s pretty stinky. My girlfriend is going to be so pissed. I’m not into guys and she’s waiting for me at hom—”
“Enough. Lying will only piss me off. Dee is not your girlfriend and she’s not at your apartment. She’s at Reggie’s house. I know she’s there because she’s moving in with him, she just hasn’t figured out how to break it to you yet. She was worried about how you’ll take it considering you hate to be alone and all.”
Oh, my God! This guy knows Dee and an awful lot of information about me! How does he know this stuff?
“How do you know about Dee and Reggie?”
“I know everything. I’ve been watching you for a long time now. Don’t worry, I’m going to make you comfortable. You’ll feel right at home as a matter of fact. Once you’re ready, we can have this date I’ve waited so long for. You’ve been a busy girl with Jasen Dexter, but that’s no longer an issue.”
“What do you mean?”
“About Dexter or it not being an issue? You and Dexter broke up and I’ve cleared your schedule for a very long time. That should answer both questions.”
My phone! I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before, but my phone is in my hand. Sometimes service is spotty up here but it’s worth a try. I slide it on and dial 911. Before I remember to lower the volume, the emergency operator comes on the line and is loud enough for him to hear.
Oh God! Oh God, he’ll be able to hear it!
I fumble with the phone, trying to drop the volume. He slams on the brakes, throwing me forward, and the phone flies out of my hand, lodging between the front seats. I can hear the operator, but I can’t reach it to do anything so I scream as loud as I can.
“I’m being taken! Help me! Please someone help me!”
The driver’s cussing grows louder as he jerks the car off to the side of the road as I try to wiggle myself from my spot on the floor between the seats. He can’t find the phone and I keep screaming the same thing over and over. He gets out of the car and yanks open the back door. I learned a long time ago not to be a victim when I’m being attacked. I can fight back now and that’s what I plan to do.
As soon as he’s within reach I kick my leg out as hard and as fast as I can, catching him in the nuts. “Argh!” he yells as he stumbles back, dropping to the ground. I wiggle myself out of the car as quickly as I can. This time, while he’s still writhing on the ground in pain, I kick him in his side by his ribs as hard as I can and he groans and cusses at me louder.
I turn and run as fast as I can down the incline of the road toward town. It’s just past dusk and I’m praying that helps to hide me. Once I hear his footsteps following me, and him call my name, I do the only thing I can think of. I drop to the ground on my side and roll down the side of the huge hill we’re on into the darkness of the trees. Sticks, twigs and rocks tear me up, ripping my long-sleeved shirt and jeans, all the way down, until I’m stopped by the trunk of an enormous tree. I cry out and immediately cover my mouth to keep from saying anything else. Shit that hurt! I do my best to move so I can scramble further down the hill, but the pain in my ribs is excruciating and I can’t breathe. I’m terrified I broke my back or a hip so I give up on changing locations and lie there, listening to him scream my name from above. My body shakes from fear and adrenaline overload.
How the hell am I going to get out of this one? I can’t catch a break. My mind is spinning with crazy thoughts and a nauseated dizziness rolls through me. I turn to the side and puke, but I can’t move enough to get away from it so I’m half in it. Something warm, other than the tears that started a second ago, drips down my cheek and over my nose so I reach up to swipe at the source and the heavy copper scent of the substance has me vomiting again. Thank God I can’t see it. My ribs hurt tremendously and I can’t move even a fraction of an inch more so I lie with tears, blood and vomit dripping down the side of my face. I wonder vaguely if I’ll die here.
The days have been warm but the nights are cold and the torn long-sleeved shirt and jeans I’m wearing won’t cut it if the temperature gets too low, although I’d rather risk hypothermia than face that guy again. His voice is fading and before I can think of anything more, another wave of dizziness hits and my world goes black.
Sometime later—with no concept of time, I’m not sure how long—I come to in the same position as I was in. Everything hurts, especially my ribs and my head. I can smell the blood and vomit mixed together and my stomach revolts. I fight it though. If I puke again it’ll cause more pain.
White, blue, and red lights flash through the darkness up by the road above me and I wonder if I’ve lost my mind. I close my eyes to steady my spinning head and think when I open them again it’ll be dark and I won’t be hallucinating. I’m somewhere on the side of the large hill leading to Daisy Rivers Ranch, lodged against a tree trunk. It’s the low side of a large hill, but still it’s a hill. What the hell am I going to do?
Within a minute I hear voices yelling, “Marina! Marina!”
Is this real? Is that the crazy driver? I can’t answer in case he’s coming for me so I lie there as quiet as my shaking body will allow. I’m so scared that it’s hard to stay still enough not to rustle the leaves under me.
This time the shouts are louder and coming from several places. A woman’s voice rises above them all and I’m filled with hope. Oh, let this be help! Please! The woman calls again, “Marina!” I roll a little to sit up and cry out at the pain. When I flop back, trying to avoid the pain in my ribs, I land in my own vomit again. It smears down my face and neck as I fight to get up. My body protests at the pain and effort. “Here,” I cry out weakly. “Here.” I get a little louder this time.
As the white lights move farther away I panic and scream as loud as my lungs will allow, sending daggers of pain through my midsection. “Here!”
All noise stops so I scream again and drop back to the ground as the excruciating pain spreads all over my battered body. This time the white lights all swing toward me. I yell out, but not as loud as before. “Here!”
The next thing I know, someone is sliding down the hill on
their backside with the flashlight bouncing along. A police uniform comes into view and I yell again. The man in the uniform scrambles over to me and yells, “I’ve got her! I’ve got her! I need help!” His light is right in my face and I can’t imagine what he’s seeing right now, nor do I care.
“Did you catch him? Do you have him?” I croak.
“What?” he sounds confused.
“The guy who took me. Do you have him?”
“No, he was gone when we got here. They were tracing him with your cell until the signal disappeared, but we’re here and we won’t let anything happen to you.” His voice is sweet and comforting and I breathe a sigh of relief that help is here.
A couple of hours later Judson and Quinn are taking me back to their place from the hospital. I can’t afford the bill staying will create so I request to leave. When Quinn was on her way home from work, she came across the scene and stopped to help. It was then she found out it was me they were looking for. With my cell phone long gone, I can’t call Dee because I never memorized her number. That’s the bad thing about technology, it makes you lazy. I feel so bad that Quinn and Judson are stuck with me again. I should call some other random friend to pick up the slack, but I don’t have my damn phone!
While I’m getting settled on the couch, Carlo wakes up from all the commotion and comes out. The fear in his young face makes it all worse.
“I’m okay, Carlo. Really. I’m a survivor, I’m still kickin’.” I try to make light of the situation for his sake, but the kid comes from the same kind of life I do and he knows without me saying it. I’m okay but not for any reason other than I have to be.
After studying my expression and my torn-up face for a minute, he sits on the floor and lays his head by my hip before he drifts back to sleep. Within half an hour of Carlo falling asleep beside me, the back door flies open and Dex’s deep voice booms through the house, startling Carlo from his sleep again. “Mari!”
Quinn steps out of the kitchen and growls, “I will kick your ass if you wake my kids.”
“Where is she?” he demands in a loud whisper that wasn’t much of a whisper.
“On the couch. You know she won’t sleep alone in a room.”
Loud footsteps precede him. “Mari.”
Carlo grabs my hand and says, “I’m going to bed until it quiets down, then I’ll be back to keep you company.”
“No, Carlo. Get some sleep. I’ll be okay. If I need you I’ll call for you. Thanks.” He stares at me for several seconds then nods and disappears to his room.
Dex drops to his knees as his forehead wrinkles, eyes squinted. He’s close enough I can see the pulse point in his neck fluttering like the wings of a hummingbird.
“What happened? I only got bits and pieces. I wasn’t home yet when it all went down.”
That was hours ago. Oddly, I wonder who he was with in the hours since he left work. Probably the blonde he took to dinner, the one with the sour look on her face. Like I should even care right now. It should be the farthest thing from my mind.
“Some guy acted like my Uber driver and picked me up from their driveway. It didn’t take long to realize it wasn’t my Uber driver. I tried to call 911 when I figured out what was happening. He heard it and slammed on the brakes and then all hell broke loose. I knew the only hope I had was going down the side of the hill into the trees.”
“Are you crazy?”
“No, I was in survival mode.”
“You could have killed yourself or been stranded out there with the wildlife for who knows how long.”
“But I wasn’t. If you came here to give me a bunch of shit, then go home Dex—”
“We’re back to Dex?” He’s irritated about that?
“That’s your name. It’s what everyone calls you. We established this already when I saw you the last time. But my point was to say I’ve been through enough without you yelling at me. Yes, I know I’m a mess. Yes, I know I end up in shitty situations more than the average person. I’m working on fixing that, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, so give me a damn break. If you want to help, see if you can find Dee’s phone number because the only place I had it was in my cell and that’s gone. I need my best friend.”
The tears I’ve been holding in for hours leak from my eyes, half out of frustration and half from embarrassment.
“God, Mari. You’re killing me! Come here.” He leans over me and pulls me in to him gently as I fall apart. “I’ll get her number. If I can’t find it, I’ll go to your place and get her.”
“She hasn’t been at our place. She hasn’t been back since everything happened. She’s been staying with Reggie,” I squeak.
“How’ve you been sleeping?”
“I haven’t. That was part of the problem with the Uber situation; I was tired so I wasn’t paying attention. That and who would’ve thought to check to make sure the Uber your app says is coming is the one who picks you up when you’re in the middle of nowhere and no one else is waiting for one?”
“This guy obviously knows your schedule. He’s watching closely if he caught on this quickly.”
“I can’t even think about that right now or I’ll lose it. The whole thing freaks me out. It’s something out of a thriller movie and I can’t deal with that.”
He holds me a little longer and finally says, “Let me go make some calls to find Dee.”
“Okay.” I rest against the back of the couch as Quinn comes out of the kitchen with a couple of pain pills and a small cup of water.
“Take these. You can have more around seven in the morning if you need them.”
I thank her, swallow them down with a sip of water, and then relax against the back of the couch the best I can.
The medication and exhaustion from the whole ordeal must take over because I fall asleep and don’t wake up until the next morning when the pain in my ribs forces me out of sleep.
When I try to stretch my legs, I can’t and when I look up to see why, I find Dee asleep at the other end of the couch and my whole body relaxes. Sometimes you just need your best friend and right now is one of those times. I have a ton of friends. Some good, some not so good, but only one best friend and I’ve missed her. I was afraid she was tired of me. I was hoping to be a little more stable before I had to see her again. My crazy fear of being alone has never included fear of losing Dee too until recently when it seems my bullshit has escalated to be a constant in our lives. I know there’s only so much of that she can take before she runs from me too. I adjust, trying to get up for a trip to the bathroom without waking her when her eyes pop open.
“Marina.” Her eyes are soft but convey her feelings of guilt. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“I wasn’t there for you. If Dex hadn’t called me I’d never have known anything had happened. I’m sorry. I’ve been pretty self-absorbed lately.”
“You have to be. Everything is always about me. It’s why I gave you the space. I’m sorry I had him call you, but I needed you.”
“Oh God, Marina. If you didn’t call, I’d be pissed. I love you. You’re like my sister. I’m so sorry this happened. Where do you hurt? Are you okay? You look horrible.”
“Yeah, I know. Everything hurts. Right now, I have to use the bathroom; can you help me get there? I’m pretty sore and I don’t want to fall in the process.”
Ten minutes later she’s helping me back to the couch when she says, “I’m taking you back to Reggie’s with me. Ray is out of town for a few days. There’s nothing at our apartment to go home to. At least this way I can take care of you. Reggie suggested it.”
“Ray’s gone?”
“Yeah, I think Reggie’s gonna kick him out anyway. The guy is disgusting and he hit on me last week. Thank God Reggie walked in on it and I didn’t have to tell him. Girl, he lost his mind! Freaked out on Ray. So anyway, I’ll take you back with me. I just wanted to get another dose of pain meds in you before you had to ride in the car again. Quinn told me you’re due for more at se
ven and we’re almost there.”
With Ray gone, I could stomach going to Reggie’s. I’ve always liked him, just not his nasty roommate. Besides, I’m hoping to only be there for a few days before I can go back to our apartment and hopefully get back to work out here. That is, if Judson wants me to. He seems like a pretty put-together guy so I’m sure he’s having second thoughts now that he’s gotten a belly full of my life. It’ll be hard with the broken and bruised ribs. I hear they take forever to heal, but I can’t go without a paycheck so I have to get back to work somewhere, and something about this place is calming. Especially Trooper, who I’m hoping to see before I leave today in case it’s the last time. Dex comes out a few minutes later with sleepy eyes and lines on his cheek from his pillow.
Dee addresses Dex. “We’re gonna take off as soon as I feed her and give her the meds. Don’t you have to work today? I know Quinn already left.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t want to leave until I checked on Marina.”
“I’m fine.” I reply so they’ll stop talking about me like I’m not in the room.
Judson comes through the hallway, chuckling as baby Lila cuddles against his chest with two fingers in her mouth.
“Fine?” He levels his laughing eyes at Dex and continues, “Yeah, take my advice. Fine is not a word you want to hear. It’s also never the truth.” I narrow my eyes at him and he laughs all the way to the kitchen. He has apparently broken the ancient woman code about using certain words. Fine is at the top of that list. Damn the enlightened man!
“How are you really?” Dex asks as he towers over me.
“Sore, but okay. I could be so much worse.”
“Well, I’ll be back after my shift to help take care of you. I have to go in after missing all that time a couple weeks ago.”
“You don’t need to worry about me. I’m going to stay with Dee at Reggie’s. I have to rest for a few days. Dee can help me shower and take me to get my stitches removed when it’s time. I appreciate what everyone has done for me but it’s time I go back to my life.”
