Taken By Force (Taken Trilogy Book 2)

by Jessica Frances

  “Yeah, Moony for a boy is cute, too, don’t you think? Although twins run in my family, might have to think of another boy and girl name just in case.”

  I take another sip of my beer to hide my smile at Charlie’s obvious shock that is still displayed over his face.

  “Zoe, can we talk in private for a second?” Charlie’s voice sounds like it is being pulled from the back of his throat. He has gone completely pale now. I grab hold of his arm when I stand up because I think he might pass out on me. Definitely time to clue him in on the joke.

  “If you guys are going for a quickie out the back, then knowing Charlie, you’ll only be gone a minute.” Heather winks at me and I can’t help smiling at her antics. I think I might like Heather.

  Charlie pulls me along to the back corner where it’s quieter and we can’t be overheard.

  “Zoe I—I can’t—I…” Charlie leans against the wall then and I know I can’t keep it going.

  “Charlie, it’s okay. Heather is just messing with you.”

  “You mean she’s not pregnant?” Charlie searches my face.

  “No. She’s actually really nice.” I try to smile reassuringly at him.

  “You’re not mad at me right now?” Charlie is shocked again. He moves his hand through his hair and now I know how upset he is.

  “Charlie, you never slept with Heather. Nothing happened.” I squeeze his hand to emphasize my words.

  “Nothing?”

  “No, you both just passed out next to each other.” I can’t hide the relieved smile pulling at the sides of my lips.

  Charlie exhales loudly and I see some color gracing his handsome face again.

  “Well, at least that’s one thing I can stop hating myself over,” Charlie mutters to himself, running his hand through his hair again.

  “You shouldn’t hate yourself over anything. Charlie, D.C. wasn’t your fault.” I wish he could believe that.

  “It was. I screwed up,” he states angrily.

  “No, it wasn’t. Let it go.” I grab his arm and yank his hand away from his hair, pulling his hand into mine so I now have both. I squeeze them tightly, hoping to zap him out of his funk.

  Charlie nods, but I know it won’t be that easy to convince him.

  “I’m sorry I put you through everything with Heather and there wasn’t even anything that happened. I’m turning out to be a real shit boyfriend.” Charlie looks away from me.

  “You’re not a shit boyfriend.” I haven’t ever thought to call Charlie that; I hadn’t labeled us as boyfriend and girlfriend. We are, though; Charlie is my boyfriend. The thought gives me warm tingles over my body.

  “I am. I just want this to be over, Zoe. I want to be able to stop running. I want to be able to take you out on a normal date. I want you to be safe.”

  “I am safe as long as I’m with you.” I step closer to Charlie so our bodies touch and he wraps his arms around me.

  “Not when I’m causing stupid blackouts and putting your life in danger.”

  “Charlie…” I sigh heavily. If I can’t make him see that it isn’t his fault, then he’s going to fall right back to Stan. The feeling that I’m going to lose him grows inside me. I feel so much loss, it’s like I’ve been punched in the stomach. I stumble and lose my balance. Charlie holds me tighter, realizing something is wrong.

  “Zoe?” He sits me down at a nearby stool. I’m dizzy from the pain. “What’s happening? Are you okay?”

  As quickly as the pain hits me, it just as quickly leaves me. I’m breathing heavily and shaking.

  “Talk to me.” Charlie holds my arm tightly and the pain from his strong grip centers me. I focus on it.

  “I think I’m going to lose you soon. I felt like I just had.” My eyes water, and as I blink up at him, they escape and rush down my face. Is this because I get shot? Or is this something else?

  “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.” Charlie hugs me tightly and I hold onto him as hard as I can. Right now, I need to feel him to make myself believe I haven’t lost him.

  It must be hours later that we make it back over to the bar. Heather is just getting up and leaving.

  “Wow, a lot longer than I thought.” She winks at me. I hope it isn’t obvious I’ve been crying.

  “So, I suppose you want me to pay the next few years of child support up front now?” Charlie rolls his eyes at her.

  “That would be great actually. I only take cash, no credit cards please,” she teases.

  “I promise to get onto that just as soon as I see a paternity test.”

  “Damn. I was so close to being set for life.” Heather laughs and then moves to Charlie, giving him a hug. “Please don’t just disappear like that again, you had us worried.”

  “I’m sorry. Zoe and I are leaving again tomorrow, but I promise I’ll come back soon.”

  Heather nods and then gives me a hug, too. “It was so nice to meet you. I’m happy you finally found each other.”

  “Me, too.”

  Heather waves goodbye and Charlie and I leave the bar soon after. We need to get as much sleep as we can before our long drive back to Arkansas.

  Chapter 32 – The Sacrifice

  January 31st the Cabin, Arkansas

  Arriving at the cabin feels eerie. It’s early morning and we have no idea when we can expect everyone else. The woods around us look extra creepy and I can’t help feeling watched as we make our way inside. I collapse onto the couch and glance at the empty fire. The cabin is freezing, but I can’t be bothered trying to light it. It feels so good to be able to stretch out my back. I lie long ways on the couch, enjoying the feeling.

  “I’m going to grab some logs from out the back.”

  Charlie leaves through the kitchen. As I watch him go, another wave of loss hits me. This time I’m lying down so it doesn’t seem as dramatic as what happened in the bar, but the pain in my chest intensifies, making it impossible to breathe. I bury my head into the side of the couch, closing my eyes tightly, hoping for it to pass. It lasts much longer than last time. When the pain finally subsides, I open my eyes to Charlie shaking me.

  “What’s wrong? Talk to me, Zoe.” His grip tightens around my arms again, like he had done last time, and the sharp pain centers me.

  “I keep losing you,” I cry out, feeling unable to keep going through so much loss. Why does this keep happening? What is going to happen?

  “Zoe, I promised you that you’re not going to lose me. I’m not going anywhere.” He pulls me in for a hug, but a car approaching has us freezing. I watch him move away and carefully check outside the front window. His shoulders relax and he already has the front door open by the time I take a step forward.

  I rush outside into the freezing cold to find Rose and Dean getting out of their car. I hug Rose tightly, realizing how worried I’ve been that they had been caught.

  “You’re okay? You’re not hurt?” I ask, pulling away from her to give them both a once over before quickly pulling her back in for another hug. “Where is Will?” I glance behind her at their empty backseat.

  “He went off with Joel. Don’t worry; I’m sure they’re fine, just like we are,” Rose assures me.

  Is anyone truly safe with Joel? What if he hurts him? What if he shoots him? Will might be able to heal from gunshots to his limbs, but what about one to the heart or to his head?

  “What happened back in D.C.?” Rose asks me.

  “It’s a long story.” I look back at Charlie to see the smile on his face from seeing Rose and Dean is now gone.

  “Well, we’ve got plenty of time to hear it.” Rose takes my hand and leads me inside. She sits next to me on the couch and sighs heavily.

  “Is something wrong?” I feel her annoyed mood radiating from her and I notice Dean is also tense.

  “Let’s just say it’s been a long car ride. Now spill.”

  I tell Rose about the blogger that I had a run in with, about Charlie accidently causing a blackout and that she isn’t allowed to give him
any grief over it because he already is doing enough of that himself.

  “Wow, that’s some story. It definitely throws a wrench into the works with us breaking into The Core.”

  “I know, but it’s good news that someone else is looking into things, right? We aren’t the only ones who know about this.”

  “Did you get anything else out of him?”

  “No, it all happened so fast. I stole his camera, though.” I fish the stolen camera out of my bag and hand it to Rose when she holds out her hand to me. Another car coming distracts us and I rush over to the window to see Joel and Will pulling up. We have all made it back here. We’re all safe in our haven.

  I try to keep that feeling of relief and safeness close to me. It doesn’t last long. Soon I’m shaking from fear and can’t let go of Charlie’s hand. I know he’s worried about me, but he doesn’t voice his concerns in front of the others. We have left some food here, so Rose and Joel leave to go into the kitchen to prepare something.

  I don’t know how long we will stay here for, but I feel like it won’t be long. I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. I soon pinpoint my feelings of this seeming like a trap. I watch the door like a hawk while Charlie moves his thumb in small circles over my palm. It’s comforting having him so close to me. Am I just being paranoid? Or is something coming for us?

  ***

  It only takes a few hours for everyone to begin to settle back to being in the cabin. Dean and Joel are bringing in more wood from the shed, Rose is chopping up vegetables for dinner and Will is looking over his comics in front of the fire. Everyone is acting like things are okay, everyone except Charlie and me. I’m standing by the window, staring out at the surrounding trees and Charlie is sitting on the couch, watching me. I know I’m scaring him, but I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong.

  “Zoe, come sit down with me,” Charlie says to me for probably the tenth time.

  I shake my head in response. Really, I want nothing more than to sit down with Charlie. I want to be as close to him as possible because I just know something is coming for us, but my feet stay stuck to the floor, my eyes glued to staring out the window.

  His arms move around me and I feel his chin rest on top of my head as my back curves to his front.

  “Something is wrong,” I whisper, unable to speak any louder from the lump in my throat.

  “This place is safe, we are safe.”

  “What if we’re not?” I let him turn me around in his arms and then rest my head over his chest, feeling his heart beating under my ear.

  “You really think something is going to happen here? That maybe one of us was followed?” He sounds serious and I know that if I tell him that my instincts are telling me something is wrong, he’ll round everyone up and get us to leave.

  I know this is the only safe haven we have. If I say it’s been compromised, then we won’t ever be able to come back, and I might be putting us in danger if I say we have to leave. It’ll put us back out into the open. However, I also know that my instincts are usually right and I can’t ignore them any longer.

  “We need to go.” I sound more confident than I feel. Charlie nods yes just as I hear tires crunching along the rocks and gravel close by.

  “What was that?” Will picks up on it instantly and moves next to us, staring out the window.

  “We need to leave, now!” Charlie calls out. Without a glance back at the window, he grabs hold of my hand and pulls me along. I see the silhouette of a dark colored SUV approaching before Charlie drags me out of the room.

  No one questions Charlie’s order, not when everyone can now hear more cars approaching, and the unmistakable sound of boots hitting the ground, approaching us.

  We run through the kitchen. Will disappears out the back door and I see an abandoned knife and half cut up vegetables on a chopping board. Rose has already left.

  We don’t have time to grab anything. We don’t even have time to think. Our cars are boxed in by P.A.G.E.’s vehicles and we have no hope of getting passed them. Our only hope is to disappear into the thick woods surrounding us.

  From the back exit of the cabin the ground is much steeper, the incline more dangerous. The ground is slippery from recent rain and fallen leaves. Within seconds of running I’ve already stumbled twice, only managing to stay standing by grabbing hold of the tree trunks around me.

  We have to run at an angle to curve around and get to flatter ground. Ahead of me I see that we’re all spaced out from each other, Rose and Dean at the front, a light mist making them disappear from my sight as they speed along. Will and Joel are close by them, and while Charlie had been by my side, he’s gaining on the others and builds up his momentum. I’m bringing up the rear.

  I realize Charlie is slowing down, looking back with panic on his face. It instantly relaxes when he finds me and he is barely moving as he waits for me to catch up. He holds his arm out, ready to grab hold of me and I know when he does, he’ll grip onto me and never let go.

  I’m distracted seeing him, only just avoiding flying directly into a tree. My heart is pounding hard in my chest and my lungs burn as the cold air I’m sucking in settles uncomfortably in my system.

  My energy begins to drain from me, and I realize that I’m getting hit with another attack. I’m going to lose Charlie today, I just know it.

  “Charlie, run!” I scream at him, angry he has now stopped moving and is instead heading back in my direction. He has to get away, he has to survive this.

  I feel a presence behind me, a body heat that is close, a huff of breath that moves my hair and a crunch of leaves just behind my own running feet. Strong arms cage around me and I’m jolted to a stop as the person lifts me easily off the ground and we slide while he tries to bring us both to a halt. I see the fury on Charlie’s face as he sprints towards us and I struggle to get free. Something hard hits me on the side of the head and my vision wavers. I feel so dizzy that I momentary forget to try to escape, forget that I had been struggling only moments ago.

  “No!” Charlie’s voice echoes through my head. I open my eyes to see him running towards me, he’s so close and I want to feel relief that he is going to rescue me, but running from a different direction is one of Stan’s men and he collides with Charlie bringing them both crashing to the ground by my feet. They roll along the ground, knocking into the trees and scraping along the rocks, fighting each other. Watching him struggle, my strength begins to return. I struggle hard in the arms that still have me restrained.

  “Let me go!” I scream and I kick out, but I don’t manage to move them a single bit.

  I stop thrashing to watch Charlie being punched hard in the face. He goes down and the man fighting him pulls out a needle then moves to jab Charlie with it. My voice is stuck in my throat and horror drains my body of any fight left in me. Charlie is being taken. This must be the dream I can’t remember. This is why I keep feeling like I’m losing him, this will be how they’ll turn Charlie onto P.A.G.E.’s side.

  “No!” Joel charges out of nowhere and knocks the guy who has Charlie to the ground. Another man jumps onto Joel, but it’s like he is possessed. He throws one of the guys off as he punches the man who had been fighting Charlie.

  Charlie sits up and watches a few seconds of Joel fighting before he gets up to his feet and rushes over to me. The man who has me takes a step back, but he can’t really move quickly with me in his arms. He drops me to the ground, ready to attack Charlie, and I roll out the way to see him hit the man. He goes down hard by my feet, instantly unconscious.

  “Run!” Charlie yells at me, holding out his hand for me to grab, but I’m frozen. I see Will being dragged away, his body limp and unconscious by three men up the hill, their destination back toward the cabin and a waiting dark van that already has it’s back doors open.

  “Will!” I get up off the ground and race towards him. I know there is someone just behind me and I hope it’s Charlie. We get to Will at the same time as Dean arrives and a
rush of adrenaline runs through me. I grab hold of one of the men and kick out hard, knocking a very surprised man in the groin.

  I take another look at Will, who is now only being held up by one man as the other one fights Dean. A woman has run over to help, is in the process of being knocked down by Charlie. I see what looks to be four darts sticking out of Will’s neck and chest. I know it means that they’re not just sticking us with needles. Someone has a gun out there, shooting tranquilizers at us.

  The man that I had surprised has gotten up and advances on me looking menacing. Adrenaline is the only thing I have that the guy I fight doesn’t. It keeps me going and I swallow down my fear and panic, lashing out, determined to win this fight. It feels different from any fight I’ve trained in. I only briefly acknowledge to myself that I’m better at this than I expected I’d ever be. My motivation to keep going is helped when I get a hard punch to my ribs and a painful twist to my arm.

  I refuse to lose, and I will never allow Will, Charlie or anyone else to be taken. Not today. So I keep fighting. It is brutal and harsh. It isn’t anything like a fight you might see in the movies. There is no punching noise as my fist connects with his jaw, only pain shooting up my hand and a snarl from the man as he rebuts with a knock to my stomach, winding me. The only thing that keeps me going is the fact that I don’t allow myself to focus on any of the pain, and when I think he has me, I think about Will and Charlie. It’s enough to get me back on my feet. When I finally wrap my hand around a rock hidden along the leaves next to me, I hit the man across the head with it hard. He collapses to the ground, unconscious. There is a sick satisfaction that runs through me, knowing that I’ve won.

  I smile knowing that I did it and then look up, my eyes searching for Charlie to confirm that he is okay. The woman who had been fighting him is groaning on the ground close to me while Charlie is already knocking another guy to the ground. Our eyes connect for one moment and he returns my smile. It feels like that moment stretches on for an eternity. Seconds feel like minutes and I see his deep brown eyes connect with mine, his hair drenched with sweat and some blood sticking his hair to his forehead. Mud across his chin and a reddened cheek from a hit he’s obviously taken. I swear I even see his pulse pounding in his neck, his quick intake of breath and we both take one step towards each other. Then a dart connects with his chest.