by Cox, Carrie;
Fourteen fifty-nine.
Why did time pass so slowly when you were anxious for something? I tried to take a deep, calming breath but it didn’t do much good.
Then, at three o’clock on the dot, the cell phone rang, and I snatched it up with a trembling hand.
“Claire?”
There was a pause on the other end of the line, and then a voice I didn’t recognize said, “It’s not Claire. I got this phone from Claire, who asked me to pass on a message to a girl called Ella if she ever rang.”
Disappointment flooded me, and for a moment, I couldn’t think straight.
“Hello? Are you still there?”
“Yes, sorry. I’m still here. This is Ella. What message do you have for me?”
“Okay, it’s a little weird, but hopefully it will make sense to you. Basically, she said to let you know she is in Nevada, and she said you can’t tell anyone what you guys saw that night. She also told me to call you Tinker Bell… I guess that must mean something to you, right? Unless she was just kidding around.”
My mouth felt so dry I couldn’t speak.
I swallowed. “Is that it? That can’t be all she said. When did Claire give you the phone?”
“Three days ago.”
Three days ago. That meant that Claire was alive, or at least she had been three days ago.
“The Tinker Bell thing… she was messing with me, right? Or was it some kind of codeword?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Thank you for the message.”
Tinker Bell wasn’t a codeword exactly. It was the pet name my dad used to call me. Hardly anyone knew that, but I had told Claire. She’d used it because she wanted me to know the message was really from her.
After I hung up, my hands were shaking and my heart was still racing.
This was the best news I could have received. Claire was okay.
But even though I knew she was alive somewhere in Nevada, it still didn’t explain what she was still doing here.
Then there was the fact she said not to tell anyone what we’d seen…
Did that mean she remembered what happened that night?
It must do. She was there with me, and she saw everything that happened, too.
9
After my mind had stopped racing, and I’d managed to get my emotions under control, I shoved the cell phone into the pocket of my jeans and left the bedroom.
I needed to get the phone back to the girl behind the bar before anybody noticed I’d had it, especially Nick or Jackson. She’d promised to come back for it in half an hour, but I couldn’t risk waiting for her.
I didn’t want Nick coming back and finding me with the cell phone.
I saw the girl behind the bar and gave her a thumbs up sign as I slid her cell phone between two trays of drinks.
She winked at me, and I quickly left the bar before Nick or anyone else could see me.
I intended to go back to the room and have some alone time. I needed to think this whole thing through.
But I didn’t get very far.
I’d only taken a couple of steps down the dark corridor back towards the bedroom when I felt a hand clamp down over my mouth.
It was so sudden that I didn’t even react straightaway.
The next thing I felt was some kind of rough material pulled over my head, like a hood. When the material was wrapped around my neck, panic finally kicked in, and I started to struggle.
What the hell was happening?
I felt myself hoisted into the air, and then the thick muscle of a man’s shoulder pressed against my midsection.
Oh, God.
Someone was carrying me over their shoulder. How could they do that in broad daylight?
I struggled and tried to scream, but my voice was soft and indistinct. When they’d put a hand over my mouth they must have put some kind of tape over it, too.
I heard a voice telling me to calm down and everything would be okay, but it was strangely muffled.
My attempts to wriggle free made me slide a couple of inches off the man’s shoulder, but then I felt a large hand grip my ass and haul me back into position.
And then the thought hit me… It had to be Nick.
He’d promised he would get me out of there within a week. Was this his plan?
Surely, his plan didn’t need all of this. If he’d told me what he’d intended to do, I would have gone with him willingly.
But maybe he thought I would still be mad at him.
I felt the heat from the outdoors hit me, and then I heard the crunch of my captor’s feet over the gravel, and I guessed we had to be in the parking lot.
Within a few seconds, I slid from the man’s shoulder and was bundled down onto a soft surface. If I had to guess, I thought I must be on the back seat of a car or truck.
I heard a muffled voice telling me to relax again. But that really wasn’t easy with a freaking hood tied around my head.
My hands were still free though, so I reached up and tried to yank it off, but then I heard a sharp voice telling me to stop.
It had to be Nick. So I obeyed and tried to relax my breathing, as I could only breathe through my nose, and I was in danger of hyperventilating.
I heard the engine start up with a rumble, and the vehicle I was in pulled away.
Jesus. Why would Nick do this? Didn’t he know this would freak me out?
It seemed like we’d been driving for ages when finally the vehicle stopped.
I laid there perfectly still, straining to listen and pick up on any clues.
I felt the vehicle lift as my captor got out of the front seat. I heard the door click open and then felt the warm heat of the Nevada air hit me.
I started to tremble.
It had to be Nick. It had to be.
Two strong hands clasped my shoulders and pulled me upright, into a sitting position.
The tie around my neck was loosened, and the hood was whipped off, I blinked at the brightness.
The sun was so dazzling it took me a moment to register what I was seeing, but then I gasped.
It wasn’t Nick who’d taken me. It was Jackson.
***
To be continued in the sixth and final part of the story!
***
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A Note from Carrie
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed reading about Nick and Ella as much as I enjoy writing about them. You can add your email address to my mailing list and I will email you as soon as my next book is released.
If you have a couple of minutes to leave a review that would be awesome!
I love hearing from readers and I’m always happy to answer your questions (if I can). I’d love to hear your thoughts on this book. If you do leave a review, let me know and I’ll reply and thank you personally. I really do appreciate each and every review.
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Well, I’d better get back to work. I’ve got books to write…
Carrie x
http://www.carriecoxbooks.com
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The Desire Series
(Kate and Benjamin’s story)
Part one is FREE here: Desire part one
Desire part two
Desire part three
Desire part four
Desire part five
Desire Boxset
The Broken Series
(Kristina and Jack’s story)
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Fragments (Broken: book 2)
Whole Again (Broken: book 3) Coming Soon
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(Alexander and Lauren’s story)
The Billionaire’s seduction 1
The Billionaire’s seduction 2
The Billionaire’s seduction 3
The Billionaire’s seduction Boxset
Steel
(Nick and Ella’s story)
Steel part one
Steel part two
Steel part three
Steel part four
