by Gina LaManna
“Yeah, bar’s over in the corner.” Beefcake was sizing me up, but turned his attention to his own beer when the lean one gave him a look. “But then again you already knew that, seeing as you have a drink.”
“Thanks,” I purred, ignoring the fact that my pickup line had completely flopped. “You two coming up and singing tonight?”
“Uh...” Beefcake resumed staring at the parts of my body not covered by floss or boots. Dang it, Meg.
“No, we’re not,” said the lean one, scowling. “We’re just grabbing a drink after work.”
“That’s nice,” I said. “What do you do? You look...strong.”
I reached over and squeezed Beefcake’s bicep just a little bit. In all honesty, it wasn’t that strong, and I wasn’t impressed. Then again, I compared everyone to Anthony, which was like comparing a mere human being to a Greek god.
“Trucker,” Beefcake grunted. This grunt sounded the slightest bit warmer. Maybe he was flattered.
“Awesome.” I was running out of things to say. I’d never maintained a more difficult conversation in my life, and I’d interacted with Carlos and Anthony, which was saying something. “Well, great. Nice to meet you, guess I’ll see you around.”
The men watched as I spun away and headed back towards my table. At the last second, I remembered I’d asked them where I could grab a shot, which meant I should be heading to the bar. I twisted around, making a beeline towards the dark corner to grab Meg another pint.
But I didn’t make it to the bar.
An arm snaked out from the crowd and pulled me off to the side. Anthony tucked me close to his body, pulling me behind yet another black, velvet curtain covering a doorway. This time, it appeared to be the janitor’s closet.
“You and me have a thing for closets this trip, huh?” I asked, seeing his eyes didn’t look all that happy. Anthony shook his head, unamused.
Turns out, it wasn’t a closet. Anthony led me down a short hallway to a door that opened into the chilly night, the fresh air licking against my skin. Goosebumps popped up on my legs and a shiver slid down my spine.
“Brrr! It’s cold out here, what are you doing?” I asked.
“What are you doing is the better question!” Anthony used his I’m-not-happy tone of voice.
“I was trying to see if the guys recognized me, jeesh. I thought it might be telling.”
“And?”
“And what?” I paused. “Oh. The bigger guy did a double take, but I couldn’t tell if it was because he knew me or...”
“Or these?” Anthony’s fingers slid down from where he’d been gripping my wrist. He skimmed a hand over my booty shorts. A tremor shook my body, and not because of the cold.
“You look nice, by the way,” he said, his voice steaming against my neck. “Er, not nice. Sexy.”
“Thank you,” I said. “Meg dressed me.”
Anthony slid his finger over the front of my shirt and played with the neckline, tracing it all the way down. I shut my eyes and held my breath, leaning into him. Both because it felt delicious, and because he radiated warmth like a furnace. When his fingers reached my stomach, I nearly melted.
“More?” Anthony asked. His voice shook me awake.
“Ah, no, thanks. That was plenty.” I took a moment to catch my breath. “Why’d you pull me out here anyway?”
Anthony took a moment to survey my face, my eyes, my lips. “Because you were drooling over them.”
“Were you jealous?” I put my hand against his chest.
“I just wanted a private glimpse of you.” Anthony’s eyes twinkled devilishly. “I figured since Meg’s up for karaoke, that gives me a solid two minutes alone with you.”
“Meg’s up? Oh, crap. I promised I’d watch.” My mind told me to step away from Anthony, but my body rebelled against my brain, and my feet remained glued to the ground.
Anthony pressed his lips to my ear, his murmurs sending a tingle all the way to my core. But before I could understand what he was saying, the bar’s side door opened again, and voices spilled outside.
Anthony and I backed away from each other, glancing up at the people who’d joined us behind Gabe’s. Two guys, one girl. The latter was the blonde who had “stolen” Meg’s look. She wore knee high boots, gold and sparkly, and a cute jean skirt with a red and white plaid shirt. Her whole look said cute country girl, and I refused to glance down at my own latex outfit – courtesy of Meg – in comparison.
A flash of jealousy bolted through my veins, mostly because I wished I was wearing her outfit instead of mine. Plus, she looked great in it. I turned back to Anthony and, to his credit, he didn’t appear to notice.
His eyes fixed on me, he smiled. “It’s getting busy out here anyway. Should we go in and watch Meg?”
I nodded. “We might need earplugs, do you have any?”
Anthony opened his mouth to respond, but never got around to it. His eyes widened slightly at something – or someone – over my shoulder. I turned to look, but that wasn’t necessary.
The someone was already here.
“Anthony, hello! Fancy meeting you here,” the cute blonde said, resting her arm over his shoulder. My blood ran cold, and all of the sudden I hated her boots. And the mile-long legs inside of them.
Anthony didn’t smile.
“It was great to see you last night.” She smiled knowingly at Anthony, her mouth uncomfortably close to his cheek. As if just now realizing I existed, she turned towards me. “Hi, I’m Leanne. Great to meet you ...”
“I’m Lacey.” I extended a hand, my voice as welcoming as a block of ice. “How do you two know each other?”
“We go way back.” Leanne waved a hand and, finally, removed her arm from Anthony’s shoulder.
“Colleagues, of a sort,” Anthony said, his voice level as he took a step away from Leanne. “From a while back.”
“Great.” My face might have smiled, but I couldn’t tell. My insides were frozen solid. Confusion, anger, jealousy...I couldn’t tell which was which as my face struggled to arrange itself in a pleasant expression. “I...my friend’s on stage. I’ll let you guys catch up. Um, more catching up, I guess.”
“Lacey, wait,” Anthony gestured as I began striding as fast as absolutely possible back towards the bar.
“I have to talk to you,” Leanne said, clearly speaking to Anthony, and Anthony alone. “It’s important.”
“Lacey can hear anything you have to say.” Anthony was coming after me, his voice getting closer.
I didn’t once stop walking. I couldn’t. Footsteps followed me, but I didn’t dare look back.
Another set of footsteps, these ones lighter and accompanied by the click of a sparkly gold heel, followed as well. When Leanne spoke, her voice was commanding. “You’ll want to hear this, Anthony.”
The familiarity with which she spoke twisted my heart. It only got worse when, after pausing for a moment, I heard Anthony’s footsteps slow. When he stopped, my eyes filled with tears, but I kept going.
Chapter 29
MOMENTS LATER, I HURTLED through the side door to the bar. The place was packed now, warm from the closeness of too many bodies in too small a space. Immediately blasted with Meg’s rousing rendition of Wild Women Do, my throat began to close, the lump making it impossible to speak.
Through blurring eyes, I spotted the bathroom sign and made a beeline towards it. Only when I’d made it safely inside and locked myself into a stall, did I let the tears flow. I leaned against the door, waiting out the initial burst of tears that’d taken me by storm. Two minutes ago, I’d been warmed by Anthony’s teasing gaze. I’d felt special, his eyes only on me. I’d felt wanted when he’d taken me outside for a moment alone.
But now...now there were no words to describe how my soul felt exhausted, my muscles limp, as if the tears were draining every ounce of my strength. I wanted nothing more than to find Meg, drag her into the stall, and force her to shake some sense into me. She always saw things more clearly, found reaso
nable explanations when I couldn’t. Made everything look better. She always did.
But I’d ruined enough of this vacation already for her, there was no way I’d steal her away from the microphone. Lyrics from Jump Around filtered through the stall doors, Meg belting it out from the bottom of her heart. She’d done at least three songs in a row and showed no signs of slowing.
What would Meg say right now? I blew my nose, telling myself to calm down. There was probably an explanation.
Last night...last night, Anthony had said he was working. Could she be a colleague? She sure as heck didn’t look like a co-worker from the sparkle of her boots to the coziness with which she slid her arm around my boyfriend’s shoulders. Feeling the anger bubble up again, I took a few deep breaths.
Maybe he had a very good reason for staying out with Miss Sparkle-Farmer until two in the morning. And if he did, I needed to find out. It was too small of a bar, too small of a cabin, too small of a town, for me to ignore the problem.
But not yet.
I took a long few minutes for the hot tears to dry into streaks of salt down my cheeks, and when they did, I snuck out of the stall and washed my face in the sink. A quick glance in the mirror showed red rims around my eyes and a washed-out expression.
All of Meg’s hard work on my makeup had rinsed away, and I scrubbed traces of mascara from behind my ears and under my nostrils. How the heck I’d managed to get black junk spread across my face like a clown, I had no idea. Apparently, I was a talented ugly-crier.
After a few deep breathing exercises I’d learned from a yoga DVD, I almost felt like a sane person again. I couldn’t find it in me to believe that Anthony had gone out with another woman before our relationship was even a week old. I refused to believe it.
I had one hand on the bathroom door, ready to let myself out and ask Anthony for an explanation, when I heard two voices on the other side of the door. Anthony and her – Leanne.
I’d thought I was ready to confront them both, but apparently I wasn’t, considering the squeamish feeling taking over my stomach. I retracted my hand from the knob and backed towards the large, master stall once more. Slipping inside, I locked the door and remembered Anthony’s emergency exit warnings.
The window. Sure enough, there was a window above the toilet. A large one. Easy enough to climb out, since it was already cracked open and the toilet seat was down. If I could just remove the screen...
The screen popped out easily enough. Thank goodness for small towns with minimal security concerns. I bet people didn’t even lock their front doors around here.
I hauled myself up, berating myself almost instantly for sneaking through a window when I should feel confident enough to walk right out the front door. I hadn’t done anything wrong, so why did I feel sick at the idea of going out there? One leg was through the window when I realized the answer: I just wasn’t ready.
I hesitated, my body hanging half out the window in the limbo of indecision, well aware that I looked like an idiot to anyone watching from the outside. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe I should walk straight through the bar.
Then I heard the door open, Leanne’s voice clearly echoing around the bathroom. “I’ll check in here for her. Wait there, Anthony.”
Without another moment of hesitation, I let myself fall to the ground. But what I hadn’t expected was that someone would be waiting for me. A someone with handcuffs. The cold clink of metal around my wrist made my blood chill as I turned to face my attacker.
“You’re coming with me,” the deep, even voice said as I tried to twist away from him. “Hold still if you want to make things easy.”
I paused in my twisting, knowing I was much too small to use brute force to get away from a man with arms his size. I’d need to think. He assessed me with a cool gaze. “Though if you really wanted to make things easy, you should have just left us alone.”
Chapter 30
I STARTED TO SCREAM for help, but the man’s hand clasped over my lips before I could cry out loud enough to be heard. Ironically, Meg had been such a hit that the ruckus coming from the bar was enough to drown out any calls for help and, though I was happy she’d been a wild success, I wouldn’t mind if she took a break and came looking for me at the moment.
Despite the volume radiating from the building, the voice in my ear was not drowned out by the latest rendition of Family Traditions.
I could hear him loud and clear as he spoke against my ear. “Don’t you dare try to scream.”
The metal pressing against my back punctuated his point. The trucker’s point. More specifically, Mr. Beefcake.
“You’ll walk with me out to your car. If you run or yell or act weird, it’s bad news for you. And your Super Star singer raising the roof in there.” Beefcake escorted me across the parking lot, a jacket draped over my wrist so nobody could see my un-fancy metal bracelet.
I gave a half-nod of agreement, my eyes scanning desperately for any human in the vicinity. Where was Anthony? Where had all the smokers gone – the ones who’d come outside with her? Was Meg’s remix of Friends in Low Places really so enthralling that nobody was outside at the moment?
“There’s a person up ahead. Wave and smile like a princess, or you’ll get a nice hole in your head.” Beefcake hardly finished speaking before giving a wave and a smile in the direction of a man in a cowboy hat and boots who was lighting up over in the corner of the parking lot. I don’t think I managed to smile, but I did lift my free hand and give the lamest wave ever known to man.
“I’m uncuffing you now. Get in the driver’s seat of your car, and then I’ll give you instructions. Understand?” Beefcake spoke softly, but the threat in his voice was believable.
“Wh-what do you want with me?” I cleared my throat and tried to take a step backwards.
“You’re not following directions.” He prodded me with his gun, and I slid into the front seat of the car without further question.
“Drive.” His face was grim, his eyes looking forward, with the gun pointed towards my chest. I turned the car on and accelerated from the parking lot, feeling all hope of someone discovering my absence slipping away. I signaled right and merged onto the main road.
“Good.” Beefcake breathed a bit easier now, but his shoulders remained tense, his finger taut on the trigger.
“Where to?” I swallowed hard, my fingers trembling as I struggled to hold the steering wheel straight.
“We’re going right back to where you came from. The Luzzi cabin. Is anyone home?”
“Yes,” I said. It was a lie to my knowledge, but there was the chance that the three stooges had returned. Even if they were home, the chances that they’d notice something was wrong – and then help – were slim. But Beefcake didn’t need to know that.
“You’re lying to me, Lacey. I don’t like liars.” The gun twitched upward.
“We have three of my grandmother’s friends staying with us – that’s not a lie.”
“I know all about Mario Lopez over there. We’ve been watching you. But you failed your first test, which doesn’t bode well for you. So stop lying. I don’t take to failure kindly.”
“How do you know I’m lying?” I inhaled, trying to keep my voice even.
“Because my partner is already at the cabin, and he is telling me that your friends haven’t returned yet.”
My heart sank. Even if the chances of the men helping me were slim, it was better than nothing.
“Park in the driveway,” Beefcake instructed as we neared the cabin.
“Why? Won’t that be obvious?”
“Nice try.” Beefcake gave a quick shake of his head. “I don’t like your little clever tactics, Lacey. If someone suspects foul play, they’ll expect your car to not be at home. Right now, it looks like you had a little disagreement with your boyfriend and went home. If anything, they’ll assume you’re in your room and won’t bother you.”
“That’s not true. My friends would check on me.” I told myself it was true.
They would check on me...if they realized I was gone.
Ironically, the part that bothered me most of all with this kidnapping was not that I’d been whisked away against my will. That was annoying, yes, but it had happened before. What made my stomach roil with guilt was the thought that Anthony would think I’d run away from him, that I hadn’t given him time to explain.
At the bar, I’d had every intention of finding Anthony and hearing what he had to say. Despite my initial feelings of jealousy and anger at Leanne, I wanted to make this relationship work. I’d just needed a moment to calm down. To let myself feel the flood of uncertainty, to feel the thoughts that told me I’d never be good enough for Anthony.
Because now that I’d acknowledged my insecurities, I could look at the situation with a calmer eye, a less...hasty reaction. If our relationship didn’t work out, I wouldn’t let it be because of a miscommunication. I cared for Anthony, and I wouldn’t let him slip away so easily, despite my through-the-window stunt.
I still disliked Leanne and her fancy boots, but I didn’t want Anthony to know that. I wanted to apologize for running away, to have him explain away my fears and pull me tight in his arms. But now – I glanced over at my captor – now, Anthony would be left wondering if I’d assumed the worst. I’d disappeared, leaving Anthony to think I didn’t trust him.
“You heard our disagreement?” My stomach turned over at the thought.
“Not all of it, but enough. And I heard more than enough of your friend’s karaoke. Honestly, she’s your biggest ally. If she’d kept singing, I’m not sure I could’ve stayed there much longer, even to escort you back.”
“You’re not escorting me.” I turned into the driveway, noting that the other parking spaces were blatantly empty, the house devoid of lights. “You’re kidnapping me.”
