She blinks rapidly like she is coming back to the real world when our server returns. “Are you done hon?”
“Yes, thank you,” Josephine answers courteously. “It was delicious, I am just so full.”
“I’m guessing no room for dessert then? We have the best milkshakes,” the waitress tries to tempt us.
“We’ll take two to go,” I tell her. If Josephine’s parents won’t let her eat burgers, I highly doubt she can have a milkshake. I pay the bill while we wait for our milkshakes.
“Thank you, by the way,” Josephine tells me when we walk out with our milkshakes in hand. “Not just for dinner. For everything.”
There is a knot in my stomach and an ache in my chest as I answer her. “You’re welcome.” I know I can’t stall much longer. She is going to want to go home or call someone any minute now and then I will have no choice but to tell her that I can’t let her do either. She is a smart girl, it won’t take her long to put it together and realize who I am. She will hate me, not just for what I am doing to her but also for what I did to her sister.
We walk back to the car and I feel like I am walking to my execution instead. I try to come up with another excuse to keep this up longer but I know this is useless. She will figure it out and it will happen soon.
“You okay?” She asks me. I can’t even bring myself to answer out loud. I just nod in response and try to give her a smile but I can’t get the corners of my mouth to go up. It has gotten cold outside and she is only wearing a sweater. As soon as I start the car I crank the air up all the way to hot.
I’m not even out of the parking lot when she asks, “do you mind driving me back home? I can give you some gas money. Or I can call them and tell them. They would come and get me.”
I try to keep my voice as even as I can. “Don’t worry about gas money.”
She gets her phone out from her jeans pocket and looks at it. “Actually, I think I want to call someone else first.” She scrolls down her contact list and stops at Jenna’s number. My heart sinks. The moment before her finger tabs on the name I snatch the phone out of her hand.
She gives me a bewildered look. “What the heck?”
I put the phone in the inside pocket of my jacket. “I’m sorry Josephine, I can’t let you call your sister.”
5
Josephine
My heart stops and my lungs cease to work at the same time. He knows my name, even though I never told him. Even scarier, he knows I have a sister. No one knows that. How could I have been so naïve and stupid? I was so wrapped up in my problems that I’ve just gotten into a stranger’s car without questioning him. I didn’t even ask his name. I look out the windshield and realize we are driving away from where I live. “Please stop and let me out,” I say with a shaky voice.
“I need you to come with me.” His statement almost sounds like an apology but that doesn’t make me feel much better. I’m frozen in my seat unable to move a muscle. Even when he lays his hand on my arm I don’t flinch.
“Josephine?” He says my name like he is concerned. His hand is warm and comforting on my arm and I am nothing but confused by that. “Josephine,” he says again.
“Please, don’t call me that. Only my parents call me by my full name.” The one thing that could make this whole situation even worse is constantly being reminded of my parents.
“Okay, Josie then?”
I manage a nod while I am still staring at the dark road ahead of us. He pulls his hand away and I immediately miss the connection. I don’t understand how his touch can calm me down when he is the one causing the distress in the first place. But for some reason I can’t explain, it does. Once he puts his hand back on the steering wheel, my whole body starts shaking. My attempts to wrap my arms around myself to make it stop are futile.
“Why are you doing this? You want money?” I’m trying to imagine my dad getting a call and asking for ransom money. I honestly have a hard time picturing it.
“I just need your sister to sign a paper. As soon as she does, I’ll bring you back home.”
“My sister? How do you even…” The words get stuck in my throat as my thoughts fall into place. I am such an idiot for not realizing who he is. My burger is about to make a reappearance at the thought of that I just had dinner with the person who has been ruling my sister’s nightmares. “You’re Colt.”
“Josie, I’m not going to hurt you. You’re going to be fine, okay?” His words dial my fear down from a ten to a solid nine. How can I trust that he is telling me the truth knowing what he is capable of?
We drive in silence for a good while before I get the courage to talk again. “Where are you taking me?”
“Someplace we can lay low until Hunter and Jenna do what I ask them to do.”
“I need to use the bathroom.” I think we have been driving for two hours and I had a large soda, I really do have to go pee. If he is not willing to pull over, I am going to have a problem.
“I’ll stop at the next gas station.” I’m surprised by his quick response and how worry-free he sounds.
I use the entire fifteen minutes it takes him to find a gas station, coming up with an escape plan. I settle on behaving in the store and letting him think that I am too scared to try anything. Right before we get back into the car, I am going to make a run for it.
He parks at the side of the gas station, almost all the way to the back. It’s the darkest corner of the parking lot.
“You have two choices. One, we go in there like nothing is wrong. We buy some snacks, you go use the bathroom and then we continue driving. Two, I’ll take you into the woods back there, you pee behind a tree and then we continue driving. So, which one will it be?”
I look into the dark wooded area behind the gas station. “I’ll play along in there.”
“Good choice, come on.” He opens his door and steps out of the car, never taking his eyes off of me. I open my own door slowly. By the time I make it out of the car, Colt has already walked around to stand right next to me. He somehow seems taller than before, or maybe my fear makes me feel smaller.
I had managed to stop shaking in the car, but being outside in the middle of the night without a jacket brings me back to a teeth-shattering shiver. I wrap my arm around myself as we walk toward the entrance of the gas station. Colt walks closely beside me. I expected that much. What I didn’t expect is him putting his arm around me.
“Just relax,” he says, his voice low and oddly soothing. To my shame, I do relax a little. I don’t know how he does it, but he has the ability to calm me down with his touch alone. His arm around my shoulder feels like a warm heavy blanket, protecting me from not only the cold but from my fear as well. I am so confused about what I am feeling that I don’t even realize how I am leaning into him until we are in the store. I straighten up and Colt loosens his arm on me. We walk to the back of the store where the bathroom is. Only when we are right in front of the door does he release me all the way. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he warns right before I walk into the lady’s room.
I close the door behind me and almost slump down to the floor. My knees are wobbly and weak but I manage to do my business and wash my hands without falling down. When I get back out Colt is still where I left him, right next to the door. He grabs a few snacks and some sodas on our way out. The guys at the register doesn’t even look at us while Colt pays. Not that I was planning on giving him some kind of signal. Even if I would ask him to help me, the 150-pound skinny guy wouldn’t be able to stop Colt, who has at least fifty pounds of muscle mass on him.