Colt puts his arm around me again while we are walking outside. I’m sure he does it so I can’t run away, but I am just going to pretend he does it because I’m cold. This way I’m less scared of him and I can muster up the courage to make a run for it when we get in the car.
He walks me to the passenger door and waits until I get in and buckle up. My heart rate speeds up with every step he takes walking around the car. I need to wait for just the right moment. My hand is a few inches away from the button to unfasten my seat belt. The driver’s door opens and Colt gets in. I unbuckle and open my door at the same time. My foot barely touches the ground when he gets hold of my wrist and pulls me back into the car. I try to hit him with my free hand but he is faster than me and grabs my other wrist instead.
Until now, I have done as he asks and he hasn’t hurt me yet. With his fingers digging into my skin like tight shackles around my wrists, he is telling me that he is about to show me another side of him. My panic is reaching fever pitch. He manages to pull me all the way back in the car even with me struggling as much as I can. In my last effort to fight him, I feebly attempt to head-butt him. He twists his body at the last second and my nose hits his shoulder at full force.
Explosive pain erupts across my face in an instant. My eyes are already tearing up and I feel something running out of my nose. The warm coppery liquid hits my lips informing me that I am bleeding. I loud sob escapes my mouth before I start to full on cry.
“Shit, hold on.” Colt lets go of one of my wrists and starts digging for something on the back seat. I look up to the roof of the car, trying to stop the blood from running down my face. Tasting it in the back of my throat makes my stomach churn. “Don’t put your head up, put it down.”
I follow his command and he pushes a shirt in front of my nose. He lets go of my wrist and grabs the back of my neck instead. His hold on me is firm and threatening, but not so much that it hurts. He starts to move his thumb in a circular motion and I try to just concentrate on the little massage at the nape of my neck.
“Close your door.” I reach over without looking, feeling for the handle until I find it and pull my door shut.
Bile is rising in my throat and I don’t know if it’s the terror of the situation, the blood I just swallowed, or the greasy meal from earlier. “I think I need to throw up.” My voice sounds so nasally and shaky, I can barely recognize it as my own.
Instead of letting me go on my side, he loops his arm around my torso and pulls me onto his side of the car and onto his lap. Before I can ask him what the hell he is doing, he opens the driver’s door and pulls me out with him.
As soon as the cold air hits my lungs I double over and puke all over the parking lot. Embarrassment is only in the back of my mind with fear taking up so much space already.
By the time I am able to grasp a coherent thought, I realize that Colt is holding back my hair and rubs my back. What the heck? Why is he pretending to care? Is he trying to brainwash me?
Once I emptied out the entire contents of my stomach and my nose has stopped bleeding, I straighten up my aching back. Colt, apparently not fazed by how disgusting I look and smell, puts his arm around me and walks me to the back of the car. It isn’t until he opens the trunk that I start panicking again.
“Please don’t lock me in there,” I say rough and raspy sounding. I don’t like the dark or small spaces and I hate being alone. I try to take a step away from the car but Colt holds me tightly in place. “I swear, I won’t try to get away again!”
“I’m not going to put you in the trunk.” He takes some water bottles and a towel out of the otherwise empty trunk and hands me one of the bottles. With the other one, he wets the towel and starts cleaning my face. “Take your sweater off and put it in the trunk.”
I strip down to my camisole quickly and do as he asks. He takes off his own hoody and throws it on top of my dirty sweater. When he leads me to the driver’s side again, he makes me go in this way, with him following close behind.
Back in the car, he tells me, “wear this for now,” and hands me his jacket from the back seat. I eagerly pull my arms through, trying to get warm and stop my never-ending shaking.
6
Colt
By the time I pull up to the abandoned office building, the sun is just coming up and the street is completely empty. Josie is sitting next to me with her eyes wide open. She is wrapped up in my jacket and has finally stopped shaking. I cut the engine and look at her. “Don’t try to run again.” I leave the threat unspoken, mostly because I don’t want to say it out loud and a little bit because it would be a lie. I wouldn’t hurt her even if she’d try to run.
I let her get out on her side and she doesn’t make a move to run. I grab my duffel bag from the back seat and lead her to the building. I keep my hand on her upper arm the whole way in and through the building. We pass the room I have Mindy locked in and I hope that I am able to keep that fact from Josie. I stop in the room I have been sleeping in and tell Josie to sit down on the mattress. I can see her chest rise and fall rapidly. She is scared and I hate it.
I take out the first aid kit from my bag and sit down next to her. “Let me see your arms.”
She hesitantly pulls off my jacket and shows me her arms. I clean the scratches with some sterile wipes before I put some ointment on each one. I try to be as gentle as I can so I don’t cause her any more pain. Surprisingly, she hasn’t flinched once. “You’re not what I expected,” I tell her.
“Sorry I disappointed you,” she mumbles sarcastically.
“I meant that as a compliment. I thought you would be a rich, self-righteous brat.”
She laughs a humorless laugh. “I used to be.”
“What changed?”
“Jenna.” Her lips turn up a little just saying her sister name. “When I was younger I thought I was better than everyone and that I should act accordingly. That’s what my parents taught me and because they were my parents and I was a child, I believed them. Until Jenna came into my life, I never had a reason not to. Jenna was the kindest, most loving and selfless person that I had ever met, but my parents still treated her like she was worthless. That’s when I knew that my mom and dad were the ones who were less.”
“I’m sorry.” Her head snaps up at my words. Her eyebrows are raised like she can’t believe I just said that.
“You are not what I expected either, Colt.” I don’t need to ask her what she thought of me before.
I finish taking care of all her scratches and get up. I close the door and sit down on the floor with my back leaning against it. “Go to sleep.” Josie was not part of the plan and I only installed locks on the room I’m keeping Mindy in. I was going to throw Josie in the same room. The plan has changed.
Instead of lying down she just sits there, staring at me. “Are you just going to watch me sleep?”
“Yup.”
“Don’t you have a mattress to sleep on, in your hideaway office building?”
“I do. You are sitting on it. I didn’t plan on kidnapping you until yesterday.”
“How spontaneous of you.”
“Yes, that’s me. The spontaneous kidnapper.” I lean my head back against the smooth wooden surface. “Just try to go to sleep.” I hear her move around the makeshift bed and when I open my eyes to glance at her, she is lying down with her eyes closed. I watch her face for a while and I know it takes her a long time to finally go to sleep. When she is awake she has a constant little frown on her face. Now, her face is relaxed, making her look even younger. Her lips are parted just a centimeter and her breathing has evened out.