His lips pressed hard together. “I promise you I’ll do everything in my power to protect you. I…”
She closed her eyes tight. He stopped talking. No “I love you,” if that had been what he was about to say.
“I appreciate the concern.” She opened her eyes. “But I can take care of myself. I have for most of my life.”
“This is nothing that you’re used to, Viv.” He grabbed hold of the car door.
“I’ll deal.”
She’d sleep in a hotel. Go to the police. Leave town on her own. Whatever she needed to do in order to keep herself and the baby safe.
Dropping into her seat, she took a long breath. Now came the moment where she told him about her pregnancy… or not.
“Goodbye, Markus.” Wrenching the door from his hold, she closed it and immediately locked the car.
His face turned red, and he said something, but she had her eye on the road. There still remained the chance that if she looked at him for too long, she’d be swayed, and that wouldn’t do.
She’d spent her whole life trying to leave behind the crimes of her childhood. She’d separated herself from the man who did everything wrong, and in the end, she’d ended up picking a boyfriend exactly like him. And she hadn’t even known she was doing it.
Tears stung her eyes and rolled down her cheeks as Viv drove. That really was the worst part of all this. Apparently, there had been some dangerous trait about Markus that had attracted her to him subconsciously. It wasn’t a secret that people often chose partners who mirrored one of their parents.
She pulled her phone from her purse to turn it on, then reconsidered it. Markus would probably call.
With a heavy sigh, she put the phone away and focused on driving. She’d done the right thing. Maybe if she told herself that over and over, one day soon, she would come to really believe it.
With the sun climbing, she drove around Jacksonville, not sure where to go or what to do. If everything Markus said was true, then someone could be following her.
The thought sent a shiver down her back. A glance in the windows didn’t reveal any cars out of the ordinary, but then again, what exactly was “out of the ordinary?”
She couldn’t go to Veronica’s house. Putting her sister’s family in jeopardy was out of the question.
After an hour or so of driving, she found herself at Birds and Bea’s. It had just opened, and a few cars sat in front of the shop.
Viv didn’t know why she’d driven there. It wasn’t her first day yet. Maybe she’d figured the place could offer a little comfort. It was a harbinger of good things, nothing like the past she was already working hard to shed—the past that only an hour ago had been her life.
Flipping down the visor, she checked her face. Nose only a little puffy. Eyes only a tad red. It was a look that could pass for seasonal allergies.
Purse in hand, she walked into the shop. Bea stood behind the counter, ringing up an older man. At the sight of Viv, she smiled.
“Have a wonderful day,” Bea told the man. “Tell Mary I said happy anniversary.”
The old man shuffled out the door, bouquet in hand. Viv stepped to the side, suddenly feeling awkward for having come.
“I was in the neighborhood,” she offered.
Bea came around the counter. “That’s nice. Wasn’t today your last day at HW?”
“Yesterday’s conference was. I guess I feel a little lost without work to occupy me.”
Bea pressed a finger to her cheek in thought. “If you like, we can get you started training now. It’s pretty slow at the moment.”
“Really?” Viv’s heart skipped. “That would be great.”
It wasn’t until Bea walked her around the shop to tell her all the different flower names that Viv realized she was probably something of a workaholic. She depended on focused, productive activity to stop her mind from being overactive.
And overactive it was. Any time she stopped listening to Bea explain the importance of inventory or how to close out the drawer, her thoughts drifted, and she invariably started thinking about Markus.
Maybe she’d been too rash.
No, she had definitely done the right thing.
But not telling him he had a child on the way? Even considering the danger his life held?
Yeah. She’d done the right thing. It was precisely that danger that her child needed to be protected against.
Except…
“I’ll take those out!” Viv nearly shouted when she saw Bea struggling to break down some cardboard boxes.
“Thanks, doll.” Bea patted her hair to make sure it hadn’t gotten out of place during the tussle with the boxes. “The recycling bin is out back.”
After breaking down the boxes so they were flat, Viv stacked them in a pile and carried them through the shop’s back door. The sun was in full blast, and the heat made her feel momentarily woozy. Pausing as the door swung shut behind her, she closed her eyes.
She probably should have had something other than yogurt. This whole pregnancy thing would take some getting used to.
Speaking of which… Nausea was bubbling up from her belly.
At the industrial recycling bin, she stood on her tiptoes and shoved the flattened cardboard through a slot at the top. The nausea was subsiding a bit, which gave her some hope. Maybe she wouldn’t be vomiting all the time, after all.
Footsteps behind Viv made her ears perk up.
“Bea?”
Dropping back on her heels, she started to turn. There was movement out of the corner of her eye, and a broad palm pressed against her mouth.
Viv started to scream, but the sound came out muffled. A sharp scent hit her nose. Someone had pressed a liquid-soaked cloth to her face.
The clouds spun. Viv thrashed, waving her arms and trying to kick backward to hit her assailant’s knee, but her strength was slipping away.
Everything was slipping… slipping…
Gone.
Chapter 16
Viv
Sharp pain pressed against Viv’s temples, and her shoulders ached. With her eyes closed, she didn’t know which way was up and which was down. All she understood was that she was moving.
That’s right. She was in a car. Judging from the sound of passing vehicles, they were on the interstate.
Her heart rate went from one mile per hour to a hundred. She snapped her eyes open, but everything was still dark.
Because there was a bag over her head, she realized. Even though it was loose, it made the air around her face hot and thick. Not only that, her wrists were bound behind her back.
Squinting her eyes, she peered through the fabric. Light from up ahead showed a window.
“Hello?” she croaked.
No answer. But someone was driving this car. Or van. Yes, it was probably a van. She was sitting on the floor and could stretch her legs out.
God, she was probably in one of those white predator-looking vans. Her mother used to get paranoid whenever she saw a nondescript van driving around, but Viv would only laugh.
Well, she wasn’t laughing now.
“Hello?” she tried again.
She hadn’t really expected an answer, but trying felt better than doing nothing. She’d been kidnapped. Officially, legitimately kidnapped.