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And loving you
And don’t pick me up
Sleep. I’ll takean Uber
You’ll let me take care of you
Now shut up and obey
Safe flight
…
Again, I wait with baited breath for him and he replies…
Wow. Axel’s first emoji.
Why is it so silly and simple and flooding me with love? I don’t know what flipped my switch, but something’s changed.
Maybe it’s what Blair said.
Deep down, I do trust Axel. I need to get out of my head about it and listen to my body.
My body that starts to tense, when I glance out of the tinted window, and I don’t recognize where we are.
“Excuse me,” I ask the driver. “Where are you going?”
“I need to pull over. Tire pressure problem.” He slows the car, pulling to the side of a remote road, not the interstate where we should be. “Just a minute.”
I watch from the back seat while he appears to text someone on his phone, maybe roadside assistance, before he turns around, aiming a gun at me.
“Phone,” he barks. “Right now.”
Oh my god, it’s Halstead.
I didn’t recognize him without his dumbass preppy clothes.
“Now, bitch,” he hisses, waving his gun. “And that smartwatch on your wrist, too, or you can eat my bullets. You’ve been fucking with me for too long. Cooperate or die tonight.”
With shaking hands, I take off my watch, then pick up my phone.
Pressing a button, he rolls the window down beside me.
“Toss them out,” he orders. “No one’s tracking where we’re going.”
Yes, they are.
The tracking bracelet Axel gave me, I never take it off. I use my other hand to toss my smartwatch and phone out of the window, not wanting to draw attention to it.
“Put these on.” He tosses a pair of metal handcuffs. They land on the floorboard in front of me. “And keep your fucking mouth shut.”
“I’ll put these on,” I say, securing one metal cuff, then clicking the other closed. “But good luck shutting up my mouth. I’ve come to a point in my life where if you don’t like what I have to say, fuck off. Problem solved.”
“You fuck off, you dumb slut,” he snaps.
“Hey, Einstein. You’re the one kidnapping me. So, the onlyoffI’m going is on you. And you know, the only people who shame sex are the ones who don’t have it. Or don’t have itgood.”
“Shut the fuck up,” he sneers.