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“Please, at least just tell me that he’s fine. That’s all that matters to me.”
She shot me a look and shook her head. “You don’t love him like I do,” she whispered, turning her face back to the road. “You will never love him like I do.”
Veronica pressed her foot down on the gas, making the car go even faster down the interstate. I looked at the speedometer and she was nearing 90 MPH. The cars we passed honked at us, but the sound faded quickly as the distance grew between us.
“Slow down!” I shouted, gripping the handle of the door, making my knuckles white.
I could have sworn she smiled as her hands gripped tightly around the steering wheel.
“Veronica! Pull over!” I reached over and grabbed her arm, but she yanked it away. The car swerved to the left and I closed my eyes, bracing myself to hit another car. But we didn’t. Veronica righted the car and continued straight, barely fazed by the crash we had almost found ourselves in.
I started sucking in deep breaths, trying to calm the flurry of panic in my head. I had to think of something. Had to get out of here. But as the car continued to gain speed and distance from the city, any way out of this started to seem impossible.
I clutched my purse tightly against my stomach, and then I remembered I had my phone. I looked at Veronica warily as I pried my hand from the car door and slowly reached into my purse. I felt around the large bag, a gift from Troy, my fingers desperate to feel the sleekness of my phone. Finally, they wrapped around it and I tried to unlock it in the darkness of my purse.
I tried several times and failed, locking me out of my phone. I let out a quiet sob. Veronica looked at me suddenly and down at my hand in my purse. She yanked it from my hands, my phone with it, and threw it in the backseat.
“Nice try,” she sneered.
I leaned my head against the seat and closed my eyes. I was helpless. I had just lost my one way of getting help. Or did I? I looked at the door and the button for the window. I quickly reached over and pressed it, throwing my hand out the window and frantically waving it, hoping someone would see, but the cars we passed were just blurs of color. We were moving too fast.
I felt the window close tightly against my wrist and I let out a yelp of pain. I looked at Veronica, who was smiling as she held down the button on her side of the car.
“Stop! Please stop!” I yelled in pain, trying to pull my arm from the bite of the window.
After several seconds of her enjoying my torture, she rolled down the window, releasing my arm. I held it against me, rubbing the red impression the edge of the window had left on my skin. I felt my eyes start to water, not from the pain, but from being trapped in here with her. I tried blinking them back, refusing to let her see me break me. Trying to keep my wits about me.
I heard the trill of a phone. I looked to the backseat where my purse was thrown, but realized it wasn’t my phone ringing. Veronica pulled her phone up to her ear, keeping one hand on the wheel. I strained my ears to listen as the car wobblily strayed between lanes.
“If I can’t have you, then no one can…” were the only words I could make out through the pounding in my head.
I realized it was Troy on the other line. My heart slammed to my throat as I burst into tears, knowing he was alive, knowing he was okay. I sucked in a quivering breath before letting out a shrill scream. But Veronica had already hung up and my cry for help had landed on deaf ears. Veronica threw her head back and laughed at my desperation. It was a laugh that vibrated through my body, raising goosebumps on my skin.
Chapter 50
Troy
Istood from my desk, my eyes glued to my phone screen as I walked down the hallway toward the elevators. Veronica’s cryptically cold words repeated in my mind. I could see that the blip on the screen was still moving down the interstate, further away from the city and gaining speed. I ran my hand through my hair, stressed, as I thought about how I could get to Monica. I passed Kathy’s door for the elevators, trying to think of a plan.
“Troy?” she called out curiously.
“I have to go,” I said, barely stopping.
“Please. Talk to me.” The worry in her voice caught me off guard. I slowed my steps.
“You’re as white as a ghost,” she said, walking toward me.
“I think Monica is in trouble.”
She swallowed hard as the seriousness of my words registered. I looked down at my feet and shook my head slowly.
“I can’t lose her,” I whispered, feeling my eyes burn with tears threatening to fall. I blinked them back. I hated letting Kathy see me like this, but my emotions were getting the best of me. My fears were consuming me.
“You love her, don’t you?” she asked in almost a whisper.
I looked up at Kathy and saw a knowing sympathy in her eyes. There was no snide satisfaction in knowing that she had been right about us secretly being together, no matter how many times she had tried to catch us or rat us out to my father. No, there was an understanding in her eyes. I wondered if it was because she also loved someone she couldn’t have. My father. I couldn’t let that thought get to me now.
Not when the woman I loved was in danger and I could do nothing to stop it in this moment. I would never forgive myself if something happened to her. I had brought this world of trouble on to her, had brought this awful woman in her life. Veronica had made her life hell at the gala, at my apartment, and now this. I thought I had done what I could to protect her. Us. Still, it wasn’t enough.