Page 57

Mindy

Terrified. I should be absolutely terrified, but I’m just plain old irritated. When Maddox finds me, he’s going to be in a killing rage.

“Sit.” The man with the gun pushes me into a chair and ties me up.

“Are you going to give me something to wrap the wound, or am I just supposed to bleed all over the place?” That came out with a bit more attitude than I meant.

The boss walks over. “It’s not a lot of blood. You’ll be just fine. Unless we kill you.”

He’s trying to scare me. “You won’t kill me. I’m worth nothing to you dead. My boyfriend won’t pay you a cent until he sees me alive.” I can’t see Maddox paying them with anything but bullets.

Wow, that sounded violent. Maybe I’m dreaming up just how vengeful Maddox can be.

“We won’t kill you, but we certainly can hurt you if you irritate us.”

“That would be foolish.” I’m going to get myself hurt. But I can’t seem to stop the snark from coming out.

“And why is that?”

“Because right now you could let me go. Just walk away like nothing happened. But if you hurt me anymore or wait for my boyfriend to find me, and he will find me, you’re in for a world of hurt.”

The boss laughs. “Your boyfriend is a weak, little nerd. He doesn’t scare me.”

A weak little nerd? “Maddox Locke is hardly either of those things. Though, he’s a pretty decent chess player, so nerd might be accurate. But his muscles disprove the rest.”

“WHAT?”

“Okay, he’s more than a decent chess player. But I still beat him all the time.”

“Your boyfriend isn’t Maddox Locke.”

“Yes, he is. We made it official at my mother’s wedding this weekend.”

“Your boyfriend is Waylon—”

“Waylon is my brother.”

The boss blinks. “You’re telling me that you called Maddox Locke and demanded money?”

“You told me to call my boyfriend. So I called him.”

“You’re supposed to be sleeping with Waylon—”

“EWWWW. Gross. I would never sleep with my brother, even if he’s a stepbrother. That’s so gross.”

“You hugged him in the park. You gave him money twice.”

“Again, Waylon is my brother. You were threatening to hurt him if he didn’t pay you. I was going to get the money to pay you off completely before you abducted me and brought me to the two-bit travel agency. Who even puts up pictures of aliens anymore? Seriously, Area 52, or whatever it’s called, is such a hoax.”

“You were going to pay?” The boss’ eyes open wide like he hit the jackpot.

“I was going to ask my friend for the money. Or my boyfriend. I wasn’t sure. Is it appropriate to ask the man you just started dating for three-quarters of a million dollars? See, I don’t think so, but he probably would. Like I told you, he’s sweet like that and super overprotective. If I were you, I’d really let me go. Maddox is a wonderful boyfriend.”

“Where have I heard that name before?” The boss starts to pace.

“He’s an urban legend.”

“Huh?” The boss turns to him.

“You know something people talk about because they aren’t real, but then sometimes they’re real.”

“I know what an urban legend is, you idiot. Who is Maddox Locke?”

“Oh, he’s this killer that protects any kid that comes to him. He’s supposed to have a million brothers and eyes everywhere. No one ever hurts one of his kids and lives to talk about it. Or so the legend goes.”

“You forgot his snakes. Maddox loves snakes. Did you know he has a whole room of danger noodles?”

The muscled guy laughs. “You’re funny. Danger noodles.” He shakes his head.

“Knuckles, pay attention,” the boss snaps.

“I am. You kidnapped Maddox Locke’s girlfriend, and he has a million venomous snakes. Am I missing anything?” Knuckles asks.

“Just that he’s probably going to kill you when he rescues me.”

Knuckles smiles. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” I turn my head back towards the boss. “This doesn’t really seem like a good plan. Especially for a businessman like yourself. Loan sharking is basically a business. Fine, it’s a teensy bit illegal, but have you seen what credit cards are charging in interest lately? That’s highway robbery. That’s why I refuse to use them. Once you’re in debt, it’s almost impossible to get out of it. Am I right?”

“You really are.” Knuckles nods.

“But I digress. Waiting for my now grumpy boyfriend, he really is sweet most of the time, to come find me sounds like a recipe for pain. A good businessman would know when the deal is falling apart and plan an exit accordingly.”

“An exit?” Rudy gulps.

“Yes. One where you untie me, then run out the door as fast as you can and hide.”

“I like her idea, boss.” Knuckles smiles at me.

“Thank you. I thought it was a pretty good idea myself.”

“You think I should run away from your boyfriend?” the boss repeats.

“Yup.”

“What about my money?”

“Well, here’s the thing. My brother was stupid for borrowing money from you, but he isn’t a stupid man. He planned on paying you back in full. He just needed to wait to be paid out. Do you know that billion-dollar companies have this long process before they pay their bills? It’s kinda wild. I didn’t know, and Waylon certainly didn’t know. But he does now. And when he gets paid, he had every intention of paying you off with interest, but now that my boyfriend is in the picture, I don’t know. My boyfriend might not take too kindly to my brother being threatened by a businessman like you. So if I were you, I’d revise the interest he owes you since my brother’s already paid you tens of thousands of dollars. But that’s just a wild idea of mine.”

“Any idea that doesn’t involve us getting dead sounds like a good idea to me,” Knuckles says.

“You’re both crazy.” The boss looks between the two of us.

“And you’re running out of time. My boyfriend is awfully smart. And he has a lot of smart friends, who are kind of trigger-happy.” They don’t have to know I’m exaggerating just a little bit. “So, what are you going to do, wait here to die or run away and collect a small return on your investment?”

The boss looks at Knuckles, then at me. “I think it’s time to go.”

“Good choice. Untie me first.”

The boss rushes out, with Knuckles following quickly behind him. Knuckles turns and whispers, “Sorry.” Then closes the door without freeing me.

I should be happy. The immediate threat is gone. Only now I might die a slow death alone in a rat-infested travel agency. Starvation doesn’t sound like a pretty way to die, regardless of what my mother might say.

Maddox, you better find me soon. I don’t want to die in here as a pretty corpse that was nibbled on by rats.

There’s got to be a way to free myself.

Across the room is a pair of scissors. If I can get to them, maybe I can cut myself free like they do in the movies.

After what feels like ten minutes of shaking the chair, I’ve only moved about a foot. At this rate it’s going to take days to get over to the scissors.

Maddox, can’t you hurry up and find me?

A paper moves in the corner.

Rats! I knew there were rats.

They’re going to eat me!

Go faster. You can do this.

Why did they have to pick such a heavy chair to tie me to? At least it has a little padding, which is helping mitigate the pain of bashing my body side to side, sort of. If I make it through this, I’m taking the longest nap. And a bath.

Except I can’t take a bath until I get my stitches out. Stupid, rotten, lousy Adonis. Stupid kidnappers.

That is, if I don’t bleed to death.

And now that I’m staring at it, the wound starts to throb.

Maddox, why aren’t you here yet? I need you to come rushing in and save me.

But heroes only save the day in movies. You need to save yourself. Stop thinking about the pain and get back to rocking and rolling over to those scissors.

A roach scurries past my foot.

Eww. Now my pretty corpse is going to be eaten by rats and roaches.

Life isn’t fair.

It just isn’t fair at all.

Move faster.

I bash my hip to the side as hard as I can. The chair tips…too far.

Noooooooo.

I bang my head on the floor. Stars flood around my eyes.

No.

No.

No.

Why did I do that?

Because of the roach!

Its cousin Bob scurries under the desk.

No.

No.

No.

Maddox, please come rescue me. Please.

There’s a loud explosion, and all the glass in the front of the office shatters at once.

I close my eyes, hoping it doesn’t hit me.

The way my day has been going, it’ll sever my scalp or something traumatic like that.

“Mindy?” Maddox shouts.

“I’m here. On the floor. With the roaches and rats.” He came.

Please say this isn’t a delusion from bashing my head on the floor.

“Why are you on the floor? Where is Rudy?”

My chair shifts until I’m sitting upright. “Are you real? Or am I imagining you? Because if the rats are eating my brains right now, I don’t want to know.”

“What? Did they give you drugs?” Maddox squats down in front of me.

“There’s a gun in your hand. I knew you’d come with guns blazing to save me. Are you real?”

Instead of saying anything, Maddox leans down and kisses me.

Mmmmm.

“Does that feel real?”

“Very real. Though, could you try it again just to make sure?”

He laughs.

Then my hands are somehow free.

“Let’s get you out of here.” Maddox lifts me into his arms. “Are there any other wounds I should worry about?”

“The only new one is the knife wound. But he wasn’t trying to kill me. Just scare you. Well, not you. Did you know he thought Waylon was you? So gross.”

“Are you sure they didn’t give you drugs?”

“Positive. I think I’ve just lost it a little bit. I don’t want to get kidnapped again, okay?”

“No more kidnapping.”

“Good.” I lean my head on his very real shoulder. “Thank you for finding me.”

“I’ll always find you.”