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HEATHER

A s she sat in the back of a police car being driven by someone who was most definitely not a police officer, it occurred to Heather that she hadn’t had a moment to feel terrified because she was too busy being absolutely furious with herself.

She had made one stupid decision, and it was going to change her life forever.

Leaving Cole was bad enough, but managing to get kidnapped again in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses was the frosting on the idiot cake.

Of course, it hadn’t looked like a kidnapping at the time.

It had looked like an arrest. And she had looked like a raving lunatic with blue hair and an angry expression.

She was fighting the police officer, screaming about how “they” had found her and were going to take her away.

She was begging bystanders to find some random guy, who they probably thought didn’t even exist. The witnesses looked like they felt sorry for the police officer more than anything.

The poor man was just trying to do his job, and now he had to deal with this nonsense, which they probably assumed was caused by some illicit substances.

But the only substance Heather was on was caffeine, and the man arresting her was most definitely not a police officer. She recognized him, in fact. And she remembered his name.

“You’re Jay, right?” she said.

The man she had once dubbed the hothead glanced at her through his rearview mirror.

She continued trying to get to him. “It’s a crime to impersonate a police officer, you know.”

He laughed at that. “Wouldn’t be the first crime I’ve done now, would it?” And it wouldn’t be the worst he would do in the future either, would it? He hadn’t bothered to put a bag over her head this time, and Heather thought she probably knew why.

“You’re taking me somewhere to kill me, aren’t you?” Her voice was more timid than she would have liked. She wanted to sound fearless in the face of her imminent death, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t.

“It’s not up to me what gets done with you,” her kidnapper said. “I’m just the delivery guy.”

“Demoted?” she pressed him. “That’s not fair.

You were just doing your job. Someone had to check that I wasn’t who you thought I was.

” There was no harm in trying to get an ally in the group that was kidnapping her.

Maybe he would argue to keep her alive when the time came.

It was worth a try anyway, and she had to try something.

The only other alternative was giving up.

And giving up was not an option — not to Heather.

Jay didn’t respond, which was probably a sign that he was at least not hating what she said.

The ride back to Los Angeles was going to be upwards of three hours, and that was Heather’s ticking clock, as far as she was concerned. “I have to use the bathroom,” she said out of nowhere. Maybe it was cliché, but it was a classic for a reason. “Can we stop somewhere so I can go?”

“Nice try,” he said.

He wasn’t buying it, but Heather wasn’t going to be dissuaded that easily.

Getting out of the cop car was her last chance.

As it stood, she couldn’t even try to run for it.

Her hands were cuffed behind her back, and there was a security divider between herself and the driver.

“Please,” she begged. “I just had my coffee. If you don’t let me go, it’s not going to be pretty back here.

It’s going to be a really unpleasant trip. I can promise you that.”

“Why didn’t you just go at the café, then?” he asked bitterly.

She rolled her eyes at him. “I had no idea I was going to be kidnapped and taken on a multi-hour road trip, obviously. How was I supposed to plan for this? Look, I’ll just go to the bathroom, I swear.”

“Like that means anything.” He was acting tough, but she could tell he was beginning to doubt himself. “Fine,” he said after several more minutes on the road. “But this is the last bathroom trip you get. So make sure you do everything you need to do.”

He pulled into a gas station that looked, much to Heather’s chagrin, practically abandoned.

The choice of gas station was no accident, she realized, and Jay was not as big of an idiot as she’d originally taken him for.

He parked and helped Heather out of the back of the car.

“I’m going to need the cuffs off,” she said.

He took her by the elbow and led her into the station. As soon as they were inside, he asked the clerk, “Bathroom?”

The clerk, who was behind the counter reading something on her phone, pointed to the back corner of the shop.

“And I have to ask,” Jay said, “is there a window in your restroom?”

The clerk shook her head. “No, sir.”

“Good.” Jay lifted Heather’s elbow and gave it a little shake.

“Can’t let this one get away. She’s a violent offender.

” He smiled at the clerk, and Heather wanted to punch him, even though all that would have done was prove his point to the clerk.

He led her back to the corner where the bathroom was and right up to the door.

There, he quickly unlocked her handcuffs and shoved her through the door.

“Don’t try anything stupid, now,” he said as an afterthought.

As far as Heather was concerned, the most stupid thing she could try right now was nothing.

There wasn’t a chance in hell this gang was going to let her go on living when they were done with her.

Whatever it was they had planned, whether they intended to use her as bait or something else, they weren’t going to let her go when it was all over.

No matter how much she complied with them, she was going to die.

So, there was nothing stupid about fighting to live.

She went to the bathroom to give herself a moment to think.

Jay was waiting at the bathroom door, so even if she tried to bolt, he would likely stop her.

She could choose to fight him, but what would happen if she lost?

He had already told the clerk she was dangerous.

While she stood in front of the mirror, contemplating, there was a loud bang on the bathroom door.

Her kidnapper wasn’t going to let her take her time, it seemed.

“Just a minute!” she called to the door. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

“I don’t think so,” Jay’s voice said, and then he burst into the bathroom.

There was a moment in which Heather felt like an idiot for not thinking to lock the door.

If she had, she would have had more time before the clerk unlocked it, surely.

But it was useless. No amount of berating herself was going to change the situation she was in.

Instead, she chose to fight. She flew past him, shoving him out of the way as she burst out of the bathroom. She ran to the clerk, who jumped away from her. “No, no!” She quickly explained. “I’m not a criminal. I need your help. Please! He’s not a policeman. Please!”

Jay came up behind her and grabbed her hands before she even realized he was there.

Heather screamed and tried to kick him backwards, but he had her in handcuffs before she could make a move that mattered.

“Forgive me for that,” he said to the clerk.

“She slipped away. She’s a little paranoid.

It’s just part of her illness. Well, off to the hospital now.

” He started steering Heather toward the front door.

“He’s lying!” she screamed back at the clerk. “Please, you have to believe me. Call the police. I’m begging you to call the police!”

“Apologies for the inconvenience,” Jay said.

“We’ll get out of your hair now.” He smiled back at the clerk and shoved Heather out the door.

Then he continued shoving her all the way to the cop car.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he muttered as she shoved her into the back seat. “I warned you not to try anything.”

He pulled out of the parking lot, still muttering to himself. “You’re lucky that girl didn’t believe you, or I would have had to kill her, too.”

That sent a chill down Heather’s spine. She hadn’t thought that she might be endangering anyone’s life but her own.

As the car made its way toward Los Angeles, Heather sank down in her seat and felt terrible about herself.

More and more, she became convinced her life was over, and once again, it was because of one stupid mistake.

She should never have left Cole. But he’d made her feel like a burden, like she was only making things worse for him.

There seemed to be no better choice at the time, but now she realized that wasn’t true.

And she felt like a fool for ever having thought it was.

After some time on the road, they exited the highway. Heather perked up, thinking maybe they weren’t going as far as she thought they were. “What’s happening?” she asked her kidnapper.

He glared at her in the rearview mirror. “Switching vehicles in case that clerk actually does call the police. You just tacked another half hour onto our trip. So, thanks for that.”

Heather scoffed. Seriously? He was acting like they were on a road trip and she’d talked him into visiting a tourist trap or something. “One more half hour that I get to live,” she said. “Why would I do anything to try and make this easier for you. You’re taking me somewhere to kill me!”

“You don’t know that,” he said. “The boss might have found another use for you.”

“Is that the lie you tell yourself to shut your conscience down?”

Jay clearly didn’t like that. He didn’t even respond to it.

Instead he pulled around to a back parking lot behind an abandoned building.

There, a van waited, and Jay transferred her from the cop car to the van.

It wasn’t the same one they had put her in the first time, but it was very similar.

The windows were still about as dark as they could legally be in the back.

Heather was strapped to a back seat so she could not reach the driver to assault him or attempt to escape.

Jay climbed in the van after her, and they left the cop car there.

“Someone will set fire to that later,” Jay said with a playful wink. “So, don’t worry too much about DNA or fingerprints or anything like that.” He was trying to be tough, but all he managed to do was piss Heather off.

She sat in silence for the rest of the trip, her mind racing with potential ways she could get out of this.

But every time she followed her train of thought to its logical conclusion, she wound up dead in her own prediction.

She felt so powerless and scared. For the first time in her life, she didn’t know what the rules were or what path she could take to minimize her risk.

All the paths were dangerous. None of them were avenues she would have chosen under any other circumstances.

She was going to have to take a huge risk, but which risk was the right one to take? She didn’t have the faintest idea.

When they got to their location, the van turned into what looked like a massive building in yet another empty parking lot.

The van pulled inside one of the large garage doors lining the outside, and Heather realized she was in some kind of warehouse.

There were shelves lined with boxes and an office with windows looking out to the massive storage area.

Any colors around them were industrial, gray with bright yellows and reds.

The lighting was this bright-white, lifeless, fluorescent type that made everything look about as unpleasant as it could.

It was impressive, really, how awful the environment looked to Heather.

Then, she saw a sight that made all of it seem that much more beautiful.

Sitting in a chair — taped to it, more accurately — was none other than Cole himself.

How he’d wound up here, Heather had no idea, but she was grateful to see him.

It occurred to her that she should be worried for him, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that his being here made everything possible.

With him, she could hope and fight back.

The kidnappers dragged Heather to a second chair that sat right next to Cole’s. Then they taped her to it with her back to the same concrete pillar his own back was against. “Don’t try anything stupid,” one of the kidnappers told her.

Jay spoke up when he heard that. “She won’t take that advice.” He laughed, and Heather clenched her teeth and growled at him. “Stupid stuff is her favorite stuff to try.”

To Heather’s shock, Cole actually laughed at that.

Then he said, “You can say that again,” and if Heather’s feet weren’t taped to a chair, she would have kicked him for it.

At the same time, she couldn’t help admitting he was right.

She had endangered him twice, and it was at least partly her fault he was currently taped to a chair in a warehouse just outside of Los Angeles.

Heather muttered, “Sorry.”

But Cole wasn’t having it. “Don’t be,” he said under his breath. “I’m glad I’m here. We’re getting out of this together, and now, we can take all of them down so they can never do this to anyone else.”