Chapter 98 98

Chapter 98 98
ADELINE

Unstable. A wobbly mess. Those were the only ways I could think of to describe the vessel I was trapped in. My eyes were wide open but all I could see was pitch black, darkness surrounded me like a cloak.

And that wasn't even the worse of it. Whatever they had tossed over my head smelled worse than dog shit mixed in rotten eggs with a side helping of a week old left overs that weren't stored properly. It made me want to puke my guts out all over myself.

A jiggle and what sounded like a bump and I was sent flying forward. A pair of hands wrapped around my wrist, rough and uncaring if I bruised. Fingers thick like a man's and palm, the type of rough that told me he must have undergone years of hard labour. Before I could complain about being handled like an animal, I was shoved back with so much force, the air was knocked right out of my lungs and brain.

I didn't get another chance to be thrown forward again either. Whoever they were, they tied my already bound hands even tighter as if to remind me that there was no escape and I had no choice to do as I was told.

My heart quickened. I always watched crime thrillers and see how they struggle with their last breathe and still never make it in time, dead and dumped on a highway or some deserted remote place no one ever visited anymore.

Would I be taken to some remote place? Would it even be in this state?

Maybe it's a surprise, Kris is playing some twisted prank and I'd arrive back at their house, unharmed and definitely not dead in a ditch.

The car halted suddenly, the smell of metal and rust strong in the air. The car is silent for a moment and I left to wonder what the hell was going on. Are they laughing at my expenses or planning what the best way to end my very short life would be. Please father, let it be the former, I wouldn't even botch Kris's stupid face, please just let me be home safe. I promise I would forgive, maybe not forget, but I would definitely forgive.

Squashed between what could only be two overgrown men from the way my ribs were sandwiched, I was left with no other choice than to sit in quiet. Wait, why was I being quiet? Isn't this the part where I yell? Wouldn't that be stupid, no one was around. But I had something over my head, how would I even know if people were.

"Take it to the ranch." An slither like voice ordered, coming from my right, the brute rhag shoved be back into the chair earlier. He was the gang leader. Wait, this was starting to feel real. Kris wouldn't be crazy enough to hire men to take me to a ranch? Oh shit.

Arms from my left grabbed my shoulders like a weighed a sack of exactly nothing. I was the 'it'?!

I'm thrown over what I assume to be his shoulder and I'm sure he can feel every beat of my heart which was racing way passed its speed limit.

Realization hit me like a gunshot to the chest, "Please let me go. I'm sure you have the wrong girl." I cried, my body had gone into fight or flight mode, but how do you fight when you have no freaking idea how to?!

I was met with silence from my handler but I could hear faint voices in the distance. "She doesn't tell me what to do." The slithery voice hissed at someone. They were three?! As in, one two and three?! I almost smack myself in the head, of course they were, two had me sandwiched, of course one had to be the designated driver. And the old man was in on it too? And now there was a 'she' involved?! Just how many people were in on it? Why do they even want me? I'm just a poor girl with a sick mother and an absent father, what amount could they possibly get for ransom?

Wait, I'm married to...oh fuck! Jabs and pokes from his shoulder with every step he took, made it harder for my gut to function with all that movement.

If I didn't die before we got to the 'ranch', I just might have a chance at escape. Oh, who was I kidding? They might as well just kill me now.

"Sir, I promise I'm just a sweet girl, I haven't hurt anyone, I can't hurt anyone, just please let me go." My voice was shaky, heck, my entire body was shaky!

"Shut up before I drag you there!" As if to reiterate his point, he bumped me up on his shoulder and I almost lost my breath with how hard his shoulder hit my stomach, my very pregnant stomach.

A whine slipped from my lips in time and it was all I could do not to cry. Definitely not a prank. Tears flowed freely because it hurt, it fucking hurt. I cried not just for myself, but for the baby that didn't even do anything and was being tortured for no reason, for the baby who's life was now in danger because of me. The urge to rub my belly, to soothe it and maybe plead for him or her to remain strong, was overpowering.

He put me back on my feet a minute later and yanked the bag off of my head in one go. I squinted my eyes just as quick. The sun was merciless, burning down on my face and head like it was trying to punish me, like being kidnapped wasn't punishment enough.

Tears gathered at the corner of my eyes, hot and painful. I didn't deserve this, no one did, but I was a good person, I'd gone through my fair share of life's bad hand. Was it a mistake to be born?!

"Get in." My assailant grunted very similar to a dogs bark, but who would be telling him that? Definitely not me. His face the picture of rough and I was right, he was an overgrown brute. Scars marred everything corner of it, his head clean shaven and tattoed. Who tattooed their heads?! If that wasn't warning enough that he wasn't the one to mess with, the dragon tattoo that ran all across his arm and forearm, kinking where his muscles had taken over, would. He was almost twice my height and definitely twice my size. All my plans to beat who I could and escape died a very quick death because I couldn't even lift his finger, one of his had to be two of mine.

I did as I was told because what choice did I really have?

The entire room was covered in wood, hay surrounded the corners of the floor and a few were scattered on the floor boards. A single chair sat right in the centre of the room with metal chains surrounding its legs. No windows, just space and chain.

Panic rose to paralyzing heights because that meant there was only one way in and out and my assailant was parked right in it, his hands crossed over his chest. It screamed, "if you want out, you have to get through me." and there was no getting through that.

How on earth did it get here? I couldn't help but blame myself because why did I have to leave the house? Maybe if I stayed, I would be making Johnny that icecream he never asked for or atleast watching a cartoon. Anything but this.

"Sit." He ordered like I was some dog he just purchased off the black market.

Still, I did as I was told because the pain from his lesson earlier hadn't eased up yet, not even a little.

He soon began wrapping the chains around my leg, horizontally, then criss cross, then over and under before hooking one through another and finally locking it shut with a padlock. He pulled my arms to the back of the chair and tied it expertly and I'm pretty sure he must have seen my bulging tummy, but if that made him treat me anymore gently, he had a weird way of doing so.

He shut the door behind him and left. No instructions not to try anything, no replacement, he just left. This was my chance.

I took a second look at the room I was in, but nothing but hay stared back at me, not even a rake or shovel for the hay, almost like they had had everything removed just for my welcome party. Shit!

I struggled and toss but even with all the force in the world, the chains didn't bulge, not even an inch.

"No, no, no." I cried as yet again the chains seem to tighten the more I struggled.

"I'd give up if I were you." The door swung open and I'm too shocked to move, too in disbelief to even think. It was my dating site date, the one Grayson had embarrassed at the restaurant, the one that fed the blog all that detail and stopped calling the moment the blogs were taken down.

"You?!" I couldn't believe it. I couldn't wrap my head around why he would go to such extreme lengths just because I wasn't the date that made him famous. Even saying it in my head sounded crazy.

"Yes. Me! Surprised?!" His lips twisted in an ugly smirk, his hair was all over the place and the shirt he wore looked like it should already be considering its reincarnation not being worn still. He looked a mess. What had happened after those blogs were taken down?

"Why?" That was the only question on my mind and I refused to believe that it was simply because I had the blogs taken down, same blogs that were about to ruin my life, same blogs that he fed the information. I should be the one having him chained and kicked in the gut with a shoulder.

"Why don't you ask your hubby?" He pulled back, his index finger tapping against his chin like he was deep in thought, "Oh wait, you can't!" He burst out into a cackle like he'd just said the funniest thing to ever exist. Yeah, I was laughing alright, but more at myself than anything. How had I been so stupid as to trust him? To go on a date with him? Stupid!

"Please. I promise we can work something out." I rushed because it didn't matter what I thought, "I can make a statement, say that I came onto you and everything, you really don't have to go through this." I couldn't even gesture.

"It's too late for that now!" He lunged at me, screaming in my face with every bit of strength in his neck, the veins were prominent and if I had a knife or even something remotely sharp, that would be it. "Your husband made sure of that." He pulled away from the chair, his voice far away and eyes distant like he was remembering something.

"My husband? What did Grayson do?" The panic was impossible to hide now. Grayson had been the one to take down the blogs. "Okay, I would get Grayson to make a public statement, I'm sure we can work this out!" I was getting desperate now and I'm sure he could see it too.

"Look at you sounding all polished and diplomatic," he scoffed, "Nothing can fix it!" He slammed a fist against the wall. "Don't you get it?! His chest heaved rising and failing in haste. "Your husband ruined my life, my career, everything that was precious to me, he destroyed. So no, we cannot work this one out, not until I return the favour." His lips stretched in a sleazy smile.