RANSOM (5 page)

   “Like you have room to talk. You brought your whore in on a kidnapping scheme. If you really cared for her, you wouldn’t have risked her getting caught up in your mess,” I hiss.

   “There you go assuming shit about me that you couldn’t possibly understand. How about you keep your opinions about me and my life to yourself!” he shouts.

   “Sure, right after you!”

   “Freaking hell. Will the both of you shut up?” She walks over and stands beside the two of us, “And you thought I was the one who was going to rip her a new one.”

   It takes a minute for the fog of my anger to lift and for me to notice that I am standing toe to toe with Lynkin. I don’t remember either of us moving during that
spat. Lynkin is still staring at me so fiercely that I drop down from the tips of my toes. He doesn’t break eye contact until his chick clears her throat. 

   “I’m sorry. What’d you say, Jennifer?” he asks her as his eyes jump back to me for a millisecond, then back to her.

   Even though I am still having fun calling this Jennifer vulgar and mean names, it’s nice to have a name for the accomplice.

   “I was saying that you were worried about me killing her, but I think you will get to it before I do,” she tells him.

   “Yeah, well…she shouldn’t act like such a priss.” He looks back at me with disgust and then walks outside.

   The mirror on the wall and the windows rattle with the force of the door shutting, causing me to flinch. “I don’t think I have ever seen anyone push his buttons as hard as you do.”

   Ugh, why didn’t she go out with him? “Like I care. Kidnapped. Hello?” I say, signaling up and down to myself.

   “A desperate man will do drastic things to support those he loves,” she states.

   “What? Does he have a million baby mommas running around begging for child support?” I laugh.

   “Where you raised to be rude and clueless? Or just plain selfish?” Jennifer asks.

   “Do you suggest I should give a flying fuck about anything that man is going through?”

   “Yes, you should. Seeing as your family is the reason he is without a home or a job. That his mother may lose her home. She depends on him to support her and without his job, he can’t.”

   “My family doesn’t have anything to do with his life. My father is a business man, not a bank,” I explain. “See? You have me confused for someone else. You can just let me go now, you have the wrong girl.”

   “Sage Donovan. Daughter of Carl Donovan. One of the owners of Royale South Hospitality. Oh, honey, we have the right girl,” she points out. I look up to ask her the connection between my father and Lynkin only to find I am alone in the room. I just don’t get it. We are from two separate worlds. My father would have no reason to go after someone like Lynkin, he doesn’t have anything my dad could want.

   I just want to get out of here and sleep in a decent bed. My phone! I run over to the table and shuffle around all my things trying to find it so I can call someone, anyone, but come up empty. The room phone! I run to the night stand and nearly knock everything off trying to pick up the phone. I am greeted with silence when I place it by my ear.
Damn
.

   There are three ways out of this room. The front door, the windows next to the front door, and a tiny window high up beside the closet. It’s worth a shot. I grab one of the chairs and
carefully carry it to the window placing the back of it against the wall. I stand up on it and unlock the window. I push it open and try to pull myself up with my arms, but I’m just not high enough. I put one of my feet on an arm of the chair and the other on the back to push myself up some more.

  
Just a little more
. I jump up and get my top half through, only to knock over the chair. Knowing they will come plowing in here at any minute I start kicking at the wall to push myself the rest of the way out. Just as I hear the door bang against the wall, I give one final shove and I hit the outside pavement on my side.

   I don’t even take time to enjoy being free. I get to my feet and run. I stumble a few times before I finally keep upright, but I keep going. They are both behind me, I can hear them hollering at me. They sound distant compared to my bare feet kicking up rocks behind me and my heart beating loudly. I don’t make it far when I realize I have no idea where I am, and there is absolutely nothing around. There is nothing on either side of the road but flat fields and dirt roads. There isn’t even a place to hide. Just nothingness.

   I slow to a stop and spin around. Lynkin still running after me and Jennifer standing back at the hotel in the distance. When he stops in front of me dirt kicks up forming a cloud around us.

   “Damn, Beauty…” Lynkin pauses, bending over at the waist and placing his hands on his knees, “You have a pair of legs on you. That’s for sure.”

   I don’t even give him the satisfaction of replying. My plan is to walk past him back to the room, but my feet have their own idea. I guess the adrenaline kept me from feeling what I was putting them through while running. Now, well now, they hurt like a bitch.

Lynkin

This girl can run like no one’s business! I have to take a second to catch my breath once I get to her, because it took everything I had just to keep up with her. She sticks her nose in the air and starts to hobble past me back to the hotel. I hide my smile because I know it will just piss her off more, but when I drop my head I notice her feet are bleeding.

   I don’t know what comes over me. I don’t even remember actually picking her up. But here I am, walking with her in my arms. She is doing her best to make me put her back down, screaming and kicking. I’m not having any of it.

   “You might as well shut that pretty mouth of yours, I’m not putting you down,” I tell her. Did I seriously just call her mouth pretty? Out loud?

   “I am capable of walking. I am not an invalid,” she replies, while still trying to push from my grasp.

   I hold her tighter and keep walking. When I reach the hotel Jennifer comes running up to me. “What’s wrong? Is she ok? God, Lynkin, we will never get out of this mess if we let her get hurt.”

   “Jesus, Jen! Will you chill out? She is fine. Open the door for me.” She pushes the door open wide for me, and I walk by her and straight to the bathroom. I shut the door behind me and set Sage on the counter. I pull my arms from her slowly and back up, waiting for her to jump down and take off again.

   When she doesn’t, I get to work getting a wash cloth and look through my bag on the floor till I find the makeshift first aid kit I have had forever. I place everything on the sink, then open the rubbing alcohol and pour in on the rag. She pulls her foot away when I reach for it.

   “Let me clean you up,” I say.

   “No.”

   “Yes. If I don’t these cuts will get infected with all that dirt embedded in them,” I explain.

   “I don’t care.”

   “I do. Now shut up and give me your foot.”

   “No. It’ll hurt.”

   “You are complaining that this will hurt, when you just fell out a window and ran half a mile barefoot over glass and rock covered pavement? Really?” I ask raising my eyebrows.

   “Fine, just do it,” she exclaims slinging her foot at me.

   I start with the small cuts and work my way to the bigger ones. I look up at her occasionally when she grunts or jerks from me. Her other foot is a lot worse off. I have to stop several times because she takes it away and refuses to give it back. Finally, I am on the last one when I see tears in her eyes.

   “I don’t think I can handle it. Please, just stop,” she pleads.

   “You can do it. Grit your teeth and bear it.”

   I fold the rag to a clean side and pour on some more alcohol. When I press it to this cut, she belts out a scream and tries to take her foot away again. I keep my grip tight and continue cleaning it out. Sage lets out a few whimpers, and I remove the rag. Bending forward, I blow carefully over it a few times to take some of the edge off of the sting.

  
I lift my head to see if she is still in pain. Her face is blank and vacant, until her grey eyes connect with mine. A series of emotions play across her face, one after another. I try to get a read on them, but they seem conflicted. Then her body begins to tremble.

  
“Are you cold?”

Sage

   “No.”

  
The cold chills that run through my body are just a contradiction to the uncontrollable heat I am actually experiencing. He is still bent over holding my foot with his head angled towards me. A stray lock of his hair has fallen to his forehead, and my hand involuntarily pushes it back with the rest of his hair. My fingers linger longer than necessary and I jerk them back.

  
“Um, thank you.” I stutter out. “For…uh…fixing me up.”

  
He stands up to his full height and clears his throat. “Yeah. Your welcome.” He moves from one foot to the other, then puts his hand out for me. “Let me help you down.”

   I take it and hop
down, forgetting all about my poor feet. As soon as I hit the floor pain shoots through them and I fall forward, directly into Lynkin. He wraps his arms around me to catch me from falling the rest of the way to the floor. He doesn’t let me go right away and I don’t push off of him, either. Whiskey and honey invade my senses, and all that heat from earlier pools in my lower abdomen.

  
Then I remember the last time I was close enough to smell him was the night he took me and the fire is doused by ice water. It is sad I have to keep telling myself that I can’t be attracted to this man and it pisses me off that my body refuses to listen. Or maybe I am pissed off because I can’t be attracted to him when I so obviously am. I shove him away and I fall back at the same time, hitting my tailbone on the counter top.

   “I have
to use the bathroom,” I say flatly. He just stands there looking at me, not registering at all what I just said. “I’d rather not have an audience.”

  
“Oh, uh…sure,” he says and shuts the door behind him when he leaves.

  
Holy crazy hormones! I have got to learn how to control them around that man.
I hate him
. I chant in my head to myself over and over. He kidnapped me. He isn’t sane. You can’t be attracted to someone you hate.

  
But he is so freaking SEXY! And how he picked me up and carried me back because my feet were hurt? Swoon.

  
He only did that because you were taking too long to get back from your failed escape
.

  
Ok, then why did he doctor me all up?

  
If you get an infection from those cuts, he can’t take you to the hospital. Now can he? So if he didn’t and they did get infected, then you could have gotten gangrene and died. Then there would be no ransom to collect
.

  
Gah, I hate it when my reasonable side wins arguments. She isn’t any fun. However, I can’t deny that she is right. Then, Jennifer’s words from earlier come back to me.

  
“He is without a home or a job. His mother may lose her home. She depends on him to support her and without his job, he can’t.”