All too soon the bottle was pulled away. She said, “Bastard.”
A chuckle erupted.
“Is Max paying you? Or is that you, Max?” she asked in a hard tone. “Either way, this is a bit much, even for you.”
Another chuckle came, and that was it; the gag was secured over her mouth. She was shoved back down, but the trunk lid wasn’t closed. She tried to relax, trying to get the fresh air that she needed to calm down. Being in a trunk was just painful. And terrifying.
As she lay here, she listened for other sounds but heard nothing. She couldn’t ask questions; she couldn’t see anything. She’d been in a nightmare scenario for days—several nightmare scenarios. Not only had she been kidnapped and escaped but then had been attacked and kidnapped a second time—and she didn’t know if the two events were connected. Of the two, this second kidnapper terrified her more than anything she’d been through yet.
He’d sliced her leg badly almost immediately, telling her how she may have escaped her first kidnapper, but she wouldn’t get away from him. Otherwise he didn’t talk to her. He’d let her out to go to the bathroom—always somewhere deserted, where no one would ask questions. For the few times he’d given her water and a sandwich, she’d relished the food and water but had also appreciated when the gag came off. The blindfold … had yet to be removed. She had no idea who this man was. She didn’t recognize his voice or his smell, but that meant little after days of captivity.
Apparently they’d completed the ferry journey to Victoria, BC, as she overheard what was probably a ferry announcement, but he’d driven to another terminal and had caught a much smaller ferry crossing—fewer vehicle noises, in her perception—back to the mainland maybe but kept driving, farther up the coast, she imagined, as it felt colder to her. They were in Whitehorse now, which she only knew from overhearing a phone call her kidnapper had. Whitehorse. A place she’d never been, had never imagined going to, and had never contemplated under these circumstances.
She hadn’t been given a chance to ask why or who, nothing. All she could think about was that this was all happening because she had left her husband. Her second kidnapper had confirmed that Max had been responsible for the first kidnapping. It was too much to assume that two people hated her as much as Max. She groaned, as she shifted again.
“Shut up,” her kidnapper said.
She sighed and tried to mumble around the gag in her mouth.
A hard clip to the side of her head sent stars spinning through her gaze and tears to her eyes. She choked back sobs.
“It’ll all be over in a few minutes,” he said.
She wondered what would be over. She hadn’t been asked for anything, so obviously none of the kidnappers knew she had taken something from her husband. So was her husband even involved? And why? Her mind reeled with questions. She was a marketer, not some business analyst, so, when it came to analyzing this mess, she couldn’t make two and two come together. None of these kidnappings made any sense.
If her husband wanted to get rid of her, why not simply sign the divorce papers? Or, even if he meant to kill her, why didn’t he toss her into a cargo ship, to be thrown overboard in the middle of some ocean? That would have been a much surer death—or disappearance—than this nightmare was turning out to be.
Her head was smacked again, only this time, a little bit lighter. She rolled over, trying to take deep breaths, but it was hard with the gag in her mouth. She heard an odd exclamation, and then the gag was pulled off.
“Calm down,” the man snapped. “It’ll be over soon. I told you that.”
“What will be over soon?” she asked.
“The sale,” he replied. “I’m selling you.” At that, she froze, and he burst into raucous laughter. “Not like that! Jesus,” he said. “I’m ransoming you, let’s put it that way.”
“Why?” she whispered in horror.
“Because somebody wants you, and I figured that, if one person wants you, somebody else would probably want you more.”
“So I’ll go to the highest bidder?”
“Yep,” he said. “Makes sense to me.”
“Great,” she said. “Do I get to know which side is buying me?”
“Well, both of them offered,” he said. “I’m seeing how I can make that work to my advantage.”
“Oh, shit,” she said. “You’re selling me to both? You’re hoping that they either kill each other off or that you’ll take one out or that you’ll just get the money from both and run.”
“Yep,” he said smugly. “It’s worked a couple times, so no reason it won’t work this time.”
She sank back into the trunk and groaned again.
“Why are you groaning all the time?”
“Because you’re a fool,” she said bluntly, and she immediately got smacked across the side of the head again, enduring more pain.
“Don’t call me that,” he said in a tight voice.
“One of these days,” she murmured, her eyes closed against the agony as she struggled to get the words out, “somebody will get you at your game.”
“But not today,” he snapped. “I’ve already got payment from one, and I’m picking up payment on the other.”
“Shit,” she said. “So how do you decide who I go to?”
“I don’t really care,” he said, “but the ones today want proof of life.”
“I see. And the other one didn’t?”
“Let’s just say that the other one preferred you didn’t come out of this alive.”
“That would be my husband.”
He burst out laughing. “You should figure out how to be a better wife, or this is how you end up,” he said. “Do you know how many husbands try to get rid of their wives?”
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” she said. “It’s a sad world out there.”
“It is, if you’re on the bottom of the mess,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s a pretty nice world out there for those of us at the top.”
“Yeah,” she said, “and it sucks when guys like you do bullshit like this, for piece-of-shit husbands who don’t want to just get a divorce like everybody else.”
“Well, you got out of whatever trouble you were in and tried for freedom,” he said. “Fortunately I found you, and now he’s paying me good money to make sure you don’t survive.”
“And you’ll follow through on that?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.
“Well, I mean, I’ve already taken his money for the job.”
“And the other one who’s paying?”
“Well, I’m ransoming you back to your dad,” he said.
Her heart sank because, of course, her dad would do this, putting him in danger as well. “So you’ll take his money but not give him his daughter back,” she said bitterly.
“Well, there can only be one winner,” he murmured.
“That’s not true,” she said. “You could just take the money and run and leave me alive.”
“And piss off your husband? If he was willing to pay to have you killed, what do you think he’d plan for me?”