Page 8 of Rescued By the SEAL
“Landon, I’m serious,” my dad continues, desperation lacing his tone. “You don’t understand what’s going on here. You can’t take Heather away from here. You’ll be leaving me to have the shit kicked out of me. Don’t do this to your father. You know I wouldn’t be in this situation if I wasn’t desperate. I need this shit to go through so I can get my life back on track. I need this so meand your mother can have a life again. Don’t you want that for us, Landon?”
I glare at him angrily. “Dad, I’ll treat your life with the same disdain you treated mine, okay?”
7
HEATHER
“Don’t you want this for us, Landon?” The nameLandonrockets through my body, but I’m in too much shock to really process that. It’s probably just because he’s at the forefront of my mind, anyway, after this weird and crazy day. I shouldn’t really be worrying about what’s going on out there, anyway. I need to focus on trying to save myself. I’m the only one who can.
He’s distracted, that’s what I need to worry about here. Bill has someone in the room with him and they’re arguing like crazy, which means this is my best chance to get out. Especially since I just heard him mentioning people coming for me. People whom he owes a debt to. Human fucking trafficking is the way he’s decided to go with this, which is absolutely heart-wrenching. I feel sick at the mere thought of it. Once I’m sold, God knows what will happen to me. It’s soul destroying.
I hate having no control over my life. I’ve felt that way for much too long. It’s scary, and this will tip me over the edge. I have to get out of here no matter what I do, so I struggle against the ties that have me locked away more fiercely than ever before. Ithurts like hell. It’s killing me, and I’m probably bleeding from the stress of it, but I suppose that’s good because I need to leave some blood behind, anyway. That’s something I’ve planned on. I just haven’t made it happen yet, but now… now I will.
I let out a howl as the redness covering my hand, the burning hot pain, travels up my arm. But somehow, I just about manage to get myself out. Well, one of my hands is freed, anyway, although it doesn’t feel like it will ever work properly again. It feels damaged in so many ways, I can’t stand it, but I know I need to overcome my dizziness and pain now. I need to get this goddamn material out of my mouth so I can at least try to scream and shout as I get the fuck out of here. Or try, anyway.
“Oh, God,” I pant out, desperately gasping in air as I finally pull the material free. I didn’t realize how little air I was getting until this very moment. No wonder I’m dizzier than I’ve ever been before. “Oh, God, fucking hell. I need to move now.”
Before I can really run, I need to free my ankles. Bill is still arguing with whoever is out there, which gives me a couple more moments of peace to get myself out. But goddamn, Bill might be an idiot but he’s tied this shit well. The rest of it was messy, but he did well on my feet. Asshole. I want to punch him in his stupid face, I want to kick his ass… but most of all, I just want to get out of here with my life intact. I want to get back to my normal life away from all the drama. I don’t need this at all.
Oh, my God. Just as I’m about to pull the last bit off me, the cupboard door swings open, and my heart stops dead. Just as I was about to get away from this, someone has come for me. Someone is now grabbing at me, pulling me out of the cupboard, not even noticing as I try to twist my arm away to escape. I don’t want anyone to grab me, but I don’t stand a chance. I don’t havethe strength. This is exactly why Ineedto get my ass to self-defense classes. Every woman should do that…
“Let go of me,” I wail as the giant man grabs me and throws me over his shoulder. “Let me down. Please, let me go.”
I thrash hard, I kick the man as much as I can, and I fling my body around as much as I can, but it does nothing. This man is too strong, so I have nothing against him. It isn’t Bill, not that I could imagine him carrying me like this, but it definitely isn’t because he’s splayed out on the floor, knocked out. I guess the fight got physical at some point, vicious too.
Is this someone who is taking me away from this mess, or is this one of the people Bill has sold me to? The criminals. Ican’tbe taken away for human trafficking, I can’t vanish. I know that no one wants this, but Ireallydon’t. I could scream and shout with the agony of my freedoms being taken away from me, but all of it is useless. None of it’s worth a damn thing.
“Stop this,” I yell anyway. “Stop this now. Please don’t do this to me. I’m nothing to do with this case. I… Bill has my identity wrong. I’m not related to any cop. I don’t know what he’s talking about. I don’t know what’s going on… I was just caught up.”
“Will you shut up?” the voice belonging to the man growls. “I’m trying to get you out of here without being noticed.”
“No.” I thump hard and fast. “No, no, no.” His shoulders don’t even move as I punch them hard. “No, don’t… stop.”
The man drags me from the building and no one stops us as we go. My screaming, my thrashing, my punching is ignored. No one in this goddamn apartment block helps me one bit. No one even gives a shit. Bill really could have just killed me in that building and no one would have done anything.No one surrounding us now pays any attention. It’s absolutely ridiculous. I could yell out to any one of them directly for help, and no one would even bat a freaking eyelid. This is absolute hell.
“Get in there.” I’m thrown headfirst into a car, which knocks all the wind out of me. It takes me a couple of moments to twist myself around to try and figure out if there is any way that I can get out of this car. It’ll be hard for me to run, I’ll admit that much. I don’t know if I have the power to really get out of here, but I’ll try. For sure, I’ll try. I have to. This is my life. Fight or flight. Well, I’m going to do both to keep myself alive. “You need to keep your head down. They’re coming. Getdown.”
I don’t know what eventually makes me listen to this man, whether it’s sheer terror or because I think he wants to help me, but I do as he says. I bury my head down into the seat and try to block the rest of the world out. I can’t ignore the yelling, though, the shouting that’s coming from all around me, from every single angle. I cover up my ears, though, because I don’t want to hear the words. They’re going to be about me, I’m sure of it, and I’m too terrified to listen to anything else. I can’t stand it.
Bang!Oh, my God, that was a gunshot.Bang, bang, bang!What the hell? I scream to myself, but no sound comes out. I don’t know who’s dead, who’s been shot, what’s going on, and I can’t look up to see. I’m too terrified.Bang, bang, bang!
“We’re going.” I don’t even look up as the man jumps into the car beside me and begins to drive away. All I can focus on are the sounds of the gunshots coming from every single angle, the fear of death still racing through me. This is a normal day, or it’s supposed to be, anyway. It started off as a normal day, and now everything is all turned on its head in the worst way possible. MyGod, if I’d known that this would be the last day of my life, then I would have done everything so much differently.
“Assholes.”
“Wha… what was that all about?” I whisper, barely peeking an eye up. “What the hell is going on here?”
“I don’t know the details,” the man tells me. “But all I know for sure is that I need to get you away from all of this. I don’t know what my father got you into here, but I’m getting you as far away from here as possible. Youwillbe kept safe.”
My father…my blood runs ice cold then burns brightly. I force my eyes to look upward to see if this really is what I think it might be, but I’m suspended in disbelief as I find my eyes fixed upon him. This really is absolutely crazy, but true.Landon.The man whom I haven’t seen for nearly fifteen years, the boy I loved, is sitting beside me once more, like it’s normal…
“Landon? Is that you?” I whisper quietly. “Is that really you? What’s going on here? Oh, my God, I’m shocked, I’m… I…”
I push myself up into a sitting position, not wanting to be splayed out on the car seats anymore. Not in front of Landon. My God, I’ve secretly thought about bumping into Landon a million times in the depths of the night, and I was always smooth and calm in that situation. Not like this, me weeping and messy like this. Oh, my God, this is a nightmare. The worst of the worst.
“What happened with your father?” I ask him quietly, desperate for a reaction. Something, anything. “Why did he do that?”
“I couldn’t give you any information about my father,” Landon replies with his lips pressed together in a thin line. “I wouldn’t know. That’s the first time I’ve seen him in years, so I don’tknow what his life is like and what he’s capable of. I’m just sorry that you somehow managed to get caught up in the middle of it. That’s pretty fucked up. I know it shouldn’t have happened.”
