Chapter Thirty-One: Will and Emma

Kidnap My Heart

Chapter 31: Will and Emma

Will

I couldn’t get Emma out of my head. It didn’t matter what I did or what I told myself. Not even meaningless hookups could have gotten me back to my previous mindless rut—if I’d been allowed to return to my previous life, that is.

I was pissed off at her, but I knew I was pretty much to blame here. I should’ve known better. I should’ve taken things slow. I should’ve known she was the kind who ran at the first sign of emotion, the first sign of a connection, especially when it was with someone you didn’t actually want to be with. I was an expert at running at the first sign of commitment and emotion. How hadn’t I seen it before it was too late?

I had a feeling she’d do something reckless after that conversation and that kiss. Maybe if it had just been one or the other she would’ve stayed. But both on the same day? I’d all but pushed her out the door and waved her out of my life. Damn it. I shouldn’t have taken her with us.

“Hey, breakfast is ready,” Eric said, poking his head into my room.

I looked up and nodded. I’d been sitting there, just staring off into space for too long. I needed to snap out of this rut. I was giving my mind way too many opportunities to wallow in self-pity. Oh, God, I was turning into my brother when he went through that emo phase in high school. If I even went near a bottle of black nail polish or black skinny jeans, I was signing myself up for rehab.

Eric didn’t move even after I nodded, so I spoke up. “Yeah, alright,” I said, frowning at my plan. I didn’t want to go to rehab. I was pretty sure the Boogeyman 2’s setting was rehab, and I wasn’t going through any of that shit. I was too young to die.

“Taylor made it, so just try to choke it down,” Eric went on, oblivious to the inner demons I was fighting. At least they’d gone from whiny relationship issues to a legitimate fear of rehab and the Boogeyman. “It looks more edible than last time, at least. I don’t think we’ll get food poisoning this time.”

The whole food poisoning thing was an exaggeration, but not by much. We’d let Taylor cook a total of two times since we’d known her, and both times had been pretty scarring. I wasn’t looking forward to a repeat.

“If I throw up, I’m suing her,” I said, standing up. Eric wasn’t going to leave unless I went with him. It was a good thing, I guess. I didn’t need to be in my room. My room just felt boring and empty without Rage; I’d gotten used to her being there all the time. Without her, it didn’t really feel right. I knew it was stupid since I’d lived without her for years, no problem, but things had changed. I hadn’t known her before.

Hell, I even missed her pranks and snarky remarks. I never thought I’d miss either of those things, but I did. And I knew I was going to miss her a whole lot more when my dad handed me my ass for losing her. I needed to tell him before he found out through someone else or through the news.

During dinner, I tried to figure out the best way to tell my dad I’d messed everything up and lost Emma. I mostly focused on how to begin that conversation, but in the end, it didn’t even matter. It was him who called me, not the other way around. Emma was on the news.

“You have five seconds to tell me what the hell happened,” my dad snapped over the phone. He had never sounded this pissed. “How did she escape?”

Damn it. What the hell was I supposed to say? Living with Emma made me realize how great she actually is. I started liking her and I’m pretty sure she started liking me back, but then we made out and she freaked. We went to the store that same day and while she and Taylor were in the dressing room, she made a break for it and I couldn’t track her down. So really, since this all started with your order to keep her in my room, it’s your fault. I wouldn’t have fallen for her if she’d stayed in that garage.

“Answer me, Will,” he went on. His tone now sounded forcibly calm. Silent anger was always the worst kind.

“We went to the store and she got away while we were there,” I finally said.

He let out a frustrated breath. “Didn’t I tell you to keep an eye on her? I knew I shouldn’t have involved you. You destroy everything you touch.”

My jaw clenched. “I’m sorry. I turned my back for one second and she was gone.”

“You shouldn’t have turned your damn back,” he yelled. “That isn’t what I told you to do. I told you to keep an eye on her and keep her at your side at all fucking times, and what do you do? You let her go.”

“I know, alright?” I snapped. “I don’t need you to tell me. I’m aware that this is my fault and that I shouldn’t have let my guard down.”

“At least you’re aware you’re a screw-up,” my dad said. I could almost see him shaking his head. “What about Taylor Williamson?”

I glanced up. Taylor and Eric quickly averted their eyes, pretending they weren’t listening in. “She’s fine. She’s right here,” I said.

“Well, I’m glad one of you is doing their job.” His tone was bitter. It made me want to hang up. “I thought this task was simple enough for you, but I thought wrong. You can’t even babysit a teenage girl without causing problems.” He paused and let out another breath. “If you want something done, you have to do it yourself.”

The color drained from my face. I didn’t like the sound of that. I didn’t like it at all. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to fix the mess you made.”

Panic started to settle in; I hoped he couldn’t hear it in my voice. “What are you going to do to her?”

“That doesn’t matter. It’s not your concern anymore.”

“No, it is,” I insisted. “What are you going to do to her?”

Suspicion entered my dad’s tone. “Why do you care so much? I thought she was violent and pure evil. I thought she was a nightmare.”

I didn’t answer his question. Instead, I said, “Don’t you dare hurt her.”

“What’s going on here, Will?” he asked. When I failed to reply, he said, “I’m not going to hurt her. I just need the ransom.”

His words should have comforted me, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe him. I was too worried about her to believe him. “Can’t you just leave her alone? We have Taylor. Her dad’s got money. He’ll pay for her return, especially now that Rage is home. He’ll pay whatever to get her back safe and sound.”

“Rage?” he repeated incredulously. “Will, what are you not telling me?”

“Just let her be. Security is going to be tight from now on. It’s not worth it.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll find a way.”

“Dad—”

“We need the money. You know we have to save the family business,” he insisted, finality evident in every word he said. “We don’t have a choice. I have to fix what you messed up. I’ll be in touch.”

I tried to protest, but he’d already hung up. Nothing I said would’ve made a difference. His mind was already made up.

“Damn it,” I yelled, throwing the stupid Nokia phone at the wall. That little indestructible shit just bounced off the wall and fell to the floor. I couldn’t even properly destroy an old phone.

My brother stood up, looking at the phone and then at me in disbelief, and Sniffles followed. “What happened?” he asked.

I let out a shaky, angry breath. “He’s gonna try to take her again.”

“I thought that was what you wanted. I thought you wanted her back,” he said.

I shook my head. “Not like this. Not this way. It’s not gonna be the way it was before. Dad will be the one in charge of her this time, and I don’t know what he’ll do. He won’t treat her the way I treated her.”

Eric shot me a knowing look. “The way you treated her at first? Or the way you treated her after you got to know her?”

“Neither. Especially not the way I treated her after I got to know her. Damn it, damn it, damn it…”

I ran a hand over my face in frustration. God, I really was a screw-up, and now Emma was going to pay the price. The worst part? I didn’t know where my dad was, and I didn’t know how to get close enough to Emma to warn her about what my dad was planning on doing—whatever it was that he was planning on doing.

It was unlikely that she would believe me in the first place; I wasn’t the most trustworthy person in her eyes.

Plus, she didn’t want anything to do with me. I may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but that was one thing she’d made more than clear.

Damn it. I couldn’t do anything to stop this from happening.

***

Emma

The police arrived before noon the next day. I hated getting up before noon under normal circumstances, but getting up to submit myself to intensive questioning over something I just wanted to put behind me? There were no words to describe my utter hatred for that. To make matters worse, I still hadn’t made up my mind about what I was going to say. I kept going back and forth, listing the pros and cons for each story I could give, but nothing stuck.

You would think I would’ve had time to figure it out considering I barely slept all night, but no. It turned out I was more used to the whole kidnapping situation than I’d thought. I couldn’t fall asleep in my own bed anymore. How messed up was that?

“Emma, if you’re not ready to talk to them, you don’t have to,” my mom assured me, resting her hand over mine. “There’s no pressure.” Yes, there was. “You can have all the time you need. You don’t need to force yourself to do this.”

I shook my head. “No, I’m ready. I want to talk to them.” Well… I didn’t actually want to talk to them, but it wasn’t for the reasons she was thinking. She was thinking I was too emotionally traumatized to properly respond to questioning. In reality, I wasn’t traumatized at all. I just didn’t know how I was going to handle the mess Taylor had gotten me into.

My mom looked into my eyes, clearly searching for the truth. What she saw must have satisfied her worries because she nodded and, with one last hug, left the room to let the police in.

As an eighteen year old, I no longer required the presence of a parent or guardian during questioning. My parents had both offered to stay in the room with me, but talking to the police was bad enough. Knowing my parents were sitting there would’ve just made me even more nervous.

Two police officers walked into my room after my mom walked out and politely smiled at me before taking a seat. I had set up two chairs for them in front of my bed.

“Hi, Emma,” the female police officer said. She was a blonde woman, probably in her mid-thirties or early-forties. “I’m Officer Gwen Harris, and this is my partner, Officer Steve Franklin. We’re from the California State Police Department, and we just have a few questions about your kidnapping. We’ve been working on your case since it was sent to us. We’re working on retrieving Taylor Williamson now that you’re home safe and sound. Any input you can give us will help us greatly.”

Well, shit.

She maintained eye contact with me even when I didn’t reply and spoke in a calm, soothing voice. “I want you to know that you’re safe now. We’re doing everything in our power to find the people responsible for this and find your friend, but we need your help. We just have a few questions to ask you. Answer them to the best of your ability. We want to hear the whole story, everything you can remember, even if you don’t think it’s important.”

I don’t think you want to hear the whole story.

“Okay,” I said, nodding shortly. I paused, wondering where to start.

The other police officer finally spoke—Officer Steve. “Can you tell us what happened?”

I let out a loud breath, running a hand through my hair. “My best friend and I were on our way to L.A. for a concert. I noticed a car following us at some point, but I—we—assumed I was just being paranoid. But I wasn’t.”

They both nodded at me, urging me to continue.

I reluctantly complied. “We stopped at a rest stop so I could go to the bathroom. Taylor stayed in the car, and my bodyguard went inside with me. We both went to the bathroom and I finished first. I was at the vending machines when someone grabbed me. He put a cloth over my face and—well, I passed out. The cloth had chloroform on it. I didn’t really stand a chance.”

“Did you see his face before you passed out?” Officer Steve asked.

I shook my head. “No. He was wearing a mask.” I paused. I looked up at them to gauge their reactions, but they were just patiently waiting for me to go on. “I woke up in the car that had been following us. Taylor tried to save me when she saw what was going on, but she made the mistake of leaving our car and got herself kidnapped, too. Jack tried to get to us, but—it was too late.”

When I didn’t say anything else, Officer Gwen clasped her hands together and said, “There were two witnesses at the rest stop—three, including your bodyguard. They said there were two men. Was this your experience?”

“Yes. But only one grabbed me in the beginning.”

“Did you see where they took you?” she asked.

Yes. “No. They blindfolded us.”

“Did you ever see their faces?”

I hesitated. Lying about not seeing where they had taken me was one thing. Lying about this… it was another thing entirely. With my knowledge, I could easily get Eric and Will locked up. I knew everything about them. Their names, their ages, their backgrounds, what they looked like—everything. Especially Will. I could give a scarily vivid description of Will. His olive complexion, his dark brown hair, his electric blue eyes, his annoyingly attractive height, his toned body, his perfect lips—godammit, Emma. Snap out of it. Why did he have to look like an underwear model?

“Emma?”

I’d seen their faces. I’d seen a lot more than just Will’s face, but I wasn’t even going to go there, although I had no complaints over what I had seen. Except—you know what? Not going there.

“We can take a break if you want,” Officer Steve said.

I looked up. I seemed too suspicious. I had to go on. “No, that’s okay.”

If I said I never saw their faces, I would be lying. I would be of absolutely no use in this case. This entire conversation would be a waste of time, and I would be getting in the way of justice. But I would save Will and Eric. I would give them a chance to turn things around after all of this was over and make something out of their lives.

If I said I did see their faces, I would be expected to describe them. I would destroy their lives and break Taylor’s heart. I would betray Will even more. I would lose him forever. Not that he was ever mine to begin with or would ever be mine.

I couldn’t do this to him. Despite my desire to get out, I didn’t want either of them to get in trouble. They were good guys. They’d made some questionable choices in their endeavor to help their dad out, but they were good people. I couldn’t do this to Will or to Taylor. I couldn’t put him in jail. I just couldn’t. Any attempts to convince myself to tell the truth would be in vain. I would never be able to do it.

“No, I never saw their faces,” I said. “They always wore a mask.”

“Can you tell us anything about them? Anything at all? Heights, bodies, ages?" Officer Steve asked.

Shit. “Um,” I said, pushing a strand of hair away from my face. Will’s dad was the one behind all of this. He was probably a carbon copy of his sons. Unless he was fat. He didn’t seem like the type to let himself go, from what I’d heard of him, but you never knew… “One of them was tall. The other was average.”

“Anything else?” Officer Gwen gently urged.

I felt bad lying to her, but I would’ve felt worse if I’d told the truth. “They had average bodies. Not fat, not skinny.” Good thing Will’s body was anything but average. “I don’t really know how old they were… they seemed… well, they didn’t seem young. They seemed a lot older than me.”

She nodded. “And your experience. Do you remember anything about it? Anything that stands out, or even just little things?”

“I was kept in a dark room away from Taylor. Probably so we wouldn’t try to escape. I think it was a basement. They fed me and let me go to the bathroom, but that was it. They weren’t violent. They just wanted their ransom.”

“You can tell us if there is anything else,” she said. “What you say is confidential.”

No, it wasn’t. “There’s nothing else.”

They both nodded. There was a brief pause before the other officer spoke. “How did you escape?”

“They took us into town on a gas run and I made a break for it. Me and Taylor made a plan to escape before we were separated, but… only I was able to go through with it. I thought she was right behind me. We’d sworn we’d go for it if we got the chance to go home. I thought she’d gotten away, too. I was so pumped on adrenaline, I didn’t see… I didn’t realize. I don’t really remember details. I just remember getting into town and then going to the police station.”

Officer Steve nodded. “Okay. Well, we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure she comes home safe and sound, too.”

“I wish I could help you more.” And I did. But I couldn’t.

“The important thing is that you’re home. From what you’ve told us, it’s clear that they’re focused on the ransom. I have high hopes for this case.” He and Officer Gwen stood, and he held out a card. “If you think of anything, you can reach me through either of those two numbers.”

I took it and nodded. “Okay.”

With that, they said their goodbyes and left the room. I knew I should’ve felt like I’d done the wrong thing, because technically, I had. I’d lied to the police and set them back, but I couldn’t help but feel like I’d done the right thing.

Once I was sure they were gone, I walked over to my dresser and pulled out the photo strip from that day at the mall. Just looking at it was enough reassertion for me. I hadn’t wanted him to get in trouble that day, and that hadn’t changed.

I ran a finger over the strip and had to stop a smile from crossing my face. I shook my head. “What the hell is wrong with me?”

***

A/N: Just gonna repeat what I said last chapter: updates will not be unnaturally speedy. I had much more time to write last month, hence the updates every day or every other day. Updates every 3-4 days isn't bad at all and it's all I can manage right now so please understand that I can't just sit down and wrap up the story. I have a lot of things to do, but I will finish this story! Just on my own schedule. c:

Anyhoo.

Yeah.