Chapter Thirty-Eight: Emma

Kidnap My Heart

Chapter 38: Emma

Taylor walked into Will’s room the minute Will walked out. I put my finger to my lips and motioned for her to be quiet while I checked to make sure the coast was clear. I couldn’t get caught telling her about my plan.

“I think they’re all downstairs,” I whispered to Taylor upon my own return. There was no one in sight, and I’d even gone halfway down the stairs to see if they were anywhere near us. They weren’t.

Taylor frowned. “Why are we whispering?”

“Because I have a plan,” I said. I’d ditched the hushed tone, replacing it with a moderate one. I felt weird whispering continuously.

Her facial expression went from curious to incredulous in about, oh, two seconds flat. “After everything you and Will have been through, you still want to leave him? Emmy, I just don’t understand you. What happened to your feelings for him? You’re crazy about this guy! I know you are. You can’t still think you’re faking this.”

I shook my head and tried to speak, but she cut me off.

“No, if you’re gonna go on about some crazy escape plan, I don’t want to hear it,” she exclaimed. “I’m not gonna stand by and let you do this again. Their dad will just take us again or do something even worse to us. Just let him have his ransom and then he’ll let us go and we’ll be free. And then you can choose whether or not you still wanna be with Will.”

“This is not a crazy escape plan,” I snapped, cutting her off. She hadn’t even let me talk. She had no idea what the plan was, and she was already throwing it under the bus. “It’s a perfectly rational rescue plan.”

“Rational. I don’t think you know the meaning of rational.” She shook her head, and her blond tresses shook back and forth. “Just let it go. Please. Don’t do this again. Don’t do this to Will. If he was devastated before… I can’t even imagine. He loves you. He. Loves. You. You’re gonna break his heart. And if I leave with you, I hurt Eric in the process, and I can’t do that. You don’t hurt the people you love.”

I ignored the sting I felt all over my skin and said, “You don’t let your dad keep the people you love in captivity, either. Look, I don’t want to hurt Will. I know he doesn’t deserve this. I know he deserves better than this and better than me. And I get why you stayed and I get what you feel. I do.” I didn’t even have to explain why. I hadn’t told Taylor about the extent of my feelings for Will, but it was pretty obvious. It was written all over my face whenever Will was in the room, and when he was so close I could feel his heartbeat, there wasn’t a damn thing I could say to deny what I felt.

“Then why are you doing this?” she asked.

“Because this is no way to live,” I said. “Hidden in the shadows, away from civilization—it’s not okay, no matter what we feel. We have a home and a life and people who care about us. It shouldn’t be one or the other.”

“It won’t be when they let us go. We can have both, Emmy.”

“Not the way I want.” I shook my head. “I want Will. Not Will and his leech of a dad. You want Eric. Not Eric and his gold-digging dad.”

Taylor furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Charles is planning on using Will and Eric to get a steady stream of money from our parents. He sees them as the keys to our family fortunes. If they marry us one day, they marry our money, too. I’m not about to let that happen. Charles is cold, greedy, and dangerous. I don’t want him in our lives.”

For once, Taylor was speechless. Not a single protest emanated from her mouth.

I took her silence as a sign that I should continue. “I know that if it were up to Will and Eric, they’d let us go right now. They don’t care about the money. I mean, Will’s not even planning on using the ransom money even though he needs it to finish college and pay off loans. They were only doing this because of their dad in the first place. All of this—it’s Charles’s fault.”

She bit her lip. The corners of her mouth were turned downwards into a frown. “What are you suggesting we do?”

“I’m suggesting we get Charles behind bars.”

She was silent for a moment as the idea processed in her head. Finally, she almost undetectably shook her head. “But Eric and Will… they’ll get in trouble, too. If Charles goes down, they’ll go down with him. I can’t. We can’t. How could you turn Will over like that? I can’t even imagine doing that to Eric…”

“I’m not going to let them get in trouble. I have a plan. It’s simple, really.”

Taylor sighed and rubbed her eyes. “And what’s the plan?”

I fished the Nokia out of my pocket, and Taylor’s eyes widened at the sight. “We use this phone to call the police. Will told me this place is half an hour away from the east end of the city, so they’ll be here in, say, thirty-five minutes, forty, maybe.” It was a tiny, casual detail he’d let slip one night, obviously figuring I wouldn’t do anything with the information. “We call Will and Eric up here and warn them to get out so it looks like Charles is the only one involved. And then we’re home free.”

There was another long moment of silence while Taylor considered my plan. Every second that passed was an excruciating wait. If we were going to do this, we needed to do it fast. Everything had to be fast, especially Will and Eric’s escape. I would never forgive myself if they got caught. It sounded crazy, and stupid, even, but to me it was the one thing that made perfect sense: they couldn’t get caught.

Finally, she nodded. “Okay. I’m in. But on one condition.”

“What condition?”

“We have to get them out first. So they can get a head start. I don’t want them to get in trouble, Emmy. Neither of them.”

“They won’t get in trouble. I’ll lie if I have to. I’ll say the police are coming and they’ll get arrested if they stay or something. Just get them up here. Charles won’t suspect you of anything.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding decisively. “If he gets suspicious, I’ll just tell him you’re planning an orgy.”

My mouth dropped open. I thought my jaw was literally going to hit the floor.  “What the hell? Taylor, your Eric is showing.”

She covered her mouth and let out a giggle. “Sorry. I’ve spent the last month and a half with Eric. He has no filter.”

“You don’t say.” Jesus Christ… “Just get them up here.”

“I’m on it,” she said, already halfway out the door.

I watched her run out and let out the precarious breath I’d been holding in. I wasn’t leaving Will this time. Hopefully he would be able to focus on that. I mean, technically, he was leaving me. But this was for the best, and this wasn’t the end. Our relationship didn’t have to be a supernova. It didn’t have to explode in an irreparable way. Our relationship could be like the brightest star in the sky instead, the kind that went on for an immeasurable amount of time.

He would fight for this. He had to.

I distractedly grabbed Will’s present from under the bed so he could take it with him when he left. After what felt like hours, Taylor came up with Will and Eric in tow.

“What’s this I hear about an orgy?” was the first thing Will said to me when he walked in. Why was I not surprised?

“Taylor, you did not,” I exclaimed, giving her a look.

She giggled. “Relax. I didn’t. I told them about my backup plan on the way up.”

“Did you mention anything else?” I kind of hoped she hadn’t. I wanted to explain it myself in case I had to lie to them to get them to leave.

She just shook her head.

Will looked between Taylor and me with a puzzled expression. I’d been trying to silently communicate with her, but Will had taken notice. “Is there something I’m missing here? What’s going on?”

I pushed my hair behind my ears and pressed my lips together. I knew what the plan was, but telling Will about the plan didn’t seem so easy all of a sudden. “I came up with a plan to get us out of here. In short: call the police, get you two out, and get your dad arrested. If they’re going to bust someone for this—and they won’t rest until they do—it should be him. Not you guys. This was on him.”

Will’s mouth parted in shock. “Wait. What? Rage, what did you do?”

I shook my head. Maybe I wouldn’t have to lie. “I know your dad is pushing for ransom tomorrow. Today’s the last day to do something about him. I can’t have him in my life, Will. I can’t do it. I can’t live in fear that one day he’ll snap and want more.”

Eric looked at me in disbelief, his eyebrows slowly furrowing. “Emma, this is… this is crazy. I don’t know about this. This isn’t the way to handle things.”

“There’s no other way,” I said. “Not as far as I can see. We need our freedom. This is the only way to do it without complicating things.”

The seconds dragged on as silence filled the room. Will was the one who broke through the silence. “Wait a second. Was this it? Was this your plan all along?”

I felt the color drain from my cheeks when I made eye contact with Will. “What?”

“Convince me you were choosing the cat onesie so I’d get you out? So you could be free? Was I just a means to an end?”

My heart stopped. My hands turned clammy, and I quickly wiped them on my jeans. What was I supposed to say? That had been the plan in the beginning, but things had changed. I’d just been too stubborn to admit that the feelings I’d talked about were real. “Will, this isn’t the time,” I said.

I couldn’t explain it in a way that didn’t make it sound like I’d just been playing him. He wouldn’t believe me; I wasn’t good with words. I was only good at using words that avoided the problem at hand. In this case, I chose to insist we were pressed on time. I had a feeling I was going to have to overtly lie about having already called the police to get Will and Eric to leave, Will especially.

“It was, wasn’t it?” he went on.

Was it? Did it even count? How could I put the tumultuous tempest I’d felt that day into words? It wasn’t as simple as black or white. I’d felt like I was lying to him at first, but once he defended me in front of his dad, I realized it hadn’t been a lie at all. The words seemed to make sense in my mind, but I knew I would complicate things as soon as I tried to voice my thoughts. Instead of explaining, I repeated, “Will. This is not the time.”

“That’s my dad. He might act like a douchebag most of the time, and yeah, his morals are questionable, but he’s still my dad.”

Eric interjected in a low voice. “I have to agree with Will. We can’t just throw our dad into the dog-pit and bolt.”

I placed my hands on the sides of my forehead in frustration. I should have known this was going to go like this. “Your dad will never leave me alone,” I exclaimed, quickly lowering my voice when the volume of it startled me. My patience was already wearing thin. “Don’t you realize this? This doesn’t end when I go home. He’ll return like a cancerous remission. He will always be there, like a leech, trying to suck money out of my dad’s pocket through you for the rest of our lives, always pushing the limits, always trying to get more and more and more.”

There was a pause as everyone stared at me after my outburst. I’d told Taylor about this earlier, but I hadn’t gotten so riled up.

But when Will spoke… I wished he hadn’t. “And you don’t want to be stuck with me for the rest of your life. Do you?”

My heart thumped painfully in my chest, and it felt like my insides were being squeezed beyond belief. The look of betrayal and hurt on his face, the lack of luster in his eyes, the forcibly calm way he was talking—they hurt more than I thought was possible. All because of my stupid plan—the plan I’d already abandoned. I couldn’t let him walk out of there thinking I wanted anything but a life with him. “Will—”

“No, I get it.”

“No, you don’t,” I said, shaking my head back and forth so quickly, the room blurred. The tears that were building up didn’t help my case. “Will, I love you. I love you so much. This isn’t about me not wanting a life with you. This is about me not wanting a life with your dad.”

Will didn’t say anything at first. He just unclenched his jaw and looked away. Finally, he spoke, although the tension remained just as thick as it was before. “You didn’t deny the accusation about the plan. About using me for your escape. That means it’s true. Is this all just an extension of the plan? What is this? I don’t even know what to think anymore, Emma.”

It took all I had to keep the tears from falling down my face. I was sure my face was turning red from the effort. “Rage. I’m Rage. You call me Rage.” One tear managed to escape, and I couldn’t even bother to wipe it away.

He shook his head. “I don’t know what you are right now.”

The lump in my throat multiplied, completely restricting my airway. That was how it felt, at least. I swallowed hard, struggling to maintain my cool. Everything was falling to pieces, and it was crumbling at a speed I couldn’t keep up with. “I’m the same person I was ten minutes ago,” I said, my voice breaking as I spoke. “I thought I was using you to escape at first, but I was just lying to myself. I wasn’t lying to you. It was all real. I promise. I’m not even a good actress. You can’t fake that, Will.”

His anger faded a little, but a frown replaced the tense look on his face. “But you thought you were lying to me. And you did it anyway.”

I nodded. There was nothing to say. That part was true; I wasn’t going to lie and say it wasn’t. Besides, nothing I said was going to get through to him. I’d sprung all of this on him all of a sudden; he wasn’t going to believe a damn word I said, anyway. Not at that moment. Instead of remembering all of the good, he was aiming his focus on the bad. I guess I couldn’t blame him, but that didn’t mean it didn’t frustrate me.

I glanced over at Taylor, finally remembering that we weren’t alone. The only palpable emotion I could detect on her face was shock. Eric’s face was similar.

When I looked away, I found myself speaking again. Everything had already fallen apart. I had nothing left to lose. Backtracking on the plan would mean this was all for nothing, and that wasn’t okay. “It’s your father or all three of you. There’s no other alternative. The police are on their way. I already called them. When I said this wasn’t the time to talk, I meant it.”

“You couldn’t have consulted with us first?” Eric asked in utter disbelief.

What difference would it have made? The mere suggestion had ruined everything. Instead of answering his question, I went on as if he hadn’t just interrupted me. “If you stay, I can’t do anything for you. No one can. Anything Taylor or I say will sound like Stockholm syndrome. This will garner attention from the media, and your lives will never go back to the way they were. They’ll be ruined. Is that what you want?”

I centered my gaze on Eric, watching as he battled with indecisiveness. I couldn’t even look at Will anymore. The way he looked at me made everything hurt.

“What about you guys? We can’t leave you here unprotected,” Eric said at last.

I shook my head dismissively. “We’ll figure something out. We’ll hide until the police come. He won’t expect them to show up.”

“I can’t leave you here knowing you’ll be alone with my dad.” The sound of Will’s voice made me look over at him again. “If he figures out what you’ve done, I don’t know how he’ll react.”

“He won’t,” I said. “And if he does, he won’t find us. Do I need to remind you of the time I hid from you for a week?”

The corners of his lips lifted in a twitch, although I could tell he was fighting it. He wanted to stay angry at me. “No, you don’t.”

“Be careful. Hide as soon as we leave,” Eric said to Taylor and me before turning to Will. “We have to go. Now. It would be stupid to stay.”

Will tore his gaze away from me. “Fine.”

They headed towards the window and Eric quietly propped it open, looking down. It was a pretty far drop, but there were crevices in the outer walls that they could use to propel themselves down. Eric swung a leg over the ledge and gripped the edge, hoisting himself down. Will was about to follow when my hand shot out. “Wait.”

Will hesitated to turn around, but in the end, he did. That was a good sign, right? If he absolutely hated my guts, he wouldn’t have turned around at all. “What?”

I grabbed his present from on top of the bed and walked over to him. It was a small box with a red bow on it. I’d found the box lying around the house and the deck of cards had fit inside perfectly, even with their new thickened size. I’d found the bow among a tub of miscellaneous Christmas junk. “Don’t open this until tomorrow. Happy birthday, Will.” It felt silly to add that simple phrase at the end after the fight we’d just had, but I didn’t want him to leave without hearing it from me.

He looked down at the box after I’d handed it to him, an unreadable expression on his face. After what felt like an eternity but was probably only a few seconds in actuality, he said, “Don’t worry. I won’t open it at all.”

I tried to protest, but he’d already turned away and was once again heading towards the window. My feet started moving by themselves, propelling me forward until I was following him. I watched as Will threw my present out the window in dismay. My heart sank to my stomach but rose again when I realized he’d thrown it down to Eric so he could climb down.

“Wait,” I blurted out again. It wasn’t the best moment to talk, especially considering the fact that Will was halfway out the window with one leg swung over the ledge, but I had to say something. I took his face into my hands and looked at him, memorizing every feature and zeroing in on those gorgeous eyes. With him sitting on the ledge, it was like we were the same size. “You have to open it. You have to keep your promise. This isn’t the end for us. Hell, if you won’t fight for me, I’ll fight for you.”

He hesitated before speaking and quietly groaned. “Damn it. You’re gonna be the death of me, Rage,” he said, his warm, minty breath fanning my face.

A small smile spread across my face. “So I’m Rage again?”

“You never stopped being Rage. You’ll always be my Rage. Even when you annoy the shit out of me and piss me off. Even if you don’t want me the way I want you.”

Goddamnit. Why was he so stupid? That was the entire point I’d been trying to make. I did want him. I didn’t care if he had money or not. Not anymore. I just made stupid decisions, and sometimes my actions and words didn’t coincide.

He didn’t give me a chance to object; he closed the tiny bit of distance between us and kissed me hard, giving me hope. No, this wasn’t the end of the road. This was just a bump in the road. As long as Will’s feelings remained the same—and the way he was kissing me made it clear they were just as strong as they’d been earlier—there was hope, and that was all I needed just then. That and Charles behind bars.

“Be careful,” Will said, his lips still so close to mine. I just nodded.

And then, just like that, he was gone.