As she sat there unmoving, and eyes closed, there was a funny taste in her mouth from the water. She tried to move her fingers the smallest bit as the car pulled further and further away from her shop. She tried to say something, anything, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was air, no words.
She was scared. She couldn’t do a thing to help herself. All she could do was sit there, and wait for whatever was in her system to subside. There were obviously drugs that were in the water she was given, by someone she trusted with her life. She was terrified for where they were going and what was going to happen once they arrived there.
––––––––
D
om pulled his truck off to the side of the street. Jumping out, he ran towards the burning building that once was Chantal’s shop. The flames were high above the roof. The building beside it was only lit down the side, and the fire crews were working their hardest to stop the flames from spreading.
Three trucks sat out front, each working on her shop and the two shops on each side. Looking at everyone around, he tried to notice either Joey or Chantal, but their faces didn’t appear. He stopped and asked if anyone knew where she was; he needed to see her whether she spoke to him or not. He just needed to know that she was alive and ok.
“Dominic!” Someone called his name from behind him. He spun around, happy to see Joey was running towards him.
He stopped in front of him, hands on his legs, catching his breath.
“Where is she?” Dom asked, still looking around.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? She was here when you got here, right?”
“Yeah, I pulled her out of the building. She was supposed to stay by my truck out back, but she isn’t there,” he mumbled.
“The paramedics might have checked her out and taken her to the hospital.”
“No, they only just arrived minutes before you did. Plus, someone would have found me if they did.”
“She can’t have gone that far away.” Jesus Christ. What was she thinking of, leaving without tell anyone? Why the fuck didn’t she ring him? God, he hated what was going on now and the last week. He had tried everything to get her to talk to him, but nothing had worked. She had even sent his flowers back to him. The only place he couldn’t go was her parents’ house. Once he had found out that she was staying there, he drove across town to see her, but was stopped by security—like they were actually going to keep him from her.
The one person he was not expecting to see at the front gates was her father. The name he knew, but when he had a real good look at her father, he was a little shocked.
He wasn’t expecting to see Mr. Winters, the top dog and high –powered lawyer, standing right in front of him, saying that he had absolutely no right even asking to see his daughter. The way he looked at him, he knew exactly who he was, and that he was no good for his one and only daughter. He didn’t care. He obeyed his wish and left the premise’s, but there was no way in hell that he was ever leaving Chantal alone, ever.
Joey had raced off and asked several of the fire fighters if any of them had seen her. It came down to two of them, they had both seen her last out standing near Joey’s truck in the back alley. One stayed as the other came out front to help contain the fire.
He heard the other say that he was going to stay with her until either Joey or the paramedics came, but she had insisted that he go and help with the fire. She had been left alone, out back, in a damn dark alley, for whatever to happen.
“Fuck.” How stupid did she have to be? Why couldn’t she just have kept her mouth shut while the guy sat with her till more help arrive No, she wouldn’t allow it. Well, she was in for a rude shock once he got his hands on her for scaring the living shit out of him, and not listening to anyone.
“No one has seen her. One guy said he saw a car driving down the alley and turned left away from the shop” Joey panted as he got his breathing under control.
“Who would be driving around at this time of night?”
“I don’t know, but I have a funny feeling that she knew whoever was driving that car.”
“I have the same feeling, Joey.” He actually felt sick to his stomach not knowing where she was. Pulling out his phone, hoping that she had taken her own phone with her, he dialed her number. He heard her phone ringing. Following the sound, he found her bag sitting near one of the trucks parked out front.
“She never grabbed her bag. I went back into the building to get it, Dom,” Joey said behind him.
He was livid. His fist slammed into the side of the truck, no one around him noticed or heard. His hand stung like a bitch and he knew blood was dripping from the wound on it, but at that point he didn’t care. All he wanted was Chantal safe and back in his arms, where she belonged.
“Maybe she went back to Skylar’s? I know she wouldn’t have gone back to her parents’ place, knowing her father, she would be up at the hospital by now.”
“If she has, Nate wouldn’t know unless Skylar called him. He’s on his way here.”
Nate’s truck pulled up and he jumped out and walked their way. There were close to around twenty firefighters there now, trying to control the fire. They had stopped it from spreading to the shops on either side, but whatever had started it, wasn’t stopping.
“Is she alright? What the fuck happened?” Nate asked as he stood in front of them both.
“I have no bloody idea on either. She isn’t here anymore,” he told him.
“What do you mean? Joey was here first.”
“He was, he got her out just in time, but she just disappeared into thin air. No one knows where she is.”
This was driving him up a wall, where would she go? Her fucking shop was on fire, she wouldn’t just up and go. The shop was her baby.
“Jesus Christ, I knew this was going to happen. That woman never listens and look what happened.”
Dom frowned. “What are you talking about?” he asked.
Wiping his face, he knew just by the look on Nate’s face that it wasn’t going to be good.
“Over a month ago, Chantal was at Skylar’s place. Before she even had the chance to go inside, I heard her scream. Taking her inside, she asked me to carry a box for her. I was a little curious to it, she didn’t look ok...pale, sick kind of look. When I asked what was in the box, she couldn’t tell me.”
“What was in the box?”
“Some pretty fucked up shit, Dom. She made me promise not to tell you, but it wasn’t the only thing she got. She has had four letters, the box, and a DVD sent to her.”
“What did the letters say, and you better bloody tell me what was in the box and on the DVD, Nate?”
“The first letter was simple, non-harmful, then they just got nasty, the DVD that was sent was of you guys together, in a compromising position.”
“Fuck,” he growled.
“She has a stalker, Dom. Whoever it is, thinks you’re no good for her, that she belongs to whoever is sending this shit to her. The day she received the DVD was at her house, it was filmed at her house. They know where she lives. She called me to go over and that is why she was staying at my place. Skylar doesn’t even know the whole story.”
What? Fucking God damn, bloody shit. Storming over he pulled Nate close to him, face to face. “What was in that box, Nate?” He growled.
“A pig’s heart with a knife in it.”
His fist came up so quick and connected to Nate’s nose. He stumbled back, grabbing his blood-dripping nose. “Shit.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me, Nate? If I knew anything to do with Skylar, I would have told you, especially if it was something like this shit. I can’t fucking believe you kept this shit from me!” he yelled.
“Dom,” Joey warned behind him.
“Don’t, Joey. I’m way past it. If you had told me, this wouldn’t be fucking happening right now. She would be fucking safe at my place, safe from whoever this wanker is.”
He needed a breather. Stepping away, he wondered how the hell did she keep this from him, and Nate did as well? This was absolutely bullshit. He knew there was something wrong that night when he had seen both Nate and her at the opening of her shop. Shit, he should have pushed the point with her, demanded more that she tell him the truth, not bloody hide it.
“Dom, I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was much at first, but after seeing what was in the box and watching the DVD, I wanted to tell you, trust me, but she made me promise.”
“You better hope to all the fucking gods nothing has happened to her, Nate. I will never forgive you if it has,” he growled, and then stormed off towards his truck.
How could she not have told him? He understood why she didn’t, because he would have had her safe at his place, tied to the fucking bed so she couldn’t bloody leave. But he wasn’t one to ask, since he had kept the biggest secret from her. Everything was just fucked; there was no other word for it. Jumping into his truck, he needed to get away from the burning shop and try to find her. He only had so many ideas as to where she would go, so he was going to start off with the obvious...her parents’ house.
******
N
ate felt like shit when he arrived back home. It wasn’t just the fact that he was covered in black smudges and whatever else, it was the fact that he had a choice to make. Tell Skylar about Chantal being missing, or keep it to himself until they found her.
He slammed his fists against the steering wheel, losing count as he continued, repeatedly. The driver’s door opened and a hand came down over his, stopping what he was doing. He struggled to get his breathing under control.
“Nate, what’s going on?” Alex asked.
“Fucking everything,” he grumbled.
“What happened to your face?”
Getting out, he took his time walking towards his place. He couldn’t see Skylar right now, looking the way he did. Opening the fridge, he pulled out a beer and gulped half of it down in one hit.
“Chantal’s shop burnt down.”
“Jesus, is she alright?”
Good question!
“Don’t know. She wasn’t around when I got there. Both Joey and Dominic where there, and Joey was the one that pulled her out of the shop.”
“Where is she?” he asked as he got a beer for himself and sat down at the table.
“No one knows. Joey left her in his truck out the back of her shop. By the time Dom arrived, she had just disappeared.”
“How can she just disappear?”
“I think it is more than that, Alex,” Nate said as he slumped against the wall.
“Well?”
“Shit’s been happening with her. And to sum it up, she has a stalker and both Joey and I think she was kidnapped.”
“Bloody hell,” Alex hissed.
That’s exactly what he was thinking of the whole frigging thing.
“Joey is out there looking around, asking all the firefighters if they remember a car being there in the alley. Dom, well, he said he was going out to look for her, but I’m unsure where.”
“You need to tell Skylar, Nate.”
“You know I can’t. It will only upset her more, and she will possibly go into early labor like last time, and I can’t do that to her.”
“It’s her best friend that is missing, Nate, she would want to know.”
“I know that, I just need to figure out how I am going to tell her without upsetting or coursing her to go into labor, which I know will bloody happen,” he mumbled.
“Let me talk to Craig, he might have an idea on how you can tell her the news.”
“Where is Skylar?” he asked.
“Asleep. We told her you got a call out for a job, and didn’t know how long you would be.”
“Thanks for that. I’m going to have a shower and wash all this shit off of me, and then I’ll pop over.”
“Sure. We’ll think of a way to tell her, Nate, don’t stress too much over it.”
He couldn’t answer, only nodded towards him. After Alex left he walked down towards his room and into the bathroom. Stripping his dirty and awful smelling clothes, he slid under the hot, relaxing water. Leaning against the shower wall, he didn’t have the energy to even wash himself. All he could think about was how Skylar was going to react to the not-so-good news about her friend.
How did one tell someone about a situation like the one he was in now? Could he handle telling her and seeing her in pain over her friend? Risk her going into early labor yet again? Or not say anything and wait to see if Chantal would come back from wherever she was?
This was the hardest thing he had ever had to decide on. The wellbeing of his child and the only woman he ever loved, or the friendship he had with Chantal. Jesus, he knew which one he was going to pick, and he hated himself more now, for keeping all this to himself and not telling her in the first place. He was going to upset her over something he couldn’t fix—finding Chantal. Anything else, he could fix, just not that one, single thing.
––––––––
C
hantal’s head was throbbing as she struggled to sit up. Her arms felt like lead weights and her legs, too. Opening her eyes carefully, she looked around the room.
Where the hell am I?
Did she end up going home with someone? Shit, she hoped not. Glancing around the room, nothing was familiar to her. There were boards covering the window and the door was closed. There was a dresser to the right, a side table and lamp, and a small, really old TV sat in the corner. And the bed had the oldest and ugliest comforter set that she was sure had never seen the light of day, let alone a washing machine.
Since was she standing and not moving, she could see everything in the room, so she wasn’t on the bed. Looking down her body, she noticed that her legs were tied to something behind her, there was rope around her waist and as she looked above her head, her wrists were tied, too. She could only move her head a tiny bit much, so she couldn’t quite make out what she was tied to.
Someone was walking down the hall, outside the room, louder and louder it got. If she could move from where she was, she would, but there was no chance of it happening. The door opened slowly. The lighting in the room came only from the small lamp so it wasn’t the best but she could make out a shadow standing in the doorway. They never said anything, all she heard was both of their breathing.