Wanted (Addicted Trilogy Book 3) (2 page)

Sara

I woke up to the side of my face being smacked. At first it was
light, then when I’d still not opened my eyes, it was sharp and painful.

“Wake up, Sara,” Samuel said as soon as he knew his slap had done
the trick of bringing me back to my twisted reality. He hovered over me, his
body close to mine as he tested the restraints, making sure they were still
intact.

The more my consciousness took over, the more I realized I really
needed to use the restroom. My poor bladder hadn’t been empty in I had no idea
how long.
How long have I even been here?
Would he loosen the chains or would he make me use a bed pan like last time?

I’m about to find out.

“Samuel, I have to go to the bathroom. Can you please untie me?”

“No,” was all he said.

“Please,” I begged. “I don’t want to make a mess all over myself.
I’ll be quick, I swear.”

His tone became more agitated the more I pushed him to respond. “I
know if I untie you, you’re going to try and escape.” He’d walked across the
small space and was rustling through an old, beat-up drawer. Earlier, he’d
brought a small lamp down with him, which allowed me to see what he was doing. “You’ve
only been here five hours and you already want to leave me.” Slamming the
drawer shut, he turned toward me and shouted, “You want to leave me and go back
to him!” His fists were clenched at his sides and I knew better than to push
him when he was so lost in his delusion. “But you can’t. I won’t allow it. I
won’t lose you again.” His last few words were barely spoken above a whisper, and
they were more haunting than the ones he shouted.

My thoughts were immediately overrun by the people in my life.
 
My best friend Alexa who would be beyond
worried about me, knowing the whole story of my past; Matt, who had recently
learned of what had happened to me all those years ago; and Alek, the one person
who had tried to save me, even from myself sometimes.

If what Samuel had said was true and I had only been missing for
five hours then Alexa and Matt might not even know yet. But there was no doubt
Alek knew. I would never
not
show up,
especially not without at least contacting him. He was forever reminding me to
charge my phone and make sure I kept the ringer on, but even then, I would have
found a way to call him.

Regret suddenly gripped me from the inside. Damn it! I should
have never ditched Brian. Even though he eventually found me, he had been
distracted, so worried about what Alek would have done to him had he not caught
up with me. If I’d done what I was supposed to then my shadow would have been
aware of our surroundings, cutting Samuel off as he approached or even securing
me so well, he would have never even shown himself.

Damn my stubbornness and need to always go against Alek’s
warnings.

A noise to my right pushed me from my thoughts, and it was then I
realized my need to go to the bathroom had only intensified. I heard shuffling
across the floor before the groan of the step.
My bladder muscles are going to be tested.
 
I hope they’re up for the challenge.

I wasn’t quite sure how much time had passed until he came back
down to the basement. He quickly approached me, scaring me enough to cause me
to flinch. The scowl on his face told me he didn’t appreciate my reaction. Reaching
forward, he unbound my hands from the posts above my head but left the
restraints around my ankles.
 
My poor
limbs screamed when I lowered them, soreness and the rush of blood causing me to
wince and moan in discomfort.
 

Before I knew what was happening, he lifted me from the old
mattress and instantly bound my hands behind my back. He was making sure I
wasn’t going to try and escape. I stumbled as he ushered me toward the toilet
in the corner of the room. It wasn’t a far walk, but the chains around my
ankles made it near impossible to take a steady step.

As I opened my mouth to ask him how he expected me to go to the
bathroom without the use of my hands, his fingers flew to the button on my
jeans, yanking them down along with my underwear. Mortified, I turned my head
to the side and held my breath. Gripping my shoulders, he pushed me down until
I sat on the toilet seat.

Thankfully, Samuel had not sexually assaulted me the first time
he kidnapped me. But would this time be different? Had his fascination grown
over the years he was locked away? I shuddered at the thought and prayed he
wouldn’t have enough time to even contemplate such an act.

My body didn’t care what havoc was swirling around inside my
brain. Once I sat on the toilet, my bladder sighed in relief. In truth I should’ve
been thankful he hadn’t made me use a bedpan like before. Although humiliating,
this was a bit more dignified.

 
Once finished, I tried my
best to stand on my own, but it was more difficult than I’d imagined.

Witnessing my struggle, he immediately grabbed my arms to help
steady me. He reached for a nearby rag and pressed it against me, drying me
before he pulled my underwear and jeans back up. There was nothing sexual in
his eyes or touch when he wiped me, even though his hand was essentially covering
my most intimate place.

My stomach revolted from his touch, though. I had to take a deep
breath to make sure I didn’t throw up all over myself.
 

Leading me back toward the bed, he gently placed me on the old
mattress and made quick work of reattaching my chains. His actions were gentle,
telling me he didn’t really wish to cause me harm. Maybe I was reading too much
into a simple gesture, but it was all I had. It gave me hope, and I would
clutch on to it for as long as it remained true.
 

He disappeared from the room only to return not long after,
carrying a bowl of food which smelled pretty good. Fortunately, I had the sense
to know he’d probably drugged it and thankfully, I was nowhere near starvation.

The bed dipped from his weight. I stared into his eyes, trying to
see if I could gauge anything, trying to catch a glimmer of what was to come. But
there was nothing. His vacant stare was glazed over, as if he wasn’t even
present.

His eyes locked on mine so long I would have sworn we were
engaged in some sort of contest. Finally, he broke the silence with his gruff
voice.

“I’m sure you’re hungry, Sara. I brought you beef stew.” When I
didn’t make a move or respond, he pushed the spoon closer to my mouth, letting
a small amount of it hit my chest as it fell from the utensil.

It was lukewarm at best.

My lips locked up tight and I tried my best to shake my head. I
didn’t want to anger him, but I didn’t trust I wouldn’t fall sick because of
what he was trying to feed me.

As I struggled to back away, he reached forward and painfully
gripped my chin, pulling me closer. Prying my lips open with his dirty fingers,
he slipped the spoon inside my mouth.

I instantly started coughing, spitting out the small amount of
stew he’d managed to feed me. But he kept at it, shoveling the warm food past
my lips. Because I had no other choice, I swallowed a portion of it. It was
either eat or choke to death.

I chose to stay alive another day.

After he was done, he simply disappeared back upstairs, leaving
me alone yet again to ponder how long my future would be.

Alek

It’d been two of the longest days of my fucking life. The tracker
I’d installed on Sara’s phone right after I found out Samuel was released kept
fading in and out. She had no idea I’d put the damn thing on there, but I was
sure it would be the one and only time she wouldn’t argue with me about invading
her privacy.

I’d also
placed a device on her car, but finding the vehicle abandoned in a busy parking
lot was a huge setback. But had I really thought it would have been easy?

The need for discretion was of the utmost importance because I
didn’t want to alert Samuel, fearing he would move her, taking her away from me
forever. Every time I’d been close to where I thought she was kept, it was a
false alarm.

Thankfully, I had many connections and a lot of people who owed me
favors. Calling in one such service, I’d had a local realtor run the names of
all the people who’d either purchased or rented a place within a hundred-mile
radius of Seattle. I knew it was a long shot, but I was hoping he’d taken her
somewhere nearby.

Taken.

I still couldn’t believe he’d been able to snatch her away from
me so easily. Thinking I’d taken every precaution, I’d gotten lazy. I should
have been with her. Twenty-four-fucking-seven. No one could protect her like I
could, or so I’d thought.

Guess I was wrong.

I prayed I could make things right again, bring Sara back home
and dispose of Samuel once and for all. What did that mean exactly? I had no
idea. I figured we’d see how things panned out, but I wasn’t above getting my
hands dirty in order to secure her very long, bright future.

None of the property searches turned up anything, so I’d have to
go off the unreliable tracker. Its signal waned the further north of the city I
drove, leading me to a more generalized area.

Driving around side streets without my headlights proved to be
treacherous. The dark of the night threatened to swallow me up if I wasn’t
careful. It was funny because if I’d really thought I lost her forever, I would
have run screaming into its steely cold embrace.

But I had hope.

Never mind my intuition was heightened. The chemistry which typically
flowed between us was faint, but still present.

As I traveled down a dead-end street, there was a house on the
corner which looked to be abandoned. The roof was old, shingles hanging off the
sides, threatening to fall off given one more rainstorm. The front porch was
missing and the siding was rotting away, as if whatever was housed inside had
caused all the damage.

Instinct told me she was there. Plus the tracker suddenly picked
up a stronger signal.

I ended up two hours outside of Seattle.
So much for her being close by.
Although, I would drive to the ends
of the Earth if it meant I would find her, bring her home with me where she’d
be safe and away from Samuel. I couldn’t even imagine what she was going through.
To be taken…twice…by the same man. The fear she must’ve been experiencing was
enough to reduce me to tears.

Fighting back the lump in my throat, I knew I had to be strong. I
had to search, hopefully find her inside the decaying house and get the hell
out.

Quickly.

Parking
down the road, I gently closed my car door. I steadily crept along, trying as
much as I could to stay hidden behind whatever shelter I could find. Trees,
shrubs, vehicles parked along the street—they were all the camouflage I needed
right then.

With
every step I took, I prayed she was still breathing. I didn’t think he would
kidnap her only to kill her right away. Although I was trying my best to see
things through his eyes, I simply wasn’t hard-wired as a mad man.
 

When I
finally came upon the house, it was eerily quiet. There was but one light on, in
the back, toward what was probably the kitchen.

It was
all I needed.

Creeping
along the side, I searched for a basement. I didn’t know why my mind went there
but it did. Maybe it was all those damn scary movies Sara made me watch. I much
preferred action flicks, but if her insistence on the horror genre was what
eventually led me to her, then I would watch each and every one she wanted from
there on out.

As I
stood there, my thoughts overtook me. Dark thoughts. Hopeless thoughts. I’d
envisioned what my life would be like without the infuriating, amazing and
beautiful woman who had come crashing into it.

That
sort of fate I wouldn’t survive. I would be but a shell of a man. At least
before, I had no idea what I’d been missing out on. But now…there was no going
back.

For as
much as I wanted to spend the next fifty years of my life cherishing, arguing with,
and loving her, I couldn’t shake the feeling I was doing more harm than good
being so involved in her life.

In all
the years I’d committed to protecting her, watching her and staying in the
background, her safety was never once compromised. But ever since I’d made the
selfish decision and invited myself into her world, up-close and personal,
she’d been put in two very dangerous situations.

First,
the creep at Carlson’s who attacked her in the hallway, and then Samuel
kidnapping her again.
 

Pushing
my uncertain thoughts to the back of my mind, I knew I didn’t have time to
contemplate what it all meant. Sara was still in grave danger and with every
second that passed, I ran the risk of losing her forever.
 

When I’d
snuck around to the back of the house, I cautiously tried to peer through every
available window, but it was of no use because they were heavily shaded from
the inside. I decided to try the back door, praying it wasn’t heavily
barricaded.
 
When my fingers circled the
handle, it turned. But the door didn’t open.

As quietly
as I could, I hit the frame with my shoulder. It was loud at first, especially
since it was the only sound drifting through the air around me. I hit it again
.
Finally, the wood
splintered and the door flung open. I caught it before it hit the wall inside.

I’m pretty good at breaking down doors, it seems.

As I
stepped over the threshold, I was bombarded with thoughts of an ambush. Did he
know I was there? Was he waiting for me?

Moving three
more steps inside, I cautiously moved around the rooms as if they were booby-trapped.
Taking my time to peer around corners, stopping every few feet to listen for
any kind of sounds, had started to try my patience. But I had no other choice. If
I had any hope of escape, I had to be careful.

I wasn’t
afraid of Samuel, not in the least. The last time I’d lost a fight, I’d been in
the fifth grade and it was only because there were three of them. I knew if I
came up against the man who took Sara, he would be lucky to crawl out alive.

What I
was
afraid of was coming across him in
one of the dark crevices of the house and strangling the life right out of him
before I was able to locate Sara. I had to remind myself not to act without
thinking, and to rein in my rage long enough to be able to rescue her.

Then all
bets were off. Whatever happened…happened.

As I rounded
the corner to enter a different room, I heard someone yell above me, followed
by a loud crash. An object had been thrown against the wall, shattering into a
million pieces.

If I was
a betting man, I would guess Samuel had found the tracking device hidden in
Sara’s cell phone because the signal I had went dead at the exact moment of
impact.

I heard
heavy footsteps circling, the creaking of the floorboards above my head only
adding to the direness of the situation. Samuel was probably pacing around, not
quite sure if someone was on their way to rescue her or not.

But it
was too late.

I was
already there.

Before I
took another step, someone wrapped their fingers around my arm, tugging me
backward.
 
Whirling around to fight off
the intruder, I’d thankfully stopped my fist in mid air before connecting with
the man’s face.

It was
Kael.

In my
quest to save my woman, I’d completely forgotten he was following behind me for
the past hour.
 
He’d called me while I
was enroute and offered to come with me.
 
At first, I was hesitant, not wanting to endanger anyone else’s life,
but I quickly realized I could definitely use his help.
 
With the two of us, we would surely be able
to locate Sara quicker.
 
Plus there was
extra muscle in case we came face to face with her captor.

The
sounds above us brought me back to reality.
 
While Samuel was distracted by his own paranoia, we went to find Sara. We
searched all of the rooms downstairs but to no avail. Obviously, we weren’t going
to check upstairs because he was up there, so we headed off to look for a
basement door. I was living in my own horror film, so I prayed my reality
mirrored the movies and she was down there somewhere. Once I located it, I
twisted the handle slowly, the door creaking as it brushed across the floor.

Fuck. I hope he can’t hear me. Not yet.

The only
light we had to guide us was from my phone. Thankfully, it was bright enough
for me to see in front of me, but not too bright to bring any unnecessary
attention. We took the stairs slowly, unaware if there were any missing or
rotten ones in our path. Once we’d safely reached the bottom, I made quick work
of searching the darkened room.

All I
saw were old broken pieces of furniture and piles of boxes, with God knew what
in them, littering every corner of the room.

As we were
about to head back upstairs and venture to the floor where Samuel was, I heard
the faintest of sounds coming from somewhere nearby. I strained to hear, but
the sound of my beating heart deafened me. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I
was able to calm my anxiety enough to hear it again.

The
sound flitted in the air all around me.

Where the hell is it coming from?

A faint
whimper.

Heading
off in the direction where I thought I heard the noise proved to be correct. As
I came closer, the light whimpers turned into quiet sobs.

It was
Sara.

She was
crying.

Where the hell is she?
My fingers glided over the rough
wall, feeling for any kind of secret passage. Finally, I found a gap between
the panels. When I pushed, it gave way to a door to another room.

Shining
my small light through the darkness, my heart picked up pace as I saw a body lying
on a bed not twenty feet in front of me.

I found
her.

It took
everything in me not to shout at the top of my lungs, but I had to be quiet. I
needed as much time as possible to devise a plan.
 

As I
walked closer, I noticed immediately her hands and feet were chained to the
old, dirty bed. Rage instantly pumped me up, preparing me to rip him apart with
my bare hands. My breaths, although controlled, were short and choppy, a pain
radiating through my tightly coiled chest.

Calm down. You’re no good to anyone if you can’t focus
on anything but your fury.

Talking
to myself proved effective. For the time being, anyway. I took three more steps
toward her, and although I was already teetering on the edge, it wasn’t until I
saw her eyes that I started to unravel.

Her gaze
locked with mine but she looked straight through me.

As if I
wasn’t even there.

My heart
broke.