Page 7 of Shattered Vows

Having no choice, I swallowed and met his gaze. Rushing over, I bent to pick up the piece of plastic.

“Sorry.” My voice was hardly audible, and I felt my face heat, knowing how beet red I most likely was.

I set the water bottle on my tray, and the damn thing tipped over a second time, rolling off. His hand caught it right before it hit the floor.

I straightened up and locked eyes with him. He held the water bottle out to me, and at that moment, I knew. I knew that this man’s face would be etched into my memory forever. That this moment would play over and over in my head.

What I didn’t know at the time was that our chance meeting would go from us chatting for a few minutes, to him inviting me to sit down, to the two of us meeting again the next day when I came down to the cafeteria. Soon when I told my mom I was going home for the evening, I was really spending my nights with Kol, traipsing around Atlanta and falling in love with him. The biggest surprise was him asking me to marry him before he left for his final deployment.

It happened fast and felt like a whirlwind, a magical sign of fate.

But just as my mother had taught me, the world was filled with cruel individuals.

It was all a lie.

The mechanical hum of something is the first sound my mind registers when I wake up. The second is the slight jostling of the world underneath me.

Am I in a vehicle? Where am I?

My eyes blink open, and it takes a moment to register the softness under me. I’m on a bed in some strange room, based on the pattern of the blanket my cheek is plastered to and the small nightstand to my left.

Something pulls on my hair, and I reach back and feel rough fabric. I pull out my veil. and the nightmare of what happened rushes back to my mind.

I startle and roll over, bolting into a sitting position.

“Good, you’re awake.”

My head whips in the direction of Kol’s voice. He sits in a chair in the corner of the room.

I don’t know how long I’ve been out, but my mother must be freaking out. I can’t imagine her panic when she returned to the room I was in, only to find it empty.

And what about Alistair? He’s going to think I’m some runaway bride.

“Where are we?”

“Probably thirty-five thousand feet above Idaho.”

“What?” I shriek, looking right and left.

My chest tightens, restricting my airflow.

No, no, no.

I force myself to inhale a deep, steadying breath and hold it for a moment before releasing the air through my nose. I do it again a few more times, trying to calm myself.

“I’ve never flown before.” Why am I even bothering to tell him that? He just kidnapped me. He definitely doesn’t care that I feel uneasy being airborne.

He frowns, and a line creases on his forehead as if I’m lying. “How’d you move from Atlanta to outside Seattle?”

“We drove. My mom won’t fly.” I don’t want to discuss that move and why we had to do it in the first place.

I shuffle to the edge of the bed and glance out the small plane window. Seeing the clouds below us makes my stomach swoop as if I jumped from the plane.

Kol remains quiet, but I feel his eyes on me.

I shut my eyes to calm my nerves and get my emotions under control. It’s unbelievable I’m in this confined space with Kol. How many times did I daydream about being with him again? How many times did I wonder what he thought when I didn’t show up at city hall to marry him? And now he’s here.

I have no idea how he’s going to punish me.

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