Page 1 of Suspicion

Part One

Abandoned

Chapter One

The Cold

Ella Bennett

The first thing Ella noticed was the cold. The chill crept along her legs until she curled into a tight ball, but still, the bitter air gnawed, biting at her fingers and toes as she huddled, searching for heat.

Later, the chill became a nagging friend, plaguing her until the temperature tempted her from her sleep. Stirring, she acknowledged how uncomfortable she was and that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t lift her hands to pull the blankets higher around her body.

Why?

The question resonated between the remaining layers of her subconscious, her head aching as she tried to grasp for answers.

Why am I so cold?

Ultimately, it was bird song that roused her entirely, the sound of busy feathered friends making nests that persuaded her weary head that perhaps her discomfort wasn’t only a bad dream. Blinking open her eyelids told a perplexing tale—a story of leaves, sticks, and hard earth.

I’m outside?

At least the discovery explained her sore limbs and the type of cold that had sunk into her bones. But why was she sleeping out in the open?

Swallowing back on her rising anxiety, she tried to pull herself upright against the bark of what looked like an enormous and ancient tree. That was when the reality that ought to have been obvious dawned on her. She understood why she wasn’t able to move her hands properly.

I’m tied up! Terror ricocheted around her tired body, shattering any lingering drowsiness. What the hell has happened to me?

Straining against the fetters she could feel at her wrists, she forced herself back against the tree trunk. Lifting her head, she took in her surroundings. Trapped inside what looked like a brand-new sleeping bag, her body was confined. She lifted her wrists to the top of her fabric prison, finally able to make out what was binding her. To her dismay, she realized it was a thick and coarse rope, and by the way she was struggling to part her feet, there was something similar securing her ankles.

“What happened?” Her breath was irregular as she struggled to recall.

Ella hadn’t gone to sleep outdoors. She knew that much. She didn’t even like hiking, let alone camping, and even if she’d been crazy enough to indulge in such an outdoor pursuit, she’d never have been foolish enough to go to sleep without a tent—preferably one of those huge two-man types with a separate area for washing and space for a large air mattress.

“I didn’t do this.” There was power in saying the words out loud, as though the birds whistling overhead somehow judged her for her predicament. “I didn’t come here, didn’t bind myself!”

She yanked against the rope holding her hands together, as if one tug was all it would take to separate them. Frustrated to find her liberation was not so easy, she tried to take stock. Closing her eyes, she fought to recollect how she’d ended up there.

What could she remember from the night before, or perhaps more critically, what couldn’t she remember?

What was the last fragment of memory she recalled?

It was a simple enough query, but try as she might, there was only black wooliness where there once had been clarity. Her head ached as she concentrated. Had she been drinking? It was possible. Ella liked a bottle of wine as much as the next woman, but still, she couldn’t remember the details that had led to her waking alone and bound in the forest.

A low pulsing thrum interrupted her efforts, and heart racing, she recognized the sound of a vibrating phone.

“My phone!” Her pulse spiked as she searched around, trying to ascertain where the notification had derived. The reverberation had been muffled, as though the phone was shoved inside her pocket, but when she lowered her bound wrists and felt around the pockets of her joggers, there was no device to be found. “Where’s my phone?”

Thick, hot dread filled her as she grappled to find the device. Ella never went anywhere without her phone. Wherever she was yesterday, it would have been with her. Knowing how attached she was to her technology, it was probable that she was holding the damn device when she’d fallen asleep. Someone would have to have drugged her to remove it.

A wave of cold panic washed over her. “Maybe my drink was spiked, or…” Her voice trailed away as she wrestled with what else might have transpired.

Why couldn’t she remember anything?

The phone whirred again, the device buzzing right by her left thigh. Heart hammering, she lurched for the lifeline, seizing it from its hiding place between her legs.

“Thank God!”

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