Page 32 of Four Times Saved

"Uh," I balked. "Still a bit numb."

"Okay, let's get you back to the bed," she said.

Tempted to repeat myself, I bottled it when I spotted the kidnapper's shadow looming near the toilet door. He was back in the room, and I'd missed my shot.

I watched with disbelief as she left the room, and I was grabbed by the arm.

"Enough of this shit. We're getting the fuck out of here," he snapped. "And don't try to fight me, or I'll kill you."

He pulled me to my feet, and I committed to the charade, falling in front of him.

"What the fuck?" He scowled at me, swiped his hand over his face, and ducked his head out of the room. He dipped out, and I didn't think. I saw my last shot at escaping, and I took it, jumping to my feet and hurrying to the door.

Only to run into him dragging a wheelchair.

He looked me up and down. "Well, what do we have here? It's a fucking miracle." He stepped into the room and grabbed my hair in his hand, shoving the back of my head toward him. "You're playing a dangerous fucking game, missy. Get dressed. You're coming with me."

His odorous breath warmed my face and forced its way into my lungs. I trembled from the cold stare he froze me with.

Chapter 16

Eric

Jumping up from my phone going off, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and balked at the several missed calls. What the fuck? My body must have given up on keeping me awake, but it meant someone was trying to get through to me urgently and I missed it. Pissed at myself, I answered the phone with my lungs throbbing.

"Yes?" My eyes were wide open and I was sitting up as straight as a board.

"Hi, Eric. Calling from the search and rescue team. We thought you should be the first to know, before we put it on the news..." My heart stopped. Good news, bad news, I couldn't deduce it from the soldier's tone. I was a mixture of hope and foreboding.

"What is it?" I screamed these words inside my head but when they left my mouth, it was a low murmur.

"Lily has been spotted at a hospital in Virginia..." The soldier continued.

When I tell you that the light in my room appeared brighter and sounds became crisper, I'm not lying. I hopped out of the bed and ran down the hallway, shouting, "Lily's been found". The guys' room doors banged open and they all met me outside.

"What?! When is she coming home?" Ryan asked.

"Why isn't she home yet?" Matt pondered.

Ethan was silent, gripping his door frame, air caught in his lungs.

"Do you need us to come and pick her up?" My heart started beating again and the force with which it pumped made me realize how asleep and dead it had been lately.

"Mr. Fletcher, I'm sorry. I wasn't done." The soldier maintained her unreadable tone.

"I don't understand..." Cramping rushed to the forefront of my brain as I raised my head to look at my best friends, impatient and waiting for me to say something.

"Well, I'm sorry Mr. Fletcher..." She began.

Starting with an apology? That couldn't be good. A gasp coming from the depths of my soul escaped and my knees went weak.

"It's not horrible news." She offered just as my body began to lose feeling. "It's just that as soon as the nurse reported it and returned to the room, they had vanished."

My brain was on fire and my head wobbled on my neck like a bobblehead. Her words picked me up and tossed me around in an emotional rollercoaster.

"They don't have her." I mouthed to my friends, before turning my back to them, as if that would make me hear the soldier better. And because I couldn't look at their disappointment or their eyes begging me for answers I didn't have.

"Why didn't she restrain them?" I asked, ridiculously.

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