Page 2 of Soul

Instantly a calm resurgence of hope smothers the fear like stepping inside a perfectly heated hot tub. With shaking fingers, I pull out my phone and dial Maria.

“Chase?” Her voice is strained, sorrow filling her tone when she answers. Everyone is beside themselves with worry, waiting for any shred of information about Gillian.

“Maria, does Gillian know a man who’s blond, has blue eyes, and is big?” She gasps into the receiver, and I hold it tight against my ear. “Has a scar on his hand, like a burn?” I said the rest in a rush.

“Dios Mio. That could be Danny.”

I bite my lip so hard I taste blood as that tingling sensation skids down my spine. We are close. I can feel it. “Danny who?”

The line is scratchy but I can hear her. “Danny Mc...uh, Mc-something. Bree? Kat? What is Danny’s last name?”

At the same time that Maria said McBride, so did Jack who is already lifting his phone. “Daniel McBride, get there now! His work, his house, his gym, now!” He growls into the phone. “I want everything you have on him. I want to know who his parents are, his childhood friends, what he fucking had for breakfast this morning! Now! Every man on it.”

For the first time in three days I’m able to breathe. We have a lead. A solid one. She is closer. Has to be, because I can feel her essence, now, more than ever before.

“Daniel McBride,” Dana says, her face pale. She leans against the wall as tears pour down her face. “No,” she shakes her head. “No it can’t be!” she whispers.

“I’ll call soon.” I drop the phone into my pocket before taking the few steps to Dana and cup her shoulders. “You know him?”

Dana’s eyes flash, and her face contorts into a pained expression. “He’s my…my boyfriend.”

Gillian

Three days. He’s had me for three days in this room with no light, no warmth and no way out. A cinderblock room. which has no windows and is incredibly cold. The deep chill makes me think it might be underground, possibly a basement. He’s kept me in and out of a semi-conscious state, since he took me. All I know for sure is that we were in a car for a long time before I woke up here. He admitted last night we are back in the States. Even laughed when he told the story that he set me up like a sleeping bride in the car, when crossing border. Makes more sense as to why he was in a tux when I woke the first night. At the time, it didn’t dawn on me, being drugged to the gills. Then Danny proceeded to tell me how he is going to use that tux for our wedding when the time is right. He went so far as to share that Austin was likely dead based on the horse-sized dose of tranquilizer he gave him, and that Chase’s Mom was definitely dead. That I remember. It plays on a constant loop in my mind. Danny even lamented on how excited he was that he was leaving that present for Chase to find along with a missing bride.

The doorknob jiggles and then opens. I cower into the corner where a mattress is lying on the floor. He moved from ropes to chains, and a pulley system. Now, I can walk over to the pot in the corner that he left for me to use as a bathroom.

“Been three days, princess. You ready to be nice?” Danny grins, his lip curling sadistically at the edge. His blond hair is cropped tight to the scalp, the long layers he had yesterday now gone. Maybe another attempt at looking different in case Chase and his men figure out who took me. God, I hope they’ve figured it out by now.

Instead of responding to him, I stay silent. The first day I spoke. Since then, I’ve kept quiet, not knowing what to do. My stomach growls violently, not having had any sustenance for the past three days.

“I can hear you’re hungry.” He sets down a tray with a sandwich, an apple and what looks like a glass of milk on the lone side table near the mattress. “If you eat, I’ll reward you. Give you a blanket. How’s that?” he offers.

I shiver. My revealing wedding dress is the only thing I have on. No shoes, no bra, just a slip of lace and the dress. The bare back is lovely, and the sheer overlay on the sleeves beautiful, but it isn’t meant for warmth. It takes me but a moment to realize I’m going to need food if I’m going to survive until Chase finds me, and I’m frightfully cold. My teeth have been on a permanent chatter since Danny not so gently tossed me into the cinderblock room. Danny points to the food, and I make my way over to it and sit on the mattress. The chains rattle and shriek as I move like a hundred-year-old woman toward the mattress; my limbs and joints no longer have full mobility.

Danny waits, leaning against the opposite wall. He watches while I lift the apple and take a bite, figuring this is the least likely item to be laced with more drugs. The entire time I’ve been here, I’ve felt lethargic, with a sour stomach and fuzzy head. Either I’ve got a cold or some twisted fuck is drugging me. I am pretty certain the latter is the culprit.

“Good girl,” he says condescendingly. “Now, we’re going to get right to the point today. I’m going to keep you here until I believe that you’ve seen the errors of your ways, have forgotten about the rich fucker, and are ready to see that we’re meant to be together.”

The apple starts to roll and churn, like acid in my gut, ready to shoot up my throat in a volcanic burst of vomit.

“That is not going to happen, and you can’t hold me forever, Danny. This is crazy. Y-y-you killed a woman!” I finally allow the fear to tear from my lungs.

He ruffles a hand through his short blond hair. Back in the day, I loved his long blond layers. They were so soft and shiny, especially for a man. Women would have killed to have hair like that. Now it just makes me wish I could run my fingers through Chase’s dark, thick, cappuccino-colored locks. God, he must be so worried. The ache and need to be with him is devastating. I choke back a sob, not wanting Danny to see how frightened I am.

Danny pinches his lips together. “Killing Mrs. Davis was nothing. I’m actually getting good at it; although recently, I found out that your stupid, fucking friend is alive. I gotta hand it to you, princess, that was a sneaky trick. Posting an imposter like that. The girl was a dead ringer for Bree. Well,” he chuckles, “now she’s just dead.” He shrugs with absolutely no remorse or respect for human life.

“Who are you?” I whisper.

In two steps, he’s in front of me, his hand around my throat squeezing tight, cutting off any airflow. “I’m your worst fucking nightmare if you don’t wake the fuck up and start doing what I say!” he yells in my face, spittle hitting my cheeks.

Cringing as far back as I can, he grips my neck, pulls it forward, then slams my head onto the concrete, hard. Lights flicker across my eyes, and I slump down the wall to the mattress below. His body straddles mine, his knees pressing into my biceps keeping me from moving my arms. “See, I can do whatever the hell I want to you. Why?” He trails a finger down between my breasts then cups both of them roughly. “Because. You. Are. Mine. Get it now?” He grabs the top of my wedding gown and rips the fabric down to my breasts. “You always did have a great fucking rack.” He leans down and kisses my neck, lower between my breasts, and just the top swells peeking out. Tears fall down the sides of my face wetting the mattress beneath me. I stop fighting and look up at the ceiling where I imagine Chase’s face, his bottomless blue eyes.

Before I know what’s happening, I’m being lifted up then smacked hard. The split in my lip, from when he punched me in the bridal room, busts back open and the metallic taste of blood fills my mouth. “What the fuck are you doing? You think you can close your eyes and think of someone else while I love on you?” Danny smacks me again. This time, my left eye starts to throb from the blow. “You stupid bitch! You whisperedhisname!”

Danny stands and paces from one side of the room to the other, talking to himself and tugging at his hair. It’s only a ten by ten space so he doesn’t go far. I lift my hand and feel around my eye to see if he gave me another wound. He didn’t. Just adding to the bruising already there. I lick my lip and hold my finger to the cut, hoping to stop the flow of blood, as my other arm holds the fabric of the front of my dress together. At least he didn’t remove the dress. I fear that if he does that, it’s over. He’ll rape me.

Finally, after a few minutes of him brooding and me cowering in the corner, he stops and turns to me. “You’ll learn. You’ll forget him.” He points at me, and I shake my head. Wrong thing to do. He roars and rushes at me, grips my head, and slams it into the concrete blocks again and again, until the world around me goes black.

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