Page 29 of Married in Misty Mountain

It’s only 10 p.m., and I know she’s not asleep. Maybe she and Clara decided to watch a movie with the lights off, I tell myself.

I push down the nagging sense of dread as I climb the stairs. I come to Shenna’s door.

It’s been left open, which sends up all my internal alarm bells.

This is all wrong. Something is way off, and it’s my fault for leaving her alone. I could kick myself, but there’s no time for that.

I have to get to my wife.

I push open the door.

“Shenna?”

No answer.

I flick the light on, only to find the small studio apartment empty except for a mattress, box spring, and a few boxes.

“Shenna!”

Panic rises in my throat as I search the place, but it doesn’t take a detective to deduce that nobody is there.

But her car is here…

This doesn’t make any sense.

Unless…

Unless what I most fear happening has actually happened. Her stalker ex-fiancé found her, and now she’s gone.

I pound on the doors of every apartment, but no one is home.

Whipping out my phone, I turn on the “find” feature.

Evidently, I’m just overbearing enough.

Chapter Thirteen

Shenna

I do everything they tell you to do when trapped in someone’s trunk.

I try to find the taillights, hoping to damage them so that the traffic violation will get Derek pulled over. No such luck. The back of the lights has been covered by a plastic panel, and it’s been bolted on. I try to push down on the spot where the trunk is connected to the back seat, but that doesn’t work. I look for an internal emergency latch. Nothing. A chill runs through me when I realize this was planned. He removed the internal emergency latch for a reason. That took forethought and know-how. And I’m screwed.

I’ve been kidnapped by a psychopath, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. And I’m in my fucking night shirt with no pants.

Crying solves nothing, but in the moment, I feel so helpless and scared that I let myself cry just a little bit.

I wish I’d gone to Clara’s house like I was told to do. Better yet, I should have gone straight to the pub to find Hurley, bachelor party be damned.

My pity party of one is interrupted when the car has come to a stop. I freeze and listen to my surroundings. Derek exits the car. I hear faint beeping and the sound of other vehicles coming and going. And then, the unmistakable sound of someone removing the gas cap and pumping fuel into the car.

This is it. I’ve been given one last chance to get away. If I don’t act now, I might disappear forever.

I just start kicking and wailing on the lid of the trunk. I shout for help. I scream. I pray that someone hears me and does something.

“He has a gun! I’ve been kidnapped! Someone call the police!”

I just keep shouting.

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