Page 108 of Happily Never After

Aha! Flopped unceremoniously next to a greasy bag of Burger King was her purse. The tip of her mint-colored cell phone case stood out. She snatched the phone and retreated back into the trunk, pulling the back seat half closed behind her.

Her hands shook as she dialed 911.

“911, what is your emergency?” a calm female voice asked.

“I was abducted from Twilight Ranch approximately twenty minutes ago and placed in the trunk of a car. We were going south when we left the ranch, but now I’m not sure which direction we’re going,” Claire whispered into the phone.

“Okay, ma’am. Do you know your abductor?”

“Not him specifically, but it’s kind of a complicated situation. I put away a serial killer in Pennsylvania and I’m here on business and some of his friends are mad at me and?—”

“Okay, okay. We are working on tracking your location now. Is the car moving?”

“Yes.”

“Can you safely exit the vehicle?” The operator’s voice was careful now, more measured.

Claire glanced out the window. Telephone poles flashed by. “Not at this speed.”

“Ma’am, we have your location. I am dispatching officers to you right away. Does he know you have your phone?”

Claire peeped through the hole into the back seat. Her attacker was slapping his hand on the steering wheel in time to the music. “No.”

“Just hang tight, honey. Officers should be there in just a few minutes. Now I want you to stay on the line with me and tell me if anything changes. What’s your name?”

As Claire rattled off her name and Luke’s home address, her mind spiraled. Would he stop for officers? Would he simply kill her before they could pull him over? Would he hurt the cops too? If he was anything like Barney, he was capable of unimaginable horrors.

A click came from the front seat, and the rhythmic ticking of a turn signal sounded.Shit. They were turning off the highway. That must mean they were approaching whatever horrible, twisted place they were headed to.

“We’re turning,” Claire hissed into the phone. “I have to do something.”

“Ma’am, I must advise you to stay calm and do nothing unless you are in imminent danger. The police will be arriving soon.”

Imminent danger? Did being zip-tied and tossed in a trunk not count as imminent danger? Bullshit. The last time Claire had involved the police, a team of frat boys had nearly murdered her archnemesis. There wasn’t any time to waste. She snaked one arm into the backseat and shoved her hand into her purse. Her fingers closed around the cool metal of a can of mace.

The car shifted. Her head popped up. Bridge struts flashed past the window. She raised her head just high enough to get a visual. They were in the exit lane—and who knew what lay beyond. Armed with the mace in one hand, she slithered into the back seat.

“Ma’am?” The operator called faintly from her phone. Claire tossed the phone into her purse. She leaned forward. For an abductor, this man was incredibly unobservant.

“Are we there yet?” She whispered in his ear before unloading the entire can of mace.

Shit. That was a mistake. The cloud of pepper spray engulfed her, burning her eyes and lungs.

Her captor swore and jerked the wheel. The car smashed into something and tilted into the air like the Titanic before it sank. Suddenly, there was a feeling of weightlessness. The nose of the car tipped down. Through her streaming eyes, a graffitied support structure was barely visible sticking out of some water. Was that a cartoon penis? Seriously, universe?

Oh, god. They were going to crash. Would the water be deep enough for her to survive? She would still die, but at least not at the hands of a bunch of sociopath frat boys. Luke was going to be so angry.

Splash. The car hit the river with ten times the force of the log flume rides Claire had loved in her youth. Untethered, she slammed into the back of the front seat, still coughing and sputtering from the cloud of pepper spray.

“Oh my god, I’m going to die.” Her idiot captor cried in exaggerated, short gasps, like someone being chainsawed in a horror movie. He fought with his seatbelt, eyes streaming and red. He coughed violently as he pulled on the door handle. Good.

The car bobbled in the river. Water poured in from the door cracks and hood. They were sinking. Great.

Okay, what were the rules of escaping a sinking car? She had definitely watched aMythBustersepisode on this. She closed her eyes, gasping through the burn of the pepper in her lungs.

“Wait until the car sinks, then open the door,” she whispered to herself. Could that really be right? Something about equalizing pressure. If she was wrong, she was going to drown inthe Los Angeles river. It wasn’t even a real river, with lush banks full of wildflowers and ducks. Solid slabs of concrete funneled the river downstream.

The water line was halfway up the windows now. The shoreline shrank behind a wall of muddy water. Apprehension grew. Would she really survive this? Even if she made it out of the car, could she swim to the shore?

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