Page 38 of Protecting Andie

Already she had so many good friends. The group had gotten together again before she left, and she’d headed over to see Thario and, of course, Frog for a few hours one afternoon. They figured out where Tony was and she was glad to find that he was still in Portland. He probably had no clue where she was living.

While in town, she would have to make sure to be careful and not let him see her. She planned on being in Portland for less than a week. Then, she would load up her car and drive south. If she only needed to drive home, Rider could have come with her. Packing up her place would take too long for him to leave again so soon.

The first night home, she missed Rider terribly. They chatted for an hour on the phone before ending the call. It was nicetalking to him, but she wanted to be back in his arms. She was making great progress on packing and decided to head out to grab some food.

She stepped out of the restaurant with her food and was on her way to the car when Tony moved into her view. She froze. Fear mixed with anger, and she wanted to lash out.

“Leave me alone.”

“You know I can’t do that. You belong with me.”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t. You need to leave me alone.”

“I can’t do that.”

“I need you to stop this nonsense. I broke up with you a long time ago. Leave me alone.”

She moved to the left, but he shuffled that way. She stepped to the right, and he moved with her.

“Stop. Let me go.”

She glanced around, looking for help, but no one was outside to hear her screaming. Tony had her by the jacket and was dragging her away from her car. She didn’t want to be alone with him, so she dropped the food bag and scratched his arms. He didn’t let go. She wished she’d spent the month with Rider training to get into better shape. She wasn’t a gym girly and didn’t really like to sweat, but at this moment, she wished she had some of Rider’s strength so she could fight her way to freedom.

Tony punched her, knocking the sense out of her just before he pushed her into the back of his car. She started screaming again as he slipped a rope around each of her wrists. He’d planned this. He’d planned to take her captive. How did he know where she was?

She still had her phone. Maybe she could get it out and call Rider. She thought about using the voice features, but she didn’t want Tony to take her phone and fling it out of the car. The timespent with Thario meant she had agreed to have him track her. It was weird, but Thario was a good guy, and he was honest. He would never look for her on a whim or try to invade her privacy.

She hoped he was watching right now. Maybe Rider would text her and expect a reply. He knew she planned on staying up late to pack. She wanted the tasks done. Too bad Tony had found her. Someone at her apartment complex must have told him she would be back. She had only told two neighbors she was leaving. That had been a mistake.

Rider’s friends would never share her information. She had to get out of this. It was dark out, and the punches had made her loopy. She fought to focus on the ropes binding her hands. She had to escape to be there for Rider. He filled her with so much love, and she wanted to return that love. He needed to know he was special, and she loved him more than anything. Sure, she’d told him, but she wanted to live it out with him.

26

Rider didn’t want to bug Andie, but he found pink towels that were soft and huge. She hadn’t been impressed with the thin, white towels in his bathroom. He liked the pink, so he’d picked them up at the store.

He stared at his phone, wondering if he should text her. She would want to know, right? He put his phone down, then picked it up again, took a photo of the towels, and sent it to her.

After he sent the text, he went to the bathroom to remove the old towels and put up the new set. It was bright, and now he realized he needed a new shower curtain. The old plastic one didn’t really fit the pink theme. Andie would know what to put in there.

He emptied his bathroom trash and then checked his phone, worried that she hadn’t returned his text. Maybe she was busy, or maybe she’d fallen asleep. He did meal prep for the week, agitated that she still hadn’t texted him back. He wasn’t one of those guys who demanded attention twenty-four-seven, but he was proud that he’d picked the cute towels and wanted to know what she thought.

Staring a hole through his phone wouldn’t get him answers. It was eight thirty, and he needed to get to bed in a bit, but hewanted to talk to her again. He missed her so much more than he’d thought he would.

He was about to call when someone knocked on his door. He moved to the door and pulled it open, finding Remi.

“Hey, Remi, what’s up?”

“I was on the phone with Kevlar while I was driving home, and Thario and Tex called in. They were discussing something new about surveillance, and Thario pulled up his screen for Andie. He said that her location was odd. I stopped here because, I don’t know, I just had this feeling.”

“Shit. I texted her a photo of the cute pink towels I bought, but she didn’t reply. Do you think something is wrong?”

She shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know, but as I was driving by, I stopped because I knew you’d want to know.”

“Thank you.”

Rider glanced up, and Kevlar was in the middle of the street, heading his way. “Hey, what’s up?”

Rider stepped out as Remi moved back. “I don’t know. She didn’t text me back. I was about to call her. What do you think happened?”

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