Page 41 of Bounty
Surprise flashed across her face, before her anger returned. “I see. Somethingdidhappen. I can’t believe you’d betray your sister. I thought you were better than that.”
“She literally has a boyfriend! And if she hasn’t left Chad for all the shit he’s done, what makes you think she’d be swayed away by a pretty face?” I retorted, struggling to keep my voice down.
Typically, I tried to placate Mom when she was upset at me. I didn’t like it when we argued, and I especially hated how both she and Dad treated me like the Wicked Witch of the Southwest after our fights. But today, of all the days, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
“Maybe if you hadn’t assigned archetypes, you wouldn’t be blind to the fact that Cassie won’t fucking leave Chad,” I continued, words I longed to say for so long spilling forth. “Maybe if you didn’t want to control every fucking thing, we wouldn’t be having this goddamn conversation!”
I was opening a can of worms that would be impossible to close. My raised voice dawned on me. And yet, her slap still shocked me. It seemed to shock her, too. For a second, neither of us said anything, and neither of us moved. A barrage of cursewords was on the tip of my tongue, but instead of saying any of them, I tossed my paper plate onto the floor and shoved past her.
“Get back here!” she shouted, but I ignored her.
I breezed past the few onlookers who had gathered and didn’t spare Slice a second glance when I stomped past Mom’s stupid fucking table.
“Effie?” Slice called. He followed me, but I didn’t answer, so he grabbed my wrist. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
The urge to cry suddenly came over me. I looked away, wanting my eyes to stay dry. I was always an emotional crier: my tears came whenever an emotion became too intense. Sometimes, it was good, like during happy occasions and joy overtook me. Today, the reason was positively horrendous. At that moment, I just needed to be alone and decompress. When the signing ended, I’d clear the air with my mother, but for the time being, staying around people was too daunting.
“I-I just need a breather,” I mumbled, tugging my wrist away and running off before he spoke again.
I quickly exited the convention center, squinting as sunlight hit my eyes. The Texas sun was still high in the sky. A breeze blew around me, drying my cheeks as fast as my tears fell. Sniffling, I started off, mindlessly following the sidewalk. I had no destination in mind, intending to roam until I calmed a bit.
Unfortunately, a big hairy hand clamping around my mouth ruined that plan.
A scream left me, and I began to struggle, biting down on whoever was dragging me away. I realized I’d wandered into a more run-down, quiet part of the city, a prime location for nefarious deeds.
“Bitch!” my kidnapper barked, handling me even rougher.
I dug my heels in, prepared to fight to the death if I had to. I didn’t know what the man’s intentions were, but Ididknow that if he succeeded in getting me to a second location, my chances of survival dropped drastically.
“Drug the slut already,” another man ordered.
I scanned the area to gauge the number of opponents. Unfortunately, the two men who accosted me blocked my view.
“Youhave the damn syringe!” bad guy number one replied.
I stomped his foot and he growled, his hold on me loosening.
Another bite of his hand earned my freedom. Adrenaline surged through me, and I broke into a run, never more thankful for my regular jogs than I was at that moment.
“Help me! Help!” I screamed, hoping to capture someone’s attention. Recalling what I’d been taught as a child, I started yelling, “Fire, fire, fucking fire!”
My desperate shouts infuriated those who targeted me. “Fucking stop her!”
For a brief, precious moment, I thought I’d get away, that someone would hear me and come to my aid. A body slamming into mine thwarted that hope, knocking me onto the concrete and stealing the wind from my lungs. Pain exploded through my body. Before I screamed again, he shoved a gag into my mouth and kept it in place with a beefy hand. Something was tied around my wrist and a terrified sob bubbled up. The man settled on top of me and I writhed on the ground, trying to buck him off.
Awful outcomes ran through my head. My body found on the side of the highway, and my parents notified of my brutal death. Being beaten and raped, left for dead, and vulnerable to other psychopaths. Kidnapped, sold to the highest bidder, made into some sicko’s sex slave. I’d be lucky if this was a mere robbery by some crooks with anger issues, but I doubted it was so simple.
“For fuck’s sake, stay still,” one of them growled, grabbing a fistful of my hair and shoving my face into the concrete.
Stars danced in my vision, and a sickening thud echoed through the alleyway. When the fuck did we get in an alleyway? Shit, but my head was pounding. I hoped my nose wasn’t broken. Blood dripped from it, staining the ground beneath me red. By the time he jabbed the needle into my neck, I was too out of it to care.
As darkness claimed me, I was relieved the pain radiating through me faded.
“What the fuck happened?” I demanded upon Daria’s return.
One moment, Effie left to eat, and Daria claimed to be thirsty, and the next, sweet Effie hurried past me with tears in her gorgeous eyes. It didn’t take a genius to guess that her mother was the reason she was so upset.
“I should be asking you that,” she snarled, her furious glare taking me aback. “Did you have sex with my daughter?”
