Page 76 of Biker's Baby

THIRTY-FOUR

Iris

“You better fucking shutthat brat up, or I’m going to duct tape his mouth shut!” Joel yelled at me from the front seat.

I wanted to snap back at him. He had yanked Tris out of his bed by his arm, twisting it horribly in the process. I could see that it wasn’t broken, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if he had sprained my little boy’s shoulder, if not his whole arm.

I wanted to point out to Joel if he hadn’t hurt Tris while pulling him out of the bed, then the little boy probably wouldn’t be crying so hard right now. But I knew better than that. If I said anything to piss him off more than he already was, I knew I could wind up getting myself – or Tristan – killed.

Joel wasn’t acting like himself. He was angry, sure, but there was something unhinged about him. It was like he’d lost his mind, and he’d finally snapped. I didn’t know what set him off to make him finally come for me like that, but it didn’t matter now, either.

I’d heard him getting into the house, but only when he’d finally managed to break through the door. Before then, I had been in the bedroom with Tristan, trying to get him dressed for the day. As I stepped back into the living room, I heard the lock of the door slide back, and I immediately knew it wasn’t good.

I did the only thing that came to mind. I shoved my phone into my pocket in the event I would be able to text Abe, then I went for Tristan. I wasn’t going to let Joel be the one to catch me without me being there to supervise how he handled Tristan.

He’d never been gentle with the boy, and with him being so pissed off now, I knew he would be even worse than normal. And I was right.

I tried to fight him off when he came for me, but he’d been too strong. He managed to get me to the ground and tried to get Tristan, but my son had started crawling to the other side of the bed. I screamed at Tristan to keep going, but Joel grabbed his arm and yanked him back.

I scooped Tristan up into my arms, but I wasn’t able to take two steps before my ex grabbed me and dragged me out the front door.

I was shocked he was so bold as to kidnap me with the sun coming up, and I did my best to scream for help. Tristan was also screaming and crying on our way from the house to the car, but Joel warned me to shut the fuck up before he knocked me out entirely.

“And if you try to fight me, I’ll drug you both. I don’t know the dosage, so you better pray I get it right on the kid or you might never see him again,” he breathed into my ear as he tied my hands behind my back.

He then shoved me over, closing the door behind me.

Tris continued to cry on the seat next to me, but there wasn’t anything I could do to console him. He was shaking he was so scared, and he continued to cry and scream for me to pick him up. But, with my hands tied behind my back, there was no way I could hold him. All I could do was talk to him and try to get him to calm down while there was still a little patience from Joel.

The entire time I was talking to my son, I was doing my best to get my hands free. Joel had tied the ropes tight, but I managed to twist my wrist while he was securing my hands behind my back, and I felt with the right amount of work I’d be able to get one of my hands loose.

It required a lot of patience, and I had to move slowly so he had no idea what I was doing if he glanced in the rearview mirror and happened to see me. Tristan was covering a lot of the grunts I made as I worked my hand free, and he continued to cry as I managed to get my phone out of my pocket and text Abe.

I knew there wasn’t much hope for me to call 9-1-1. If I did that, Joel would pull over and take the phone from me, then make sure that there was no way I would know where we were going or even be coherent enough to see what he was doing to Tristan.

Tristan was my number one priority. I had to make sure he was okay, even if there wasn’t much I could do to comfort him right now. I knew his shoulder had to be sore, but at the same time, I also felt that he was more scared than anything. That had to be the reason why he was really crying, not because there was any real injury to his arm.

Black car. Heading north. Follow the location on my phone.

I hit send and slid my phone into my pocket as quickly as possible. I didn’t want Joel to see what I’d done, so I put my phone back in the loop where I’d worked it free as well. There was no sense in doing anything that could piss him off more than he already was.

And with the way Tristan was continuing to cry and scream, I knew I had better do what I could to make him calm down. Joel was quickly running out of patience. I could sense that with the way he was looking over his shoulder at Tristan – and by the way he was driving faster and more recklessly than before.

“Hush, baby, hush,” I said. “It’s going to be okay. It’s okay. Hush, baby.”

I spoke in soothing tones as much as possible, though it was hard for me to stay calm with the way he was crying and my ex screaming at me from the front seat. He didn’t care how upset Tristan was. All he cared about was that we weren’t discovered, and I couldn’t see how that would be a problem with the way he was speeding through town.

I couldn’t see out the windows very well, so I finally gave up and decided the best thing to do now was to sing to Tristan. I wasn’t able to hold him, and I wasn’t going to risk doing anything with my phone again. I had already told Abe how to find me, and the rest was up to him.

With my phone in my pocket, I wasn’t able to see if he had read my message or not. It was just a waiting game now, and all I could do was try to stay in control of the situation as much as possible. Right now, the only thing for me to do was to console Tris and hope for the best.

It was a ride that felt like forever before Joel finally pulled to a stop in front of a house I didn’t recognize. I had never been on this side of Holbrook before. At least, not that I could recall. The house was nice enough, but it still had a rundown vibe about it that made me feel uncomfortable.

I’d started singing softly to Tristan a few minutes before, and he was finally starting to settle down. He was now hiccupping as we parked in front of the house, and I silently prayed that he would keep quiet while we were taken from the car and into the house.

I didn’t know if there were people in the surrounding houses, but I had a feeling if there were, they weren’t the kind of people who would be willing to help us if either of us started screaming. If anything, I felt the best thing to do at this point was to be as compliant with my ex as possible and hope for the best.

Abe was hopefully on his way, and this nightmare would be over soon.

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