Page 7 of Ends of Being

Maybe I should go back and get him? I snort, shaking my head as I toss that possible plan out the window. Fuck him if he thinks I’m going to take it easy on him after the shit he’s pulled. Even if I could remember where I left him after my aimless drive in the wilderness, I’m not going back.

I could just go home. Have a bath and pretend none of this ever happened and see how it pans out in the office on Monday.

I frown, my eyes narrowing as I quickly toss that possible plan as well.Fuck that. Fuck him. Fuck his stupid swanky car and his stupid paisley socks, and his stupid, lame-ass golf sweaters. Fuck him right in his tight, rock-solid ass. Ugh. That ass!

I take a deep breath, my gaze scanning the interior of the car in fascination and horror.What the fuck kind of fancy pants car does this fuckwit drive? And how the fuck did he manage to buy it on his accountant’s salary?

I start poking around, eventually settling on the touchscreen in the middle of the dash.Or is it a television? Tablet? Whatever.

After some more poking around, I finally manage to bring the GPS up. I frown at the screen, shaking my head at the idea that I’m in what appears to be a state forest an hour or so from the city. I’m in the goddamn woods with no real idea on how to get back home other than finding a road that goes south and aiming for the brightest lights.

I touch on the search icon, pausing as I start to input my home address and notice something very strange a few lines down on his recents list.

My address is…auto-populating from a recently searched address? A recently regularly searched address? What the actual fucking shit is going on here?

You know, I was mildly annoyed before, but now I’m livid. Not only is that asshole a deranged kidnapper, he’s also some form of creepy stalker because, according to his GPS, he’s been at my address repeatedly for what could quite possibly be months. I mean, the GPS location history doesn’t go back that far, but statistically speaking, it’s unlikely driving to my exact address was a new hobby this past week.

That dirty, no-good motherfucker.He’s been hiding his deranged, creepy stalker ways from me for all these years, like the selfish prick he is. How dare he deny me the privilege of deciding if I want to allow him to creepily stalk me or not. And here I thought Dare knew me so well that he truly understood how incredibly fucked up I am since he never tried to do anything to make me stop messing with him. Turns out the candy ass doesn’t know me at all, and that fact I find to be extremely disappointing.

With my mind made up, I go back to the search function, deleting my address and instead typing in “police department near me.”

I promised him a police report and some jail time.

And no one has ever accused me of being a liar.

Chapter Four

Toni

SinceI’minthemiddle of nowhere, I have two options: head south and find the closest precinct or drive directly to the nearest police station and hope backwoods justice will suffice.

One thing that’s funny about being in the wilderness outside Manhattan is that most of the time it doesn’t take much to get out of it. Assuming you’re headed in the right direction. In a car. And have a map.

I pinpoint the closest police station, which seems to be about eight miles from my current location. Which will take approximately three hours—on foot.What the actual fuck?I poke at all the buttons on the touchscreen, attempting to force it to give me driving directions, but the goddamn thing seems to think I’m stuck in the middle of the forest where there are no roads.

I peer out the window, out into the pitch-black night. I turn on the high beams, wincing at what appears to be a shit ton of trees all around me. I open the car door, stick my head out and check out the ground, hoping for pavement. I’m greatly disappointed.

How the heck I managed to drive as far as I did without driving into a ditch is a miracle. I’m literally in the middle of a forest on what appears to be a very rudimentary roadway, a road I drove blindly down, likely in the opposite direction in which I want to travel. A roadway that the super fancy GPS does not know about.

I groan, slamming the door shut and resting my head back against the seat. I’m a highly intelligent, well-educated badass woman, I won’t be thwarted by this lack of a proper roadway. It really is unfortunate Dare didn’t think to leave my phone in my pocket, though I suppose Uber may not come out this far.

I sit up, shake off the negative vibes, and start poking at the touchscreen again, panning the map out until I can see a road. It doesn’t seem to be too far away, though I have no idea what kind of scale the map is using. And Dare obviously drove in here somehow, so there must be a hidden path back to the main road.

I ease the car back onto the poor excuse for a road, slowly inching my way along as I scour the tree line for a way out. At this rate, I may make it back to civilization before I have to be back at work in three days. I wonder how he’d explain my absence if I never returned and eventually, had to come out here to bury my carcass among the pricker bushes.

Ugh. Would he really not come looking for me if I was missing for a while?Would he leave me out here to rot?I mean, I did toss him around and kick him in the balls, but he’ll have to admit that it was a perfectly reasonable response to his deep treachery.

Pushing the possibility of dying in the wilderness to the back of my mind, I focus on finding the hidden exit. I roll my eyes and scoff at the insanity of this entire situation. How veryAlice in Wonderlandof him, finding this little maze in the woods to bring his snatched women to.

Is that a shiny object in the trees?

I slam on the brakes, put the car into reverse and back up and around until I’m facing the tree that glimmered at me. I don’t see anything now. I look at the GPS, the main road is literally right there.

Frustrated, I get out of the car, walking around the hood to take a closer look at the trees standing between me and freedom. The underbrush seems very thick here, but I can see where some of the plants have been flattened recently. I consider just crashing through it blindly, but knowing my shit luck, I would either crash into a giant oak tree hidden behind the bushes or there would be a deep ravine for me to plummet into.

I push through the bushes, slowly easing my way in by using the light from the car headlamps to guide me. Sure enough, a few yards in I can see where it clears out again, showing a better-defined roadway that must lead back towards town. I do a little shimmy then hustle back to the car, my spirits greatly improved knowing I won’t perish in the middle of no where.

By the time I hit the main road, I feel like I’ve been out here for days. I press the gas pedal down, impressed by how quickly Dare’s car accelerates as I speed towards the local police station. I wonder if he has managed to get himself up and out of the dirt, back to wherever he was trying to take me.

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