Page 23 of Break for Me

“Third, I think you’re joking when you say things like this but I feel like it’s always better to just be on the safe side with you. Please don’t let her starve to death. Alive. They specified keeping her alive.”

eighteen

TRISTA

I’d just started on breaking the zip tie around my ankles when I felt the car stop. I assumed he’d drive until he was tired and ready to call it a night like he’d done yesterday. We couldn’t have been on the road for more than an hour this time. I wasn’t at all ready to make a run for it yet. I hadn’t come up with a plan or even broken all the way out of these ties. I moved quickly to get my feet free and squirmed until I could get into a position to get my shoes on. That took entirely too much time. My body was nothing but a ball of tense panic when I heard the release for the hatch to open the trunk. I still didn’t have a plan and my hands were still zip tied. My foot ached uncontrollably and every step I took sent horrid jolts of sharp pain through it, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to try if he was going to give me the opportunity.

He was ready for it when I kicked at him though. When he jumped back to dodge my foot, it gave me enough time to scramble from the trunk. White hot rage seared through my entire body when I heard that motherfucker laugh. I hadn’t made it more than a few fumbled steps before his arm was locked in a death grip around my waist. I swung my tied fists at the wrist that was holding me against him while he dragged me back toward the car. There was no one in the parking lot of whatever building was also here. Not a single soul to see or hear what was happening. He shoved me against the side of the car and his face was only an inch away from mine a second later. It pissed me off that much more that he was close enough that with every breath I managed to suck in, my whole chest squished into his. I was pissed at his crazy face. Pissed that I realized he smelled like cinnamon. I was pissed that his chest was so solid it made my nipples tighten. Pissed that his stupid fucking face between my legs would have been a magnificent sight. I was pissed all over again that I didn’t get blue eyes like those.

“I might not able to kill you, little girl,” he hissed at me through teeth clamped together so hard, it looked like his jaw was about to shatter. “But I can do so much worse. If you really want to find out, we can keep playing this fucking game.”

“It’s my life, Jersey. I’m not playing a game. I’m going to get away from you so I can stay alive.”

I brought my bound hands up between us and tried to push him away from me just a fucking little to give myself some room to breathe. His response was an instant hand around my throat. He took a step back and pulled me into him again by my neck just to reach around me and open the passenger door. He backed me into the opening.

“There’s no getting away from me now, Trista,” he said and pushed me down into the seat. He kicked my feet up into the car and slammed the door. I heard him lock the doors, but I couldn’t help myself. I reached out to push the little button on the door just to find out what would happen. Because what kind of car had doors that didn’t unlock from the inside? The car of a fucking madman. That kind. It did nothing to release the locks. He was in the car with me a moment later and he threw a paper bag at me as he sat down. I looked at the bag like he’d tossed a live bomb at me, completely unsure what I was supposed to be doing with it.

“What —?”

“Food, Fancy Face,” he interrupted. “I got you breakfast.”

I looked at the bag another time and finally moved to touch it, but before my fingers ever made contact, his right hand had grabbed the front of my shirt to pull me toward him until I was leaning over the center console.

“If you make a mess in here, you’ll wish I’d just killed you.”

He pushed me back into the seat and started the car, like that was a perfectly normal thing to say to another person. I wanted to ask if this meant I didn’t have to ride in the trunk anymore. I wanted to ask what he’d really do if I took whatever was in this bag and simply smashed it right into the leather beneath me.

“But, why would you —?”

“Just fucking eat it,” he said while he shifted into gear. “Or don’t. If I hadn’t already bought it, I’d be back to being okay with letting you starve just for pissing me off again.”

He poked around on the display screen for a second and then a phone was ringing through the speakers of the car.

“Jersey Boy.”

I watched him squeeze the bridge of his nose between his index finger and his thumb before he spoke.

“Get me on a route that has fucking nothing but gas stations between where I am now and where I’ll be stopping for the night,” he said.

“You good?” The woman’s voice asked.

“Fucking peachy, Memphis. A route. That has nothing. No people anywhere.”

“Um, that’ll probably add another two or three da—.”

“I don’t care. She’s going to bolt every time I put Seph in park. I need her to know that she’ll only be sprinting into the fucking wilderness the next time it happens.”

Fuck this guy.

He stared at the screen of the computer while it changed to a map, but I could feel his impatience vibrating through the entire car.

“Memphis.”

“You be as pissy as you want with that girl, old man, but you’re not going to take it out on me. I will find you a new route as quickly as I can,” she snapped immediately. He opened his car door before a full second had even passed and he was pacing up and down the length of the car with his hands on top of his head.

“Good for you. Put that asshole in his place,” I barely whispered and tried not to laugh.

I panicked a little when I heard her snicker. “I’m still here. The speakers in the car are excellent.”

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