Free Taken (Book #2 of the Vampire Legends) by Emma Knight Page A

punished for life and cut off forever. She had not been brought up to spend
frivolously, and she respected that. Rachel was in shock that none of the girls
even thought twice about the amount of that bag or the amount of money being
charged on the credit card.
    “That will be $850 with tax,”
the sales man said as he reached for her card. Taryn looked at the girls and
giggled! “I’m so excited! I finally have my LV!”
    Taryn signed for her
purchase and they all left the store, excited and happy.
    Rachel spotted the Gap and
said, “Hey guys, can we pop into the Gap for a minute?”
    The girls looked at Rachel, “The
Gap?”
    Rachel instantly felt
ashamed. Was the Gap not cool in Westchester?
    “I don’t want to go into the
Gap, but I’ll be next door in Victoria Secret,” Emily said.
    “OK,” Rachel said with a
smile. “I’ll just meet you guys there then.”
    As Rachel entered the Gap,
she suddenly felt a sense of calm rush over her body. She quickly reached for a
sweater to check the price tag. She wondered if the Gap in the Westchester Mall
had the same prices as in Pennsylvania, and to her luck they were the exact
same. Phew, she thought to herself.
    She browsed the button-down
shirts and t-shirts, but didn’t find anything that jumped out to her. Then she
spotted the cutest scarf and hat set. They were red and had a woven thread of
silver sparkly material intertwined in them. They were on the sale rack for
eight dollars, so she couldn’t let this deal pass. She picked up the hat and
scarf, tried them on and walked over to the mirror to see how she looked.
    Perfect! She thought. She
got on line to buy the hat and scarf, and was surprised to see how busy the Gap
was. The line to pay was rather long and she’d been standing there five minutes
already. She looked up ahead of her to see why the line was taking so long. 
Then, all of a sudden she heard a familiar voice.
    “I thought this was on sale?”
Rachel heard the woman say.
    “No, this item is not on
sale ma’am. I told you already, if you want this blouse, it is full price.”
    “But look, it says sale ,”
the woman answered.
    Rachel couldn’t believe her eyes. Was
her mother really in front of her, arguing with the cashier at the Gap? What
were the chances? How unlucky could she possibly be?
    Rachel didn’t know whether to hide, or run
from the store. For a moment, she just stood there, frozen in fear, hoping her
Mom would leave. But she didn’t. Her Mom stood there, arguing for what felt
like another hour. Rachel was panicked and didn’t know what to do. She finally
decided to hide.
    She dropped her hat, and ran to the back
of the store.
    As she did, all of a sudden she heard
her mom’s voice coming closer and closer to the back of the store, in search of
the manager. Rachel was stuck. There was nowhere for her to go except to hide.
She jumped behind a rack of hanging men’s sweaters and sat there, peeking out
of the clothes.
    “Excuse me, this shirt is
supposed to be on sale. I took it off the sale rack, and the cashier won’t give
me the sale price.”
    “I’m sorry for the confusion
ma’am, we will get this all sorted out.”
    Rachel held her breath, trying not to
move. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she watched her mom pay and
exit the store.
    Rachel exhaled, relieved.
That was way too close of a call.
    Now she had to figure out
her exit plan: she was still worried that her mom could catch her in the mall.
This reminded her that it was almost time to leave. She pressed the Indiglo
button on her watch and it lit up 4:05PM. If she didn’t leave soon, she was
going to be late.
    As she sat there behind all
the sweaters, her cell phone began to ring. She quickly pulled it out of her
pocket to turn off the volume and looked down at the caller ID.
    MOM CALLING
    She hoped her mom wasn’t
still in the Gap. She couldn’t see or hear her, so she figured the coast was
clear. She climbed out from behind the sweater rack,