Free Apprehended (Amber Alert Series Book 3) by Sara Schoen Page B

I either went to Audrey's and led him right to her or down an empty street. I decided that it was best to race toward the FBI agents that were currently sitting in Audrey's den instead of worrying about leading him to Audrey. I ran as fast as I could. I could see the empty police car, the lights on in her apartment, but before I could make it to the door, he grabbed me. There was a sudden blow to my head, and I was silenced. The world started spinning, I started to fall and soon I couldn't see anything except black.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 13
     
     
    A chill raced through my veins. Goosebumps prickled the length of my arms. There was darkness everywhere, even after I woke up. I couldn’t tell the difference between when I closed my eyes and when I had them open. The sound of dripping water was a constant plop in my ears, making my head hurt worse with each droplet.
    My head was throbbing wildly, it felt like a bass drummer was practicing a long solo on my head, but at least it was rested against something soft. I felt as if I was lying on a mattress, but I didn’t have the strength yet to move and figure it out. There was a gentle clicking of fence links hitting the post, a sound I hadn’t heard since I was a little girl playing idly in the backyard. Out in the open, free for the taking. It was sad to think that the innocence of child’s play could be ruined in one moment, the moment a mother gave up her daughter to save herself.
    It was pitiful to think about in my opinion. There was nothing that could have made me give up another person to live with Steve Bennett. It was sick, and completely unforgivable. Even when my mother tried to apologize after I was returned, and years later as well. I just couldn’t bring myself to forgive her, for her allowing my innocence to be taken from me and sending me into a life where I was constantly looking over my shoulder and knowing the awful truth of the world we lived in. That no one was safe from men like Steve Bennett, not even children.
    The fence links hit the post again, louder this time as if the wind was forcing them against each other, but there was no wind. The water dripped loudly somewhere close by, the fence would rattle, and then there would be soft voices drifting through the air. I could be outside, I thought as I reached my hand over the soft padding beneath me and went to touch the grass that should lace through my slender fingers, but what I found instead brought a new horror. Instead of the soft crunch of blades of grass beneath my fingers, there was only hard concrete. My hand slapped loudly onto the cold floor, and caused the echo to reverberate around the room.
    Fear spiked through my body, as my mind started to piece together the events of the night before. A man, in dark clothing, had pulled me from the car. I had been making a phone call, I remembered trying to think about how I could be so stupid to make that mistake. It was a very high statistic that since women would get into their cars and do something before pulling out of the parking lot, most were put into dangerous situations. People could get into the car and pull a gun to order them somewhere else, demand money, injure or kill and even kidnap. A heavy sigh left my lips, I had been careless, and it got me in trouble.
    I tried to ignore it, but a part of me wondered if Callum and his team had found out yet if I had been taken. How long had I been out? Would they find me alive, or dead? I shook my head free of those thoughts. I had to focus now, I had to get out and find my way back to town. Otherwise, I was waiting for another man, just like Steve Bennett, only obsessed with succeeding in his sick dream this time.
    I forced myself off the mattress, my body aching every time I moved. Eventually I got to my feet again, only to collapse to the ground when I got dizzy. I hit a fence, my fingers slipped through the familiar diamond shaped slots from the fence around my yard as a kid.