My Everything - Seth & Amber (29 page)

Amber had been to Al-Anon. One of the first
things they had taught her was that she was an enabler. Until Amber
had gone to those meetings, she had never recognized that in
herself.

Before Al-Anon, if her mom had needed
something, Amber had given it to her. No questions asked. Whether
that meant that Amber ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a
month to save on the grocery bill or walked to work in the snow to
save on gas, she had done it, and happily. It was for her
mom
, after all!

She had thought at the time that she had been
helping the situation, helping her mom. The support group had
taught her that she was actually
hurting
her mom by enabling
the self-destructive behavior that she was engaged in.

For the past four years, Amber had cut off
all financial support to her mother. Completely. Other than getting
her into rehab facilities and paying for her stays there, she had
not assisted her in any way.

Until last night.

Damn. Amber
knew
that she should have
kept going to those meetings. If she had, then none of this would
be happening right now. She would have been in the right mindset to
deal with the distressed call from her mother the night before! Now
her mother might be dying...might be dead...

Amber shook her head to clear it. She knew
exactly where she had gone wrong. She had heard fear in her mom’s
voice and she had reacted impulsively. Instead of rationally
thinking of a way to help her mom, as soon as the line had gone
dead she had sent the money. Now, her mother’s life was hanging in
the balance.

As Amber pulled into the parking structure,
under the Harper’s Crossing Community Hospital Parking sign,
something occurred to her. If this was the hospital that the
emergency crew had taken her to, then that must mean that her
mother had been close by this entire time; most likely even in
Harper’s Crossing itself. Amber felt so stupid.

How had she not known that? What good was a
genius IQ and photographic memory if she couldn’t even figure
that
out? Had she just been so preoccupied with Seth coming
home and the break-ins that she had completely ignored clues that
would have told her how her close her mom was all this time?

As soon as she parked, she jumped out of the
car. She was half-way to the elevators when she realized that she
had left her purse in the car.

Damn it, she told herself angrily, get your
head on straight! She may have failed her mother once, where the
money was concerned, but that only meant that she needed to
redouble her efforts to be there for her now. She needed to be
focused, and strong.

She would just hurry back to her car, quickly
retrieve her purse, and then head in to the hospital. Just a short
delay, she told herself, don't beat yourself up too much – regroup
and get in there!

Before she could even make a move, though, a
strange feeling came over her. She stopped and looked around but
didn’t see anyone. However, she did notice that since she had been
in such a rush, she had parked in a dark, secluded corner of the
lot.

She grimaced. Seth would give her hell about
that – but it did at least set her mind at ease to have an idea
where the sense of dread had come from. It was a good bet that the
position of her car had caused the weird feeling.

Her thumb pushed the button on her key fob
that unlocked the door. She saw her taillights blink as she heard
the familiar click that signaled the car's response. She reached
out to grab the door handle, but just as she felt her fingertips
brush the steel, she was stopped in her tracks by the now-familiar
foul smell of body odor and alcohol. She stiffened.

Oh, God. No.

In the next instant, she felt a cold, sharp
blade press against the tender flesh of her throat and a large arm
wrapped around her body, pinning both of her arms helplessly to her
side. Panic swept through her like a rushing river.

She wanted to struggle – every instinct she
possessed was telling her to bring out her claws and fight like a
trapped animal – but the knife's edge of steel she felt cutting
into her neck kept her still and silent.

She felt her feet dragging on the floor as
she was forcibly pulled backwards to the darkest corner of the lot.
Amber tried to dig in her heels to slow their progress, tried to
make herself as heavy as possible, and tried to pull away – but his
grip was simply too tight.

With every slight movement, she felt the
sting of the blade as it dug into her skin.

She wanted to scream but his hand that held
the knife was jammed painfully against her windpipe. She didn’t
think she would be able to get any sound out.

“Now, now. Just stay still. I just want to
talk to you.” A man’s gruff voice spoke into her ear.

Wait! She knew that voice! She’d heard it
before, although never in person. It had always been on the other
end of a telephone line.

The man holding her captive with a knife to
her neck was Bubba.

“Now, you are quite a difficult lady to get
alone time with. That new boyfriend of yours watches you like a
hawk.” Bubba’s arm squeezed her tighter, his voice becoming oily
and slippery. “But I’ve got you all to myself now, don’t I?”

“What…do…you want?” Amber managed to whisper
past the pressure he was applying to her throat.

“I just want to talk to you,” his voice
sounded strained, she felt his forearm push harder against her
stomach.

Amber couldn’t think. She couldn’t move. She
felt tears forming in her eyes.

“I knew you’d come. I wasn’t sure if you
would have your bodyguard with you, but I knew you’d come to see
your mama.” Bubba's sinister tone made bile rise up in Amber’s
throat. “I thought I was going to have to wait hours while you went
in and visited her, but you didn’t even make it inside, did
ya?”

“Did you make her OD? Did you do this to
her?” Amber felt herself losing it. Her entire body was shaking and
her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest.

She heard Seth’s voice in her head.

“
The most important thing to remember when
someone is trying to overpower you is to remain calm.”

Calm. She needed to stay calm.

“
Know yourself and how you respond in
fear. Do you cry? Do you scream? Do you freeze? Sometimes just
being self-aware makes it easier to respond correctly.”

She froze and cried. Great. Well, at least I
know that about myself now, she thought sardonically. If I manage
to survive long enough to get into another life-threatening
situation again in the future, I will be sure to put that knowledge
into practice.

Now what? What else? Oh right!

“
Show anger not fear.”

Okay, so get pissed. Don’t be scared. Seth’s
voice sounded in her head again.

“
Your best weapons are the edge of your
hand, your elbow, and your heel.”

Okay, good. So she just needed to wait for
her opportunity. All she had to do was stay calm and bide her
time.

“This didn’t have to happen. All you had to
do was give her the money,” he seethed.

“I did,” she stated firmly.

“What?! That chump change you gave her last
night? I’m not talking about
lunch
money
, little
girl.” He pressed the blade harder against her neck as his beard
scraped against her cheek. “I’m talking about real money. Susan's
been sayin’ you have over a hundred thousand from that store of
yours.”

“I don’t have that kind of money,” Amber made
sure her voice sounded strong.

“You selfish little bitch! What kind of a
daughter doesn’t help her mother?” he growled. Disdain and rage
dripped from his words.

Amber tried to do what Seth had outlined.

No fear. Anger. Stay calm.

She saw headlights flash on the wall across
from them from a car pulling in. This was her chance. Seth’s words
flashed in her head.

“
You need to aim for the parts of the body
where you can do the most damage. The eyes, nose, throat, groin and
knees. It doesn’t matter how big and strong a man is, these areas
are his weakest points.”

The distraction of the headlights caused him
to loosen his grip on Amber just the slightest bit, but it was
enough. She seized the opportunity. Using one of the moves that
Seth had taught her, she dropped her body weight without warning,
causing him to be knocked off balance, and then brought her elbow
straight down on his groin.

He dropped to the ground, writhing in
pain.

The instant he released her, Amber made her
feet start moving. She ran. She didn't take time to plan where she
was going, she just needed to get away from the murderously angry –
and very possibly drugged and crazed – Bubba.

She made it around the corner and then
stumbled over a cement wheel stop. She flew forward, tumbling
headlong, and her head slammed against a car window before she went
crashing to her knees.

Pain shot up her body. Her vision blurred
with the sheer physical torture, but she didn't let it stop her.
She pushed off the cement floor, standing unsteadily but still
poised to run again, when she saw blood dripping on the ground.

Oh, God! She was bleeding.

Her legs were shaking. She tasted something
metallic in her mouth and knew it must be blood. She began to
tremble violently.

No! She could
not
give in to the
temptation to panic, or to pass out. She needed to get moving
again. Fast. She forced her legs to start pumping again. She
ran.

People. She needed to find people. She needed
help. She tried to scream but nothing came out. She could only hear
the sound of a loud buzzing in her ears. She felt as if her body
was filled with lead and everything was moving in slow motion. She
felt like she was trying to run through waist-high water, or that
her feet were mired in quicksand.

God! This was like a living, breathing,
bleeding
nightmare!

She ran past the elevators to the exit. She
knew that it led out to the catwalk which stretched over the main
street to the hospital. People would be on it. People were always
on it.

She reached for the doorknob and she felt
arms envelope her, and along with them, a more sharp sensation of
terror than she had ever experienced in her life.

She had been
this
close to escaping,
and now she would likely be killed, mere feet from rescue.

“NOOO!” she screamed, louder than she thought
was possible.

“Amber!” Seth’s voice penetrated through the
chaos of her panicked state and the loud buzzing noise that was
still sounding in her ears.

She turned her head and saw that Seth was
holding her. It was Seth. Not Bubba.

Oh, thank God!

“Seth,” she said breathlessly as she felt her
legs collapse beneath her. She wrapped her arms tightly around his
neck as her head fell against his shoulder and she began to
sob.

--- ~ ---

Seth’s heart raced as he scooped Amber into
his arms. He felt her body go limp against him. He looked down at
her face. There was blood. She was bleeding.

“Amber, you’re bleeding. Where are you
hurt?”

“I don’t know. He had a knife,” she said
shakily through her tears, which were now subsiding.

“Who?” Seth asked, scanning the parking
lot.

“Bubba. My mom’s boyfriend, Bubba,” Amber
managed.

“He’s here?”

“Yes.”

Seth adjusted Amber in his arms so he could
reach his phone.

“Harper’s Crossing Comm-”

“There is an armed man loose in your
southeast parking structure. Shut it down. Call the police. Send
security and medical personnel. There is an injured female at the
northwest door.”

As soon as he heard the receptionist calling
the code over the intercom, he hung up so he could assess Amber’s
injuries.

Seth knew that panicking would not help in
this situation. Normally that would not be a problem for him, but
this was Amber. She
had
to be okay. He
could not
lose
her.

“Amber, did he stab you?”

“No. No, I don’t think so. He had it to my
throat,” she said as she tilted her head back, running her fingers
along the skin to inspect it.

Her words caused fury to boil up inside of
Seth. He was going to kill the man that did this to her. Kill him
with his bare hands.

He pulled her hands away gently and his eyes
quickly scanned her neck. It was red and she may have bruising.
There was a slight perforation in the skin where the blade must
have nicked her, but that was definitely not where the bleeding was
coming from.

He looked back at her face, which seemed to
be where most of the blood was, and noticed that she had some blood
oozing from her nose. OK, so most likely it was a nosebleed. Relief
battled in his chest with renewed rage.

“Did he hit you?” Seth asked through clenched
teeth.

“No.”

“You have a bloody nose.”

“I hit my head when I was running. I
tripped.”

Seth held her closer to him, trying not to
squeeze her too tightly.

“What does he look like?” He needed some
details about the appearance of the man he was going to kill today,
otherwise it would be more difficult to hunt his ass down.

“I didn’t really see his face. He grabbed me
from behind. He has a beard. I felt it scrape against my cheek. And
he’s wearing jeans and a red flannel shirt. And he reeks of alcohol
and BO.”

“How tall is he?”

“Not much taller than me, I don’t think. He
was behind me the whole time. Then, when I kneed him in the balls
and he dropped his arms, I ran. I didn’t look back.”

The exit door flew open as security rushed
though on full alert. There were two men. One was Judd North. Seth
had gone to school with him. When Judd saw that Seth held Amber, he
motioned for the medical personnel.