Perfection Is Just an Illusion (Swimming Upstream #1) (23 page)

He’d left the door ajar and Anna could hear the television going in the background. She heard a familiar, calming voice talking about the Australian swimming champion, who, only hours earlier had arrived back in the country after collecting gold medals and world records, was lying motionless in a hospital bed after the abduction of his fiancée. The presenter went on to tell that they had found the car used in the abduction and they had already taken the driver into custody. It gave Anna a renewed sense of hope. Someone was looking for her. She only prayed that they got to her in time.

Her captor had also been watching. He knew he was running out of time. They had his friend, now it was only a matter of time before she caved. Strutting confidently back into the room he watched while Anna continued to squirm. “Well, now. Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?” he said slyly.

“Don’t touch me!” Anna screeched back at him, kicking her legs wildly.

“I don’t think you have a choice,” he growled, grabbing at her legs. Anna’s heart raced faster as she twisted away from his fingers. Anna didn’t know what it was that he wanted, but she knew she didn’t want to find out.

She didn’t have to wait very long. Without warning she was suffocating under his weight. With renewed determination Anna fought harder and more ferociously to get out from under him. As he squirmed about on top of her, his breathing came in short sharp bursts and Anna could smell the overwhelming stench of stale bourbon on his breath. He was kissing and licking at her face. His hands traced roughly up and down her body without discrimination. With all the hatred she could muster, Anna spat in his face. Almost instantly he retaliated, slapping her face, reopening the gash. The force had been such that Anna flew out from underneath him and landed on the floor. Without her arms to break her fall, Anna’s head bounced off the floor, knocking her unconscious. As Anna lay on the floor not moving and barely breathing, her attacker smiled deliriously.

“Come on, man. It was never supposed to go this far,” a second voice reminded him.

“Don’t be such a pathetic wimp. That bitch deserves everything that she gets. I was never good enough for her. I put up with all her bullshit for years. And you, I don’t know why you’re being such a pussy all of a sudden. First she lies to you. Gets you interested, and then as soon as you’ve bared your soul to her, she shoots you down. And finally, only when she’s been caught out does she confess the truth,” the angry man bellowed.

“I know what she did. I’ve heard the stories a million times. But that doesn’t mean she needs to get hurt. Ease up, hey?”

“Go easy? Go easy? This bitch turned my life upside down and inside out for years. And you don’t want me to hurt her. She fucked me over time and time again. And the only way for me to feel better is to repay the favour. The slut broke my heart and then gave someone else what was rightfully mine. So now I’m going to get my revenge. So stop being a little bitch and let me take what’s mine,” he snapped finally, swinging out at his accomplice.

Anna began to stir. Her legs were still bound together but her arms had been untied from behind her back and were now attached to the bed head. Her blindfold had been removed but it still took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the light. She was in a dark, untidy room. The room was sparse with a solitary bookcase crammed in one corner and the bed in the other.

Anna’s sobs grew louder as she looked up at her wrists. They were burnt and bleeding, her ankles much the same. He’d removed her clothes and now she was lying there almost naked. All that remained where her polka dot cotton panties and white sports bra. Anna could see the pile of her discarded clothes tossed in a heap on the floor. She looked down at her body and began thrashing about wildly, trying to cover herself. Embarrassment flushed through her but didn’t last. Instead almost as quickly as it had descended it gave way to an all-consuming rage. Once again the tears came and Anna began coughing violently. It was a mistake. He heard her spluttering and raced back into the bedroom.

Anna immediately recognised him. Grant. He’d tied her to a bed. He’d knocked her unconscious. He’d stripped her of her clothes. And he’d smacked her around like a man possessed. Anna froze. She was paralysed with shock when she realised that it was Grant standing before her. Someone she’d known and loved in one way or another for as long as she could remember. Yet now he was about to put her through hell.

“Princess,” he said, stroking her face. “You’re awake, sleeping beauty. Now we can play,” he slurred. He was even more smashed than earlier. She watched him with wide, horrified eyes as he stumbled over and locked the door. She heard someone banging on the door, pleading with Grant not to hurt her, but he ignored his pleas. His wild eyes firmly fixed on Anna. She knew what he wanted and she was so repulsed she threw up all over herself.

“That was not attractive,” he cautioned but he didn’t seem bothered. The stench of vomit filled the room and quickly became too much for him to handle. He ripped the sheet from the bed and wiped her down before tossing it aside. “Don’t do that again, sweetheart, or I’ll get angry. And you don’t want that. Do you, Princess?” Grant was perched on the side of the bed, running his fingertips up and down Anna’s body. Anna flinched. She was stiff and scared. She couldn’t move. It was taking all of her strength to hold back tears. Anna turned to face him. If Grant was going to take part of her soul, a part of who she was, she wanted him to see the damage he was causing. She wanted him to see how much she hated him.

***

James

Diana sat by James’s bedside the entire night. Michael had tried but he couldn’t sit still, not knowing that some maniac had Anna. Michael was furious, once for himself and once for his son. They didn’t know who had her, let alone what they were capable of. Eventually James began to stir. When he woke he was oblivious to what was going on around him. He didn’t remember anything. Not Anna being taken. Not talking to Ian. Not even the long, flight home. It was like the last twenty-fours just never existed for him. Perhaps this was a good thing. Nothing good had happened in those twenty-four hours. Diana knew he had to be told and she knew how much it would hurt him, but he had to know. The doctor had warned them of the possibility that when James awoke, he would know what happened, but there was a chance that he would have repressed the memory to ease the pain. He suggested that if he didn’t know, the sooner that James confronted reality the quicker he would recover. Physically, at least.

As much as Diana didn’t want to be the one to tell her son the gut-wrenching truth she had no choice. It had to come from someone he loved. After all, she was his mother. “James…” He rolled over and looked his mother squarely in the eye. “There’s something that you need to know. It’s about Anna,” she began, as she felt her chest constrict.

“Where is she? Is she outside? Can you send her in?” James was sitting bolt upright now, his eyes frantically darting around the room, searching.

“James, listen to me. Anna has been abducted,” Diana blurted out. It was a horrible thing but trying to pussyfoot around it wouldn’t help. No matter how she told him, James was going to react badly. “Yesterday, outside the airport. You were with her. Do you remember?” James couldn’t answer. He just started hyperventilating. He was pulling at the bed covers and trying to get out of bed. “Where are you going?” Diana asked softly.

“Where the fuck do you think? I need to find her. I can’t just lie here and do nothing. I have to find her,” James spat as he stuffed his shoes on. He jerked open the door; Joel, Ian, and Michael jumped simultaneously. He wasn’t the one they were expecting. “I’m going to find Anna. If any of you want to help me, let’s go. If not, I’ll see you when I get back. With Anna.”

***

Anna

Anna thought that she was either in hell or if possible, somewhere worse. She wasn’t sure. Grant, who reeked of alcohol, crawled all over her, his prominent erection digging into her stomach. Her whole body shuddered as he ran his long dirty fingers up the inside of her thigh. “Get off me! Please, Grant. I’m begging you. Please don’t do this. Please leave me alone,” Anna begged unashamedly. Beneath him she was fighting more intensely than ever.

“I told you to behave and I wouldn’t hurt this pretty little face. Again,” he growled at her. The back of his hand collided with Anna’s face again and split her lip. Her head was pounding. Her face was red and swollen. She looked as though she’d spent ten minutes in the ring acting like someone’s punching bag.

But as much as she wanted to, Anna wasn’t stupid. She knew there was no point screaming, she’d already tried that and no one had come. She knew the more that she fought the more he would beat her. As disgusting as it was, Anna was forced to accept that it might be better to go along with what he had planned, than to make it worse. She just wasn’t sure it was possible to control her gag reflex for that long. Anna knew the person who was on the other side of the door wanted to help her, but they didn’t have the strength or the courage to stop Grant.

***

James

James sprinted from the hospital and down the road to the police station. If they had information that could be useful, he wanted it. And he wanted it now. No matter what the cost. Joel and Ian trailed behind him, unable to keep up the pace. It was just after three in the morning when James burst through the police station doors and begged for help.

“I’m very sorry, sir, but we have no information that we can give you at this time. If you would like to leave a contact number, I will contact you as soon as we know anything,” the officer stated, dismissing him as politely as possible.

After the night James had he was in no mood to be fucked around with, especially if Anna was in danger. “I do not want to go home and wait for you to call. I am going to find Anna with or without your help, so I would appreciate you telling me anything that you know. Please, please, help me.” James’s head dropped down onto the counter with a thud as he broke down in tears.

“Fine! Fine! Calm down. You didn’t hear this from me.” He leaned over the counter. The sight before him of a desperate and broken man disarmed him, and despite his better judgement, he wanted to help. “We have the woman in the interview room who’s admitted to driving the car that Anna was taken in,” he whispered.

“Well then, she knows where Anna is.” James’s head shot up. He was face to face with the constable. “Where is she? Did she tell you? Let’s go and get her.” James was speaking so fast that everything came out in a mumble.

“At this stage she is refusing to say anything. Maybe you can talk to her. I understand it was you that they originally wanted anyway. Would you consider talking to her?” It was three in the morning and the officer was tired. He’d been hoping for a quiet night to get through the backlog of paperwork, but now he was wide awake and ready to solve this problem.

“If it will help get Anna back I’ll do whatever it takes.” After a quick security check, James was ushered through the station towards the interview room.

He froze as he looked through the window. The young woman who he was about to interrogate looked scared and fragile. Her red hair covered most of her face, but it couldn’t hide the stains from the tears she had shed. He received his final instructions from the overweight constable and strutted through the door.

The young woman saw him coming and jumped to her feet. “I am so sorry,” she sniffled apologetically. “I had no idea what they were going to do.” She begged for mercy but James had no interest in giving it.

“Look, Miss…”

“It’s Young. Janelle Young,”

“Miss Young. I will be honest with you. I really don’t care what you did or didn’t do. Right now all I want to know is where she is. Please tell me so I can get my girl and take her home.” James was doing remarkably well at keeping control of his emotions. “Please, tell me where she is,” he asked softly.

“She’s…she is in a flat. You were never supposed to get involved. It was always about her,” Janelle began to explain.

“I don’t understand,” James said, obviously lost. His accusing face had faded and now he was trying desperately to understand.
Why would someone go after Anna?
he asked himself, bewildered.

“They both knew Anna. Before you. He said he fell in love with her at first sight. But she wouldn’t give it up. She was determined to hang on ’til she was married. Then you came along. And he knew. He knew that as much as she loved you, you loved her just as much. And his obsession grew. Then when he met you in Canberra he saw firsthand just how connected you two really were. Then you went to England and it was like something inside of him snapped. Even from the other side of the world, he said he saw that something had changed. And that’s when he lost it. He was convinced that Anna gave you the one thing that he wanted. The one thing that he had convinced himself was rightfully his. And that’s when his scheming started. He planned on taking her. I was just the bait. He threatened my son’s life if I didn’t help him, and my son, Ben—he’s only six. He didn’t deserve to die, so I helped him.” Janelle was sobbing uncontrollably. James understood why Janelle had helped this maniac, but now she had to help him find Anna.

They sat in silence for a few moments. Janelle sobbing, James madly processing everything he’d learnt. After a few minutes James refocussed and blurted out, “You said ‘they.’ Who the other one? What did he want?” James needed as much information as possible. He didn’t care how much it hurt to know the truth, he needed to know.