Rock Star: The Deal (Book 3 of a Bad Boy Romance) (4 page)

I
had never given much thought
to being kidnapped. Growing up in a small town it just wasn’t one of those things you expected to happen. You would hear about it on the news, read it in the papers and find yourself watching a movie at night that featured someone being taken. But the idea of it happening seemed ludicrous.

But here I was, jammed inside the back of someone’s trunk, bumping my way down some unknown road, towards some unknown location. I didn’t even know what time it was. I tried not to hit my head on the trunk lid but I’d already done it several times. My mind was overrun with thoughts of what they were planning to do. It was a woman, but I fully expected to see a man. There was no way that a woman alone could have pulled this off. I tried to remember my last thoughts before I had put my head down. I had a headache. I had taken pills. I had been given water on stage. Could the water have been spiked with a substance that put me out? I didn’t recall anyone’s hand being placed over my face. No one had been lingering outside the tour bus. Security wasn’t watching the tour buses, they were concentrating on anyone getting backstage.

How had they done it? It was of little concern to me now. My survival instincts were kicking in. Fear was trying to override and block the idea of escaping. It wanted to freeze me in place. Prevent me from escaping. What did she want with me?

I had seen her face. I was at the mercy of my kidnappers. They could possibly kill me at any moment.

I began to wonder how long I had been inside this trunk. How long had I been out of it? For all I knew I could be halfway across the country, or on my way down to Mexico to be sold as a sex slave.

I was hungry. My mouth was dry from a lack of water. I badly wanted to get out and stretch. Every muscle in my body was aching. Never mind needing to go to the bathroom. If they didn’t let me out soon I was going to pee myself.

I switched on my phone again trying to get at least one bar. Damn this service, it was crap. You would think by now they would have towers all over the place. Trust me to go with the cheapest provider that was available. I used the light from the phone to look around inside the trunk. There had to be a kit that was used to repair a flat tire. Which meant there had to be a metal lug nut wrench. Something I could hit her in the head with and escape from them.

Then again there was the option of using it to smash the trunk lock open, but then she was liable to hear me banging. And who knew if she had a gun? The tire iron would be taken and whatever chance I would have had. It would have vanished.

I twisted over and began exploring the darkness with my hands. It was dank, smelled like oil inside there. Some of the material was torn. I pulled back the carpet and squeezed myself against the edge so I could lift up the piece of plastic that was beneath it. I felt wires. They had to be jumper cables, there was the tire kit and… my hand went into something soft and wet. I didn’t even want to know what that was. I wiped my hand against the carpet and continued rooting around. Damn. There was nothing. No tire iron, unless it had slipped further down and I couldn’t reach it. What the hell kind of vehicle owner didn’t prepare themselves for the worst-case scenario? Probably had roadside assistance.

Just when I was running out of ideas of how I was going to get out, I felt the vehicle slowing down. Gravel beneath the tires. I heard the ring of a gas station driveway hose as the car went over it. She was filling up. I heard the door open and the rattle of the gas tank being opened, then a flood of gas.

“Howdy. You know this is full-service. We can fill the tank.”

“No need. I can do it.”

It was a male voice. So there were two of them.

“Grab me some cigarettes while you are in there. Oh and some beef jerky.”

“You folks from out of town?” I heard the attendant ask.

“Sort of.”

This was my opportunity.

“Help. Help!”

I started banging on the trunk lid.

“What’s that?”

He heard me.

“Nothing.”

“That doesn’t sound like nothing to me. I’m calling the cops.”

I heard him turn to leave. In the next beat, I heard the sound of a gun going off. Then the trunk opened.

“Stupid bitch. Look what you’ve made me do now.” He slapped me with the back of his hand.

“What do you want with me?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

He slammed the trunk lid.

“I need to go to the washroom,” I yelled.

I heard him reply from outside as he continued filling up.

“You’re going to have to wait now.”

“I will piss in your car.”

“You do that and I will put a bullet in your head.”

“Then let me out.”

I heard the woman come back.

“Duke, what the fuck?”

I had a name. Duke.

“I told you not to use my name. Go get what we need and I’ll drag his ass around back.”

I could hear them moving around outside the vehicle and the sound of a body being dragged. If they killed a stranger without even batting an eye, there was no doubt they were going to kill me. The fear that washed over me in that moment was like a huge tidal wave. It took my breath away and made me feel like I was going to vomit.

Within a matter of minutes they peeled away into the night and were traveling at a high rate of speed. Even if I could open the trunk, I wouldn’t be able to escape without killing myself. Now they were fugitives from the law. Whatever they had in mind, they were serious and weren’t messing around.

* * *

T
he Birmingham show
had been wrapped up. I had returned to the tour bus. I was feeling on top of the moon. Behind me was my band. I was going to have a beer and catch up with Meghan. I thought she played her heart out and I was keen to arrange for us to do a duet later in the next town. When I got to her bed, she wasn’t there.

“Anyone seen Meg?”

“As far as I know she said she had a headache and was going to lie down,” Luke said.

“Strange, maybe she’s gone into town.”

I didn’t think much of it. I never gave it a second thought.

* * *

W
e must have been
on the road for least another two hours before I heard them.

“I’m hungry.” I could hear the muffled voices inside the car. “And all you got was one packet of jerky?”

“Why did you kill him? You idiot. No one is meant to get hurt. Now the police are going to be looking for us. They would have caught us on camera.”

“He would have nabbed us. Anyway, this car is stolen.”

“She’s going be pissed at you.”

“Who cares? We get paid. We get out. Now let’s find a restaurant and have a bite to eat.”

“No. She said get to the cabin.”

She? Who were they talking about?

When they finally brought the car to a halt, I heard them get out. I could hear the sound of people. More people than there had been before. They were in a public place. This was my chance to escape. There was no way in hell they were going to shoot me in a public place. No doubt, this had to be related to money. Perhaps they thought I was loaded with money, just because I was playing in those big arenas. It didn’t matter, the moment they opened that trunk, I was going to hit them as hard as I could and scream. Someone had to hear me.

I began searching again inside the trunk. There had to be something. Shifting my position so I was crunched up and kneeling, I pulled up the carpet and plastic and continued rummaging around until I felt it. There it was. The tire iron. I grabbed it feeling hope again. I had something.

A few minutes later I heard them return to the car.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you had tied her up?”

“Why didn’t you tell me she had untied herself? You’re a friggin’ idiot.”

They were arguing with each other when they popped the trunk’s lid. Not giving them even a second to react I smacked him, then her with it so hard, that they both fell backwards. I vaulted out of the trunk and began sprinting towards the restaurant. I had no idea where I was. But I realized they had parked as far away as they could from the rest area building. It was still late at night. Floodlights shone down illuminating about six cars in the lot.

I was already at least ten yards ahead of them when I heard the guy chasing after me. I stared around trying to get some sense of where I was. A rural highway ran alongside the rest stop. There were farms for as far as the eye could see. Small buildings that must have been homes in the distance. I could have been anywhere. But it was the countryside. I was in the middle of nowhere and they had picked a rest stop that was as run down as the vehicle they had been traveling in. It was a blue Ford. It had to have been from the eighties. Rust covered the sides.

My legs were hurting from running. I must have been in that trunk for ages as my legs felt like they had just been woken up from a deep state of hibernation. The muscles weren’t fully functioning.

I cast a glance over my shoulder and could see both of them were gaining on me. I knew I wasn’t going to get to the station in time. Who the hell parks this far away? I let out a scream, but no one came out. I changed direction, hoping that I might be able to lose them in the country. It was pitch-dark out there. No lights. Fields for miles.

The thought of running into a bull, or some creature that might pounce on me, was the furthest thing from my mind. I just wanted to get away from them. It didn’t help that it was winter. Snow was everywhere. They had cleared a good portion of it in the parking lot. But where I was heading it had to have been knee-deep. This would definitely slow me down, but then again it was likely to do the same for them.

I charged ahead into the tree line, hopped over a fence into a field and landed in thick mud. It was soaking wet. I landed on my side. Fear was the only thing that was pushing me on. I could see the two of them were only a few feet from the fence. The man had to have been a good six feet tall. Zero muscle on him, long hair. He reminded me of a drug addict. Someone who had spent too long snorting cocaine. His eyes were sunken. The woman had dark hair, green eyes. She was short. Smaller than me. The thought that they could kill me in the field had passed through my mind, but I knew that it was more likely that they would just knock me out. Either way, I wasn’t sticking around. I was trudging on through ankle-deep mud. It made a sucking sound every time I lifted my feet out.

My lungs were like a furnace, my breath fast and gasping. I hadn’t looked back for a minute or two. Was I getting away? Were they nearly on me? It was hard to tell now as it was so dark. Nothing but silhouettes could be seen cut into the night sky. It was taking everything out of me to keep moving. There was no way I was going to be able to keep this up. If they didn’t give up chasing me soon, I would collapse with exhaustion. In the distance I could see the shape of a house. There were no lights on, but people might be there. What time was it? It must have been the middle of the night.

I managed to make it to the next fence. It was made of wire. I hopped over that like an Olympic hurdler. My adrenaline had kicked in and I was running with everything I had in me. My shoes had come off in the mud somewhere back there. But I didn’t have time to pay attention to the odd stone that stuck into the bottom of my foot.

I scrambled towards the house, then noticed that there was a horse in the field. Not one but at least five. I heard them snort and then run. Thankfully they didn’t run in my direction.

As I broke into the tree line, the ground was alive. I was stepping on branches. Every one cut into my feet, causing me extreme pain. I turned to see the guy getting closer. My determination to reach that house before they got me skyrocketed. If he got me, there was a good chance he would be putting a bullet in me, or giving me a beating for getting away. For hitting him with the tire iron.

I was out of breath and wheezing by now. As I continued darting through the trees I scooped up a branch and began cracking off the smaller branches. I needed to make a weapon. I had dropped the tire iron back at the car. I assumed they wouldn’t have got up after being hit in the face with one. But I was wrong.