Rock Star: The Deal (Book 3 of a Bad Boy Romance) (5 page)

In that moment I tripped. There must have been a branch sticking out. It was so dark. I couldn’t even see a few feet ahead of me. I hit the ground hard. Spitting dirt. My knees and hands were grazed. Wheeling around I could see he was gaining ground.

Frantically, I got back up and broke out of the tree line. I began screaming.

“Help! Help!”

I had to be at least thirty yards from the house. No lights came on. The man was barreling towards me. I continued screaming and I saw a light come on. A glimmer of hope. I was going to be saved.

Before I could get any closer I hit the earth hard. This time however, I felt arms wrapped around me. He had got me before I even made it to the house.

“I got her.”

“Help…”

The man put his hand over my mouth and stayed still. I tried to squirm beneath him but he was heavy. For someone who looked so thin, he was a heavy guy. In the distance I saw someone come out of the house. They looked around. I was screaming beneath his hand but nothing came out except a muffled noise.

When the person disappeared back inside, my heart sank.

“Let me go. Please,” I said as I tried to resist him. He hit me in the face.

“Do it again, and I will kill you right here. They’ll never find your body.”

I gave up. It was useless. The woman caught up. Out of breath, she took a hold of me and covered my mouth with a rag. The smell was harsh. I began to fade. It was chloroform.

“No. Please,” I mumbled.

Then everything went black.

I
tossed
the bottle of bourbon at the wall.

When the police showed up and mentioned the word “kidnapped” I couldn’t believe it. I thought this was all a big joke. That any minute now she was going to jump out and tell me that she had set this up.

But this was no game.

“It’s OK. Settle down, Chase. I’m sure she’ll be returned soon, once we find out what they want,” Mia said.

“It’s not whether she will be returned. I am worried about what they are going to do with her while they have her.”

There had only been a few times in my career that I had come close to being kidnapped by a crazed fan. And I don’t think they had any intention of holding me hostage. They were just lunatics that needed to be close. The first time was when they had broken into my house in Santa Barbara. I wasn’t home that time. But security found her. She had been in there for days. The day they caught her, she had taken a bath and was curled up inside my bed.

A restraining order had been placed on that one. She did some time for breaking and entry. The other time was when the fan had made it backstage and into my dressing room. She had actually managed to keep security out by locking the door. She had a gun on her that time. She was a complete nutcase. She wanted me to marry her. I had to talk her out of it. Pretend that I was in love with her — for fifty minutes. Finally once she lowered the gun I had hit that bitch with a flowerpot. Knocked her out and let security in. She was hauled away and did time again.

I had to wonder if the same woman was behind this? It was no mystery that the media had painted Meghan and me as having a relationship. Had it come to her attention? Of course it had. She had to be the one behind this.

I gave all the information to the police. I wanted to cancel what remaining shows were left. Mia had had been vehemently against it. She wanted me to keep going out there and playing. Luke and I could still play. There was no need for Meghan. The show must go on.

“The hell it does.”

“Chase. Listen to reason. There isn’t anything you can do by canceling these shows. This is your comeback. Don’t screw it up. Plus if you don’t play, I have no idea what the suits are going to say about that.”

“Screw the suits. This is a woman’s life we are talking about here.”

“I know. I want her back as much as you.”

“Do you? Really? I kind of find that hard to believe.”

Her eyes widened.

“What do you think of me?”

“I don’t know lately, Mia. You have pulled some crazy stunts in the past. Pushed me to keep playing when I shouldn’t have. All for what? The mighty green dollar.”

“Listen, Chase. The cops are on this now. Let them do their job and you keep playing. Give the audience what they want. It’s only fair to Luke. One or two more shows and I’m sure they will find her.”

“I can’t do it.”

“You are going to have to.”

“Why?”

* * *

I
was still curled
up inside the car when I came to. I faded in and out of consciousness.

My head was hurting. I was sure they had hit me a few times. My lip felt swollen and there was dried blood on my hand. Light came in through the hole in the taillight. It was nearly dawn.

What I noticed was that we were not moving. I could hear my kidnappers outside of the car talking. They were eating. The sound of wrappers and munching could be heard.

The trunk opened and light flooded in, stinging my eyes. The tossed several things at me, before slamming the lid. A Big Mac, a juice and an empty bottle.

“What the hell is this?”

“Pee in it.”

“You’ve got to be joking. I’m not a man.”

“Pee in it or pee in your pants,” the woman said.

“Let me out.”

“Listen, I’m doing you a favor. He didn’t want to even give you any food. Now if you don’t do as I say, you are going to wind up dead in some ditch. Trust me. He’s done it before and he won’t hesitate to do it again.”

A few minutes passed and I heard the man return.

“So what did she say?”

“To hold onto her. Until they get it figured out. Lay low.”

“Did you tell her about the little incident?”

“No. Why would I? No point getting her all worked up about this.”

“Did you check her?”

“Yeah. She had a phone on her?”

“Did she call anyone?”

“No. Last phone call made was a day ago.”

“You tie her up again?”

“Yes.”

He lifted the trunk and began tugging on my restraints, then slammed it closed without a word.

“I don’t want her getting out again. She gets out again, I’m going to break her legs.”

“You don’t touch her. You know what we’ve been promised. She gets hurt, we don’t get anything.”

I cringed at the thought of him breaking my legs. I heard them jump in the vehicle. I started banging on the trunk. I heard one get out and come around.

“Shut the hell up.”

“I need to go to the bathroom.”

“She gave you a bottle.”

“I am going to piss in your car.”

He lifted the hood, looked at me, then grabbed me by the arm and took me out. I glanced around. We appeared to be in a different location. It was deserted. There was no one close by. The only thing I could make out was an old gas station across the road. It looked rusted as if it had been abandoned. He pushed me forward. I fell to the ground.

“You need to undo these. Kind of hard to walk when...”

“Yeah, yeah, shut up.”

He undid the restraint around my ankles and then forced me to keep walking into an area of woodland. Once inside he pushed me again.

“Go.”

“I can’t go with you watching.”

“Well then, you are going to have to piss yourself. Because I am not letting you out of my site.”

“At least turn your back.”

He remained silent. He was creepy on so many levels. He smelled like he hadn’t had a bath in weeks. In the light I could see his hair was a dirty blond. He had a front tooth missing.

I undid my pants and tried to pull them down and squat without him seeing. It was virtually impossible. I could see him grinning. He had no intention of looking away. He wanted to see. Luckily I needed to go so badly that I just went. Usually I couldn’t go if there was someone even in the next stall. I was strange like that. I needed complete silence and privacy. This was a first.

After I was done, he led me back to the trunk.

“Is this really necessary? Can’t I sit in the back?”

“No.” And with that he pushed me back in.

The trunk slammed closed and within less than a minute we were back on the road. I could tell the lanky kidnapper was dangerous. I could see it in his eyes. There was no emotion. He looked as if he enjoyed seeing me pee. No doubt it was the same with the poor man he had just killed earlier.

I was tired. It wasn’t long before I fell asleep. When I awoke we were no longer traveling. Where the hell had they taken me? My body was aching from being in the trunk. My wrists hurt and the constant vibration of the car as well as whatever they had given me earlier, kept me in a subdued state.

I heard them get out and come around. Both of them carried me out of the car. She had my legs under her arms, while he held my arms. My head dropped back and I could see dirt and foliage beneath us. A winding dirt road that led up to a cottage.

Were we in the middle of a forest?

Were they going to shoot me? No, they couldn’t kill me yet. They hadn’t got what they wanted. If they wanted to hurt me they would have done it back when I ran from them. They were after money. Killing me would have thrown a wrench in their plans.

So what was this place? Where was it?

I continued watching where they were carrying me. I couldn’t see if there were any signs. Wherever this cottage was, it was in the middle of nowhere. Then I caught sight of what appeared to be a valley. We were up high. Maybe in Colorado? Were we back in Oregon?

“You think you could have arranged a better place than this?” she said.

“It’s my grandfather’s. Securest place in the world.”

They walked straight past the house. What? Wasn’t I going to stay there? Then they dropped me. Literally. I felt the hard earth below. I watched as they pulled back what looked like a series of oil canisters. Beneath it was a wooden cover. They lifted that and he stepped down into it.

It was a hole in the ground. They were going to bury me alive?

“Give me her feet.”

She dragged me over and he took a hold of me until he had me close to him. His breath smelled like a bad ashtray. Full of nicotine and vile stuff. He held me tight as he descended down into darkness. Several steps later, he turned and laid me down. Then a light came on. I looked around. It was like a bomb shelter. It was concave, metal. There appeared to be several rooms. One had mattresses. Dirty. Clothes strewn all over the place. Another a kitchen. Then the one that we were in looked like a living area. It smelled bad. Like sewage.

“Home sweet home.”

“Why are you doing this?”

He didn’t respond. The woman came down.

“What a shit hole this place is.”

The place did look like a dungeon. There were cobwebs everywhere. Water had seeped in and created rust on the metal.

“Hey,” he yelled. “Show some respect. This was built by my grandfather. He was a real survivalist. He knew what it meant to live off the grid. Not like this damn government. They will suck you dry.

“Talking of sucking…”

He leered at me. My eyes widened. I felt a rational fear come over me, at the thought that he was going to rape me.

“Don’t you dare touch her. We get nothing if she is touched.”

“Pity. I was hoping to have some fun with her. She has quite a mouth on her.”

They carried me over to the dirty couch and laid me down. Swung my feet up and shoved a pillow under my head.

“Now listen up. You do as you’re told and you will be back in your tour bus within the next forty-eight hours. But you try to escape. You try to warn anyone. And not only will I kill you, I will kill whoever you attempted to alert. Now do you really want that on your conscience?”

I didn’t reply.

“Well?” he yelled.

“No.”

“Good. Now we’re going to be back later with some food. You can scream all you want. No one can hear you out here. Plus this place is insulated.”

I watched them leave, as he left he turned and gave a smug grin, and then switched off the light. The whole room was flooded with darkness.

“Don’t leave me here. Please.”

They didn’t respond. I heard the sound of them going up the steps, covering the top with wood and placing the barrels back on top.

No one was going to know I was here. There was no way anyone would spot me. How had it come to this? I regretted ever saying yes to going on tour. People wanted fame, but they didn’t know what came with it. There were vile people out there in the world. Those who would try to rob, steal and kill just to get a few dollars. Here I was miles from safety. Sitting in a pitch-dark tomb. I had no idea if this place had spiders or snakes. The thought creeped me out. I began to find myself screaming for help. My voice echoed off the metal. My screams turned to tears and eventually my eyes closed. Exhaustion, stress and fear had finally taken over.

* * *

“
I
’m not going out
.”

“Chase.”

“No, Mia.”

“I want to know what they want.”

“Chase. You need to be focused on the tour.”

“Mia. If you say that one more time, you are fired.”

She stormed out.

Over the past eight hours, the police had been questioning all of us. I had given them as much information as I could on exes and past co-workers that might have been disgruntled. No request for money or anything had been made. It was strange. They hadn’t contacted us. They had called the police to say they were responsible and would be in touch soon with their demands. I berated myself over it. The rest of the road crew were drinking. I had joined them.

“Ernie. How did you let this one slide?”

“I’m sorry, Chase. We’ve never needed security watching over the tour buses. I didn’t think anyone would have got back there.”