Surviving Him (16 page)

My phone vibrates in my hand and I scroll the screen up. Logan replies to my text.

I keep my eyes on the street as the bus starts to move. I’m going to be traveling on buses for the rest of my life at this rate.

I reply to Lee and tell him we are going back the way we came. I hit send and slide my phone into of my jacket pocket. I see the white car following behind the bus.

“Shit.”

I text Katy.

Less than a minute later, I receive a response.

Great, all I have to do is get us there in one piece, I can do that, I think. Miles and miles of bricks and mortar flash by us; some really old and beautiful, some brand new and bouncing with life. People on the ground are totally oblivious to my shit situation, on their way to and from work, out shopping, out for dinner, having a life. I want to scream out of the bus window at anybody that will listen and take my pain away, but I need to hold it together.

“Mum.” Amy’s hand covers her mouth as she sucks in a breath, deep and sharp into her tiny lungs.

“Mum, I can see Ian. I can see him in that car.”

Kayleigh sits with her head in her hands, leaning against the back seat looking through her fingers as if she is hiding, staring down in the same direction as her sister, at the car on our tail “Hey, it’s okay. We can shake him off if we get off near the metro link. We can cut through and disappear.”

This was is also a shit plan but it’s all I have. We wait next to the front doors. When the bus pulls in at the stop, we fly off it and run as fast as our legs can take us, sprinting to reach our destination without being caught.

“We can make this. Come on, girls.”

We are completely out of breath, and just need to get around one more corner and we’re there. Then all this shit can be over.

The white Ford Focus’ tyres screech and its wheels spin in front of us before coming to a stop, blocking our path. Ian jumps out and grabs me, Kayleigh and Amy. We scream into the streets for someone to help us. He drags us away, trying to push us into the car.

“No. What are you doing? Get off,” I yell in his face. Now, I am being pushed down, and I can’t see a damn thing.

“Fuck.”

I must have been knocked out for a while. When I open my eyes I see Ian driving. The engine roars, and I don’t have a clue where we were, or where he is planning on taking us. I look towards him; he looks wild and angry, with a smug ‘I got you bitch’ look on his evil face. In his left hand he is holding a gun.

Shit. How do I get myself into these situations?

My thoughts shift to my girls. I try to look behind me to the back seat without him noticing. A loud bang fills the car; he is
firing shots behind us. BLOODY SHOTS. Real bullets
. Oh my fucking god, he’s seriously lost the plot. I crouch down as far as I can. My hands are tied above me. Fear fills every single pore, and my heartbeat rings out through my whole body, as he fires more shots out of the driver’s side window.

What is he shooting at?

We are so dead, I think to myself, closing my eyes, letting the fear take over me.

Ian drives the car forward, like he has a death wish. I manage to get one hand free from the shit piece of rope he has my hands tied up with. I slip my free hand underneath the seat where I find Amy’s hair.

Kayleigh and Amy are tucked into each other, shivering and shaking with fear, hidden as far under the seats as they can get. Their hands are both curled around my hand and I hold onto them as tight as I can.

“What the fuck am I going to do now?” I ask myself.

I can hear the girls’ faint sobs, muffled as if they have their hands covering their cries. If he doesn’t kill me first, I’m so gonna fucking kill him for this. My eyes sting like a bitch, and I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. I focus on the wing mirror and I notice a black BMW crawling up behind us.

My eyes flicker back and forth from Ian to the BMW, trying to focus through the mirror, but I can’t see who it is. It has to be Logan. Please, god, let it be Logan.

The BMW cautiously moves up behind us. I can just see the bullet holes on the bonnet and the windscreen. I pray he isn’t hurt.

The engine of the car behind roars towards us, sticking close, but Ian is never going to shake it off; it’s a far more powerful car than this one. I try to focus to free my other that is still tied above my head. I tremble as the blood rushes through my body as I feel the gun lodged in the side of my neck.

“Shit! Fucking shit.” I mumble to myself.

It feels cold and hard against my skin.

“Such a fucking bitch, thinking you can ever be free of me,” he hisses and growls towards my face, his expression darkening.

“Oh please, change the damn record,” I tell him but I immediately wish I’d kept my big mouth shut; he reaches over to me and slams the gun against my forehead with such force I become so dizzy I have spots in front of my eyes. I cry out in pain.

“Shut your fucking mouth, whore.”

Then everything turns black.

It’s getting dark, and I can see the street lights flickering through my swollen eyelids as they flutter open once more. I whimper as I touch my head. I realise we are still in the car with the sick nut job from hell. I hear the sound of the engine roaring around my ears and the
scary silence in the atmosphere.

“Fuck,” I hiss.

I reach my free hand around the back of the seats and feel around for my girls again. I touch Amy’s hair. She is still curled up in a ball under the seat with her big sister, both trembling.

Kayleigh and Amy grab onto my hand, curling their tiny fingers around it, hanging on for dear life. All I can do is hold onto them. I feel so useless; I can’t even hug my babies and tell them it’s all going to be ok.

I am so angry. I hate this man sitting beside me, so much that the anger is boiling my blood. I look into the wing mirror and observe the black BMW. Trailing behind it is another car that looks a lot like Lee’s Skyline.

“Holy mother fuck.”

I’ve been kidnapped, dragged in to a car, and tied up with a shitty rope. I’ve been hyperventilating to the point where my heart should have stopped, wondering what the hell I should do. I have to do something. I just have to.

I have to get the girls out now, but how am I going to do it? I try again to get my hand free. As I look at Ian watching the road, I slowly prise the girls’ hands from mine, and carefully move my free hand up to the rope. I strive to pull it free with a few tugs. I struggle, but it finally comes undone. I can’t believe it. I slowly bring my hands down again, and reach behind the seats. I give my girls’ hands a quick squeeze of reassurance. I jerk my hand away and dive forward. Grabbing Ian’s left arm, I try to pull the gun away from him.

His vehicle weaves from side to side as I fight against him. He’s so strong. He forces my head forward, and it bounces off the dashboard.

“Ouch.”

He is unable to fight me and fully control the car at the same time. With that, the car starts spinning all over the road, just missing the oncoming cars as we roll across the road. The car tumbles repeatedly, Ian’s head smashing against the steering wheel. Luckily, we land the right way up. Logan sprints to my side of the car, yanking on the door handle, frantically trying to force it open.

“Try the window. Hurry up, babe,” he mouths at me through the glass. He waves for the girls to climb over to the front seats into my lap. They do as they are told.

I open the window, but it stops halfway down.

“We need to call someone. Get the girls out,” I plead as I take in his beautiful face. He looks so good; his bright blue, warm, but concerned eyes glisten as the streetlights make them sparkle. His eyes scan my face, and he catches sight of the blood on my head where Ian had smacked me a few times and knocked me clean out with his gun. Logan’s expression changes from warm to extremely dark. His dangerous, angry eyes, are now glazed over as he looks across at Ian. He reaches an arm inside the car, and manages to flip the window down like lightening. He tugs the girls out of the car and cuddles them. Logan then kneels down to face their terrified, trembling bodies and tells them to stay on the side of the road, and that he would be back.

“It’s ok, you’re safe. I’m here now.”

He wraps his huge arms around my girls and envelopes them. Then, he heads back to my side of the car, reaches in, unclips my seatbelt and pulls me through the tiny gap.

“Babe, give me your hands.”

I do as he says and give him my hands. He drags my arms through. I twist my head to the side and the rest of my body follows behind. I fall to the floor in Logan’s arms, and he holds me tight, pulling me toward my girls. I quickly check them over to see if they are okay, to make sure there are no serious injuries. Looking at them, they both seem fine; shaken, but fine. Lee runs towards us shouting, “Where has that fucking bastard gone?”

“What?”

I look up towards Lee.

“Where is that bastard? I want to rip his fucking head off. He’s gone.”

Gone? How the hell? Where did he go? He was right there in the car, knocked out by the crash.

“He can’t be gone.”

As my mouth hangs open, Lee looks down at our four disbelieving eyes, with a huge joint hanging out of his mouth.

“Sweet, I’m telling you that he’s fucking disappeared.”

I let go of Logan and go to my girls. I hug them like my life depends on it. I watch the tears pool in both of my babies’ eyes as they replay what just happened in their minds.

“Mum, I was so scared. I thought we were going to die. Amy was shaking under the seat. I didn’t know what to do, Mum, so I text Logan and told him what happened. I was so scared mum.”

“I’m so sorry, baby. It’s over, I promise you he’s gone. You are both such brave little soldiers, and that was quick thinking texting Logan like that. You’re such a clever girl, both of you are safe now. I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise,” I say into the top of their heads. I am so angry at Ian for doing this to us.

Logan and Lee go around to each side of the car, checking inside it, and underneath, for any sign of Ian. He’s disappeared, vanished into the dark, like a creature of the night, like the monster that he is. Quite fitting actually; running away, like the coward he really is.

“He can’t be far. Let’s get you in the car and the fuck out of here, where I know you’re safe. If anything had happened to any of you I—” Logan says.

I cut him off and put my hand to his lips

“Nothing happened to us, thanks to you and Lee.”

He cups my face with his hands, and strokes my cheeks with his thumbs. His mouth forms a tight line when his eyes land on the bump on my head, now pounding from the hits.

“Let’s get this cleaned up, baby. Thank fuck you’re okay. I will kill that motherfucker! I love you and the girls so much, more than I love anything in this world. I never want to let you go, I never will, no matter how much you try and push me away. I won’t let you!” Logan breathes into my lips. Then he pulls us into him. I curl my hand around his back, and cuddle into his warm, hard body, never wanting to let him go either. I stare into his beautiful eyes and kiss his soft, luscious lips.

Shortly after, Kayleigh, Amy and I jump into the back of Logan’s car.

“Follow me, you can crash at mine,” Lee tells Logan. Logan nods to Lee and jumps into the driver’s side of his car. We are back on the road again, safe for now.

I wonder where the hell Ian is, but I also don’t care, as long as he doesn’t come anywhere near us again. Hopefully he’s on his way to another country. Australia, maybe Africa. The further away the better. I hug my babies in the back seat, so grateful they re safe. I call Katy, and she answers on the first ring.

“Hey, are you ok? Are the girls—”

I cut her off.

“Hey, we are in Logan’s car. I’ll call you later. Just heading to Lee’s, but I want to let you know we are safe.”