Peyton barely made it through the day. Vicky met her after class. She must have camped out at her locker because Peyton took her time going there. She’d stopped by the gym to return some game tapes and took one step at a time as she daydreamed about her future.
She’d only glanced through the envelopes from the various admissions offices before she’d left for school. She’d had offers from around the country.
Her volleyball coach once told her she’d never have to worry about scholarship offers and sure as the world, she was right. Peyton’s heart felt heavy as she thought about the day her coach lost her life. She’d jumped in front of bullets to save her rising stars, and she had many on her court. She was that kind of coach. She made winners out of players and stars out of winners.
Peyton passed by a few boys who made a lame attempt to flirt. Some of them called her Miss Cartwell now with pure lust in their voices. It only took one day for a few of them to get wind of her open sex act at Cling. She didn’t care. Let them look, make a few remarks and only wish they knew what really went on behind the Cartwell gates.
“There you are!” Vicky interrupted her jumbled thoughts.
“Hey, Vicky.”
“Peyton, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about the Evan-thing.”
“Forget it. I understand. Believe me.”
“No, I’m serious, I can’t lose you as a friend.”
Peyton hugged her tightly. “You’d never lose me, Vicky. But once you know the truth behind me and the guys, you may not like me very much.”
“Like you? I love you! You’re like my sister, Peyton. Why would you say something so ridiculous?”
Peyton grabbed her quickly and mumbled into her hair. “I slept with all of them.”
Vicky’s body felt like a limp dishrag all at one time. Peyton released the hold she had around her shoulders and stood back away from her. “I mean…you know, uh…”
“Peyton, please tell me you did not do what I think you did.”
“Vicky, you said-”
Vicky’s face glowed with knowledge. “Shit! Peyton! I’m not judging you. Damn girl, you know me better than that. I’m just jealous!” She giggled. “I need details, you know.”
She slammed her books on the floor and sat down next to them. The janitor slowly walked by them pushing the large broom. He raised a brow at the girls but didn’t say hello.
“I heard about you and Evan, you know.” She crossed her ankles. “Heard he was all over you at Clink.”
“No, you didn’t. You heard what they heard.” She tilted her chin toward a bunch of jocks as they passed.
“Hey! Peyton! Wanna meet us in the field house?”
“Shut up!” Vicky tossed a pencil at the group and then turned her focus back to Peyton.
“Okay, so I heard he did you right there in the loft thing they have. So help me, I can’t picture you doing it in the club, but hey, if you like exhibitionism, you picked the right guy for a partner.”
“What else did you hear?”
Vicky stood up and excitedly grabbed her hands. “Okay, here’s what I heard. Somebody said you and Evan were going at it like donkeys. You know. Making a lot of noise and fucking like wild animals. Then, I heard you were kind of discreet about it. Took it up the ass against some kind of wall thing. Then I heard Kane and
Braden came in, and Kane dragged you out of there.”
“Heard it all like that, did ya?”
She nodded. “The ass thing I made up just because I wanted to see what you said.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So when you uh-did them all-what did you think?”
“Vicky, I can’t talk about it right here.”
“You’re in love.” She sounded surprised.
“Looks that way.”
“With all of them?” Further shock.
“I am.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yep.”
“Peyton, this isn’t good,” Vicky dropped her hands then and looked at the end of the hallway. She tilted her head sideways and stared at the double doors. “Who is that guy down there? I’ve seen him someplace before.”
Peyton only glanced at him. “I don’t know. He kind of looks familiar but I don’t know him.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Vicky chirped. “Anyway, honey you have to think about college here. You’ve worked pretty hard to let your dreams wait you know.”
“Vicky, just because I love them doesn’t mean I have to put college on hold.”
“So they want you to go away to school?”
“Braden’s always wanted me to go to college. Evan and Kane too. Just because I’m in love with them doesn’t mean…, Who is that guy?” Peyton turned her attention back to the tall fellow at the end of the hall now and slammed her locker shut. He stood there out in the open rubbing his hand over the front of his jeans.
“I don’t know, but he’s creepy. I’m ready to get out of here.”
“Yeah me too. Watch him. He’s playing with himself down there,” Peyton said.
“Peyton, I hate to tell you this but after the rumors flying around the school today, every guy in this place walked around with a stiff one. It’s true…every last one of them.” She giggled as she locked arms with Peyton, and they walked passed the strange fellow without a second glance.
Once outside, Freda screamed her bloody head off. “Hey Vicky! You promised to help me with Algebra. Where have you been?”
“Great, I forgot. I wanted more details, and I’m stuck with Miss Studious instead.”
“I’ll fill you in later,” Peyton shrugged. “Besides, there’s a lot to tell.”
Freda stopped behind Peyton’s car and waved before she slowly pulled to the curb. Peyton tossed her books on top of the car and that’s when she felt the numbing heart-stopping object in her side.
“Miss Storm.” The hot breath against her ear was dangerous with desire and anger. “I have a gun in your side. Nine millimeter. I’ll drop you where you stand and call it a day if you don’t do what I say. Do you understand?”
Peyton nodded.
He pressed it harder against her ribs. “From what I understand, you know all about playing the part of perfect little submissive. I want you to say yes or no when I address you. Do you understand?”
Without thinking, she nodded again, and the gun clicked. “What did I tell you? I said answer with a yes or a no. Would you like for me to pull the trigger?”
“No! No! I’m sorry. I’ll do what you say.” Peyton scanned the near vacant parking lot. She saw Freda’s car creeping to a halt at the stop sign. She closed her eyes and prayed. Please! Please! See me! See me! Go get help! Her worse fear realized, Peyton saw the brake lights. Vicky must’ve noticed Peyton still standing there in the parking lot and asked Freda to go back. Oh God, don’t let him shoot them. Don’t let him shoot them.
“Okay, now, I’m going to take you to the other side and put you in the car. When your friends come back-I’m assuming that’s them approaching us now-you’ll react in a way that doesn’t set off any alarms or all of you die here today. Do you understand?”
Peyton nodded and said yes at the same time.
“Good. Very good, kitten. Now, get your books from the top of the car and move to the other side. Give me your keys.” Fear stilled her movements, and the tears she wanted to cry were locked inside her lids.
“Hey, Peyton. Everything all right, here?” Vicky’s expression held knowledge. She quickly scanned Peyton’s face before she focused on the large man next to her.
“Everything’s fine. I thought you two were going to go study.”
Freda gritted her teeth and shrugged. “She said you might have locked yourself out of the car.”
Peyton never locked herself out.
“Actually, I thought you lost your keys again. I thought we’d give you a ride home if you needed one. I know Evan hates to come all the way out here when you lose them.”
Peyton never lost her keys. “Yeah, well, not today. I didn’t lose them today. You’re exactly right. Evan hates it when…” The man at her side narrowed his eyes and held the gun into her lower back. His jacket concealed it. “Anyway, thanks for checking Vicky. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Her eyes watered then, and she stepped inside the car.
Oh God! Oh God! Don’t let him shoot them. Leave, Vicky! Please leave! She turned to look at her friend and quickly pursed her lips and closed her eyes tightly before she turned back to look at her abductor. He walked slowly in front of the car, and the way he moved reminded her of someone, of something. He stopped before he got in the car and Peyton assumed he was watching as Freda and Vicky left the parking lot.
Peyton reached in her purse and hit one for home. “Oh God, someone please answer. Someone please be there.” She didn’t put the phone to her ear. She just rambled. “If anyone can hear me. If anyone can hear me, don’t say anything. Just listen. Just listen because today I’m going to die if you don’t.”
Evan got the call. He almost didn’t hear the phone ring and typically wouldn’t have gone back inside to get it. Since the other two were in the barn, he thought it might be someone coming out to the ranch to look at Braden’s horse.
Braden had advertised the damn thing on the internet and everyone interested somehow had trouble with the directions. He didn’t mind taking the place of a computerized map if it meant that damn horse would soon disappear.
He answered the phone right as Braden and Kane rushed in. “Vicky called and-”
Evan put his fingers to his lips, replaced the receiver on the cradle and hit the speaker option. They glared at it as their nightmare unfolded.
“If anyone can hear me. If anyone can hear me, don’t say anything. Just listen. Just listen because today, I’m going to die if you don’t. I’m at the school. Someone has me, and he’s got the keys and he’s going to kill me. Call Vicky. Call Vicky if you hear me. He’s going to get in the car and drive us somewhere. Right now he’s pacing from one side of the car to the next and-”
The car door slammed and the engine revved. “Peyton Storm…”
“You know me?”
The Cartwells exchanged wary glances. Evan tried to think. The voice sounded somewhat familiar, faintly recognizable with a distinct accent he’d heard somewhere before.
“I know enough about you to recognize a bought whore when I see one.”
Evan clenched his fist and Braden flinched. Kane quietly stood at the window clutching the phone Vicky must’ve called earlier. He quickly keyed in a message and sent a text to someone, maybe Vicky.
“Keep him talking, Peyton. Keep him talking.” Evan stared at the only link they had to her now.
“I’m not a whore,” she told him.
A grotesque chuckle filled the phone. “You’re not? I think the whole town around here might disagree.”
Nothing came through the phone for the next several minutes but Evan realized they still had a connection. The hum of Peyton’s car was hard to deny. Evan found the mute button on the phone and hit it.
“What the fuck is going on?” He glared at his brothers.
“Vicky said she was with Peyton earlier when they spotted this creep in the school. She’s with Freda, and they’re on their way out here.”
“I sent Vicky a text. Freda’s dropping her off here,” Kane said.
Evan leaned on the kitchen counter and stared at the speaker. He traced it with his fingertips. “Come on, baby. Get him talking. Tell us what you see. Anything, Peyton. Get him talking.”
Braden clutched his keys. “As soon as we know where they’re headed, I’m out of here. I’ve got the farm phone and mine.”
“We need to notify the cops, Braden.” Evan said.
“We’re not involving the cops,” Kane advised. “If we can’t get her back on our own, then we’ll involve them, but Vicky said it’s just one guy. She’s trying to remember what she can and should get here soon. She said he’s tall, kind of a big guy. And she, uh, said…”
“Tell you what, whore,” the man who had Peyton decided to speak again-he was also going to die for talking to her like trash but he didn’t know he had death’s mark yet-“I haven’t had a good hand job in a while. Get over here and give me one.”
“You might wreck if you get too excited and ow! Please! Don’t! No! Let me go! Okay! Okay! I’ll do it. Please put the gun down. I’ll…Oh my God. I know who you are.”
“I guess it takes a girl like you a long time to notice a guy like me.”
“Who is he, damn it!” Kane screamed at the phone.
“I…I don’t notice boys my own age. That’s all. It’s nothing personal. It’s just that I don’t have time to date, and Coach Pratchert always wanted my undivided attention to go to volleyball.”
“And after the bitch died, you ended up and found a little southern comfort in those men friends of yours.”
“Your stepmom died because your father killed her and-”
An undeniable slap rang across the room. She screamed as he slapped her. And the bastard must’ve smacked her four times.
“It’s Coach Pratchert’s step-son,” Braden said with a tight upper lip. “Vicky just pulled in. I’m going to talk to her a second and get her to tell me what she can remember. Then I’m going to get on the interstate. I’ll wait for your call.”
“Braden, Peyton’s car is hard to miss. We can get some help from the law enforcement and-”
“And what then, Evan? They spot her car and initiate a high-speed chase? Hell no! She’ll only make this out alive if we get her out of it. No cops.” Kane gripped the kitchen sink as he looked down at the floor. “Nobody has her best interest at heart like we do.”
The stereo started to play through the phone. He didn’t turn it up very loud but the music lingered in the background. “I think I asked you for a hand job.”
“No, you told me you wanted one.”
“Shit! She’s going to put up a fight and if she does…”
“If she does, he’ll kill her.” Vicky walked through the door Braden held open for her. She glanced from one brother to the other.
“We saw him staring at us at school. We walked right by him, and I saw the way he looked at her. He’s going to do things to her, all sorts of things.” Vicky slumped down in a nearby chair. Her face was pale, and her hands trembled.
“Vicky, I need you to think. Are you sure the guy was alone?” Braden asked.
As if a sudden thought hit her, she jumped up from the table. “Braden, Peyton said you had most of the school shooting on tape. If you do, you’ll see him. He was the second shooter!”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m positive. You have to call the police station. You’re going to have to-”
“Suck me or give me your hand,” the guy said again.
“Coach Pratchert loved you like a son.” Peyton ignored his request apparently. “And you and your dad took her away from a lot of people who adored her.”
“Oh yeah? Well, thanks to your Cartwell friends, my dad is in jail. Going to prison for life.”
“On an insanity plea because the bastard couldn’t own up to what he did.”
The tires squealed then, and Peyton screamed. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to fuck some humility right into your arrogant ass!”
Kane punched the cabinet so hard it dented the wood. Braden’s face drew up with the slicing pain of hearing a man threaten who they all loved most in the world, the one light they found at the end of far too many dark days.
Evan sat down on the floor with his head in between his hands.
“I can’t stand here and do nothing,” Vicky said. “I’m calling the police.”
A struggle unfolded on the phone. A few grunts, screams and moans.
“Wait! Please wait! Think about this! Do you want your father back? Is that what this is all about? I can help you.”
Vicky held the phone out and started to dial. Kane snatched it from her hand and tossed it on the table.
“Come on, Peyton. Buy us some time, baby. Come on, use that pretty little head of yours.”
“Your name is Stephen, right?” she asked him.
“Oh so you know my name?” It sounded like his breathing wasn’t near as ragged as Peyton’s which Evan translated as a good thing.
“I know your name because Coach Pratchert always talked about you.”
“Shut up about that bitch and tell me why you think you can help me.”
“I know what this is about…” Peyton let her voice trail off or maybe they missed a few words or something. Did they hit a dead spot somewhere? Oh hell, what if they lost signal and lost her?
Kane hit the cabinet again. Vicky flinched.
“She’s buying time,” Evan said. “She doesn’t have any idea why he has her.”
“Who cares so long as it works,” Braden said. “I just don’t understand why she hasn’t said where they are. She must’ve known she dialed us. Why the hell won’t she say where they are?”
“Maybe she doesn’t know,” Vicky said.
“I’m waiting for you to tell me what this is about, Miss Storm. Or should I go ahead and call you Mrs. Cartwell. From what I saw of you and the younger one at Clink, it looks like a wedding has already taken place. Are you still going by Storm or Cartwell?”
“I’m not a Cartwell,” she said. “But I’d be as proud as ever to tell you if I was.”
“We’ll see about that!” He screamed at her like it infuriated him to realize she didn’t deny the Cartwell name. “Just because they saved you that day at the gym, don’t expect them to save you now.”
It sounded like the car was moving again. Evan took a deep breath. As long as he kept the car on the road, he wasn’t abusing her. Evan didn’t think he could take it if he laid a hand on Peyton. He’d heard the fear in her voice, and his heart was breaking. He’d never felt so helpless in his whole life.
“Why are we headed this way?” she asked.
Kane stumbled backwards and hovered over the box. Braden moved for the door, and Evan climbed on the cabinets. Over the kitchen sink, he retrieved a pistol. He loaded it and handed it to Braden. Immediately, Braden checked the safety and shoved it in his belt.
He had his hand on the doorknob ready to move.
“We’re going to spend the night in Fletcher.”
“Fletcher?” Evan mouthed the words to Kane. The Cartwell ranch was in Arden, only minutes from Fletcher.
“Oh,” she said. “Why Fletcher? Why do you want to stay so close to where I’m living?”
“For several reasons. First, I need to make sure I’m close to the interstate, and second, I want to leave you somewhere close to the Cartwell ranch. After I have my way with you, I’m going to kill you.”
“Why?” she screeched.
“Because whores like you die. It’s why my step-mommy died.”
“You’re sick.”
A slap and then what sounded like a harder punch came blaring through the phone.
“They’ll kill you!” she screamed.
“No, Peyton, I’ll make him pray for death,” Kane said. “Braden, get to Fletcher. He might check in at the Holiday Inn there at the interstate. There’s a little mom and pop type hotel there behind it too and another few right there at the same exit. I can’t imagine that he’d risk staying at the Hampton. It’s not easy to get in and out of there.”
After a few minutes of silence, Peyton’s sniffles subsided. “I’ll do anything you ask me to do but I’m young…please let me live.”
“She’s begging him. Damn it to hell, she’s begging for her life!”
“I tell you what. How much do you think the Cartwells would pay me to let you live?”
“They don’t… they won’t…they…I don’t know.”
“Would they pay a million?”
In a heartbeat, Evan thought.
“How about two?”
“Without a thought,” Evan said it this time.
“I’m going to see if they’ll pay five. Give me your number, Miss Storm, and if they answer the phone, you might live until tomorrow.”