Ellie felt like hell. What happened? She was on a bed, this she knew. But where? She forced her eyes open. The room didn’t really come into focus.
“Are you okay?”
Who is that? She turned her head.
“I-I didn’t know what to do,” he said.
“W-who are you?” she asked as her sight still didn’t clear up.
“Don’t you know?” he asked.
This was getting her nowhere. “No…Where am I?”
“In a small hotel.”
“Why am I here?” she asked.
“You don’t remember?” he replied.
“I-I…” She wasn’t sure about anything. She grabbed her head as a glancing pain shot across her temples.
“Here, let me get you some aspirin,” he said.
She heard clinking and some rustling. She turned her head and tried to see what was happening. Her vision had spots in it.
“Here.”
Ellie felt confused and disoriented. “What?”
A plastic glass was pressed to her hand and she gripped it.
Then the man opened up her curled fingers of her other hand and placed something on her open palm. “It’s two aspirins.”
Ellie raised the pills and popped them into her mouth then chased them with the glass of…what tasted like water. Then she halted. Wait! You just took some pills that you couldn’t see from a man you couldn’t see!
“A-are you okay?” he asked from the other side of the bed now.
Her head turned toward his voice. She tried her best to see him. All she could see was an outline of him. She dropped the glass with a clunk.
“What is it?” he asked with concern in his voice.
“I-I…” Ellie rose up and jumped out of bed, slamming her knee into something hard. “Oh! Oww!”
Strong hands grabbed her up and sat her back on the bed. “Oh, man you are going to hurt yourself!”
Ellie shook all over.
“Look I won’t hurt you. Don’t try to run away cause you might hurt yourself more.”
“I-I can’t see,” she whispered.
“What?” he asked in a confused tone.
Ellie stood up again. “I CAN”T SEE! I can’t see you. Or this room!”
Silence greeted her.
Lincoln Highway between New York and Philadelphia…
Morgan felt like he would lose his mind. He rode with Chance in the company limo. He looked over at his friend for the tenth time in ten minutes.
Chance had his laptop out and his phone sat there on his lap as well. Then his phone buzzed. Chance grabbed it and raised it to his ear.
Morgan held his breath. Please let this be news of Ellie. Good news.
“Yeah… uh-uh. No, no. Stay with it. We will be there in an hour. Okay.” Chance ended the call.
“Well?” Morgan asked.
“It was my second guy.” He then started to tap his keys on the laptop.
“And?” Morgan pleaded.
Chance didn’t answer.
“CHANCE!”
Chance jumped in his seat. He turned to stare at Morgan. “What the fuck, man? I have to do this real quick, then I’ll answer your questions. Just calm the hell down!”
Morgan let out a breath and turned his head to look out the window, not really seeing anything there though. Helpless. That’s what he was, fucking helpless. Here he was, a mogul CEO at least, for the time being, riding in a first class brand new limo. Bank account stuffed with money. Power at his fingertips and he couldn’t do a damn thing! He couldn’t find her. In fact, he couldn’t even help to find her.
“Okay,” Chance spoke again. He let out a sigh.
Morgan stared hard at him. “What?”
“Look…it might not be bad news.”
Morgan’s stomach knotted up, his chest grew tight, as he was afraid to ask, “What might be good news?”
Chance bit at his lip. “They found her car.”
Morgan slid closer in the seat toward him. “Her car?”
Chance nodded. “But she wasn’t in it.”
Morgan let out a breath. “So, why don’t they check the area to see where she went? She could have parked it and walked to a hotel or—”
“No.” Chance cut him off.
“No? What kind of detectives do you have working for you? If they can’t—?”
“They found her car in a ditch.”
Morgan’s eyes rounded. “A ditch?”
Nodding, Chance slyly slid over to the far side of the seat.
Morgan knew the next thing Chance would say would make him lose it. He knew Chance well and knew when he was hedging. “And?” he asked with his heart in his throat.
“The windshield was broken, her tire had popped and…” His voice faded away.
Morgan leapt across the seat and cornered him against the glass. “And WHAT?”
“There was blood on the steering wheel.”
Morgan sucked in a breath “B-blood?”
Chance nodded. “Now dude, just stay calm, ok?”
Morgan moved back away from him. “Her blood?” He felt sick.
“They don’t know but we figure—”
Morgan turned his glare to him. “YOU FIGURE?”
“Okay, now Morgan. Keep your head together man. They didn’t find her body!”
Morgan sat up straight and rigid as he felt sweat trickle down his neck in a limo with full blast air conditioning.
“O-okay…” Chance shook his head in self disgust. “Bad choice of words, but it is good news that she wasn’t…umm. She wrecked the Cooper and maybe got a ride?”
Morgan slowly shook his head as his heart hammered in his ears. “God dammit!” he shouted.
The window between them and the driver rolled down. “Sirs, are you ok?” the driver asked in concern.
“NO! You fucking idiot, we are NOT okay!” Morgan shouted, as he wanted to rip the whole car apart, driver included.
Chance lunged forward and hit the window button. “Just drive okay? Get us to Exit 20, as fast as you safely can.” The window shut.
Morgan sat back. “FUUUCK!” He pounded the seat with his fists.
Chance shook his head. “Well, you are taking this better than I thought,” he tried to joke.
The Limo sailed down the highway, but it didn’t move fast enough for Morgan. Images floated through his mind. Ellie’s smoke smeared face as she gazed up at him from the pavement after he’d given her CPR. The innocence, the pure soul that shone from those baby blues. Then her face as she stood at the top of the stairs in a diamond dress. The way her face looked and her eyes deepening to cobalt when he made her come.
He remembered her just yesterday, angry, her eyes that cobalt color. The way he had wanted her again. He knew he’d never get enough of her. The luster and urge, yearning for her had never worn off like with other women. No, it just grew, got deeper. Better, stronger. He’d already admitted to himself and to her that he loved her.
The woman that completed him, made him human. He couldn’t lose her like this.
If he lost her from the relationship it would drive him mad, but to lose her from this earth? His muscled body was rigid, his heart pounding. He couldn’t take it. He knew he couldn’t.
“Buddy?” Chance interrupted his personal journey through hell.
He glanced up and saw the limo had stopped. He sat forward breathless and looked out through the window.
Her little Mini Cooper that he’d bought her months back sat tilting on a huge rock down at the bottom of an incline. It wasn’t a ditch, it was more like a cliff. Morgan opened the limo door and rushed down the slope as fast as his legs and feet could carry him.
“Morgan!” Chance yelled.
He never even had a chance to trip as he was at the bottom next to her car in like a blink of an eye. He wrested the bent door open and looked inside. There was the blood on the steering wheel. He gaze roamed around the inside of the car. No bag. Then a glint from the last of the day’s light shone on something. He reached in and grabbed her cell phone.
“Morgan,” Chance asked from behind him.
He scooted out of the car and raised the phone. “She never goes anywhere without her phone.”
Chance looked troubled and if Morgan didn’t know better… he looked scared too. “Well, then she was upset because of the crash and—?”
“NO!” Morgan yelled. “She packed bag, didn’t your guy say this?”
Chance nodded.
“So, she grabbed her bag but left her phone and…” Morgan swung his gaze down to the floorboard. “And she left her laptop.”
Chance was dialing his phone. He looked flustered after a minute. “Dammit.”
Morgan looked from the car to him. “What?”
“My first guy won’t answer. The one who was tailing her.”
Morgan sighed. “Where was she going?” he suddenly asked.
Chance swung his gaze up. “What?”
“Where was she going? This is the road to New York.”
Chance looked confused.
“Was she coming to see me?” Morgan shook his head. “No, she was avoiding me.” He tapped her phone. “Yes, here are the five texts I sent her. She read them too.” He looked around. “Where are you, Ellie?”