Chapter Seventeen

Janna woke suddenly, her eyes flying open, to be greeted by a sickening blur of motion. She was in a car, traveling quickly down winding roads, the forest running into smudged greens in the wet windows like the pallet of her paints. Her head pounded, and for a terrifying moment, she couldn't remember where she was.

When her gaze swept over to the driver, memories flooded back suddenly. She'd been investigating a spun-out car in the road when someone had come up behind her and slapped a foul-smelling rag over her mouth. Everything had faded to black, and here she was, riding along a rural road with her kidnapper.

Janna tried to shift, wanting to grab the door handle and throw herself out of the car in her panic. Her hands went nowhere, unfortunately. They were bound securely in front of her with a length of thick silver tape.

"Ah, you finally woke up."

The kidnapper's voice drew Janna's attention, and she looked him over, her mind racing, trying to stay ahead of her fear. He was slightly taller than average, on the slender side, but with enough wiry muscle that Janna was unsure of her ability to overpower him. His hair was blond and wavy, its expensive cut highlighting its thickness while attempting to disguise the growing widow's peaks on either side of his unlined forehead.

"You can go back to sleep. We won't get there for another half hour or so."

Janna's confusion doubled at his words. Was he slurring? She looked at his face again, noticed the ruddy tint infusing his cheeks. What was wrong with him? Then she saw the bottle seated at the juncture of his thighs. The label identified it as an expensive brand of vodka. Her kidnapper was drunk.

"Who are you? What's going on?"

The driver laughed. "He didn't tell you about me? I thought for sure he would have. Maybe he's too ashamed of his past transgressions."

Janna's brain finally shook off the lingering effects of the chemical he'd used to knock her unconscious. "You're Brice's cousin Chester, aren't you?" The resemblance was obvious, once she noticed it. Brice had been telling the truth.

"Got it in one. You are a smart cookie. But I'd already realized that about you. That's how I finally caught you, even though he didn't make it easy." That last point was emphasized with a hearty burp. "Pardon me," he said after, then burst into a fit of high-pitched giggles.

Janna thought the man must be unhinged. She turned her attention to the road, just in time to see a sharp curve coming up. Her kidnapper didn't slow, however, he just jerked the wheel sloppily, and the car careened around the curve, the loud squeal of tires causing her to grit her teeth. It felt like they almost went up onto two wheels. With her heart pounding loudly in her ears, she realized the full danger of the situation. A drunk driver. On dangerous roads. Driving too fast. And there was nothing she could do about it.

"Yep, I caught you, and they didn't."

He was mumbling to himself now, but Janna picked up the thread of his conversation. Anything to distract herself from the passing blur of the road and the danger of a drunken wreck. "So how did you do it?"

Her kidnapper looked over at her in surprise, as if he'd forgotten he was not alone. A slow smile spread across his face, and he took a sip from the vodka bottle before putting it back between his legs. "I've been watching you for days. Hiding in the bushes near your house. Following you around the campus. But I couldn't ever get close enough to grab you, not with those three security assholes tailing you everywhere."

"But finally they slipped up. I watched you this morning as you stormed out of the restaurant, screaming at my dear cousin. I knew then that you'd plan something, figure out some way to retaliate."

"It wasn't retaliation!" Janna interrupted, unable to stop herself. Her keyed-up emotions made her impulse control vanish.

Chester chuckled. "Call it whatever you like. He didn't tell you about the security guys, right? Not until after you spent the night at Drake's house."

"How do you know about that?" Janna was mortified to have her life under a microscope, to have her every second cataloged by Brice, and now his cousin as well.

"I followed you there, of course. I thought you were smart. Now keep up. Dear Cousin Brice confronted you about your little indiscretion with Drake, then had to come clean about how he knew. Poor Brice. If he'd only figured out how to lie like the rest of us. Instead, he feels compelled to tell the truth, even when it hurts his own family." Chester's eyes went dark and his lips twisted into a cruel scowl.

Janna was frightened by that look, by the quiet menace it portended. Best to keep him talking, instead of dwelling on his Brice-inspired rage. "Fine, so you saw me storm off. But how did you figure out I'd do something...drastic?"

"You were obviously pissed, and I knew you'd try to escape your security team, to show Brice just how mad at him you were. Either that or you were trying to sneak back over to your lover's house. It was a toss-up really, deciding whether to stake out your place or Drake's. But I thought I'd have a better shot at making sure of where you were headed if I followed you from your place. That bit with the decoy was pretty clever, and I almost fell for it. But the girl was too skinny to be you. So I waited, followed your car, and figured out pretty quickly you were heading to the land my dear cousin donated. It wasn't hard to speed around you and set up a trap."

Janna frowned, angry at herself for ignoring Brice's warnings about his clearly deranged cousin. Still, the man's accusation stuck in her craw. "Drake is not my lover."

Chester eyed her, his mouth pulling up into a confused pout. "Sure he is. Otherwise, why would you spend the night over there?"

"We're just friends."

"Did my cousin buy that?" he asked after a harsh bark of laughter. "I bet he just ate it up. I don't know why Brice so adores being treated like a doormat. He wants his women to walk all over him. Can't help but pick the gold digger type. Just look at what that bitch Evetta did to him. I could almost feel sorry for him if he wasn't such a sanctimonious prick. I was fucking her at the same time, but I'd figured out her game long before Brice did. Poor sap gave her diamonds, cars, a fucking house for chrissakes! All the while she was fucking some accountant. And me. And probably a host of other guys."

"I didn't cheat on Brice." Chester's revelations were making Janna feel sick.

"Yeah, but the week after he tells the world you're his girl, you're spending the night at his biggest rival's house. Tell me you're not playing games."

"I'm not--"

"Look, I don't care," Chester snarled finally, then swerved around another curve. The tires skidded dangerously close to the edge, and Janna let out a little scream.

"Shut up!" he growled, then cursed as the vodka bottle came loose and spilled down his leg. "Shit!" He fumbled for the bottle, his eyes no longer on the road.

Janna held her breath as the car slid toward the side of the road. The edge lacked a guard rail to hold back the forests that climbed the steep hills around them. If the car kept on, they'd go over the side, down an embankment, and into the trees. She calculated her chances at escape. Would they be better if they crashed? Maybe her captor would be injured or killed, and she could make her way to safety.

And maybe I'd wind up the one who's hurt. Or worse. Decision made, she scooted over and grabbed the wheel with her bound hands, guiding the car away from the edge.

"What are you doing?" Chester shouted when he realized she'd moved. He backhanded her, the power of the blow against her face forcing her head back against the seat. The sting made her eyes tear, and she looked up in a watery daze.

"No funny business." He scowled down at her, his face flushed with drink, his eyes wild. He was riding the knife-edge of control, and Janna worried about what would happen when he took a tumble.

She felt the panic slicing up her insides, and for a moment she gave in. "Please...just let me go. I broke up with Brice, okay. We're over. So you can't use me to hurt him. He won't care."

Chester smiled, his perfect white teeth shining in the darkness. "Oh, he'll care. He's looking for you right now, I'm sure. We won't have much time before he figures out what's happened."

"What are you going to do to me?" Janna's voice was barely above a whisper.

His predatory smile was answer enough. "You'll see."