CHAPTER 26
GRACE

“Stop it! Stop! What are you—?”

“Shut the fuck up,” one of the guys said.

“Damn, that woman can scream,” the other one said.

A rope tied my wrists and bound my ankles before a blindfold was tied around the back of my head. I was shaking in fear as I was tossed into the back of a car. My side hit the cente hump of the floorboard and I groaned out in pain.

What in the world was happening?

I was petrified and all I could think about was Harper. I wished I could call her. Hell, I wished I could call Ryan. He would find me. He would know what to do. He could take care of Harper until I could find a way out of this insane situation, give my statement, and get home to my child.

The pain in my side was blinding.

“Where the fuck do you think Ryan’s going?” the guy asked.

“Who the hell cares?” the other guy responded.

I froze in the back seat and tried to calm my swirling mind. Either my ears were playing tricks on me in my panic, or one of the guys had said the name Ryan. I had thought that the voice of the third guy was familiar but I was refusing to belive it. I was refusing to believe that he was exactly what my mother had warned me about; no better than his father. It couldn’t be. I wouldn’t believe it. He couldn't be that kind of man. They were talking about a different Ryan. They had to be. My Ryan was good and honest, a hardworking man who loved my daughter and loved me. He wouldn’t do something like this. He was a construction worker, who worked with his hands and made an honest paycheck so he could send his little brother to school and provide for the family we were creating.

The car came to a halt and I slammed my head against something hard. I felt the room tilting even though I couldn't see. The two guys climbed out of the vehicle before a door at my feet ripped open, and I felt a pair of hands wrap around my ankles.

“Stop. Please. No!”

I kicked at him before a pair of arms wrapped around my waist.

“Get that bitch in the house.”

I was flailing, trying to do my best to get away. But with my legs and arms bound and nothing to see to figure out where I was, it was useless. I heard a door slam somewhere in the distance before my body was tossed into a chair, then I felt something tugging at my arms and legs.

“Yep. Like that. Bind the ropes at her wrists to the ones at her legs.”

I tugged and pulled, trying to make it harder on them. But a hand came down around my neck and squeezed. It made it hard to breathe and I felt my vision fading, and soon I was tied to a chair I couldn’t get up from.

“Get the money in here, go get rid of the car, and find us another vehicle. I’ll stay here.”

“On it.”

My jaw was quivering with fear as the door opened and closed yet again.

The silence was deafening. I heard the legs of a chair scraping along the floor. Tears flooded my cheeks and soaked into my blindfold, and I could hear a chuckle emanating from in front of me.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“You saw one of our faces. You’re a loose end now,” the man said.

“I won’t tell anyone. I’m really good at keeping a secret.”

“You all are, until you aren’t,” he said.

“Please,” I said. “I have a child. And another baby on the way. I’ll do anything. Just let me go.”

“Fuck. You’re pregnant?” the man asked.

“Please,” I said as my body began to tremble. I’ll do anything. Anything you ask. Just let me go home to my baby. Let me live my life. I’ll quit my job at the bank. I’ll move out of town. I’ll tell the police anything you want me to say, or I’ll leave before they can get to me to take a statement.”

“Shut up,” the man said.

“Please. Help me,” I said.

“Shut up, woman.”

“Help me! Somebody, please! Help me!”

Then a crack against my temple shot a searing pain through my head, and everything else went black.

I saw Harper running around in the backyard. I felt my hand resting on my protruding stomach. I felt an arm slip around me and I looked up, but instead of seeing Ryan I saw a black ski mask. A mask with a clown face over it and a wide-brimmed hat.

I began to scream and another blinding pain brought me back into unconsciousness.

Looking down, I saw my stomach, bleeding from my belly button. I looked up and was in a hospital, surrounded by men in masks. Black masks, blue masks, Halloween masks and painted faces. One was telling me to push and the other was knocking me against the head. A familiar voice in the corner was yelling at them to stop.

I started shrieking, crying out for Ryan before yet another piercing jolt knocked my head back.

Now, I was in the middle of a field. My stomach was flat and I was in a beautiful yellow sundress. Harper was picking flowers off in the distance and calling out for me, but a looming storm was on the horizon. A big black wall was coming for us, decimating everything in its path.

“Harper! Get over here! We have to go!” I said.

“But Mommy! The flowers—they’re so pretty!”

“Harper. Stop moving. Harper! Don’t!”

I watched the black mass take over my daughter, crushing her in its path as I sank to my knees.

I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, but I accepted my fate. I knew my mother would take care of Harper, but I knew she would never be the same, growing up without her father or her mother. I only hoped my mother would respect my wishes, the rules I wanted Harper to grow up with and the mindset I wanted to instill in her.

Over and over I apologized to the child within my body, tTelling him or her that everything would be ok. I prayed to whatever God would listed to get me out of this situation and back to my daughter.

Then, the blindfold was tugged from my face.

“Wakey, wakey,” one of the men said. “Time to pay up.”