Breathe (21 page)

Before we got there, he took my backpack and my phone from me. He threw the backpack in the trash and set the phone behind the front tire of the truck. He opened the truck door and I climbed in. He closed and locked it. It was happening so fast.

I looked out the windshield. Everything looked so normal. I realized while I was sitting there that I had just done what I had told Lily I would never do. I got in this truck. I was taking a chance with my life, when I promised her I wouldn’t. But if it kept this monster away from her, it was a promise worth breaking. All I could do was keep praying that what I had set in motion would work. Come on, Caedan, just follow the plan.

As he walked around to the driver’s side, I had to mentally slap myself. I needed to be paying attention to my surroundings and to what was happening. No time to give in to the fact that he was making my skin crawl. I had a job to do.

He got into the car on his side. He smiled, and it reminded me of a snake.

“Jasmine, I want you to open the glove compartment and take out the plastic baggie inside.” I opened the glove box. Inside was the baggie, but there were also zip ties and an ugly-looking knife. I did what he asked, while trying to keep my hands from shaking.

A piece of fabric that looked exactly like the last one was sitting ominously in the bag. “Open the baggie, but don’t do anything else with it. I want you to lay your head on my shoulder.” I must have looked like I was going to balk because he frowned. “Do it now, Jasmine.” He had an edge to his voice that I remembered from when he grabbed me at the meet.

I slowly scooted over on the bench seat and laid my head on his shoulder. He put his arm around my shoulders. “Now take the material out of the baggie, place it over your face, and breathe normally.”

This time I couldn’t keep my hands from shaking. This was the most scared I’d ever been. Even more than at the meet. He was so calm but so scary. I didn’t want to do this. I couldn’t be passed out and not know what was going on. I needed to stay in control and awake. I didn’t want to be sick like last time. I needed to see what was going on.

I felt the tears start, and I couldn’t see to get my hand in the bag. He looked angry.

“You were doing so well. Don’t make me have to do this for you, Jasmine. You know you have no choice in this. I told you it was you or Lily. You agreed. Do it now, or I will be forced to do something I don’t want to do.” He squeezed my right shoulder hard. He obviously meant business.

“Can I please just close my eyes or something? Please?” I hated to beg, but if it kept me from having to breathe that stuff in, I would. “I got pretty sick from it last time,” I sniffed and tried again to stop the tears. He reached up with the hand resting on my shoulder, grabbed my hair, and yanked my head back so I was looking him directly in the eyes. He started talking through his teeth.

“You are trying my patience. I thought you were going to make this easy. Do it now before I decide to make this much harder on you.” He let go and looked away. He was tapping the steering wheel with his thumb.

“I have a schedule to keep and you are putting us behind.”

Okay, there was no negotiating. I obviously didn’t have a choice. Nodding, I slowly reached into the bag. I couldn’t think of anything that was going to make this any better. I raised the material to my face and breathed shallow breaths. The sides of my vision started to go dark immediately. And then… nothing.

When I awoke, my head was spinning again. It took me a few moments to orient to my surroundings. I tried to roll onto my side, but I was having trouble. I closed my eyes again for what could have been minutes or hours. I couldn’t tell.

When I opened them again, the room wasn’t spinning anymore, but I still felt like my eyelids weighed a ton. I looked down and confirmed that I was still wearing the same clothes. My shoes and ankle brace were still on. Thank you, Lord! Something was going right in this nightmare.

I tried to turn over again and realized my right hand was zip-tied to a bed frame. I reached into my brace with my left hand and pulled out the small knife I had hidden there and put it under my pillow. Obviously, the Monster didn’t know I was left-handed, since he had zip-tied only my right. There was a knot in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t even want to think about what would come next. Fear was trying to get a foothold, but I couldn’t let it. Caedan should have followed my instructions by now.

Time to take an inventory of the room. It looked old and run-down, at first glance. Wood walls and floor. It was a loft of some kind. In front of the bed, a section of the wall opened to the floor below. I couldn’t hear anything except water lapping against something. There was some natural light, but no windows that I could see. It looked like it must have been some kind of storage area. I could see the beginning of the staircase all the way across the room, and the rest of the room was empty. Not a thing in it, except for the bed I was on.

I turned my head to the left and gasped out loud. On the wall next to the bed was a huge collage of photos, and they were all of me. A magazine of my life: moving day in California, with my mom and the twins in Wal-Mart, the first day of school here, with the girls at lunch, running during cross-country practice, and with Easton at the Art Walk. I wanted to throw up. My stomach started to heave. I knew he had followed me, but this was a whole different thing. This was my whole life. Seeing it this way was so scary and intrusive. I had known he had been watching, but to know that during some of the happiest moments of my life I was being stalked put my balance completely off.

How was I going to face this alone? It made me sick to think Daisy went through this and was as scared or even more than I was right now. Tears pricked the back of my eyes. I didn’t want to think about what he had done to her because I could be next. I needed to pull myself together. The only way this could work was if I didn’t lose it.

I took a deep breath, shoved the fear into one of those very convenient compartments, and locked it down. No time for that now. Falling apart could come later. If there was a later.

I heard a door downstairs open and shut. Footsteps, cabinets opening and closing. Then someone was coming up the stairs. I started to sweat. I wasn’t sure how ready I was for this confrontation. My plan A was to just wait it out as best I could and hopefully the cavalry would arrive without me having to do anything. My Plan B was a little more confrontational, and I hoped I wouldn’t have to use it. He was, as it turned out, a pretty big guy. I knew that, so I had planned accordingly, but he definitely had an advantage.

His steps were heavy, and my heart seemed to pound harder with each one. I closed my eyes, hoping he would think I was still asleep.

“Jasmine.” I cracked my eyelids to look through my lashes. He had brought a chair with him. He sat backward on it at the end of the bed. “I know you are awake. Don’t make me prove it.”

I opened my eyes and said nothing.

“There’s my girl.”

The sweat on my body turned cold. It was warm in the room, but I couldn’t tell. He didn’t have any expression. He’d had sunglasses on when we were in the truck so I hadn’t gotten to see his eyes, but now I could tell there was nothing there. He had a knife in his hand and was just holding it where his arms crossed on the back of the chair.

He must have taken his shirt off because he was just wearing a sleeveless undershirt, and I could see he had a tattoo on his shoulder. It was a daisy. I don’t know why it shocked me so much, but it did.

The shakes were unavoidable now. My whole body was shivering. He saw where I was looking and glanced at his shoulder.

“Like it? I thought it was an appropriate way to remember your sister. Even though it turned out that you are the one I really want. If I’d known then that you would turn out so beautiful, I would have just taken you. Daisy turned out to be… a disappointment.” He wasn’t even looking at me; he was looking at the pictures on the wall. “All that time I wasted on her, and you were really the one. I should have been more careful in choosing.” He turned his head back to stare at me. “But I’ve got it right, now. How are you feeling?”

How was I feeling? Well, gosh, I don’t know. Pretty good, what with being stalked and kidnapped by my sister’s murderer. I guess I was doing okay. How was I supposed to answer that? He really was certifiable, but I needed to keep him talking.

“Where are we?”

“Far enough away so that we won’t be found. That’s all you need to know. The question is: Are you going to be a good girl and do what I tell you? Or are you going to disappoint me, the way Daisy did?”

“I don’t know what you mean. How did she disappoint you?” I hated talking to him about my sister. It made me mad and gave me the creeps at the same time, but any information I got could help. Keeping him talking instead of acting was definitely better.

“She told me she would stay. She told me she would do what I said, and then she tried to run. She lied. I can’t stand liars. She said she loved me and she left. I told her we were meant to be together. She agreed.”

He was starting to get agitated. He stood and started to pace. His voice got louder.

“I explained it all to her. How I had seen her at the hospital. How I knew from the way she smiled at me that we were meant to be together. She always spoke to me when she came to the hospital to visit. I knew then that she was mine. But then she had to go and ruin everything. She ran away the minute she had the chance. Don’t you see? I didn’t have a choice. She lied to me. I didn’t know what to do for a while. I was so confused. I had been so sure. And then I saw you on the news. I knew then. You were so angry. You were beautiful and strong and you said what you felt. You didn’t lie. You always told the truth. You were actually the one. I watched you.”

The fact that he had been so close to us and we missed it freaked me out. How did the police not catch him? He was right there. How did he get away with it? He worked at my mom’s hospital? That’s how he knew us? I didn’t remember him. I hadn’t talked to everyone there like Daisy had. I always just went to the gift shop or sat in a waiting room, reading, when we were there. But Daisy talked to everyone. She had planned on being a nurse, like my mom, but wanted to work with the NICU babies. He must have been one of the people she got to know there. Out of everyone, he picked us. Completely random and terrifying.

“All this time, I waited. When you all decided to move, it was perfect. A fresh start for us. I couldn’t wait. And then we got here and that idiot got in the way. He almost ruined everything. I almost killed him just for that. But who could blame him for falling in love with you? You were irresistible. I knew you would be honest and do the right thing. I knew you would get rid of him when I told you to. You’re a smart girl. Smarter than your sister. You saved his life, Jasmine. You should be proud. Now we are together, and everything is the way it should be. Don’t you see?”

That stupid press conference had caused all of this. I never should have done it. Then, again, because of that press conference I was going to have the opportunity to catch him—one way or another. I know it sounds crazy. I didn’t want to die, but I wasn’t afraid of it either. I wanted him brought to justice more than I wanted to live with him walking around free to do this to someone else’s life. If he was caught, Lily could stop being scared, Caedan could grow up knowing the Monster was in jail, and my mom could move on. Would it be better if I came out alive? Absolutely. But it wasn’t the most important thing. My plan was not to guarantee I got out alive but that he got caught.

Please, Lord, he needs to get caught, or all of this will have been for nothing.

So far, so good… until he came and sat down on the bed next to me. He leaned over and ran his hand over my hair. He pulled out my ponytail holder and ran his fingers though my hair again and again, just staring at me. He had calmed down some and was smiling that creepy smile again that didn’t match his eyes.

“I am so happy you’re here. I have waited so long for you.” He spoke almost like he was talking to someone else. He had a look in his eye that I didn’t like at all. My stomach started to roll. This was getting bad. I didn’t allow myself to think about where he was going with this. Keeping that particular box locked down was critical. Time for a distraction.

“May I please go to the bathroom?” I really did have to go, and if it kept him off track, all the better. He sat up and looked at me.

“Jasmine, I want you to promise you are not going to try to get away once I undo this tie.” He ran his hand up and down over my wrist. “I know we haven’t had much time to get to know each other. You may not be ready to understand that I will never let you go. I do know you are an honest girl, and if you give me your promise, you will keep it.”

Here is where this guy went so very wrong. I was a much better liar than my sister. I’m the sneaky second child. I have ways of getting away with things that Daisy could never have understood. Not only was I a good liar, I was pretty sure I had a gift for acting.

After Easton pointed out some of what I considered gifts and he considered flaws, I had thought seriously about it. I had been conning people my whole life. I really needed to pray about it when this was over because I probably enjoyed that a little too much. I tried not to use my powers for evil, but I have to say it’s a good thing I know Jesus. I’m far from perfect. And I’m not sure why Easton was the only one who could see right through me, but for now I was thankful. At this moment, however, I wasn’t going to try to get away. Building a little trust with this guy wasn’t going to hurt my situation and would help me later. I needed to be sure I had given enough time for the plan to be executed. I was just going to stall and pray that everything went the way I had planned.