Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 56875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
“I don’t like strangers in my room,” she replied, searching for something on the dresser top. Her voice sounded different. Removed and cold, not the usual singsong voice I was used to hearing from her.
A flutter of nerves rolled through me. I looked around, not seeing anything amiss. Just an untidy room and clutter. I glanced back at the dresser, noticing the bottle of contact lens solution. Then the box of daily wear contacts. I squinted, trying to read the label. Colored lenses. Then I noticed something else. A wig lying on the floor as if forgotten and discarded. A long, braided dark-colored wig.
For some reason, my breathing picked up. The flutter became a torrent.
“Maybe you should give me and Una our gift together,” I said, trying to control the sudden quaver in my voice. “We could do lunch tomorrow.” I slid my hand over my wrist, finding the toggle on my bracelet. It was caught on my sweater, wrapped in the folds of wool. I tugged, trying to loosen it.
“No need, I found it,” Heidi said, turning to me. Her usual smile wasn’t in place. Her eyes, even with the colored lenses in them, were no longer friendly. They were cold. Angry.
“I really should go.” The toggle slipped out of the heavy knit on my arm, and I turned it, trying to get it between my suddenly trembling fingers.
She smiled, nodding. “You’re right. You are going to go.”
Then she plunged a needle into my arm. “You’re going far, far away.”
The room began to spin, and I grabbed at the back of the chair to keep upright. I felt hot, unsteady, and dizzy. I stumbled and fell, my fingers reaching for my wrist.
But not fast enough.
Blackness closed in, and I was gone.
I woke, groggy, my head aching and my body protesting. It was pitch black and cold. I tried to lift my arms, but they were tied together at my back, pulling my shoulder blades together tightly, the muscles pinching. The air around me was hot and damp. I tried to stretch my legs, but I couldn’t. Moving my head was impossible. I searched my foggy brain, trying to piece together the puzzle of the fragmented memories. It hit me all at once. Running into Heidi, her seemingly innocent request of giving me a gift. Her disastrous room.
The sudden awareness that somehow I had walked into a trap.
The needle plunging into my skin and the cold of whatever she injected me with running through my system.
Her furious eyes.
Falling.
The vague sensation of being moved. Shifted. Enclosed.
My eyes flew open in the dark.
The suitcase.
I scratched at the enclosure, feeling the slippery material underneath my skin.
She had stuffed me into the suitcase.
I opened my mouth and screamed. Then again.
There was only silence.
I shut my eyes again, forcing myself to calm. I could breathe—the air was stale and warm, but I wouldn’t suffocate. But I needed to get out.
I twisted and tried to kick my legs. Tugged and jerked at whatever was holding my wrists, ignoring the sharp pain of the restraints. I pushed on the enclosure, trying to use my strength to break open the suitcase. Then I remembered it was hard-sided, and I stopped, panting and terrified.
Where was I?
Who the hell was Heidi?
Tears built in my eyes, and I stilled, needing to think.
My bracelet. Niall told me it had an undetectable tracker on it. And a backup. I tried to recall if I had managed to push the alarm button before Heidi had drugged me.
I wasn’t sure. Could he already be looking for me? I prayed that he was.
I felt a wave of dizziness sweep over me, and I pressed my head into my chest.
I knew once he found out I was gone, he would search for me. Like Una’s faith in Finn, I had absolute trust in Niall. He had come so far, admitting his feelings, confessing to his hopes of a future, that he wouldn’t stop until I was safe. I need his over-the-top possessiveness now more than ever.
“Please, Niall, find me,” I whispered. “I need you. I need you so much.”
A noise made me fall silent. Footsteps approaching made me tense. They were heavy, measured. I had no idea where I was. If the suitcase I was trapped in was visible. If it was Niall, I needed to help in order to be found. I screamed his name. Begging. Pleading for him to find me.
“Niall! I’m here! Help me!” I cried out.
The footsteps stopped, and I felt the suitcase being shifted. The sound of the zipper sliding open was a low growl that seemed to fill the small, enclosed space I was trapped in. I felt the rush of cooler air hit me as the lid was thrown open. I opened my eyes and blinked in confusion.
The room around me was bright with hideous colors. Red, gold, purple, in blazing tints and textures. There was no rhyme or reason to it—just pattern after pattern thrown together, creating a dizzying kaleidoscope of hues. It made me woozy simply to look at it. I inhaled deeply, shifting my gaze and meeting the face of a woman—a stranger. I blinked.