Adriana’s POV

The grab was so fast and quiet, that for a split second Adriana thought she’d imagined it. She felt a hand at her elbow, another clamping over her mouth and steering her sideways like they were just two people leaving together. There was no shove and zero fight.

Adriana’s brain went bright and flat at once. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, I'm being kidnapped. The words pounded through her head like drums.

She gasped against the palm covering her mouth. She twisted instinctively, but the person only gripped her tighter.

“Don’t even think about doing anything stupid!” The man hissed in her ear. "Move when I tell you to move, and stop when I tell you to stop."

“Make a sound,” he whispered, “and I put a knife in your side. You’ll bleed out right here and nobody will notice.”

The cold press of metal nudged her waist. Her knees almost gave out. Oh shit!

Her body wanted to collapse, but she forced herself upright. People passed by near the lobby door, laughing, checking phones and being oblivious. To them it looked polite, like she was just leaning on him. They moved out through the side exit, instead of taking the front door.

“Good girl.” He muttered.

She wanted to scream, to bite him and run away. Instead, she stared at the exit sign, willing her mind to focus. Details. She needed details.

Adriana smelled his cologne, it was way too strong as if he just sprayed it. She also smelled a faint whiff of hairspray. His clothes looked pressed and neat. He did not look like the typical kidnapper that she was used to watching in crime documentaries. This wasn’t just a random kidnapping. She even doubted that the man wanted money from her.

Just one day in Texas and she had already been kidnapped? Way to go, America!

“Where are you taking me?” she tried to mumble against his hand.

“Be quiet!” He ordered, digging the knife closer.

He pushed her down the side street and led her to the SUV car. Then it all immediately clicked in her head. This was exactly why the SUV had been following them! Adriana began to regret that she did not tell Jose about it.

The man stopped beside the car and opened the back seat, the black leather interior yawning widely. She was shoved in before she could resist, and the door shut her inside those stanching seats. The back windows were tinted, so Adriana doubted that anybody could see her from outside.

Her lungs fought to stay steady. The man got into the car, the engine rumbled to life and they began to move.

Adriana forced herself to breathe slowly, the smell of the seats were enough reason for a panic attack. But panic wouldn’t save her, only wisdom would. She focused on tiny things.

Her hand slid to her hair and she tugged free a bobby pin, letting it slip down into the crack between the seat cushions. She would need that if she ever needed to defend herself.

Her nails picked at her sleeve until a thread caught and pulled loose. She would leave that thread in the car as a silent marker.

She leaned with the turns, memorizing them. Right. Another right. Long straight stretch. Left. Her body swayed with each shift, counting and storing it away. This was a town she was not familiar with, in a state she was visiting for the first time, in a country she had never been in. If she disappeared today, nobody would raise any alarm.

But she wasn’t helpless. She refused to be.

The man was silent in front of her. One hand was maneuvering the steering wheel while the other hand had a phone glowing faintly in it. She was terrified out of her mind and she did not know what to do.

Hell NO if faith had this installed for her death without a double cross-check. The thought alone could only make her weak to her knees.

The vehicle rolled to a stop behind a rusted service gate. When the door opened, dust and oil hit her nose — a storage facility, she guessed. A firm grip guided her out, not with force but with the practiced ease of an usher showing a guest to a reserved seat. No words, only silence heavy enough to warn her that raising an alarm would be a mistake.

She scanned what she could: she saw a ferris wheel frozen half-built against the night and she saw paint peeling on booths, she saw busted bulbs lining the roof of a cotton candy stall. Tragic, not terrifying.

The men around her avoided eye contact. Their faces were blank and boring on purpose, the kind of boring that meant they were trained warriors.

Her captor lifted his chin toward the others. “This took longer than I thought.”

One man lit a cigarette and the spark flared up in the dark. “Traffic, yeah?”

Another leaned against a metal railing. “She gave you trouble?”

“None worth mentioning,” the captor replied. “This one knows when to keep quiet, I'll give her that much.”

Adriana fought the urge to lash out. She kept it inside and locked it down tight.

The man with the cigarette blew out smoke. “You know that the boss won’t like the delay.”

“She’ll live,” the captor answered.

“Are you sure she’s worth the risk?” someone else muttered. “Too much noise around her lately.”

“Stop asking questions, will you? She’s worth it!" the captor snapped. “Orders were clear, and we followed orders. You know that much."

I stood there wondering why exactly these men were having this conversation. Then one of the men kicked at a pile of gravel. The cigarette man flicked ash to the ground and asked her captor. “Where do we keep her?”

“Here for now,” the captor decided. “She won’t run.”

One of them scoffed. “You sound confident. This one looks like she is real trouble for us."

The sadist turned slightly toward her, and Adriana saw the look of interest in his eyes. “Oh, she knows better. I warned her several times before we came here."

Adriana gritted her teeth at him, but she didn’t speak. Not yet.

The other men drifted into more casual chatter, leaving Adriana all alone. Her captor let go of her and walked to the smoker, collecting the cigarette from him and taking a drag. She knew that she would not be able to make it more than three steps if she tried to run. Those men looked like they had guns, guns which they were not scared to use.

She sat on the edge of a broken bench, keeping her hands loose in her lap. Across town, she pictured Jose opening the motel door to an empty room. She imagined his useless key card, the untouched food that he had ordered for her, the bed without her in it. She imagined his horrified expression when he would realize that she was missing.

The thought did not make her feel happy. But she felt relieved, too. Relief that someone might actually notice she was gone. Relief that it might be him. Thank God she did not come to Del Rio, Texas on her own.

She hated needing anyone, she always had. But hating it less when it was him? That was new for her.

Adriana straightened her spine and reset her face, waiting for whoever had kidnapped her. And she did not need to wait long.

"She's here!" Came a voice from the main entrance. "Boss is here!"

The men around her suddenly stood upright. The ones smoking immediately killed their cigarettes and waved their arms around to dispel the smoke. Those drinking, stooped to the ground to pack the cans of beer and flung it over the fence. Adriana heard the sound of a car pulling up to the location, she heard the click-clack sound of someone's heels. She immediately knew that this person was a woman.

The men stepped aside as their boss walked into the building. And when Adriana raised her head, she was…rather confused.

"And so we meet again, beauty."