Bandit Bound: A Bad Boy Romance Novel (11 page)

The phone was in Savannah's hand in a flash.

"Hey Savvy," Lily said drowsily.

"Oh, sorry, were you going to bed?" Savannah asked. She looked up at a clock mounted on her wall. The light flickered again and she strained to make out the hands briefly.
1:15am.

"No," Lily said with a bad bluff.

"Oh shit, it's so late, I woke you up, ugh," Savannah said, irritated at her own clumsy mistake.

"It's fine, I'm awake now," Lily said, trying to sound lively.

"No, I'll just call tomorrow," Savannah said and quickly hung up the phone. She sighed out loud and threw the phone across the bed, staring at it past her naked feet. It hit the blanket with a surprisingly loud thud.

I should just go to sleep,
she thought.

The phone started buzzing in front of her, the smooth surface causing the phone to dance across the soft sheets back and forth as a sort of beckoning. Savannah patiently waited for the phone to tire of its urgent tango, which it soon did.

Savannah closed her eyes in microscopic triumph.

The dance begun anew.
Buzz, buzz!
Savannah sighed loudly and reached over to grab the phone.

"Ow! Shit!" she yelped as the pain shot throughout her thigh. A nasty charley horse had bit her in her awkward attempt to pick up the phone with minimal effort.

"Piss!" she hissed as she finally grasped the phone and hit the green 'accept' button.

"What?!" Savannah snapped into the mouthpiece.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked with genuine concern.

"I'm fine, I'm going back to bed, go back to bed, let's sleep, let's go to bed," Savannah said in a hurry, now trying to avoid the very conversation she was trying to start just moments ago.

"You called me at one a.m. for a reason. Can you just tell me what it is?"

There was a long silence. Savannah bit her lip and cycled through a hundred different ways to say what was on her mind without sounding foolish.

"I liked it," Savannah said. She exhaled loudly. Catharsis ran freely through her body. A heavy weight on her spirit vanished into thin air.

"You liked what?" Lily asked.

"Really?" Savannah replied, shocked that her best friend of so long didn't know what she meant.

"Not really, just making sure. Wow," Lily replied.

"Wow?" Savannah replied defensively.

"Yeah, wow, I mean," Lily stuttered to answer.

"I'm just going to go to bed," Savannah said and reached to hang up.

"Wait!" Lily's voice boomed from the ear-piece. There was urgency and anger in her voice.

"What?" Savannah snappily asked.

"Just give me a minute, will you? Put yourself in my shoes for God's sake," Lily said. Savannah did as her friend asked and realized she was being a little hasty and unreasonable.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"I'm sorry, too, I want to talk about it, I just had to collect my thoughts, you know?" Lily replied.

"Yeah, I understand, I'm just touchy about it, you know," Savannah said.

"Duh. What did you like about it?" Lily asked, trying to cut to the chase.

"I just liked him. He was different. He wasn't anything like the carousel of clowns I've had to deal with since I started dating. He was... special," Savannah began.

"Well, he was definitely different," Lily said and failed to stifle a laugh.

"Come on," Savannah whined back.

"So, he really didn't hurt you or anything like that? I thought you just said that because you were tired and wanted to go home," Lily said.

"No, he definitely didn't hurt me. He made me pulled pork and put a blanket on me when I fell asleep," Savannah said.

"What?!" Lily replied, laughing once more.

"I'm serious, he did that, no exaggeration," Savannah said. It felt nice to be able to talk about him like he was a real person and not some sort of boogey man who swooped in and stole her for a night of terror. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

"I guess he really liked you, huh," Lily teased.

"I really liked him," Savannah sighed.

"Have you talked to him since?" Lily asked.

"I haven't been able to find a single detail about him since he gave himself up to the police. Nothing," Savannah lamented.

"Why not? Shouldn't he be in the paper or on some news site or something?" Lily asked.

"I looked everywhere. Everywhere! I was obviously curious, right?" Savannah said.

"Obviously," Lily concurred.

"Nothing," Savannah sighed.

"I'll look too, what was his name again?" Lily asked.

"He said his name was Vincent Starlingveil, but his friend, uh, accomplice I guess, called him Vance. Vincent said he was just mispronouncing his name, but I don't know. I'm skeptical," Savannah said.

"Okay, I'll go check it out, but not tonight, I've got cooking class tomorrow morning," Lily said.

"Oh man, I'm sorry, we can talk about this later," Savannah said.
I'm fucking up her sleep schedule for this
, she thought.
She's too nice to me.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked.

"Yes. Thank you so much for pestering me to pick up the phone," she said.

"I do love to pester you, but I also love to sleep. Goodnight, Savvy," Lily said.

"Goodnight," Savannah replied.

"By the way," Lily added.

"Yes?"

"Did you guys, you know... do it?" Lily sounded like a grade schooler.

Savannah thought long and hard about telling her the truth of what happened that night, but opted to tell her her version of 'the truth'.

"No, we didn't have sex," she said.
Technically we didn't,
she thought to herself.
That doesn't count as sex. Not for a second.

"Damn, that would have been an even crazier story," Lily asked. "Like something from a book!"

"Yeah," Savannah said dreamily.

"Goodnight!" Lily said once more.

"Goodnight!"

Savannah put away the phone and tried to sleep. She squirmed in bed for an hour, fantasizing about the night she spent captive at his hidden cabin.

She dreamt of him that night. He came back for her in a big air balloon at her bank. She ran out the door and hopped into the air balloon and they sailed off together. He kissed her on the neck.

11

Savannah walked through the entrance of the bank with her hand over her eyes in a makeshift visor to block out the sun as she entered. The golden illumination of outside turned to fluorescent grey as she walked into the place that still felt like a prison to her.

After sleeping so late, she was particularly tired and didn't greet anyone on the way to her office, instead shambling directly from the entrance of the building to the entrance of her cubicle office like a zombie.

"Excuse me!" an unfamiliar voice called out. Savannah realized that he had repeated himself about three or four times before the final shout caught her attention.

She slowly turned around and saw a uniformed police officer looking at her suspiciously.

"You alright, Ms. Solitaire?" he asked with a concerned voice.

"Oh, yes, I'm fine, just haven't had a coffee yet," she replied with a half-hearted laugh.

"That's good. I need to speak with you about something, is there somewhere private we could talk right now?" the police officer asked.

Savannah looked at her office which was about as private as a bathroom stall. Then she looked around the bank. What few customers were there this early in the morning were giving her looks as if she was a criminal.

"I guess outside would be good," Savannah said with a minuscule sigh.

"Great," the officer replied and started to head back for the door. Savannah turned on a pivot and followed after him.
What's this all about?
She wondered.

The golden rays of morning sunlight blasted her once more, which she found quite welcoming compared to the frigid grey environment she had to spend her work days in. She looked left and right, only seeing a few morning birds picking at the grass; not a person in sight. She wished she had wings like the birds right now so she could fly away.

"Okay, what's up?" Savannah asked.

"We've been trying to get in contact with you since your abduction, but we've had a hard time," the police officer said with a hint of anger, as if he were scolding her.

"I've been very busy, and I told you everything already," Savannah shot back.

"Yeah, we really appreciate that, I know it's not hard to open up after a traumatizing event like that," the officer said. Savannah instinctively rolled her eyes at the word 'traumatizing' which immediately caught the attention of the police officer.

There was a silence as he stared at her intensely, analyzing her every facial muscle and movement.

"Okay?" Savannah said back, growing irritated.

"Ms. Solitaire," the officer started. "What was your relationship with your captor?" Savannah sighed.

"I already told you, he came into the bank and tried to deposit a bunch of money, then a day later he came back again and told me that he didn't have the money and he just wanted to hit on me," she said.
God that sounds ridiculous,
she thought. The look on the officer's face confirmed her suspicions.

"Right, right, sometimes we just like to ask twice in case you have any trouble remembering things," the officer said.
Does he not believe me?
Savannah thought. She began to intensely inspect the officer's face as he did to her. He didn't look as friendly as he did the night she was captured. He looked skeptical.

"Well, I'm glad to help," Savannah replied.
What the hell is he thinking?

"And, since I'm just checking up and making sure that you didn't forget anything, may I ask another question?" the police officer asked.
No
, Savannah thought.
I don't want to piss off the cops though.

"Sure," Savannah said. She struggled to contain a yawn which immediately came out.

"I'm glad to see that you're doing so well, so calm," the officer said. "Most people in your position are quite shaken up for quite some time after their encounter."

"I'm just tired," Savannah said. "Still no coffee."
Can this guy leave me alone already?
She thought. A loud crow cawed beside her several times in a row.

"Right, right. Well, just a quick question and I'll get off your back," the police officer said.

"Okay, go ahead," Savannah said irritatedly.

"Can you describe what happened after you were," the police officer began. He looked down a notepad in front of him which was absolutely covered in notes. "Put into the van?"

"Yeah," Savannah said, yawning once more.

"Yes, could you explain what happened one more time?" the officer asked.

"I was tied up and blindfolded, then they said they took me to location forty three. There was a big guy that watched over me while Vincent went out to do something," Savannah began.

"Vincent is the man who came to visit you, correct?"

"Yes. Anyways, so I fell asleep and when I woke up Vincent was there. He asked me what I wanted to eat. He made me pulled pork. It wasn't very good." Savannah's heart started to palpitate as she thought about what happened next.

"Yes, and then?"

"Then I ignored him until you guys showed up," she said as convincingly as possible.
How could I tell them what really happened?
She thought.
They'd think I was insane.

"Yeah, okay," the officer said with a very disappointed voice.
What's his problem?
Savannah wondered.