Outsider (Outsider Series) (22 page)

“Great,” she replied. “I’ll make you some breakfast and then you can head over.”

I finished my hot chocolate and then jumped in the shower. I blew my hair dry and then pulled it back in a ponytail.
I put on a black long-sleeved shirt and then put my
Lucinda’s
shirt on over it. I was silently thankful for a moment that Gram let her employees where jeans. I put on the hat and tied the laces on my sneakers. All set.

“Just in time,” said Gram sliding a cheese omelet onto a plate.

I sat down at the little table and took a bite, “Yum,” I moaned.

Gram laughed. “Good?”

“Delicious,” I said.

She sat down then with her own plate. We ate in comfortable silence and then I cleaned my plate.

“Alright,” I said. “I’m going to head out.”

“Okay, be careful,” she said.

“I will,” I said, already tugging on my winter coat.

I started my car and let it sit for a couple of minutes to warm up. I pulled away and drove as slow as possible the short distance. The neighborhood roads were pretty bad but once I made it to the main drag the road were fairly decent. I still worried over black ice though.

But luckily I made it to the store without wrecking the car. I parked and Caeden pulled in right at the same time.

“Fancy meeting you here,” he said getting out of the
Jeep
; he had his
Lucinda’s
baseball cap on backwards.

I feigned shock, “Caeden Williams are you stalking me?”

He laughed. “I’m not prone to stalker tendencies,” he said and then ap
praised me. “But for you I might.”

Now I laughed. I unlocked the backdoor and we set to making the day’s cupcakes. We still had two hours before the store opened.

In record time the kitchen was a mess. Flour coated the stainless steel island and the floor. I laughed looking at Caeden. “You have batter on your face,” I said.

He wiped at it only making it worse. “Did I get it?” he asked.

“Far from it,” I said around a laugh. I turned the mixer off and went to help him. I grabbed a rag wiped gently at his cheek. “It’s gone,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said his voice choked.

I went back to mixing when I heard the curse behind me.

“What is it?” I asked, surprised at the string of profanities coming from his mouth.

“We’re out of cupcake l
iners, cream cheese,
and a load of other crap. The truck was supposed to come in last night but apparently it didn’t,” he groaned.

I wiped my hands on my apron. “Well,” I said putting my hands flat on the counter. “What do we do? Can you run to the store and get the bare necessities?”

He took his hat off and ran his hands angrily through his hair before replacing it. “I guess so,” he said. “We don’t have much choice
.
Will you be okay?” he asked.

I batted my eye lashes and said, “I know I look like a damsel in distress but I’m really going to be okay for the fifteen minutes it’ll take you to go across the road to Food Lion.”

He laughed. “Alright,” he said putting his hands up in defense, “I get it, you’ll be fine.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket. “I won’t be long,” he said starting towards the back door.

“I’ll be fine,” I said with a laugh and then pushed him out the door.

I already had some batter
prepared but since we were
out of liners there wasn’t much I could do. So, I tried to clean up as best I could. I knew that it would only get messy again but I figured some mess was better than a lot of mess.

I was just rinsing out the rag when I heard the door open behind me. A smile lit my face. “That was quick,” I said.

“Were you expecting me?” asked a voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Travis.

Stunned I dropped the rag back into the water where it splattered. Little droplets of water sprayed up to cover my arms, the floor, and the counter. I whipped around to find Travis and a man I didn’t recognize.

The man had sandy brown hair and black eyes that matched Travis. He had a strong jaw and a button nose. His button nose didn’t match the evil look on his face. He smiled a smile that promised pain and suffering. I knew that this was Peter Grimm, Travis’ dad, he had to be.

I looked back at Travis. Trying to think about anything besides about what was going to happen to me, I wondered where Travis got his white blond hair. It must have been from his mother. But it seemed to out of place with his black eyes.

They took a step closer and the time for thinking about mundane things like hair and eyes was over. My flight or fight senses were kicking in and they were screaming
run!
They had the back exit blocked, there was no way to get around them, and they were too big to fight. I had no choice but to run. And so run I did.

I sent up a silent prayer that I had worn sneakers today and then I sprinted to the front of the shop.
I pushed a rolling cart behind me and heard it crash followed by their curses.
I could hear their footsteps behind me and
it was a small place so I ran faster. I flew through the swinging door and then jumped over the counter and probably bruised my leg in the process but it didn’t matter. I had to get out of here now. I reached the door, which meant sanctuary, but it wouldn’t open.

It was locked.

And with it my fate was sealed.

I gulped once before something smashed into my skull and then everything went thankfully numb.

* *
*

It didn’t take long for me to come around. They were pulling me into the back of a large truck at the back of the store.

“Help!” I screamed. Their hold on me tightened. I tried to elbow one of them and succeeded. I heard a muttered ‘ow’ but they still held tight. “Let me go!” I screamed kicking my legs. I was going to make this as difficult as possible.

The man that I assumed was Peter laughed in my face. “Not likely,” he sneered and then closed the door of the truck in my face.

I screamed as loud as I could. Tears ran silently down my cheeks.

Travis and the man got in the car and then were screeching out of the parking lot. Obviously, killing us by hitting ice was not a concern.

Idly I wondered how long it would take Caeden to get back and see that I was gone. Would he know what happened? Would he be able to find me?

Or, I gulped, would they kill me before he could?

I didn’t want to die. I hadn’t even had a chance to live yet. So, many things I had yet to experience.
Looking at their faces I had no doubt that they would kill me. I could see it in their eyes. I knew Travis was a bad person but I hadn’t suspected him to be a murderer. But hadn’t he and his dad tried to kill Caeden? I knew they wouldn’t hesitate to end my life. My life was meaningless. As far as they knew I was just a regular human.
I squished my lips together to hold in the whimper that wanted to escape.

“Why are you
doing
this?” I asked my voice cracking.

“Bait,” muttered Travis. “Caeden seems fond of you.”

“What are you going to do to him?” I asked.

Travis glanced back at me and I knew the answer.

“You’re going to kill him.” I gulped it wasn’t a question but Peter answered me anyway.

“We already failed once,” said Peter, “we won’t fail again.”

I bit my lip until it bled so that I couldn’t scream. Tears silently leaked out of my eyes. Kill him. They couldn’t. I wouldn’t let them. I would find a way to escape?
Or a way to warn him?
I had to do something. I would not let Caeden die for me despite my earlier thoughts of rescue. When it came to life or death I would die a million times over before I let Caeden die for me. I hadn’t said I love you, to him, but I did. I was in love with him. Madly. Deeply. Completely.

They drove for a while before they pulled over and put a blindfold over my eyes and tied my hands together. One of them slapped my face and then shoved me forcefully into the car. My knee collided with the metal of the car door. He laughed. It was Peter.

We drove, and drove, and drove. I knew they were trying to confuse me.
It didn’t matter though. I didn’t want to be found. To be found meant Caeden’s death and I couldn’t have that.

Finally, after hours, the truck stopped. Someone pulled me roughly from the car and I knew that their fingerprints would leave behind bruises.

“What’s so
special
about you?” whispered Travis in my
ear
before he shoved me forcefully in to the ground. “Clumsy thing aren’t you? Pathetic
human
,” he spat.

Tears sprang to my eyes again and I was suddenly thankful for the blindfold so that they couldn’t see. Travis pulled me roughly up by hair and I couldn’t help the scream that escaped my throat. He laughed.

We walked a little further before he let me go and then I heard a creaking noise. A moldy smell accompanied the noise.

Rough, callused, hands grabbed me, I assumed it was Peter. He laughed in my ear before throwing me down. Down. Down.

My body was batter
ed b
y cement steps. I heard the door slam closed before my head collided with the floor. It throbbed painfully for a moment before I passed out.

* * *

             
When I woke up, I thought I must still have my eyes closed, because it was much too dark. And then the puzzle pieces slammed together in my head. Travis. Peter. Store. Truck. Blindfold. Creaking. Fall.

Thinking of the fall and dull throbbing in my head came to the forefront of my mind. Despite my hands being tied I could move them enough to remove the blindfold.

It didn’t help. It was still so dark that I couldn’t make out my surroundings. It smelled moldy, rusty, and stale. It made my stomach churn. I was extremely cold. I could feel the Goosebumps on my skin and my teeth rattled. The ground beneath me was cold and dusty, like maybe it was dirt.
I shivered and wrapped my arms tighter around me. I wished I had a jacket or a sweatshirt.
Anything to keep me warm.

I could feel the dried tears on my cheeks crack when I moved my face. I scooted across the floor until I found a wall to lean against. The wall was cold like the ground but I was too tired to care.
I leaned my head against the cool stone and brought my knees up to my chest. My teeth chattered so hard that my jaw hurt.

After hour
s of just sitting there I tried to fall
asleep. It wasn’t a good sleep. How could it be?

Every little noise that I heard jolted me from my restless sleep. And there were lots of noises. I started to become paranoid. What if that dripping noise wasn’t water? What if it was a snake’s tongue sliding between its fangs? That scuttling noise, what if it wasn’t the wind but a rat?

With nothing to distract me my thoughts ran wild. I tried to empty my mind and think of nothing but that was impossible. In fact it was worse.

All I could see was Travis and Peter attacking Caeden.
Two against one
.
I didn’t think Caeden would be able to survive another attack by the Grimm’s. He barely survived the first. A sob escaped my chest when I pictured them hurting Caeden, I couldn’t think the word
dead
.

The wind whistled outside and the temperature continued to drop. Night had come.

* * *

Light filtered into the room and I cracked my eyes open. I must have finally fallen asleep. My neck hurt from the ungodly position I had slept in. My whole body hurt like I had been run over by a truck. No doubt from being thrown around like a sack of potatoes.
The shadow of a figure began to descend the concrete steps. Enough light filtered in so that I could see that I was in some kind of underground bunkhouse. Something like you might see in tornado country.

The person stopped in front of me, the light was behind them, so I couldn’t see their face. The person bent down in front of me, I flinched away. A hand snaked out and grabbed my chin forcing me to look into their eyes.

I tried
to pull away but the hand wouldn’t allow me to budge. “Look at me!” growled the voice of Peter. When I resisted he slapped me so hard I was surprised a few teeth didn’t fall out. I did taste blood though and I quickly spat it at him. “Ugh! You bitch!” he yelled.

“Why are you doing this?” I screamed at him. “Let me go! I haven’t done anything to you!”

“No? I think you have.” Tears ran down my face and he shook me. “What do you know?” he yelled in my face, spit flying.

“What do you mean?” I choked.

“You know what I’m talking about! Don’t play dumb!”

I just kept shaking my head.

Peter disappeared and I was alone once again. I heard th
e door slam shut sealing me
in
and
then the sound of a lock being closed.