Page 36 of PenPal Hero

At some point in her life, she’d ridden inside a car trunk. Was that how she’d been taken six years ago from Mack’s General Store in Dallas? She squeezed her eyelids tighter and tried harder — as hard as she could to remember.

“Bonnie?” A woman shouted her name. “Bonnie!” It was Alice.

“No, no, no,” Bonnie murmured, as the memories she was reaching for drifted away. “Don’t go!” She curled her fingers against the carpeted trunk, trying to hold on to them, but they drifted out of reach.

“Bonnie!” Alice’s hands closed around her shoulders, shaking her gently. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”

Bonnie slowly straightened and opened her eyes. “I remembered something,” she said, twirling around to face her friend.

Alice stared at her in confusion.

“About my abduction.” Bonnie flicked her wrist in agitation.

Alice’s expression grew more concerned. “What are you talking about?”

Oh, that’s right. Alice didn’t know. Bonnie made a rueful face at her. “It happened before we moved here. I was fifteen.”

“I had no idea.” Alice’s voice grew stricken. She enclosed Bonnie in a tender hug. “Your unusual connection with Holt. It all makes sense now.” Her sigh held a hitch of emotion. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I’d put it behind me,” Bonnie murmured against her shoulder. “My parents moved us here to put the past behind us and start fresh.” For some of her brothers, it had worked. Not so much for Jackson. He was still beating himself up over what had happened. “Also,” she confessed with a wry chuckle, “because I haven’t been able to remember it —any of it —until today.”

“Oh, Bon Bon!” Alice rocked from side to side with her for a moment. Then she led her around to the passenger side of the car. “What do you want me to do? Where would you like me to take you?”

“To the BBQ.” Bonnie didn’t have to think twice about that. “I seem to recall you and Zayden inviting us to dinner. Holt’s probably already there, wondering where we are.”

“Do you seriously feel up to hanging out after…?” Alice stood by the door, watching Bonnie with concern while she buckled her seatbelt.

“Absolutely!” She was sure of it. “After my little flashback, there’s nothing I’d like more than to spend a normal evening with normal people.” She made a face at her friend. “So I can feel normal again.”

“Okay, then.” With one last concerned look, Alice shut the door and moved around the front of the car.

Bonnie whipped out her cell phone and opened her text message app. She’d typed a message there a few days ago, but she hadn’t sent it yet. It was to the couple claiming to be her birth parents.

Tell me something only my birth parents and I would know.

It was a foolish attempt to prove they were who they said they were. Or catch them in a lie, thereby exposing them as frauds. There was one big problem with her plan. She’d been a baby at the time, and she remembered next to nothing prior to her adoption. Only tiny snatches of things that she’d never told anyone about.

A song that a woman had sung to her. A lullaby of some sort. White curtains blowing in the wind. More white. Blankets maybe?

Alice opened her door and slid behind the wheel. “My hands are shaking,” she announced out of the blue.

“Why?” Bonnie glanced up from her cell phone. I’m the one reliving trauma here.

“Because you’re my best friend in the world, and I didn’t know you were kidnapped.” She sounded close to weeping.

“I’m sorry for keeping it from you.” Bonnie stuffed her phone back in her purse.

Tears glistened in Alice’s eyes. “I’ve spent the last couple of years drumming real estate into your brain, teasing you mercilessly at every opportunity, and?—”

“Treating me like a normal person,” Bonnie interrupted. “That’s what I wanted. It’s what I needed more than anything. Thank you.”

“And now that I know about the other…” Alice choked.

“You’re going to continue treating me like a normal person,” Bonnie said firmly. “Otherwise, I’m going to quit real estate and join a convent.”

“Ha!” Alice chuckled through her tears. “They’d never agree to take you on. You’re too much trouble.”

“So my brothers keep telling me,” Bonnie grumbled.

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