Page 11 of Inevitable
I just hoped it would happen sooner rather than later.
I was getting weaker from the drugs and lack of water and food.
I leaned my head against the post, closed my eyes, and tried to relax.
My hand went to the chain and pendant around my neck automatically, and I grasped it as I’d done many times in the past for comfort or strength.
I pulled the pendant out from its hiding place beneath my shirt so the assholes who were holding me didn’t snatch it away like they had done with my cell phone and my purse.
The beautiful, antique necklace had been a gift I’d been given a long time ago by a man I’d never quite managed to completely forget.
It had been an outrageously expensive gift to a woman who was nothing more than a five-day fling to that guy.
Neither of us had wanted anything more than that fling, but it had always been hard for me to see those five days as something casual that meant nothing.
The gift was a necklace that I’d admired in a Virginia Beach antique shop when I was on vacation fourteen years ago.
I’d always loved antiques, especially anything art deco.
It was delicate for an art deco design, a simple circle encrusted with diamonds on a platinum chain.
I’d been forced to pass it up because of the price.
That special guy I’d been with had obviously noticed.
I’d found it on my bedside table when I’d woken up on that very last day in Virginia Beach.
I rarely took it off, and for some reason, holding that pendant gave me patience and strength when I’d needed it over the years.
Touching the beautiful circle had become an instinctive reaction for me when I was scared or uncertain.
I’d never really questioned why it helped me to touch the pendant, but it brought me a sense of calm that I really didn’t understand.
Maybe it reminded me of the strong, powerful man who had given me the gift, or maybe it just reminded me of those incredible days I’d spent with him.
We hadn’t stayed in touch.
That hadn’t been part of the deal we’d made.
But I had cherished this gift from him ever since.
Fourteen years ago, I’d been going through a very rough time in my life.
Meeting someone like him, spending time with him, had been exactly what I’d needed at the time.
Most likely, he’d forgotten me a long time ago, but I’d definitely never forgotten him or what that encounter had meant to me.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
I could feel my heart racing, and I wasn’t sure whether it was caused by my dehydration or my fear that I’d die in this dark, musty place alone.
I clutched the circle so hard that it would probably leave an indent in my palm, but right now I needed all the help I could get.
Chapter 4
Marshall
“I’ll go,” Brock told me as we sat in the living room of his home in Cherry Cove. “Nate and I can handle this, Marshall.”
