Page 77 of Crossing Paths
“Told you…you were after…the neck-a-lesssss.” She spread the word over three syllables, playing with it with her tongue. It was a funny word,necklace. Her mouth wasn’t working right, so it felt even stranger on her lips. Everything suddenly slowed down. Rather than losing bits of time, now it dragged, each second stretching like taffy, the other women’s voices disturbingly distorted, although at least now she had time to hear every word.
Kenslee gave a muffled shriek. “This isuseless! You gave her too much.”
“How did I know she’d drink it all?” Laken retorted. “I thought she’d just have a few sips.”
“Well, obviously not.” Kenslee threw a hand toward Norah as if indicating exhibit A. Norah snickered at that, which seemed to make Kenslee even more livid. “See! She’s not even capable of telling us her name, much less where the necklace is.”
Laken’s chin jutted as she faced down Kenslee. “We’ll just wait a few minutes until she comes down a little. We need that information. Do you have any idea how much my divorce lawyer costs? There is no way I’m losing custody of Isla.”
At least her motive isn’t terrible, Norah thought.She just wantsto keep her daughter.Her calm thoughts bothered her. Norah knew her reactions weren’t normal, that she should be freaking out and fighting to get free, but she just couldn’t work up the urgency. Besides, now that they were arguing with each other, it was almost comical.
“Quiet,” a new voice—a male voice—commanded. “I could hear you two halfway down the alley.”
Norah forced her head to turn to see the newcomer, and the anxiety she couldn’t feel a moment ago bubbled up inside her at the sight of his too-familiar face…a face marred by a swollen nose and two black eyes. Time snapped back into place, fear giving her a clarity she didn’t really want.
“Leifsen,” she said, still slurring but feeling suddenly much more awake.
“Norah.” There was a false intimacy to the way he crooned her name that made her stomach lurch. “You can call me Devon.”
“Laken gave her too much,” Kenslee hissed. “She can’t even talk right now. We need more time to get information out of her.”
“This isn’t the place,” he snapped. His gaze was fixed on Norah’s, making her feel like a mesmerized mouse, unable to move away from a snake. “I’ll work on her.”
“You need to tell us what you find out,” Laken insisted. “That was the agreement. We get the necklace’s location, and you get her.”
“I’ll tell you. I don’t want that necklace.” Moving to Norah’s side, he slid an arm around her.
She tried to scream, but all that came out was a patheticsqueak. A mouse noise. Crouching a little, he swung her up into his arms.Bridal style. The term for the hold ran through her head unbidden, and she fought to shake the thought loose, since it only increased her horror at the situation. There was nothing romantic or caring about this.
“I just want Norah,” he said softly, almost fondly.
Panic roared through her, cutting through the muffling layers that’d been protecting her from what was really happening. She tried to kick and squirm, but he subdued her weighted limbs with embarrassing ease. He even chuckled as he held her close in a parody of a caring partner.
“Dash!” Again, her attempt at a yell barely made it to her ears, but the name did make Leifsen frown. He gave her a shake, making her head loll over his arm as the world spun around her. She felt her gorge rise, and she didn’t attempt to swallow it back, hoping that would get him to let her go. If vomit was her only weapon right now, she would use it.
Nothing would come up though. Even that bodily function failed her. Frustration made a tear slip over her temple, tickling as it ran into her hair. She tried to master her wobbling limbs, wishing for just one solid elbow or heel strike or kick, but her muscles wouldn’t cooperate, and their surroundings wouldn’t settle long enough for her to get her bearings.
His footsteps got quicker, and she focused on turning her head. A car was parked twenty feet away, and he seemed to be heading for it. Even though it was shadowed and blurry, she knew it was a 1999 green Toyota Corolla. She’d done her research on him after all.
The sight of the car made her renew her struggles. She did not want him to put her in that car. If he did, she knew her chances of making it back to her sisters, back to Dash, back to their beloved house at the edge of the forest, would drop dramatically. Forcing her weighted arm to swing at his face, she managed to shove his chin, knocking his head to the side.
“Stop it.” He gave her another shake before hefting her higher. His breathing was heavy, and her hazy mind took a little satisfaction in the fact that either carrying her or her struggles were causing him to have to exert himself.
“Dash…” She tried to organize the words in her mind. Drugged as she was, it was a hundred times worse trying to sort through her spinning thoughts than normal.
“Stop saying his name.” The falsely tender note was gone from his voice, she noticed with another zing of fierce pleasure.
“Dash…wouldn’t be…” The right words came close but then darted away like shy fish when she grabbed at them. Finally though, she managed to cobble together a sentence. “Dash doesn’t…suck air like you…when he carries me.” The words were rough and slurred, but she knew he understood them when his arms tightened painfully around her. She didn’t mind the hard press of his hands. It helped keep her from drifting off. “Dash’s…sssstrong.”
“Don’t say his name!” His words were raised, not quite a shout but loud enough that she gave an inner cheer.
“Yurrr jealous.” Her tangled brain struggled to come up with a plan, any plan, but she could barely think in a straight line, much less strategize. “That…why you…burned down his…hisgym?” Even though her mind wasn’t producing a workable plan, it did make the connection between the damage to Leifsen’s nose and the memory of her knee hitting a wannabe abductor in the face.
“I’m not jealous of that meathead.” Leifsen gave an offended huff that made Norah want to laugh for some drug-induced reason. “And I wasn’t responsible for the damage to his place. That was all Fridley.”
Her scoff sounded off, but she didn’t know if that was because her mouth or her ears were malfunctioning. “So there’ssss…” She stalled out on thessound and had to refocus to get the rest of her thought out. “Some other…some other stalker with a noken brose?” A snort of laughter escaped her, that false happy, floaty feeling threatening to overtake her again. She forced herself to focus on getting the words out correctly. “I mean…broken nose.”
“I was there watching you when Fridley started playing with fire,” he said, sounding smug again. “Couldn’t let such a great opportunity pass by, now could I? It didn’t quite work out, but that’s okay. I’m a try, try again type of guy, and look at this.” He jostled her in his hold. “Success! Now there’ll be nothing stopping us from getting to know each other…really well.”
