What She Found

Hayden blinked, her eyes feeling like sandpaper. Underneath her, the car moved slowly, but every time it hit a pot hole, her body jerked painfully. Her wrists were bound together with a zip tie. But he'd left her mouth alone. He hadn't tried to silence her.

Images floated across her brain: an average man, asking her for directions, his hands taking her head and slamming it into the driver's side door.

But she recognized him, even through her haze.

Mason.

"Please," she pleaded. She was on the side in the back, and she could see the lights from passing cars. "Let me go."

"Hayden."

His voice was cold, detached.

"Why are you doing this?"

He ignored her and kept driving. She wasn't sure where they were going, but she knew she needed to find a way to tell Reese and Maya.

As if reading her mind, Mason said roughly, "They wont find you. I've planned this for a long time, and you are not going to fuck it up again."

When the car stopped, Hayden's heart pounded. She closed her eyes when the driver's door shut and his footsteps came to her side. Light filled the car as he pulled her out and grabbed her hair, winding it tightly around his fist.

"Stay quietly," he murmured, "or I'll hurt you. I don't want to, but I will if I have to."

"Mason," she said, looking around them at the warehouse he'd brought her to. "Why are you doing this?"

"Mom gave you money before she passed," he said simply. "I want it. Now, where is it?"

"The only money I have is in the bank," she answered, wincing from the pain in her head. "Mom gave me money, that's true, but I don't have a lot of it. I never wanted her money, Mason. You should have gotten some."

"Well, I didn't," he snarled. "I want yours."

Hayden shook her head. The sunlight blinded her, and she wondered why no one was around. But then she realized it was a weekday and people had jobs.

"I can get it for you," she said. "We'll go to the bank right now."

Mason was in front of her now. He'd released her hair, and narrowed his eyes.

"Okay," he answered. "But if you try anything, I'll kill you."

Hayden swallowed, her body trembling.

"Okay," she whispered, her eyes full of tears.