Rush of Innocence (Rush Series #1) (22 page)

She
struggled to calm her breathing and concentrated on taking slower, deeper
breaths. She needed to be calm. She needed to figure out where she was and who
had her. Mostly, she needed to figure out how to get away. It wasn’t just about
her anymore. Her lips trembled when she thought about the little life growing
inside her. She shielded her mind away from how that little life came to be.

She
raised her head and looked about the room, but it was just too dark. Panic
threatened to overwhelm her and she again forced herself to remain calm. She
began to wiggle her hands, but the bonds were too tight; so tight, in fact,
that she’d lost most of the feeling in them. She struggled to rise from the
chair, but again the bonds were too tight. She hung her head. She was trapped
as surely as she’d been as a child. She allowed the tears of frustration to
fall.

How
she wished she’d had a normal life where danger didn’t seem to always be. She
wished she’d met a normal guy and had a normal relationship with him – and with
someone who wanted
both
her and her
child. But the only thing Rush wanted was the child.
Please don’t keep my child from me
, he’d begged. She wondered if
she’d be able to keep that promise.

She
tried to push the memories away because they hurt too much, but her mind had a
will of its own. Scene after scene replayed itself in her mind. The first time
Rush had taken her back to his condo in Vail when he’d pulled away from her
when she’d told him she was a virgin.
I
promise you’ll thank me later,
he’d said. When he’d rescued her at the club
and he’d looked at her so incredulously,
I’ve
just about lost my damn mind with wanting you
, he’d said.
 
All the times he’d gone from red-hot lover,
to stone-cold and pensive.
 
I didn’t expect it to be like this,
he’d
said after the first time they’d made love.
 
At the airport, in desolation, he’d said,
I wish it could always be like this
, she’d asked,
why can’t it be?
and
he’d answered,
Things change… situations
change. The perfect moments always slip away, it seems.
In the hot tub,
when she’d been so desperate to have him, he murmured to her,
oh baby, what have I done?
 
When she’d begun to feel controlled by him and
had wanted to leave, he’d begged her stay.
I
only want you safe
, he’d said.
Haven’t
you ever had anything so precious, you’d do anything to protect it?
he’d
said.
 
Trust me, I’ll protect you
, he’d said.
On their last night as a couple, as he’d held her in his arms, he’d whispered
to her,
I’ll protect you. I promise
you’ll be safe.

On
the night of the ball, he’d held her close and said,
I can’t seem to stay away from you

I don’t want to hurt you – I never
intended for things to get this deep. I have to try and protect you the only
way I can – I wish things could have been different.

Tears
began to really pour from her eyes at the truth of Rush’s words. He
had
tried to protect her. And now all
he’d ever remember was her walking away from him, not believing in him, not
trusting him. All those feelings of love, want, and need that she’d denied
herself for him for the last weeks flooded her senses. Her chest ached as sobs
were ripped from it. She wished he was here now to hold her, comfort her, and
tell her everything would be okay. She’d been so close to happiness, and now
poof
, it was gone.

Fury
at her father welled up inside her. Her stomach burned with the suppressed need
to scream at him. This was his fault. She remembered his words, as well:
You know she fancies herself in love with
you
, he’d said derisively. She was shocked at how cold and unfeeling he
really was. Of course, what did she really expect from a man who would put his
wife and daughter in harm’s way for money? She wondered if he was behind
this
kidnapping?

Chapter 13

Exhausted and spent, somehow, she fell
asleep. When she next opened her eyes, grey light was beginning to filter in
through a grimy window. Her body was stiff from being in the same awkward
position for such a long time. She wondered if anyone even knew she was
missing. She assumed her father would know, but what good would that do? She
now knew what she was worth to him. She tried to lick her lips, but her mouth
was too dry.

She
lifted her head and looked around her area of captivity. It appeared to be some
sort of old abandoned warehouse. She looked down at the chair, searching for
flaws she could use to her advantage but it was a straight-back, grey metal
office chair. Even if she tumbled sideways, the chair wouldn’t break. She hung
her head once more as self-pity swamped her.

She
was having a heavy discussion with herself about not giving up when she heard a
chain being rattled against the metal of a sliding door. In the dimness of the
space, she saw the door slowly slide open and a man step through it. She
struggled to see him through the filtering light. After the man took a few
steps in, she scrunched her eyebrows in confusion.

“Uncle
Jim?” she questioned. Relief flooded her and tears of joy began sliding down
her cheeks. “How did you find me?” she asked him when he drew level to her.

He smiled down at her sadly. He
crouched down before her and tenderly touched her cheek. “How are you holding up,
kid?”

Confusion
marred her features. Why wasn’t he untying her? Why wasn’t he more excited?

“What’s
going on, Uncle Jim?” she asked him.

“Ah,
honey. I wish there’d been another way. But you are what he holds most dear.”

“I
don’t understand.
Who?” she asked him, already dreading the
answer.

“Your father.”

“My
father?” she parroted, trying to understand what he was saying.

“He
has to pay for what he did.”

“Pay
for what?” she asked as she struggled to make sense out of what he was saying.

“Adrianna.”

She
started to ask who Adrianna was,
then
she remembered
her father talking about an Adrianna. “Rush’s mother?” she asked, even more
confused.

James
Franklin leaned forward and brushed a strand of hair behind her shoulder.
“Adrianna was everything to me. I loved her. I wanted to marry her. She would
have eventually come to me if your father hadn’t come up with that stupid
gimmick. Adrianna was like a frail butterfly. She just couldn’t handle the
pressure of her husband being killed. It was crazy really. She blamed herself
for his death… because she was in love with me.” James rose and rubbed a hand
across the back of his neck. “I found her in the apartment I kept for her. She
was lying lifeless on the bathroom floor, naked, looking straight up at me with
those dead eyes. The white tiles covering the floor and walls of the bathroom
made the vividness of the blood even more pronounced. It appeared she’d started
in the tub, slashed her wrists crudely,
then
perhaps
changed her mind… but it’d been too late. She’d bled out on the floor. She must
have flailed around as blood was splattered on the walls and the side of the
tub. It was horrible… truly horrible.”

Trinity
struggled to think through what he was saying. “But Martin Lord was the one who
called the hit, not my father. Please help me, Uncle Jim!” she begged.

In an
emotionless tone, he answered, “Martin Lord died of a heart attack a year ago.
But someone has to pay for what they did to Adrianna.
If not
Martin… then your father.”

“Please!
I’m having a baby. Please don’t hurt me and my baby. Please give my baby a
chance!” she pleaded, trying to play on his sympathies.

He
turned his head to face her and gave her another sad smile. “Was Rush Drayton
the father?”

She
cringed at his choice of words,
was
Rush Drayton…

“Yes,”
she whispered.

He
patted her cheek. “I am sorry about that. The child would have been a part of
Adrianna. But it just can’t be helped now.”

She
began to cry. “Please, Uncle Jim! Please untie me. Please let me go. I’m
begging you.”

“Don’t
cry. Your father will be here soon. I promise I won’t let you suffer, okay?”

While
his tone was rational, his words were insane.

“My
father is coming here?” she asked as tears skidded across her cheeks.

“Of course.
He
needs to know how it feels to have something he loves ripped away from him, as
I did. He needs to feel the pain – really understand what he did!”

She
struggled to calm herself and think. She inhaled deeply and decided to change
her tactics. “Uncle Jim, you said you wouldn’t let me suffer, but my arms and
hands are really hurting me. Can’t you please untie them?”

He
studied her silently for several minutes before moving behind her and slowly
unfastening the cord which bound her hands. “Now be a good girl and I won’t
retie you.”

“Okay,”
she murmured as she rolled her shoulders and rubbed her hands together to get
the blood flowing back into them. As casually as she could, she looked around
the vast garage for anything which could help her, but she didn’t see anything.

“Would
it be all right if I used the bathroom?”

Slowly
he shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Your father should be here any time.”

She
stared at James Franklin intently. “What will you do when he arrives?” she
asked.

“Extract
payment,” was his simple answer.

The
ringing of James’s cellphone was shrilling in the hollow metal of the building.
Its unexpectedness caused Trinity to jump at its harsh sound.

“
Ahh
, speak of the devil,” he said as he answered the phone.
“Hello, Arthur… Yes, she’s here… she’s perfectly fine… Yes, it does… You should
have thought of that before… No, there is no other way… Of course…”

James
pulled the phone from his ear and handed it to her, “He wants to talk to you.”

With
her hands shaking, she took the phone.
“Daddy?”

There
was silence on the phone then a sob filtered through the line.
“Oh, Trinity.
I’m so sorry, honey. Are you all right?” her
father asked.

At
the sound of his voice, her lips began to tremble. “I’m okay,” she said.

“I’m
coming for you, stay strong,” her father said.

She
tensed at his words, and looking into James Franklin’s crazed eyes, she
straightened her shoulders. “No, don’t. It won’t matter. He’ll kill me either
way, then he’ll kill you…” she said before James ripped the phone from her
fingers and shoved her hard to the concrete floor.

“Arthur,
you better show. I promise she’ll suffer a much worse fate if you don’t. You
have one hour… no, one hour, and not a moment longer.”

Trinity
sat on the cold, hard concrete floor as tears slid down her cheeks. “Please
don’t do this, Uncle Jim. Please let it go. Haven’t we suffered enough?”

Reaching
to his back from underneath his jacket, he pulled a small handgun out and sat
down heavily in the chair she’d just abandoned.

Trinity’s
blood ran cold at the sight of the weapon. This was really happening and there
was nothing she could do to stop it. Anger filled her as feelings of
hopelessness swamped her. For her entire life, others had been dictating how
her course would be plotted. Well no more! She scrambled to her feet and
started to launch herself at the deranged man in the chair. She might not make
it out of here alive, but she was sick of playing the game the way others saw
fit. If she was going to die anyway, what did it matter? He was going to shoot
her anyway. Maybe she could stop him, however, from hurting her father.

She’d
taken two running steps towards the sitting James when two things happened.
First, James glanced up to see her advancing towards him, and from behind her
she heard someone shout, “
No, Trinity,
don’t!”

Her
heart froze as she recognized the voice calling her name… Rush! No! Her head
swung in the direction of the voice and saw him sprinting towards her. With her
heart in her throat, she immediately turned her head back in time to see James
Franklin lift the gun as he began to stand.

“No!”
she screamed. She ran, and without thought of anything but stopping James from
shooting Rush, she dove at him. As if in slow motion, at the precise instant
she dove, James pulled the trigger and a shot rang out loudly in the metal
building. Trinity felt a searing pain in her chest and she closed her eyes as
fire seemed to tear through her. Her momentum in the air had her landing on
James, and together they toppled to the ground.

The
air was knocked out of her at the impact of their colliding bodies. She grunted
as James struggled to push her off of him. She tried to wrap her arms around
him, but couldn’t quite get her body to obey. He shoved her over onto her back
as she struggled to gasp air into the painful cavity of her chest. She watched
helplessly as Rush slammed into James. She allowed her head to loll to the
side, but soon they were out of her range of sight. She could hear them
scuffling just beyond her, and despair filled her. Not Rush! Please, dear God,
not him.

She
struggled to call out to Rush to tell him to get away… to save himself, but
tiny, gurgling bubbles were all she could force out of her lips. Suddenly, a
shot rang out and then there was no sound except for the wind howling against
the metal building, causing it to creak and moan. She gasped at the vice
squeezing her heart. She again tried to call out, but as tears streaked over
the side of her face, those same gurgling noises were all she could produce.

She
allowed her eyes to close against the pain. Her breathing was becoming labored,
and her chest was in agony, but nothing compared to the searing pain in her
heart. Snatches of her previous thoughts surged through her mind…
Rush moving her effortlessly around a dark dance floor…
Rush
looming over her the first time they’d made love…
Rush
holding her hips as he directed her movements in the hot tub…
Rush as he
ran his thumb across her lower lip…

She
groaned against the pain of her last images of him… of his anguished face as
she railed her fists against his chest… of his lips against her hair when he’d
trapped her between his hard body and his office door… of him begging her to
believe him…

As
weightless as she’d been in her dream with her mother where she drifted to the
bottom of the lake, she felt her body sinking. It was calm and peaceful. The
pain and anguish she felt began to dissipate as she surrendered to the
beckoning fingers of darkness.

***

Pain came crashing down on her. She
struggled to avoid it, begging to surrender back to the depths of darkness. The
paramedic in the ambulance forced the ventilator mask over her face even as she
struggled to twist away. He held her still as he fastened a restraint over her
head to hold it place, but still, she thrashed about. She didn’t want to be
here. She longed for the anonymity of nothingness. She didn’t want to know… to
feel… to be. She felt someone on the other side of her squeeze her hand tight.
She tried to pull away… tried to curl herself into a protective fetal position,
but tight bands held her firmly in place. There were no more tears… no more
sobs… no more anything. Slowly, the medication inserted into her IV drip
expanded into her system, easing her back into the blessedness of oblivion.

She
woke as she had so many times before, lying on a hospital bed looking up at the
blank screen of a television mounted on a wall opposite the bed. Past
experience told her where she was and as memories from the warehouse began to
filter into her mind, she curled her fists into the sheets of the bed. As she
had before, she lolled her head but this time saw her father asleep in the
chair next to her. A myriad of feelings encompassed her. She was happy to see
him alive, but angry and hurt at all she’d learned about him. In his weird need
to control her, he’d allowed terrible things to be done. And ultimately, he was
responsible for the death of her mother. She flinched as she remembered the
gunshot she’d heard right before she’d passed out. Had Rush made it out alive?
Was their baby still intact?

She
tried to reach a hand out to her father so she could ask him, but found her
arms strapped to the bed. When she tried to call to him, she realized she had a
respirator tube inserted into her throat. She continued to stare at her sleeping
father in the quietness of the night, willing him, by the sheer force of that
stare, to wake up and talk to her. But he didn’t. Anxiousness clawed at her.
The steady drip, drip, drip of her IV, no matter how hard she fought it, sent
her off once again into the thankfully dreamless world of sleep.

***

Sunlight
was streaming into her room the next time her eyes fluttered open. She turned
her head, but found the chair empty. As they had been the night before, her
arms were still strapped down and the respirator tube still in her throat. She
struggled to clear her hazy mind. Flashes of James Franklin’s deranged face
wavered before her eyes and she shook her head to get rid of them. She didn’t
want to think about him right now.