The Ultimate Chance-Chapter 168

Mina woke up to the sensation of being jolted around. She squinted her eyes and stifled a groan. She would have groaned from how horribly her limbs were screaming if she didn’t take note of the gag around her mouth and remember where she was.

She sighed when she remembered how she had ended up here in the first place. The delivery guy had lied about Gabe wanting to see her. She had run out to meet him, but it was all a ruse.

She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but now that it had ended up in a trip to who-knows-where, she’d been such an idiot. Of course the delivery guy wouldn’t kidnap her at her doorstep. There were surveillance cameras all over the building.

Even if he did manage to hack into the footage featuring their doorstep, he couldn’t be certain what other cameras would record the incident that he didn’t know of. Outside the building, on the other hand, it would be different. If he knew enough about her and Gabe to know her husband always brought her flowers, he knew where each of the cameras outside was located. He knew how to avoid them so she would simply disappear off the surface of the earth.

A shiver ran down her spine. This was someone who had planned this for a long time. Which meant it was not going to be easy for Gabe to know how she vanished.

The thought that he may not find her made her go crazy.

’Think, think.’ She thought.

Another jolt shook her and she finally realized they must be on the road. She must be in the trunk of a moving vehicle, certainly not a van from how little space there was in here. She was all scrunched up and squished in here, which was the only thing stopping her from losing her mind and crying.

If she did, she would not be able to breathe. She had to get out. Fast. If possible, before her captor arrived at their destination.

The only thing keeping her sane was the fact that she was still alive, which meant her captor didn’t want her dead. Not immediately, anyway. He could have simply put a bullet in her head and carried her lifeless body to bumfuck nowhere.

No. He probably wanted to torture her. To use her to get something from Gabe. A ransom, maybe?

Which meant she still had until their arrival to escape. She tried to feel around the trunk as much as she could within the confines of the rope binding her wrists, without alerting her captor to the fact that she was awake.

Alas, she was yet to find anything by the time she felt the crunch of wheels on what had to be gravel underneath them. She groaned.

Just great.

Just like she thought, they had arrived at their destination. Her plan had failed even before she tried to execute it. She had wanted to unbind herself from her ropes and as soon as her captor opened the trunk to take her out of the car, she would make a run for it.

Once again, she realized how stupid that was. How could she be certain to outrun him? She wasn’t exactly a fast runner to begin with, and adrenaline could only spur her on so much. With her stomach feeling like it had a fifty pound ball inside, running was only possible in her wildest dreams. She needed a more solid plan.

So she pretended to still be put when the man carried her out. It was unsettling how he hauled her up like she weighed nothing and carried her away.

Based on his scent, it was not the flower delivery guy. For a moment, she wondered whether these were two unrelated incidents.

The man settled her in a chair, tied her up and patted her cheek. "Wake up. We need to contact your husband."

She couldn’t keep the pretense any longer. Her breathing pattern could have changed and besides, the psycho might have calculated how long the drug would keep her unconscious.

She opened her eyes and faced him. "Who are you?"

He grunted. "I don’t see how that’s any of your business, sweetheart."

She eyed him. He was tall, broad shouldered with the blackest hair she had ever seen, and eyes that she would almost say looked gentle. She wouldn’t say he was unpleasant to look at. It was quite the opposite. He was good looking, which was why this was confusing.

He didn’t look like a goon, kidnapping people he thought were vulnerable for a ransom. No. This man looked like a businessman.

And she didn’t recognize him.

She had already asked and it had resulted in nothing so she shrugged, only hoping she would be able to get out of here in one piece.

The man hummed as he left the room and messed around nearby, in what she assumed must be a kitchen from the sounds of it. She was in what must be a spare bedroom of a house, empty aside from the chair she was sitting on. She didn’t get to think of using the window as her escape–she quickly realized it was grilled. She wouldn’t make it out even if she was not tied to a chair.

The man returned what felt like ages later, carrying a plate of freshly cooked pasta with him. He shoveled a fork into it and brought it to her mouth. "Open."

She frowned and looked away.

He let out a laugh so gentle it was unnerving. "Listen, sweetheart, I’m only feeding you because of the little Vaillant in your belly. I don’t want to lose the only actual leverage I have against Gabriel."

She tried not to feel the shock from his words.

She knew that she had started to show—she was beyond the point where people weren’t certain whether she had gained weight or was sporting a baby bump—but it was still strange for this man to mention it. It felt like a threat.

Besides, what was that he said about real leverage?

It turned out, he had not kidnapped her because he wanted her as hostage. He had meant to kidnap Gabe’s child, who just happened to be unborn and still inside her.

She was just a vessel here.

Under different circumstances, she wouldn’t eat no matter how hungry she felt, in fear that the man could have drugged the food with something that would harm her baby.

He was staring down at her, daring her to reject it. She was certain he would force it down her throat. She’d felt how effortlessly this man had kidnapped her. He was much stronger than her.

She looked down at the food and muttered, "pasta makes me sick. Do you have any noodles?"

He scrunched his nose and snorted. "What do you think this is, a restaurant?"

She stared at him with as much defiance on her face as she could muster. "You want me alive. You won’t have much leverage against Gabe if I’m dead, will you?"

He seemed to ponder her words. Whatever he was thinking about proved her theory. Whatever he had just thought about meant she was still of importance.

She wondered if she should keep buying time. Gabe would find her. She knew it.

Not just because she believed in her man, but also because of her anklet. After their marriage, he had insisted on having a tracker on her just in case. While she didn’t think she would ever need it, she hoped Gabe would be home soon enough and that their location wasn’t too deep in the woods for him to track down her location.

But if she kept buying time, she might just run out of it. Maybe she should find a way to escape. If she could hide away somewhere the kidnapper couldn’t find her, it would be much safer for both her and Gabe. Who knew, this fucker may be setting a trap for Gabe to walk into.

So she was immensely pleased when she heard the man humming and bustling around the kitchen, probably cooking the noodles she asked for. She didn’t have much time.

She forced her hands out of the ropes, gritting her teeth at how painful it was. The rough rope scraped at her hands but she didn’t care. If she stayed here long enough to die, it wouldn’t matter if her hands weren’t scraped.

That was the only thing that kept her going when the pain was so intense that she thought she must have drawn blood. As soon as she pulled halfway down her left thumb, it was easy to get the rope off the left side. She resisted the urge to check her hand. Instead, she did a quick work of untying her ankles.

Perhaps because he knew she was pregnant, her kidnapper didn’t secure the ropes too hard. She got the knot off but still stayed in the same position, hoping he would think she was still tied up.

He came about half an hour later, with hard boiled eggs atop the cooked noodles. No wonder he took so long.

They smelled heavenly.

She swallowed. "Are you going to feed me?"

He smiled. "Don’t think you can fool me into untying you. Open your mouth." He ordered as he brought a fork of noodles to her mouth.

She opened her mouth for him to come closer. When he did, she kicked him in the groin. Then she grabbed the fork and stabbed him with it in the neck and bolted for the door.

Except, it was locked.