Taking the Lead(50)

He looked shocked, staring up at me like I'd grown to eight feet tall. "You can't quit. You'll lose the inheritance."

"I've read the will. It doesn't say I have to work for Blue Star, or for you, just a company that's not CTC for at least three years."

Meyers's face was red and he struggled a little to get to his feet, pressing his hands against the top of his desk. "You think you'll get another job after this one if I tell people you were a diva who wasn't a team player?"

"When I tell them that your idea of being a team player was playing Girl Friday to an incompetent boozehound who stole my ideas?" He was right: I did sound like my grandfather. "I think they'll see my side of the story."

He sat back down. "God, you're a pain in the ass."

"That's why your wife likes me." If I hadn't had that dinner with him and Helena, would I have dared be so forward? However it had happened, I wasn't scared of Meyers anymore. "So, you tell me. Am I walking out of here to write a resignation letter or not?"

"No, of course not." He sighed heavily. "I'll find someone else to wipe Grant Randolph's ass."



       
         
       
        

So I guess that was a kind of victory, even if I still felt I should've had Grant's job.

I went back to my desk slightly less miffed than I had been going into the meeting with Meyers, but I had about had it for the day. Before I left the office, though, I dropped a friendly e-mail to the woman I'd met at the AWESM fundraiser, Mandy Tink, just to say "hi, how are things." You never know when a contact like that might come in handy-for example, in a job search.

I made a quick exit from the building and while I waited for the AC to cool the car down a bit I texted Gwen. What a day.

Did you give Schmitt a kick in the balls? she wrote back.

Metaphorically, yes. But things at Blue Star are going downhill fast. Tell you when I get home. I wasn't about to try to text her all the details about my argument with Meyers. How was your audition?

TERRIBLE, she replied in all caps to show me she was serious. Hey, can you pick up some Kraft Mac & Cheese on the way home? I really need comfort food right now and I know Mina means well but everything she has is organic whole wheat and artisanal cheese.

I laughed. Mina didn't approve of us eating anything out of a box, but Gwen had gotten fond of a couple of things while she was in college: macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, that sort of thing. You sure you don't want ramen instead?

Arghhhhh. Get those too? Please? I thought I had some stashed but I don't.

No worries. I can stop and get both.

They have the brand I like at the grocery store at the exit right closest to the house. Here.

She even texted me photos of what the packages looked like so I'd know exactly which ones to get. I pointed my car in the direction of home.

I didn't go to the grocery store often, but it didn't take me long to get the things Gwen wanted and to pick up some emergency chocolate for myself just in case. There was no line so I didn't even have a chance to read the headlines on the tabloids at the checkout.

When I came out into the parking lot, I couldn't remember for a moment where I'd parked. Then I realized a white panel van was just blocking my view of my car. A somewhat Mexican-looking guy, in a black tank top with his black hair slicked back, was opening the back door of the van. I wasn't really paying attention to him but then I suddenly realized he looked a lot like the drummer of Axel's band  …

A second later someone put a bag over my head, shoved me into the back of the van, and shut the door. I heard the driver's door slam and the engine start.





CHAPTER SIXTEEN


KIDNAP MY HEART


RICKI

I landed facedown on something soft and before I could do anything, someone in the back of the van grabbed me. I tried to struggle but he locked my wrists together somehow, sending an instant and involuntary wave of heat through my core and a flashback to being facedown in a limousine and coming harder than I'd ever come in my life. I shook my head trying to dislodge the bag, but he tightened it. Or was it a pillowcase? With my eyes open I could see it was screamingly pink and it smelled faintly of  …  shampoo? Even through the haze of adrenaline pumping through my veins that struck me as odd. And oddly familiar. 

The driver turned on the stereo and settled on a radio station playing modern rock. What kind of kidnappers were these? Who used their actual pillowcase for a blindfold?

I pulled at my wrists again and felt what I could with my fingers. Not metal handcuffs. Not rope.

Leather.

You would have already thought I had reached my peak of adrenaline from being abducted, but no, my heart rate surged as hope, anxiety, fear, mortification, and a hundred other emotions crashed in. Leather had to mean one thing, didn't it? I swallowed hard, trying to find my voice.

"If  …  If I say my safeword, will you let me go?"

A few seconds went by and then the driver, who sounded a lot like Chino, answered. "Might depend on what that safeword is."

I struggled to sit up so I could be sure he heard me through the pillowcase. "It's a part of a truck."

"The part that connects the wheels?" he asked.

"Yes."

A few more moments of silence went by and I got the feeling they were signaling to each other. The man next to me still hadn't spoken, but then the driver said, "Yeah. If you say it."

A couple more moments went by. "I don't hear anything," he prompted. I kept my mouth firmly shut.

"Well, okay," he finally said, and then turned the music up again.

I sat there breathing hard for a bit longer, absorbing what had just happened. I had just consented to being kidnapped. The garish pillowcase had to be Sakura's; that explained not only the color but why it smelled familiar! And the man sitting next to me-was it Axel?

I hoped it was but I wasn't sure. It might be an accomplice-Mal? One of the other guys in the band? I wondered how much planning this had taken. Sakura was obviously in on it-and Gwen! The whole side trip to the grocery store had been a setup. They were all in on it. Wow. That was serious food for thought. Was my head that far up my ass? Life had been rough and gray ever since I'd decided to cut Axel off, but I had thought I hid it well. I had kept my personal angst from hurting anyone else, even as I was still feeling torn up inside. That the two women I was closest to loved me enough to have me kidnapped sent a pretty strong message.

Well, if I was going to play along, it was time to play along. "Where are you taking me?" I asked.

Axel's voice was like water pouring down my back, soothing at first, then exhilarating, then raising goose bumps all over my body. "Nowhere, maybe," he said, and put a rough hand on my knee. "Maybe we should just dump you by the side of the road. Getting dumped hurts like hell, you know. Maybe I'll show you a pie chart to prove it. Or maybe I should just ignore you."

Ouch. I deserved that. "I  …  I'm in your hands."

"Yes, you are." The hand on my knee moved to my crotch, cupping my mound through my bunched-up skirt. "Face down, ass up. Move."

It took me a bit of struggling to turn over again without the use of my arms, but I eventually got myself on my face and knees, my rump in the air, which was exactly what he wanted.

The pencil skirt was too tight to flip over my back so he used a pair of scissors to cut it and then cut away my stockings and panties. Funny how having my clothes cut away gave me a wave of something like nostalgia. I'd missed him! He was the only one who had ever done that to me. I remembered him saying it was one of the hottest things he'd ever done.



       
         
       
        

He wasn't saying anything now, but that didn't bother me. One of his hands caressed my flank while the other one worked the scissors. Just knowing it was him, just being there under his attentions, made it feel like a huge stone had been lifted off my back.

By the time he'd gotten me completely exposed, I was trembling with anticipation. He ran his finger up and down my seam and I wondered what he would do next.

I felt the van come to a stop.

Someone opened the van door, the driver perhaps, and next thing I knew the two of them were carrying me. I felt one of my shoes fall off, then the other.

They brought me into a building. I heard a sound like metal scraping, then a clang. An industrial door being opened and shut? I could no longer make out the pink of the pillowcase. It was dark wherever we were, and they put me down. I was expecting concrete but it felt more like a thick shag carpet beneath me.

"Thanks for the help," Axel said.

"Anytime, bro," the one who had driven answered, and then I heard the metal door open and shut again.

Now we were alone, or so I presumed. I decided I could ask, couldn't I? "Are we alone?"

"We're all alone in the universe," Axel answered. "Every one of us. But if you mean is it just you and me here, yes." I heard a click and a bright light came on from directly overhead.

I bent my legs and sat up, my feet to one side of me, and then shifted onto my knees, feeling the tatters of my cut skirt brushing my skin. I wondered what he thought of me kneeling like that.