Rein In (Willow Bay Stables #3)(37)

I thought I might be sick.

“I’m so sorry, baby girl.”

Some of the fog in my head cleared, and my senses flooded with recognition. The voice in the dark belonged to Glitch.

He was here.

Why was he here in the dark with me?

My throat tried to call for him, but the words died on my lips, muffled by something shoved between my teeth. There was something in my mouth. It tasted dirty and every time I tried to speak through the cloth, I was assaulted by a strange nagging feeling.

I couldn’t call out to him.

He was here in the dark with me, but I couldn’t speak to him.

Why was he here in the dark with me?

I shook my head just a little to try and clear some of the clutter there, but it only made me dizzy and sharp pained stabbed my temple. Maybe, if I could just rub my eyes they would feel themselves so inclined to see again.

Sending a request to my arms, I tried to pull them into the air, but nothing happened.

They didn’t move.

Nothing could move.

They felt stretched out in front of me, the way it did when you sat on a fancy dining room chair, and I clutched the wood beneath me.

It was a chair, but it was too hard to be a fancy one. It was cold, and my fingernails dug into the front of the arm rests.

“Are you okay, baby girl?”

Glitch’s voice seemed to have gotten closer, and my heart roared.

I can’t see you, I thought. I can’t come to you.

I blinked again, this time my eyes opened but still, it was dark.

Not in the natural way of darkness, the kind with shadows lit by the moon or a light in the corner. This was complete and utterly devastating blackness.

“Please, relax,” Glitch begged, his voice getting closer again.

I tried to call out to him, but again I choked on the gag in my mouth.

Why were we here in the dark?

Fingers curled around my shoulder, squeezing affectionately, and then, like the reel of an old movie, the memories came flooding back to me in jagged sequence.

We were driving. My lips had still been warm from Rhys’s kisses.

God, I loved him so much. Why wasn’t he here with me? I missed him.

It was so cold here.

Glitch was behind the wheel, he’d asked to drive and I’d loved the idea of being able to daydream, so I’d said yes.

It seemed that’s how I spent every waking moment when I was away from Rhys. I spent it daydreaming about him, daydreaming about thirteen months from now and what that would look like.

I couldn’t wait to wake up to the morning sun with him.

The next flashback hit me harder. Glitch’s face was twisted up, and the one-ton jerked back and forth repeatedly.

“I think there’s something wrong with the engine.” Glitch shook his head.

I leaned forward and pointed to the side of the back road into town. “Pull off on the shoulder,” I told him. “It might just be overheating.”

He did as I suggested and guided the truck onto the gravel. “I don’t know anything about car engines.”

His voice seemed panicked, and I tried to soothe him with a smile.

“It’s okay,” I promised. “I’ll take a look.” His face seemed so worried. “It’ll be okay.”

Pushing open the passenger side door, I slammed it shut behind me and wandered to the front of the truck. My hands fiddled around under the hood until I felt the latch to release it.

I lifted it up in the air and scanned the engine. I wasn’t great with mechanics but from what I could tell, there was no smoke and that was probably a good thing.

“It seems fine to me,” I yelled.

Glitch didn’t answer.

I pulled the hood down and glanced over the top. Glitch wasn’t in the driver’s seat anymore, but the door was open.

The hood made a clicking sound when I slammed it down. “Glitch?” I called out to him.

No answer.

Rounding the side of the one-ton, I stuck my head inside the cab on the driver’s side.

The keys were still in the ignition.

“I’m just going to call, Grant,” I hollered out to him, wherever he was.

Probably taking a leak on the side somewhere. Why men found peeing on the road so entertaining, I wasn’t sure.

Reaching forward, I grabbed my purse and hauled it to me.

“Shoot,” I grumbled as my phone fell from the side pocket and under the seat.

I leaned forward, farther into the interior of the truck and wiggled my fingers.

The phone was just out of my reach.

I put one knee up onto the floorboards but just before I could reach for it again, I heard the crunch of gravel behind me.

“Glitch, can you—”

I tried to scream when someone’s arm came around my waist. I couldn’t. There was something wet over my mouth.

My feet kicked out in front of me as my purse fell to the floor.

The world started to spin and my eyes got heavy.

Then it was dark, so dark.

Someone had taken me from the side of the road.

That meant they’d taken Glitch, too.

What was happening?

“I see you’re awake.” Another voice sounded in the dark. It was farther away than Glitch’s.

Again, I tried to answer but again, no words came out.