“Rylla, no,” Naomi begged, seeing the look in her friend’s eyes. “He’ll kill you.”
“If I don’t go with him then he’ll killyou, and I can't let that happen.”
“No,” she protested again, she couldn’t live with it if her friend died in her place.
“I love you, Naomi.” Rylla gave her cheek a quick kiss then walked slowly toward Beau, her hands held palms up in surrender. “I’ll go with you, just don’t hurt her.”
“I have no intention of hurting her,” Beau said as he tossed Rylla a pair of handcuffs. “Cuff your hands behind your back. Properly. If you try and trick me your friend and her baby pay the price.”
Rylla caught the cuffs, and with a last hesitation put them on. “You need to call her an ambulance, she’s in labor.”
“She’ll be fine. Someone will find her. You, on the floor by the couch,” Beau waved his gun at her.
Naomi wanted to fight, she couldn’t just give up and let her best friend walk out the door with a killer, but she didn't know what else to do. She couldn’t risk him hurting her baby. She had no choice. As much as she hated it, she walked to where he indicated and struggled down onto the floor. As soon as she was down, the man grabbed her hands, snapping a cuff around her wrist, then around the leg of the couch, and attached the other end to her other wrist.
She was trapped.
Maybe if she hadn’t been pregnant and in labor she might have had the strength to lift the couch and get free, but right now she didn't.
She had no choice but to wait here until someone found her.
Catching the look on Rylla’s face, Naomi turned big, scared eyes to Beau and begged, “Please, call my husband and tell him to come. You’ll still have a head start. I don’t want anything to happen to my baby.”
With Beau’s attention focused on her, Rylla charged, aiming her shoulder at his solar plexus.
At the last moment, Beau turned and fired off a shot.
Rylla dropped instantly.
“No,” Naomi screamed. “Rylla.”
Leaving her handcuffed to the couch, Beau scooped Rylla’s limp form off the floor, and ran out the door.
There was blood. Right where Rylla had fallen. Her friend had been hit.
Another contraction came, gripping her entire body in a tidal wave of pain.
How was she going to do this?
She was all alone, Sam and Nate wouldn’t be back for hours, and her baby was coming. There was nothing she could do to stop it. There would be no hospital, no medications, no doctor, nothing. It was just her.
She didn't care about the pain, her only concerns were her baby and her friend.
If anything went wrong, then both she and her daughter could die.
Another contraction hit.
They were coming faster.
She prayed someone found her before her baby arrived.
* * * * *
4:42 P.M.
She woke slowly, and not quite all the way.
She was in a happy place. The sand was soft and warm under her bare toes, waves crashed gently along the shore, people laughed.