Only she knew it wasn't.
Emily was terrified that she knew what game he really wanted to play with her.
She knew what he looked like, worse she knew who he was, and everything she’d ever heard about being a victim of a crime meant that was not a good thing. If he let her go, she would be able to identify him, which meant he never intended to let her go.
He was going to kill her.
There was no other reason to do all of this.
It wasn't fair. She didn’t want to die. And certainly not alone, scared, and abandoned, exposed to the elements with no water or food. The weather was hot, even at night, so hypothermia wouldn’t likely be an issue, but that also meant dehydration would come quicker since she had no shade.
If she died now, it would all be a waste. She hadn’t achieved anything her whole life. She’d always sat back and let someone else take care of her, support her, she had never once been responsible for herself. She had grown up in a wealthy family, gone to private school, then a good college. Once her parents stopped financially supporting her, she got married and then after her divorce moved from boyfriend to boyfriend, always relying on them to look after her.
Emily hadn’t wanted to go and work at her mother’s fashion company and yet she was too scared to disappoint her mother by telling her so, and so she just did nothing. It was easier to have her mother constantly on her back for not doing anything productive with her life than to just come right out and say that she wanted to forge her own path.
Now she realized how stupid that was.
Her mother had started her company from scratch when she was around the same age Emily was now. Her mother would be happy for her, supportive, offering whatever assistance she could, both financially and with the benefits of all her accumulated business knowledge.
No, she threw off the plastic sheet and bounded to her feet. She wasn't going to just sit here and wait to die. That would be giving up, and she didn’t want to just sit back and do nothing and let him kill her.
There had to be something she could do.
Find something that could be used as a tool or a weapon.
Escape. That had to be her priority. She had been left here hours ago, hours that she had wasted just sitting there being scared. Hopefully, she had a few hours left to formulate a plan and arm herself with a weapon of some sort.
It seemed that she had two options.
Option number one, she could try and find something to use as a weapon and then when he came down here to get her, she could attack. Of course that would only work if he intended to come back, and if he intended to kill her up close and personally. He could of course return and simply shoot her from up on top. Still, arming herself seemed like the sensible thing to do.
Option number two, she could try and find a way to get herself out of here. Climbing straight up the concrete walls was out, but maybe there was a way to carve little foot and finger holds, so she could essentially rock climb out of the place. Once she was out of here all she had to do was find help.
Her whole life she had been the quiet one, the one who always held back, the one who always let others have things their way. She never stood up for herself or fended for herself. She had always depended on someone else to take care of her. Well, no more. That kind of attitude was only going to get her killed.
As Emily started searching for something to use as a weapon or a tool, she didn’t even realize that tears had finally started to flow.
* * * * *
7:53 P.M.
“Wow.”
From the look on Nick’s face, Aggie took that as a compliment and was glad she’d gone with a simple white sundress. His admiration was a much-needed compliment since she wasn't really feeling her most beautiful today. Between her cast, the large bandage on her face, and the finger-shaped bruises on her neck, her self-confidence was a little low. It wasn't so much that she was worried about her appearance, it was that she felt like everyone was looking at her, wondering what had happened to her to cause her injuries. What if someone actually asked her? She couldn’t handle talking about her attack yet. She had deflected all of Summer’s questions under the guise of being too tired.
“You look totally amazing.” Nick’s dark blue eyes were wide in appreciation.
“So do you.” His simple white, short-sleeved shirt and denim shorts highlighted his tall, lean body.
“For you.” He handed her a bouquet of colorful flowers.
“Thank you, they're beautiful,” she gushed as she took the flowers. “Do you want to come in while I put them in some water?”
“How did you do last night?” he asked as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
Aggie repressed a shiver. She’d had nightmares and hadn’t slept well at all, tossing and turning for a couple of hours before giving up. But tonight she wanted to have a normal evening, pretend yesterday’s attack had never happened. “I did okay,” she replied, keeping her back to Nick so he wouldn’t be able to read in her face that she was lying.
Apparently, he read it in her voice because he said, “Nightmares, huh?”