Caught By the Dragon: Maiden to the Dragon, Book 1, - [ebook reader with internet browser txt] 📗
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We slipped into the taxi. Heather leaned forward. “To the Bar Room, and step on it. We need to get drunk.”
The driver smiled and nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” He pulled us off the curb and into traffic.
Heather fell back against the seat and looked to me. “Speaking of losing weight, I was thinking of going hiking one of these weekends with a few other girls. Wanna come with?”
I shook my head. “I’m not much for nature walks.”
She frowned. “It’s the society, isn’t it?”
I winced. “It’s not that. It’s just-well, I just don’t feel like I fit in. Like I’m an outsider or something, you know what I mean?”
Heather shook her head. “No, and I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer the next time I ask you to go with me on an adventure. You need to live a little, Miriam, before your whole life is gone.”
I glanced out the window and sighed. The world sped by us as a shadow play of colorful lights and figures. “I know. I. . .I just feel like I’m supposed to wait for something. Like my time will come.”
The taxi driver’s loud voice interrupted us. “Hey, ladies. I think someone’s following you.”
“Really?” Heather wondered as we both turned and looked through the rear window.
The taxi driver nodded. “Yeah, that red one.
Heather glanced at our driver. “You sure it’s not for you?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I ain’t picked up no one but you in the last half hour.”
Heather squealed and clapped her hands. “You think you can lose ‘em?”
The driver grinned. “No problem, but for the risk it’ll be extra.”
“I’ll take that risk!” my friend accepted.
I whipped my head to her. “Wait a-ah!” The driver turned a sharp corner onto a side street. I was sent into the waiting arms of my laughing friend.
“Isn’t this great?” she yelled.
“Yeah, wonderful,” I replied as I extracted myself from her arms. “It’s going to be great sitting in jail, too.”
“This is living!” Heather gleefully exclaimed.
The driver took another sharp corner into an alley and sped up. I clutched the oh-shit handle above my door. “This isn’t living! This is the preliminaries before death!”
“Just enjoy the ride already!” she insisted.
We took another ninety-degree corner that sent my stomach reeling. “I want out!”
“Just another block, misses!” the driver shouted as he weaved through traffic and onto another bumpy alley.
“Let me out now!” I yelled.
Heather pointed at the alley intersection ahead of us. “Stop there and we’ll get out. Then book it like we’re still aboard.”
“What about my fare?” he reminded us.
She grabbed some cash from her pocket and tossed the bills into the seat beside him. “That should cover it.”
His eyes flickered to the catch and he grinned. “Yes, ma’am!”
He slammed on the brake. I slid forward an inch before my seat belt dug into my skin. The car slid to a stop in the center of the intersection.
Heather tore off her seat belt, unbuckled mine, threw open the door and pulled me out. “Thanks for the fun!”
The driver saluted us and sped off a second after Heather slammed the door shut. She tugged me into the side alley and behind a large dumpster. We crouched down as a car sped down the perpendicular alley. The red car zoomed past us and continued to follow our former taxi.
Heather jumped to her feet and wiped her arm across her brow. “Wow, that was close.”
I stood on my shakier legs and grasped the edge of the dumpster. My stomach was in tumbling knots. I staggered past her and down the alley that we’d come.
Heather reached out for me. “Hey, wait! Where are you going?”
I didn’t look back. “Home.”
“But what about finding a guy at the bar?” she reminded me.
“I need to find my stomach back here first,” I quipped. “Then maybe I’ll call you tomorrow about bar-hopping.”
Heather stamped her foot on the ground and slopped puddle water all over herself. “Fine! If you don’t want my help then go and find your own guy!”
I waved to her without looking back. It wasn’t such a bad suggestion if Fate hadn’t had other plans.
The bus commute took longer than I hoped, so I didn’t get to my apartment building until forty-five minutes after the harrowing taxi incident. Night beat me to the stoop of my apartment building, and with it came its friends shadow and darkness. The bus stop was half a block away from where I lived, so I had to walk past rows of apartment buildings to get to mine. An alley separated my building from a neighboring one.
The streets were deserted as I made my way down the sidewalk. I reached the alley and paused. Had I heard something clattering around in there? I leaned forward and squinted into the darkness. Hulking shadows of trashcans and broken boxes stared back at me. Puddles reflected the darkness that was only broken by a few feeble attempts by the streetlights to illuminate the deep interior.
Nothing moved. Nothing clattered. I shrugged and kept going to the stoop. My keys rattled in my hand as I drew them from my purse.
I froze. A rattle had mimicked my own. I half-turned and looked at the mouth of the dark alley. Something flickered in the corner of my sight, but disappeared before I could catch a full, telling glimpse.
My pulse quickened. I fumbled with my key chain. The damn key wouldn’t come out. There! It separated from the others. I shoved it into the lock. A quick turn and I fell inside. I slammed the door behind me. The entrance rattled and the noise echoed through the lonely lobby.
I grasped my chest and tried to catch my breath. “Easy there, Miriam. It was just your imagination. . .” I whispered to myself.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. I hurried up the stairs to my private abode.
My one-bedroom apartment was on the third floor with a lovely view of the fire escape and the neighboring brick building. I tossed my purse onto the small table beside the door and plopped into my favorite-and only-recliner. The sensation of being watched faded within the confines of my locked apartment.
My aching feet thanked me as I leaned back and closed my eyes. “Now this is the way to live. . .” I murmured. “Just me and my chair.”
I noticed a sweet smell in the apartment which was unusual. None of my incense candles were lit. I tried to rise from my chair, but my arms wouldn’t pull me forward.
The feeling of being watched returned. Movement caught my eye. I glanced at the window to the fire escape. Three figures stood on the other side of the glass. I gasped, but the scream stuck in my throat.
One of the figures knelt in front of the window and fidgeted with the bottom of the sill. The window popped up an inch. The person drew it to the top and slipped inside. The other two followed.
The overhead light allowed me to see the intruders. Two were burly men in ragged overcoats, pants, and shirts. They were followed by a familiar face. Blake.
The ragged pair strode over to me. One grabbed my legs and the other pulled a rope from his coat. Together they began to bind my legs.
I couldn’t fight. I couldn’t even let out more than a garbled whisper. Blake moved to stand by my head. My terrified eyes looked up into his smiling face.
He leaned down and studied my face. “What a lucky break your friend introduced me to you today. You’re just in time to join a few other girls on an exciting journey.”
One of the burly men snorted. “Yeah.
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