Page 78 of Protecting Josie
Instead, she told her to open the trunk. Inside was a can of gasoline. While holding her at gunpoint, Gen ordered her to put the gas into the tank. After she complied, Gen told her to toss the empty can on the ground and get back into the car. They returned to I-15 and continued their trip east toward Vegas.
Josie was going to beg her to stop so she could use the bathroom. But since she didn’t seem to be able to get any words past the huge lump in her throat, and the whole desert detour made it pretty clear Gen had no plans to stop for gas, she didn’t bother even trying to make her needs known. Since gas stations were obviously out, she still hoped Gen herself might need a rest area soon.
Until, at one point, Gen glanced at her with a creepy smile and said, “I’m wearing a diaper.”
Josie frowned in confusion.
“An adult diaper. So I don’t have to stop. I don’t want to be on any cameras anywhere. Which is why I brought gas with me. And I can piss in the diaper. We’ve worked it all out. We watch crime shows, we know the things they look for.We’re smarter thaneveryone, even that dumb asshole you’re with. They can look into us all they want, but we have alibis. Mom’s probably using my phone right now, texting herself to prove I’m still in Vegas.” She smiled triumphantly. “No one will ever know it was me who kidnapped you. You’refucked, Josie. Just like you fucked Ayden. Just like you fucked Mom and me.”
Then she laughed. A maniacal laugh that made the hair on the back of Josie’s neck stand up. It seemed as if she and her batshit crazy mother had planned this kidnapping carefully. Which made despair threaten to overwhelm her. But Josie pushed it back.
They weren’t smarter than Nate. He and his friends would figure out where she was. They had to.
The skyline of Vegas came into view, and with every mile they traveled, Josie’s hopes sank further and further. She recognized the neighborhood Gen turned into as being where Millie’s house was located. She’d been there once with Ayden, shortly after they’d started dating. It was the most awkward dinner ever, and she’d managed to avoid doing that a second time.
Gen pulled up to the house and the garage door opened. She pulled in, and the door shut behind them. Then Millie was at the door on Josie’s side, yanking it open.
“Out, bitch,” she said.
Josie didn’t want to. Wanted to stay right where she was, but with Millie now pointing a second gun at her head, she had no choice. She slowly stepped out and stood, stumbling when Millie shoved her toward the door to the house.
The two women followed and herded her inside. Therewere piles and piles of stuff throughout the house. Way more than had been there when she and Ayden had come over for dinner. She’d realized then that Millie was a hoarder, and instantly understood why Ayden always wanted to stay at her place. But it seemed to have gotten exponentially worse since she’d seen the house last. There were boxes everywhere, along with piles of clothes, trash bags, and crap that hadn’t been touched in what looked like years. The house was an assault to Josie’s eyes and nose. It smelled…old. Funky. Disgusting.
She didn’t have time to figure out exactlywhatshe was smelling when Gen pushed past Josie and opened a door just off the kitchen, and gestured for her to go down a set of stairs.
She was surprised. Most houses in Vegas didn’t have basements, something about the kind of rock in the desert soil making them hard to excavate. This one was small and claustrophobic. And it too was filled from corner to corner with boxes and other junk.
“Over there,” Millie said, jamming the barrel of the pistol into the middle of Josie’s back.
She stumbled again, struggling to adjust to the low light in the room. There was a path through the boxes that had been cleared, leading to a small door.
For the first time, Josie hesitated. This room reminded her way too much of the cell she’d been shoved into. She couldn’t do it again. Couldn’t be shut away like a forgotten piece of trash.
But just like on the other side of the world, she didn’t have a choice here. Gen shoved her hard, making Josie fall toher knees. She felt the barrel of a gun being pressed into the back of her head.
“Don’t shoot!” Millie exclaimed, and Josie broke out into a cold sweat. She closed her eyes, sure she was about to die. Her only regret was that Nate would never know what happened to her. These women would take her body out into the desert where she’d never be found. It would be as if she’d never existed.
She found her arm being wrenched upward, behind her back. “Get up, bitch! And get in there. You’ll be gone soon, but we can’t have you in our way while we finalize arrangements for yourfuture. So get in,” Millie ordered, as she opened the small door with a flourish.
Gen shoved her forward, and Josie landed on her hands and knees. She had no choice but to crawl into the small closet-like space as Gen kicked her in the ass, propelling her toward it. The tiny room was only big enough for her to sit on her butt and barely turn around. Amazingly, Josie missed what now seemed like her spacious cell in comparison.
She opened her mouth to plead with the women, to beg them to let her go, to take whatever blame they wanted to heap on her head for Ayden’s death, but her voice still wasn’t working. And she didn’t have the chance anyway before the door slammed shut. The snick of a padlock sounded like a bomb going off in the dark space.
Then there was nothing. Silence. It was as if she’d entered an alternate dimension.
Trapped.Again!Only this time, there was nodrip drip dripof lifesaving water in the corner. No small metal cup to catch the liquid.
Whatever Millie and Gen had in store for her couldn’t be good.
Josie just had to hope that Nate would get to her before whatever plans the women had devised could be put into motion. She had a feeling once they were, she reallywoulddisappear, as so many other people in the world did, without a trace. Like a puff of smoke.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“They didn’t leave Vegas,” Tex said. “I get what you’re saying, Blink, but there’s no evidence to support that they were the ones who did this.”
Blink paced his living room. Back and forth. Back and forth. He couldn’t sit still. Couldn’t eat. Couldn’t think about anything other than finding Josie.
His little apartment was full. All his teammates were there, as were Wolf and Cookie. The police had come and gone, taking a missing person’s report and saying they’d be in touch, that since it hadn’t been twenty-four hours, and since Josie was an adult, there wasn’t much they could do, she’d probably be back of her own accord soon, etcetera. It wasn’t illegal for an adult to take off.
