Page 93 of Protecting Addison
The man gave him a thoughtful look. “Is that really your daughter?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“You’re pretty damn cold-hearted. I think I like you.”
Brady smirked. “Thanks for the opportunity. I’ll give you a call once I’m settled in Hawaii.”
“Hawaii’s closer to Asia,” the guy said with a grin. “I could definitely use someone in that part of the world to help me move product.”
Brady shook his hand, then turned and headed back to his truck. He needed to get those text messages between his and Ellory’s phones sorted. The same guy who was going to call and demand a ransom was going to help with that. He was pretty good with computers, and he swore when the cops got her phone records, they’d see a timestamp from before she was seen on the school cameras leaving the building.
This was going to work out, and Brady was more than thrilled.
* * *
Ellory sat on the floor of the container she and Yana had been forced to enter, holding her sister as the little girl cried hysterically. Brady was right—this was her fault. She’d insisted he pick up Yana before they went to the hospital. But then again, that was what any decent person would do.
She was extremely relieved that her mom and Ricky weren’t hurt though. If there was anything good about this situation, it was that. Still, Ellory had to admit, she was terrified. She had no idea what to do. She didn’t want to give her heart to anyone. She wanted to go home.
“Dark,” Yana said between sniffs.
Itwasdark. Pitch black, in fact. Ellory couldn’t tell the difference from when she closed her eyes to when they were open. She’d seen the little area they were in before the boxes were stacked in the passageway to their cubby, and before the door to the container was shut. It was probably around four feet by four feet and surrounded by boxes of whatever cargo was being shipped overseas. There was a bucket—she assumed for her to do her business in—and four small bottles of water. It wasn’t nearly enough to last two weeks, if Brady was being honest about how long it would take them to get to wherever they were going.
She and Yana would die before they got there.
The thought made Ellory want to lay down and give up. But something Ricky said to her once sprang into her head. He’d been telling her about how hard Hell Week was for him. The infamous week-long training that movies and shows about SEALs liked to focus on. Ricky said he wanted to ring the bell that would get him out of the torture he was enduring. That he could hear it in his head, clear as day. Told her how jealous he was of his fellow sailors when they gave up and rang that bell. How the SEAL motto would go through his head over and over, making him want to quit even more.The only easy day was yesterday. The only easy day was yesterday. The only easy day was yesterday.
Ricky had admitted thinking that ifyesterdaywas easy, he knew without a doubt that he wouldn’t make it through thecurrentday.
But as he lay in the sand after what seemed like a million pushups and sit-ups, or struggled to stay conscious while kneeling in the freezing surf…when his belly cramped from lack of food, and when his arms shook as he tried to hold up one of the big black rubber boats with his fellow wannabe SEALs…something hit him.
Yesterday was hell. He hadn’t thought he could make it through…but he had. Now, there he was at today. And in fact, doing burpees in the sand and rolling around in the waves the day beforedidseem easy compared to how he felt doing his present task, when he wanted to tap out, to quit.
The motto was spot on. If he could stay strong and make it through the hell of today…tomorrow, it would be a memory. It would seem easy.
If Ellory could just stay strong, if she could use her brain and make it through this nightmare, soon enough, it would be just another “yesterday.”
Everything she’d been through with her Crohn’s seemed horrible at one point. The first endoscopy, the first colonoscopy, the first CT scan. But now those things weren’t so bad. She’d gotten used to them. Those procedures seemed easy…now. It was like the motto Ricky told her about. Yesterday seemed easy, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t survive today. Ricky had; he’d made it through Hell Week and become a SEAL.
All she had to do was hold on until Ricky and his friends found her.
Brady sounded like he had everything all planned out—but he’d mess up somehow, she had no doubt. Ricky was a thousand times smarter than her bio-dad. Both he and her mom would figure out there was no chance she’d call Brady to come get her because she’d been bullied. Even if shewastoo embarrassed to call her mom or Ricky, she wouldn’t call Brady. She’d reach out to Remi, or Wren, or even Caroline before she’d call her bio-dad.
There had to be some way to track where he’d taken her and Yana. Ellory just had to stay positive. They’d find them.
Something else occurred to her. The first time they ever met, Ricky had told her all about MacGyver, that guy on the old show who always seemed to be able to make things to get him out of bad situations. How Ricky had earned that nickname because he did the same thing. Figured out how to make cool stuff out of whatever he had on hand.
Ellory tilted her head back and envisioned the boxes upon boxes all around her. She had no idea what was inside them…but there had to besomethingshe could use to try to get her and Yana out of this box, right? That was what Ricky would do. He wouldn’t sit around feeling sorry for himself. He’d get off his butt and do what he could to save himself.
“Yana, take a breath. You’re okay. I’m okay. We need to find a way out of here.”
She felt the little girl do as she was told. She took a deep breath, and Ellory felt her wipe her face with her shoulder.
“Good girl,” Ellory praised. “I know how much you like to open gifts. How about you help me open some stuff?”
“Like presents?” Yana asked in a small, wavery voice.
“Right. Remember when we came in here, all those boxes that were around us?”
