A/N: This chapter is kind of divided weirdly since I went back and forth between Will and Emma, just because it made more sense than going straight through with only one point of view. Just watch out for the name in bold, or watch for some idiotic commentary from Will and you're good!

***

Kidnap My Heart 

Chapter 7: Emma and Will 

Emma 

“This grass looks familiar. I think we’ve already passed this,” Taylor announced, glancing up from the phone on her lap.

Two hours ago, I’d thought it was a good thing that smart phones had GPS apps available. This junk car barely had a functional radio, much less GPS. I figured we’d be able to find our way back to civilization fairly quickly if we used one of those apps, but I was dead wrong, and it was all thanks to my daft best friend.

I’d handed the responsibility of managing the GPS over to Taylor since I was the one driving, but I hadn’t realized she had such a bad sense of direction. How would I have known? Before we could drive, we’d had personal drivers that were in charge of getting us wherever we needed to go. After we got our drivers’ licenses, we simply chose cars with handy GPS systems that told you exactly where to turn. Sense of direction had never actually come up. If it had, I would have figured something else out.

Unfortunately, Taylor also happened to be a horrible driver, so letting her take over the wheel wasn’t even an option now that it had turned dark. I valued my life, and my guess was that she did, too, because she didn’t bother offering to drive.

I let out a loud breath through my nostrils, a noise similar to that of an angry bull. “Of course it looks familiar. Take a look around you, Taylor. This is all grass!”

She paused. “That’s true…”

“Just… figure it out…” My patience was running thin. No, it wasn’t running thin; it had already run thin. In fact, it was practically nonexistent. This day—a day that was supposed to be fun and enjoyable—had turned into a nightmare, and it was all thanks to the idiots who’d decided to kidnap us. I didn’t know why they had even attempted it. They were clearly amateurs; they must have known they were doomed to fail right from the start. Looking back, I realized all it took was one look at their car and clothes to see a shred of the reason they’d decided to try this. They were poor. Penniless, practically.

Thank God I had managed to escape. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the living conditions Taylor and I would have been submitted to under those two ogres. I shuddered at the thought of even stepping foot in their house.

Plus, I was pretty sure they hated my guts by this point. Understandably. They would’ve made my life a living hell if they had been given the chance. At least they didn’t appear to be murderers. They didn’t have that dangerous glint in their eyes, not like the last guys that had attempted to grab me. How Jack had managed to save me then but not now would forever remain a mystery.

I was starting to see why my dad was so strict about the surveillance I was to be put under. It was for my own safety. I didn’t understand this before; I mean, just this morning I’d been trying to get rid of Jack. Now that Taylor and I were alone, I just wanted Jack to find us and get us out of this mess. But I had no way of getting a hold of him. The open road gave us good GPS signal, but being stuck in the middle of nowhere ensured the death of Verizon’s signal. In short, we were screwed.

“Okay, try going left,” Taylor suggested, cocking her head at the GPS in confusion. “No, try going right… no, left… er… go straight!”

I internalized everything I wanted to say to her at that moment, for both her sake and mine. A fight wouldn’t help us get out of this situation, so instead of yelling at her, I did as she said.

“You better hope this gets us somewhere. We’re low on gas,” I said, glancing at the fuel level with a frown. The low-fuel light had come on about a minute ago, and we didn’t have much time to spare. Eventually, the car would just stop, and if it did, then we really were screwed, all jokes aside.

“I have a good feeling about this one,” Taylor said.

Her good feeling was entirely misleading. Half an hour later, we were right back where we started. At least, it looked like we were. Everything looked the same to me.

“Shoot,” she muttered, grimacing down at her phone.

We somehow managed to keep driving for another ten minutes before the car started slowing down and ultimately stopped.

“Great,” I said. “This is just great. We’re stuck in the middle of nowhere in this disgusting, run-down car, and we’re out of gas. To make things even worse, we can’t call anyone for help because there’s no signal out here. It’s dark, and it’s deserted, and it’s the perfect setting for a horror movie. Taylor, we’re going to die, and it’s going to be your fault. I hope you’re happy with yourself.”

“Emma, don’t say that!” Taylor squeaked, her blue eyes going wide. “You know I’m terrified of horror movies!” She looked like she was about to assume the fetal position and lose what little sanity she had left.

“Do you think I like the thought of this being a horror movie scenario? Of course not! I don’t want to be out here anymore than you do. And now I’m going to have to sleep in this dress. It’s going to be beyond saving. You can’t sleep in a Dolce and Gabbana dress.”

“It’s not like you were going to wear it again,” she said. She had a point, I guess. I wasn’t going to wear the dress again, anyways. I didn’t like wearing things twice. But still. That didn’t mean I wanted the dress to be ruined. What if I did decide to wear it more than once?

“Still.” I let out a deep sigh. “Let’s just… let’s just try to get some sleep if we can. I feel like I’m going to get an STD just from sitting in here.”

Taylor wrinkled her nose. “Gross.”

“We’ll figure something out in the morning. I’m exhausted,” I said, letting out a loud yawn as I spoke. I leaned my seat back as far as it would go and carefully laid down, grimacing at the smell. It smelled like cheap cologne in here.

Oh, God. Diseases couldn’t be transmitted this easily, right? I had no idea what kind of travesties had gone on in this car. I obviously watched too many movies; my mind immediately thought the worst of these guys.

“Good night, Emma,” Taylor said, snapping me out of my panicked thoughts.

We both settled down in our seats, and everything went quiet soon after. Eerily quiet, actually. It didn’t take me very long to fall asleep. Apparently, I was tired enough to crash despite my less than desirable circumstances. My subconscious must have realized I wouldn’t actually contract an STD from their shitty car, despite what I kept telling myself.

Seriously, I needed to stop watching so many movies.

***

Will

We walked for hours. My feet were sore and blistered about an hour into our journey, and I was ready to murder someone by that point. Well, it felt like an hour, at least. We didn’t have any way to keep track of the time, so it might have only been ten minutes. I still felt a little delusional from all of the head-banging I’d been put through, so I wasn’t really sure. I could’ve been losing it, for all I knew.

“I’m tired,” I groaned, slowly shortening my strides until I was basically just waddling, but even that hurt my damaged feet. Man, I needed a foot massage. Or foot surgery. Or both.

“Right, let’s just stop at this motel,” Eric said. “Which room do you want? Grass Patch #1, Grass Patch #2, or Grass Patch #4? Grass Patch #3 is already taken by that possum over there.”

“I don’t appreciate your sarcasm.”

“We can stop and sleep on the grass if you want, but don’t get mad at me when we wake up with God knows what on our bodies.”

I cursed under my breath. “Yeah, you’re right. We have to keep moving if we want to catch up to them.”

“They’re probably halfway to Canada by now. We’re not going to catch up to them. Just focus on getting back into town.”

“Are you crazy? We’re catching up to them, no matter what it takes. This is war.”

“Wait a second. Will—”

I ignored him, assuming he was going to keep destroying my dreams like the dream-crusher he was. “After what she did to us, you can’t seriously be okay with letting her get away. This is personal now. Screw Pops, and screw the money! This is between us now.” Not to mention the fact that our father would kill us if he found out we let Emma van der Bilt get away.

“Will—”

“Someone needs to knock her ego down a few notches. She’s used to getting everything she wants, but that’s not gonna happen with me.”

“Will you shut up a minute and listen?” Eric snapped, grabbing onto my arm. When he was sure he had my attention, he pointed at something in the distance. “Look over there.”

I struggled to make out what I was supposed to be seeing. I even squinted my good eye in an attempt to see what my brother was talking about, but I was basically half-blind. I needed to get closer.

As I walked closer, I began to chuckle maniacally. Oh, this was good. This was too good. It was them. The closer I got, the surer I was that it was them.

“Looks like the tables have turned once again,” Eric said, walking beside me. “The car probably ran out of gas, and I'm guessing they didn't think to check the trunk for extra gas. I’m surprised they didn’t get farther than this.”

Once we got closer, we quieted down, shuffling around the car as we tried to find a way to get in without waking them up.

Just as I was about to break a window—so much for not waking them up—I heard Eric whisper, “Will, this one’s open. I’m in.”

“Dumbasses,” I said. “So clever yet so stupid.”

“It was the blonde one,” he said.             

I chuckled. Of course it was the blonde. Emma van der Bilt wouldn’t have made such a dumb mistake. I barely knew her, but I knew enough to know she was hazardous and clever. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Let’s just do this before they wake up. If that one wakes up, we’re screwed.” I couldn’t see who Eric was pointing at, but it wasn’t hard to guess. Emma had, after all, been the mastermind behind our entire misfortune.

“Right,” I whispered back, watching as Eric carefully—almost fearfully—leaned over and unlocked Emma’s door. “She’s gonna regret ever messing with us.”

I opened her door and grabbed her by the waist. Immediately, her leg flew forward, almost hitting me in the face.

“Shit,” I mumbled. “Are you sure she’s asleep? She just kicked at me!”

“She looks asleep. Just hurry up.”

“Alright,” I said uncertainly. My hands were at her waist once again, and she didn’t kick me this time, thank God. I lifted her easily and sat her up in her seat, watching as her head drooped down and just hung there. She was pretty tiny, both in weight and height. How the hell had she managed to knock us both out? She had to have been an alien or something. That was the only explanation I could think of.

Shit. What if I’d just pissed off some homicidal clan of aliens? I was too young to die. Oh, God, I didn’t want to be rectally probed! What had I been thinking?

“Will,” Eric hissed. “What are you doing? Tie her up!”

I nodded, pushing aside my newfound fear of vengeful abduction by homicidal aliens for the time being. I would cross that bridge when I came to it.

I gripped Emma’s arms and pulled them behind her, swiftly tying them up with the piece of rope Eric had just thrown at my head. I grabbed a piece of cloth from the backseat and put it over her head, lowering it down to her mouth and tying it tightly.

When I heard her grunt under her breath, I started tying her legs together at a speed that surprised even me. There was no way I was getting hit in the face again, and I had no doubt in my mind that she’d do it again in a heartbeat if she was given the chance. This chick was nuts.

“Are you done?” Eric asked.

“Yeah,” I said, still holding onto her legs. I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like she was going to run away with her legs tied together, but I still didn’t feel safe letting go. An idea crossed my mind as Eric walked over to me, and I smiled wickedly. “Just… wait.”

I grabbed the bottom of Emma’s dress and pulled it up, producing a horrified reaction from Eric. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m just doing the same thing she did to me. That’s all.” I finished pulling her dress up and shoved her arms through the sleeves. Actually, there was only one sleeve. I’d ripped the other one off earlier. “Not bad,” I muttered to myself, surveying her body. It was dark, but even the darkness couldn’t cover up what she had going on. She was hot. Ridiculously hot, actually. The psycho ones usually were. “Not bad at all… too bad she’s such a bitch.”

Eric chuckled. “I thought you could win over any girl, including this one.”

“I thought so, too… maybe I still can. I like a good challenge as much as any other guy. And I really like this view.”

“Alright, pervert, that’s enough. Save it for when she’s awake and not planning on disemboweling you,” he said. “Let’s go.”

“Not just yet. Do the same to her friend before we go,” I said, picking Emma up like she was a rag doll and pulling her out of the car. “Before you say no, just remember she did it to you first.”

His tone was incredulous. “I’m not going to take her dress off.”

“Fine. I’ll do it myself.” I gently set Emma down on the back seat—not sure why. I should have thrown her—and walked over to the passenger seat. If you wanted something done, sometimes you just had to do it yourself.

***

Emma

I woke up in the back seat of a car. It didn’t take me very long to recognize it as the same place I’d woken up after being knocked out the day before. I sat up so quickly after that realization passed through my mind. I tried to speak, but my mouth was being blocked by a piece of cloth with a suspicious odor. Using my teeth, I moved it out of the way and spit on the floor in disgust.

“What the hell—” I screeched.

“Good morning, sunshine.”

I looked up in alarm and saw the smirking face of my kidnapper, What’s-His-Face. I still couldn’t remember his name. His face would have made me a lot angrier had it not been terribly swollen. “I’d say good morning, but judging by the boner on your face, I’d say you weren’t having such a good morning.”

His self-satisfied smirk fell almost instantly, and his partner-in-crime laughed out loud from the driver’s seat. “Actually,” he said, “I’m having a pretty good morning. My luck’s about to change. You wanna know why?”

I didn’t answer.

“I’ll tell you why. I’ve successfully kidnapped the daughter of one of the richest men in the country.”

“Don’t start counting your lucky stars just yet. This isn’t over yet,” I snapped.

“Isn’t it?” he asked, raising the eyebrow above his good eye. His other one remained in a permanent squint, and it made it kind of hard to take him seriously. “I’m not the one who’s naked and tied up in a stranger’s back seat.”

I glanced down at myself and noticed for the first time that I was in my bra and panties. Honestly, I was kind of relieved. When he’d said “naked,” I’d assumed he meant birthday-suit naked, not half-naked.

I looked over at Taylor and saw that we were in the same boat, except she was still sleeping. How had I not woken up? How had they managed to sneak past me? Goddamnit. I couldn’t believe it, but I wasn’t about to give this prick the satisfaction of seeing me upset. Instead of showing my real emotions, I said, “No, but just twelve hours ago, you were the one who was naked, beaten, and lying on the side of the road. I can assure you, if your inane little brain managed to figure out how to turn this around in your favor, I can do the same, and it will go ten times smoother.”  

“Bit over-confident, aren’t we?”

“Worried, are we?”

“No. I can handle you.”

“If you could handle me, you wouldn’t have gone to these extremes,” I pointed out smugly. “Is there any part of me you didn’t tie up or duct tape?”

“Yeah, your mouth. Clearly that was a mistake.”

I heard a quiet yawn and looked over at Taylor. Her eyes went wide as she slowly sat up and took in her surroundings. “Emma? What’s going on?”

I leaned in and quietly hissed, “Did you forget to lock your door?”

The fact that she didn’t respond was enough of an answer for me. She’d definitely forgotten to lock her door.

“We’re here,” the guy on the driver’s side announced, turning my attention back to the front of the car.

“Welcome home,” the other one drawled, turning to give me a smirk.

I looked out the window, saw what was supposed to be my new “home” until I hatched a new escape plan, and screamed at the top of my lungs.

I think I would have preferred death to this fate. 

***

I'm really sorry it took me a month to get this out! I don't have that much of an excuse for it, I guess, besides laziness. I just haven't really been in the writing mood lately. I don't know why. That paired with the fact that I do have a life (even though I constantly joke about not having one,) that I've been busy editing Better Than Revenge (which takes way longer than I thought, by the way) and that I've had cheer camp this entire week when I actually kind of felt like writing, and the chances of this being updated were slim.

It's finally out, though!

Sorry for any spelling or grammatical mistakes. I had this chapter written on a notebook and just quickly typed it up right now while I had a free half-hour. 

Um....

Yeah, that's pretty much it.