A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been commenting and voting nonstop on this story! It means so much to see that you guys are enjoying this story. :) I reply to as many comments as I can, especially questions and essay comments lol. Thank you again!

***

Kidnap My Heart

Chapter 23: Emma

Eric Knight was sly; he was clever. Hell, he was almost as good at this pranking thing as I was—maybe better. He was more level-headed than I was at the moment, at least. He saved me from being discovered by Will, and I didn’t even notice I’d almost been caught until Eric told me himself.

When Will told his brother he was planning on flipping my mattress as a prank, Eric was quick to act. He removed the walkie talkie from under the mattress before Will could get to work.

“What would you do without me?” Eric asked as he handed me the walkie talkie. He subtly glanced over my shoulder and his to make sure no one was listening. Will and Taylor were still in the living room; Eric and I had made up some bullshit excuse to sneak away. Taylor knew about the whole haunting thing and how Eric was in on it, but Will obviously didn’t and we wanted things to stay that way.

I shook my head, stuffing the walkie talkie inside of my pocket. I was wearing a pair of Will’s shorts, and they had these ginormous pockets that could fit pretty much anything. It was like I had a Mary Poppins bag in my shorts. “I owe you one. That was close. I didn’t even think of that when I realized he’d flipped it.”

Eric’s eyebrows furrowed and he lowered his voice. “You didn’t remember putting the walkie talkie there?”

“No, I did. It’s just—” I hesitated to continue. I couldn’t tell him the truth. How would that have gone? The springs on Will’s mattress almost stabbed me in the back, so Will lifted my shirt to see if he’d hurt me, and I let him, and he started tracing my back with his fingers and his touch was so distracting and felt so irritatingly nice that my mind went completely blank for once and I didn’t consider the fact that he could’ve discovered the walkie talkie I’d left down there? No, I didn’t think so.

“Just what?”

“I was just more focused on the fact that I’d just laid on a porcupine bed. I didn’t think about the walkie talkie,” I said, opting for a safe response instead of the complete truth.

“Well, be more careful next time,” Eric said, glancing over my shoulder again. He was a paranoid one. “This is fucking hilarious, and I don’t want you to ruin it.”

I shot him a look. “I’m sorry. Am I getting in the way of your prank, Princess?”

He returned his focus to me, shooting me a lazy grin. “Sorry. I get kind of into this stuff. That’s why I don’t start things myself. I get carried away.”

“Really? I couldn’t tell.” Sarcasm dripped off of my every word. “Just keep in mind whose idea this was in the first place. Keep in mind who wrote out the script you follow, who wrote on the wall with fake blood, and who successfully instilled the fear in him in the first place. Don’t get cocky.”

He mockingly saluted me. “Yes, ma’am.”

I lightly smacked him in the gut and gestured for him to follow me upstairs. I needed him to cover me while I re-hid the walkie-talkie. Will had flipped the mattress back over and promised not to touch it ever again, so there was no longer any danger in leaving it there.

I didn’t have any problem putting it back, but it was nice to know someone had my back just in case. Eric wouldn’t have been my first choice in accomplices, but Taylor was too nice to help me with a prank like this. She thought it was amusing, sure, but she was only interested in casually observing as an outsider. At least she kept her mouth shut.

The second we walked back to the living room, Will spoke. “What took you guys so long?” He didn’t sound too happy. Was he suspicious of something or what? There was no way he knew anything, unless Taylor had opened her mouth while we were gone… No, Taylor wouldn’t talk. She’d sworn secrecy to us.

“Nothing,” I said, plopping down right next to him. I’d plopped down a little too close, but if it kept him from asking questions, whatever. It wasn’t like I was on top of him or anything. “Nothing at all.”

***

It took Will a while to fall asleep that night. He kept trying to talk to me, while I kept trying to end our conversation. All I wanted was for him to go to sleep so I could get up and screw with him. Was that too much to ask?

Once I was sure he was asleep—five million years later—I snuck out of bed and headed to his underwear drawer. I had so many other ideas that didn’t involve touching his boxers, but I didn’t want to push things too far—not yet. Not because I would feel guilty or anything like that; I wasn’t Will. I was simply aware that pushing things too far, too fast never turned out well. I didn’t want to end up with a prank war neither of us could handle. That wouldn’t be fun for either of us.

I took every single pair of underwear Will owned and started a pile on the ground. I wouldn’t need any of these, anyway. I preferred rewashing my own pair over and over again. I’d declared ownership of one pair of Will’s boxers as well, but I kept that particular pair separate. I’d washed it about five million times to make sure it was as clean as possible. Will’s talk of “ball sweat” had made me want to throw them out, but serious times called for serious measures.

I ignored how awkward I felt carrying a pile of Will’s underwear and made my way downstairs to the kitchen. I shoved the pile inside a big pitcher of cold water and put it in the freezer. I hoped Will would enjoy thawing that monstrosity out. I was tempted to do something else, but I wanted to save the pranks that came to mind for later. Now wasn’t the time. The time would come soon.

I went back upstairs and when I walked past Eric’s room, I could hear him making some scary haunted noises through the walkie talkie. Ah. Good old Eric. It made a fellow pranker proud; it even made me wipe a fake tear from the corner of my eye.

As soon as I walked through the doorway of our room, Will shrieked, and I slapped my hands over my ears in recoil. “Oh, my God, what the hell, Will?”

His screams died out. “Sorry. You just caught me off guard.” He quickly sat up a bit in his-makeshift bed, shoving one of his blankets aside.

I didn’t say anything as I walked over to my bed. I was trying to listen for some more noises, but there weren’t any. Eric had stopped making them. Will had probably had enough for the night if he’d screamed the second I walked through the door. I was sure Eric and Taylor both heard that shriek. It was deafening.

“Where were you?” he asked.

I glanced over at him. I could barely see his face. Mostly, I could see the outline of his body, and I could see that he’d laid back down. “I went to the bathroom. Am I not allowed to do that now?”

Silence filled the room. No answer. I shrugged and climbed back into bed. After the day I’d had, it didn’t take me very long to fall asleep, and I slept like a baby for the rest of the night.

In the morning, I woke up to Will’s angry voice. It wasn’t enough to make me open my eyes, so I settled for listening to him rave. “What did you do with my boxers?” he demanded. “The drawer’s completely empty.”

I barely stirred. “I don’t know.”

“Rage—”

“I’d check the kitchen if I were you.” 

He let out an exasperated breath. His footsteps retreated and the door was slammed shut. Maybe I could go back to sleep for another hour or so.

Nope. He came back a bit later, once again disrupting my peaceful slumber. I was surprised it took him so long, but I guess the freezer wouldn’t be the first place I looked, either.

“You froze my underwear in a pitcher of water?” His tone was incredulous.

My lips curved upwards. “I see you found my surprise.”

“Rage.” He let out another loud breath. He did that a lot. “You couldn’t have left a single pair behind?”

I finally opened my eyes and took in the sight. Will was right out of the shower. His torso was dry and uncovered, and the only thing concealing the lower part of his body was a white towel. It wasn’t a bad sight to wake up to. Definitely not a bad sight at all. “Where would the fun be in that?” I asked.

When I’d frozen his underwear, I’d expected him to thaw out a pair and shove them on anyway. Will was usually predictable, but his predictability wasn’t a constant thing. Instead of going back downstairs and thawing out his underwear, he walked over to his drawer and grabbed a pair of athletic shorts. I should’ve closed my eyes and gone back to sleep, but like I said, I had a thing for muscular backs and I couldn’t help but stare at his when he turned around. Working out paid off.

I regretted not closing my eyes and I regretted freezing his underwear in the first place when Will decided to go commando because of his lack of underwear after walking back to the side of my bed. I deeply, deeply regretted it. Deeply.

“What the hell are you doing?” I squeezed my eyes shut as I yelled, and I shoved my face into my pillow. “You can’t just whip off your towel when I’m in the room!”

His reply came immediately. “Why not?”

Was he serious? Was he actually serious?

“It’s not right!” My voice came out muffled, but there was no way I was getting up or moving my head in the slightest. I was scarred. Traumatized. Mentally and emotionally. Images like that… they didn’t leave. They never left… Twitch. “You don’t live alone anymore. You can’t just start changing in front of me like that!”

“It’s not like you weren’t already acquainted with Vlad the—”

I lifted my hand in the air and stuck out my pointer finger. “Do not. Do not say that name around me.”

The low chuckle he let out made me want to strangle him with the nearest cord. Maybe I could strangle him with the string I used to tighten my shorts. “Eventually you two will properly meet,” he said.

I shuddered at the thought and choked out a reply. “We will never meet.”

My reply was forcibly choked out. Will’s reply, on the other hand, was cocky and smooth. “We’ll see about that. You’re already shuddering in Vlad’s presence.”

My eyes narrowed into my pillow. The desire to strangle him increased, but I was scared he still hadn’t covered himself, so I just hurled my pillow backwards instead. All this did was make him laugh.

I shoved my face into the bed. I shouldn’t have thrown my only pillow; I already missed it. With a muffled groan, I said, “I hate you, Will.”

I could hear the smile in his voice. “No, you don’t.” He said it so confidently, even I believed him. After a few more seconds, he added, “You can get up now, Rage.”

“Are you decent?”

He chuckled. “Yes.”

I still lingered on the bed, but I did end up getting up. I even opened my eyes—one first to test the waters, and then the other when I saw Will had put his shorts on. “Remind me to avoid all contact with you until you start wearing underwear again,” I said, stumbling up off of the bed. God, I needed therapy.

“Are you saying you wouldn’t mind contact with me under different circumstances?”

“That’s definitely not what I’m saying.” I walked over to the mirror and attempted to brush out the tangles in my hair with Will’s brush.

After he’d pulled a t-shirt over his head, Will said, “Sure didn’t seem that way last night. Remember?”

I did remember, but I didn’t want to remember. “Can you just not?”         

“What?” He looked confused, but instead of answering him, I walked out of the room and headed downstairs. Taylor and Eric weren’t in the living room for once. They were in the kitchen making breakfast, although they looked they were having way too much fun doing it.

“Hey, this one’s just toasty, that’s all,” Taylor said with a laugh. She was looking down at a pan. “It’s still edible!”

Eric glanced over her shoulder and made a face. “Yeah, if you have a death wish.”

She just shook her head and let out another laugh. “I’ll try again—”

He gingerly took the pan away from her and said, “No, no, no. How about I try it this time so we can stop throwing eggs away?”

Taylor’s face visibly turned red and she sighed. She was doing it to offset the blushing. It was what she always did when she was embarrassed and didn’t want people to notice. “Alright, I guess.”

“Not that I don’t appreciate your efforts,” he said, shooting her a charming smile. “It’s the thought that counts.”

The embarrassed look on her face faded and she let a smile cross her face. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

He chuckled. “Maybe.”

The smile remained on Taylor’s face, and I stood there for another minute, observing how my best friend interacted with Eric—her kidnapper. When Eric started cooking his own eggs, Taylor stopped talking, but she didn’t stop looking at him. She didn’t look away once. She barely even blinked. 

The look on her face—it scared me. It wasn’t just the look she gave cute guys. It wasn’t the look she’d given Will and Eric when she first saw them without their masks and gushed over how adorable they were. This look was different. It was more prominent, and it was dangerous. It was that look you gave someone you were more than just interested in. That look that gave away your thoughts and feelings without having to utter a single word. It was that look I didn’t dare describe, not in its entirety, at least, because it was something that seemed impossible.

What had I missed? We’d only been here for two weeks. The first week I was completely out of the loop, so out of the loop I even missed her birthday celebration. I had no idea what happened in that time period. The only thing I knew for sure was that Taylor won over Eric’s trust during that first week, and Eric won over Taylor’s.

We spent the second week mostly separated. When the four of us were together, we couldn’t really talk or anything. Eric and Will were constantly breathing down our necks, so we hadn’t had a good conversation or a heart to heart in a while.

Besides, we usually just watched movies or watched TV, and the only talking that went on then was commentary on my part or Will’s part.

I didn’t think this was something I could’ve seen myself. This hadn’t happened right under my nose. This had happened in the comfort of Eric’s room. I had no idea what went on in there, and I had no way of knowing. Taylor’s attraction to Eric was never a secret. What if it had turned into more?

“Hey, guys,” I finally said, walking all the way into the kitchen. They both looked up the moment I walked in. I waited for a guilty look to cross their faces, but it never did. They didn’t even realize how their interaction looked to a third party observer.

Will walked into the kitchen right after I did and headed straight for the fridge. “Where did all of this food come from?”

“I went to the store earlier today,” Eric said as he scraped the eggs off of the pan and onto a plate. He turned and handed the plate to Taylor. “Bon appétit, ma chérie.”

She let out a nervous giggle as she took it from his hands.

Oh, my God.

“You don’t even know what that means, do you?” Will asked, speaking between crunches. I had no idea what he’d just shoved in his mouth or how he’d already found something to eat.

“Not a clue,” Taylor admitted, setting her plate down on the counter. “I take Spanish, not French.” She hopped onto a stool in front of the counter, and Eric placed a glass of milk in front of her.

“Seriously, can we switch people?” I asked Taylor, nodding over at Eric in amazement. “Squilly never makes me food. Not even fair.”

“You never ask,” Will exclaimed, still speaking between bites. I swear this guy never stopped eating.

“She shouldn’t have to, man,” Eric said, placing his own plate down on the counter. “Ever heard of chivalry? You can have these if you want, Emma. I’ll make some more.”

“No,” Will said, pointing a finger at his brother. “I’ll handle this. I can be chivalrous.” I rolled my eyes at this, but he ignored me and continued. “What do you want, Rage?”

My tone was dubious at best. “Can you even cook?”

“Of course. I can bake better than I can cook, but I can still cook pretty well.” He said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, as if all guys cooked and baked. I hadn’t seen him cook once. We usually just ate things that could be microwaved or simply heated up. The only one who had cooked for us was Eric. Oh, and Taylor, but only that once. We kind of… discouraged her from doing it again after that fiasco.

“It’s true.” Eric appeared to find my disbelief amusing. “He can make a killer cheesecake.”

God, I loved cheesecake. That was one dessert that was worth every calorie. “Huh. I may have to test that one myself.”

“Do you like it?”

“I love it. It’s my favorite.” I sat down on the opposite of the counter. That way, I could see what Will was doing in the kitchen. “Can you make an omelet?”

“Sure.” With that, Will got to work while the rest of us chatted amongst ourselves. It was a trivial conversation, really, and I barely followed it. I needed to talk to Taylor urgently.

As soon as she was done eating, I pretty much sprung on her. “Can I talk to you for a second, Tay?”

“Yeah, of course.” She seemed kind of surprised by my immediate proposal, but she followed me to the farthest corner of the living room, anyway. Eric didn’t even look twice at us. He really did trust Taylor.

“Is there something I’m missing here?” I asked in a low voice. We were pretty far away from the guys, but I still didn’t feel safe speaking at a normal volume.

“What do you mean?”

“I was watching you and Eric earlier, while you were making your eggs, and I noticed how you were acting around him.”

Taylor’s face turned red. With her blonde hair and pale complexion, any color that spread to her cheeks was immediately noticeable, something I knew she hated. “Oh.”

“Look, I know Eric has been nothing but nice to you since you got here, and I can tell he doesn’t want anything to do with this whole kidnapping business, but still. Regardless of the reason he’s in this mess, he’s still the guy who kidnapped you and took you from your home.”

“Emma.”

“Don’t give me that look. I know that look. Taylor, he has nothing to offer you. This is crazy. Don’t do this to yourself. I don’t want to see you get hurt when all of this blows up in their faces and they end up in jail.”

I hadn’t thought about it in that way for a while, but it was true. Sometimes kidnappers got away, but the chances of Will and Eric getting caught were high. The thought of Will behind bars was kind of shocking, but it could potentially be his reality. I could make it his reality once I got away. Or I could spare him.

“It doesn’t have to be messy. Not if we keep our mouths shut.”

“Taylor—” I let out a quiet groan and ran a hand through my hair. “I don’t understand you. I don’t understand what you see in him. He’s cute and all, but he’s below you and you know it. This is screwed up.”

I half-expected Taylor to go off on me for what I’d just said, but she asked me a question instead. “Do you really feel nothing for Will? Absolutely nothing?”

I snorted and almost replied in a loud voice. I had to remind myself that they would hear me if I did, and I didn’t want them to know we were talking about them. “Are you serious? Taylor, we’re talking about the guy who kidnapped me and left me in a nasty garage to rot, the guy who only took me out because his daddy said so. He’s lucky I haven’t murdered him yet.”

“In your case, it’s a long shot… but with me and Eric… it’s different.”

I internalized what I really wanted to say and somehow kept a level-head. “Just—take a step back and look at this situation. See it for what it really is. Don’t look at it in a glazed over kind of way. See the reality.”

“It’s just a crush, Emma,” she said. “That’s all.”

“I hope so.”

I glanced up and saw Will and Eric making their way towards us, officially marking the end of our conversation. It had pretty much ended already, anyway. If it had gone on any longer, I definitely would have said some things I would’ve regretted later.

Will began to eye us warily as soon as he stopped and stood in front of us. “Your breakfast is ready. What were you guys talking about?”

“Our desire to murder kittens,” I replied sarcastically. “Seriously, I can’t even have a simple conversation with my best friend now without you being up my butt?”

“Hey, I’m just following orders,” Will said. “And you two seem suspicious.” 

If he thought we were plotting our escape, he was mistaken. I wasn’t in any rush. When the right opportunity arose, I’d take it. The timing wasn’t right, and I couldn’t leave without Taylor. Things would’ve been a lot easier if Taylor wasn’t always with Eric and Eric wasn’t such a light sleeper, but hey, that was life. It liked to throw curveballs at you and screw you over. I was witnessing this first-hand. Those stupid curveballs just kept coming and coming, and it didn’t look like they intended to stop. 

***

Fighting the urge to skip ahead and write later chapters haha. I have the whole thing planned to the dot and seriously, guys.... it's precious.

I wish I didn't always have to write in chronological order but I can't bring myself to skip around!