Author's Note: This story is a collaboration between myself and my good friend and fellow author, heroicmuse. For the half of this story that is written by him, I am so grateful. Please follow his stories, as he is an excellent author!
Paige stared straight ahead as she picked up her phone. She glanced at JJ's photo on her display, then touched it, gently, closing her eyes as she made the call. "It's me, Paige," she said, her voice soft. "There's something I need to tell you. C-can you come to my dorm room?"
"You okay?" JJ asked, hearing the slight tremor in her voice.
Paige swallowed hard. "Yeah. Fine. It's just, certain things can't be said over the phone because you don't know who might be listening. Um, I'll explain everything, I promise. I… I love you."
"I love you too." JJ sounded surprised. "I'll be there soon. Hang tight, okay?"
Paige hung up the phone. She glared at nothing, not daring to turn around and face the person who was pressing the barrel of a gun hard against her shoulder. "I did exactly what you told me and I didn't give anything away. I don't know what you want with JJ, but you'd better not hurt him since I cooperated completely."
Her captor laughed as he grabbed her wrist and twisted hard enough to make her drop the phone. Paige yelped and Kyle pressed the gun harder against her shoulder and said in her ear, "Shut up, bitch. Now that's real cute, telling me what to do like you think I care about you at all." He twisted Paige's arm behind her back so hard that her knees buckled and she had to grab onto the bench to stop from falling.
Kyle smashed Paige's phone with his foot. Then he pressed the gun harder into her shoulder and said, "Both of you deserve what you get, trying to double cross me. Only reason you're alive at all's cause my boss wants to deal with you his way. But that's gonna change if you don't start being a good girl and doing what you're told without the attitude. Start walking and make it look like nothing's wrong." He began marching Paige out of the park, holding her arm firmly against her back and the gun against her shoulder. Paige wriggled, but he poked her with the gun and she stopped, letting him walk her through the gate without saying a word.
"All right, baby girl," Kyle said under his breath a while later. He'd used duct tape to tie Paige up pretty tightly. He'd made her lie down in an old suitcase and taped her wrists together behind her back, then taped her ankles together and pulled them up behind her so that he could tape them to her wrists.. Then he'd shoved a rolled up cloth into her mouth and pressed tape over her lips, smoothing it out to make sure the gag was tight enough that she wouldn't be able to make a sound, before zipping up the suitcase so he could carry her all over town without anyone knowing.
Now he was unpacking the suitcase, unpacking her, really. He opened it on the floor of her room, then picked her up and dragged her into the closet, where he lay her facedown on the floor. "I'd tell you to be quiet but I don't think you got a choice," he said, laughing to himself. He took the blanket off her bed and threw it on top of her and then threw some clothes on top of the blanket so that nobody could possibly know she was there before sliding the suitcase in next to her.
Paige heard the closet door lock. It was dark, very dark. She could barely see. She tried to sit herself up but could not. She lay still, trying to figure out what the hell Kyle was doing. Why had he kidnapped her just to imprison her in her own closet? Sooner or later Daphne would come looking for her to take her to class and find her tied up and locked in, so what was the point? It didn't make sense. Shouldn't he have taken her somewhere else and tried to interrogate her about working undercover for the cops or something?
Paige could feel the gag slipping into her throat. She was choking, she was sure of it. She could even hear herself gasping for the choking sounds stopped and she realized she was still here, still breathing. What the hell? she thought.
A second later, she heard the room door creak open. "Paige?" JJ called.
In here, Paige thought. She tried to call to JJ, to warn him to get out before something happened to him, but she was gagged too tightly and couldn't even make a muffled sound. She struggled to slide forward on her stomach but it was impossible to move more than half an inch. She couldn't get her head anywhere near the door and she couldn't make enough noise hitting it on the floor to accomplish anything. She pulled against the tape, groaning silently under the gag, then lay still and prayed that Kyle wouldn't hurt JJ as bad as he'd hurt her.