Checking the time on the cheap burner phone she had bought the day before, Bayley was surprised by how long long she'd managed to sleep. She was also surprised that Becky hadn't woken her. With that thought, panic gripped her stomach. Had she somehow managed to escape during the night?
Quickly, Bayley rolled over and saw that, thankfully, Becky was still lying there beside her. Handcuffed, taped, beautiful, just as she had been when Bayley had found herself lying there, studying her during the night. Only now, Becky was also awake, looking back at her with those incredibly sexy eyes, which she used to gesture to down at the tape, adding a small moan of encouragement.
"Okay," Bayley said softly. "You've been quiet all night, so I guess I really can trust you. No more tape unless you give me a reason to use it."
Relief washed over Becky when she heard that. As she had calculated, cooperating with Bayley by staying quiet all night had been worth it. She was still intent on kissing her, but before she could do that, there was something even more urgent to do. "I need to go to the bathroom," she announced as soon as her lips were freed from the tape.
"Alright," Bayley agreed. "I'm going to trust you, Becky. I'll let you go without me watching you. Don't make me regret it."
"I won't," Becky promised her, meaning it.
Bayley unlocked both ends of the handcuffs that had been securing Becky's wrists either side of the metal bar, then gestured towards the bathroom with her head.
"Thank you," Becky said, rubbing her sore wrists as she got off the bed.
A few minutes later, she was able to get some satisfaction from washing her hands and face with cold water at the bathroom sink before walking back out to talk to Bayley. She hadn't wanted to take too long and push whatever amount of trust she had built up with her captor.
"Better?" Bayley asked, looking up at her from her sitting position on the bed with a smile that made parts of Becky tingle.
"Yes. I suppose a shower is out of the question? I haven't been able to wash in days and I feel disgusting."
"Maybe later," Bayley replied. "I've got to go out and get us something for breakfast first. Help yourself to some water or cola."
"I've been thinking, Bayley," Becky said as she poured herself a cup of water. "I've been doing a lot of thinking about where we might go from here."
"And?" Bayley asked, after watching the redhead down the entire cup in one hit.
Sitting down next to Bayley, Becky tried summon all the courage she had. The moment felt right, and she couldn't wait forever, not if she wanted things to work out how she hoped they would. "And I don't just want you to let me go," she said, looking right into Bayley's eyes. "I don't want Charlotte and Ronda to find me, but more importantly, I don't want to leave you. I want to stay with you."
When it came, the kiss took Bayley totally by surprise. Although she had thought during the night that she didn't want Becky to leave her, the last thing she had expected was for Becky to be so forward in conveying that she felt the same way.
As Becky kissed her for the second time, more passionately than before, a little voice in Bayley's head warned her that this might all be a trick of some kind, perhaps to lull her into a false sense of security. Was that Becky's plan? Try and convince her that everything was going just the way she wanted, then attack when her guard was down? It was definitely possible. This could be the beginning of an escape attempt. Even if it wasn't, Bayley had to ask herself if she was sure of her decision to give up all hope of selling Becky on, and with it give up helping her father with his dire financial problems.
She didn't know what to do. That fact made her panic even more. She had to think it all through. That was the only way to make the right decision. Becky couldn't be allowed to force the issue like this, as nice as the kiss felt. "Becky, stop," she ordered, trying to push the Irish woman away.
"No. Kiss me, Bayley," Becky breathed. "I know you want it too."
Bayley pushed her away again, more forcefully this time. "I don't know what I want. I need time to think. I can't make the wrong decision on this. My entire life is at stake."
"Mine is as well," Becky started to say, but she was cut off.
"Shut up!" Bayley order her, angry now. "You're not letting me think. I need to get out of here and decide what I want to do."
"No. Don't go, Bayley," Becky pleaded, wanting them to talk about the situation and their feelings. Pushing at that moment was a mistake.
"I said shut up!" Bayley nearly shouted at her, then grabbed hold of her and shoved her down on the bed before she could react and resist.
"What are you doing?" Becky cried out, suddenly panicked herself as Bayley sat on her stomach, pinning her down.
Bayley forced herself not to respond. She'd made a decision on what she was going to do, right now at least. She snatched up the pair of handcuffs that she'd used during the night and snapped one end onto Becky's right wrist.
"Please, don't," Becky begged, but it was pointless. Her attempts to resist were futile as Bayley was stronger than her, and soon had two pairs of handcuffs on her, securing both of her wrists to the bed. By that point, she knew that she had pushed way too hard, much too soon and she had made Bayley panic. That was the last thing a kidnap victim ought to do to their captor. Silently raging at herself, she wondered how she could have she been so stupid?
"Bayley, I'm sorry," she tried, hoping it would calm her down. It didn't.
Bayley was determined not to listen. She'd made the decision to get out of the hotel room and give herself some time to think, and she wasn't going to change her mind. Despite Becky's protests, she picked up the roll of duct tape and quickly wrapped it several times around her head to gag her. It was regrettable, but it was necessary. "Don't look at me like that," she almost pleaded after she was finished. Becky looked like she had been betrayed. "I'm not saying I'm not going to decide I want to be with you, Becky. I just need to think it all through, and I can't do that in the same room as you. I'll be back soon with some breakfast and a decision on what I'm going to do. Lie here and stay quiet."
Watching Bayley snatch up the keys to the van and leave the room, Becky roared in frustration into the tape, struggling against the handcuffs. It was no use. She was helpless yet again, and this time she had to admit it was her fault, partially at least. Had she just blown any chance there might have been of Bayley letting her go, or of them staying together and maybe seeing if something else might develop between them?
Outside, Bayley jumped into the van and drove into the centre of the small town. Her anger, both with Becky and with herself, made her drive more aggressively than she should have done while trying to maintain a low profile. She got lucky in that she didn't encounter a police officer with nothing better to do than pull someone over for doing a few miles per hour over the speed limit.
Parking in a half-empty lot at a diner that advertised takeout food, she told herself to calm down. Becky's kiss had really rattled her, but this wasn't a time or a situation where she could afford to be rattled. One mistake and she could so easily end up in jail or dead. She had to calm down and consider the options she had available to her, and their consequences.
Selling Becky on certainly seemed to be very unlikely at this point. No one she had spoken to the previous day had called back to express any firm interest in taking her, which exhausted the few contacts she felt she could rely on not to call Ronda straight away and let her know what was going on. The plan to raise money to help her father had failed when Stephanie McMahon had gotten herself arrested, she had to face up to that. There would be no million dollars.
That left her with a woman she had kidnapped, who was now handcuffed to a bed in a motel room. Killing her definitely wasn't an option. She was a thief, not a murderer. That was a boundary she wouldn't cross. So, what to do about Becky? "I've got to let her go," she mumbled to herself. But then what? Would Becky run to the cops the first chance she got? It would be the best idea, from Becky's point of view, knowing that Ronda and Charlotte were out there, wanting to track them both down and kill them.
But Becky had kissed her. "She said she didn't want to leave me," Bayley muttered. Had Becky meant what she'd said? Had the kiss been for real? Or had it just been an attempt to get free?
Taking a minute to think it all through, Bayley realised just how badly she wanted to trust Becky. She wanted the kiss to have been real. She wanted them to try and make a relationship work, despite how far fetched the idea seemed to be, given the circumstances. It wasn't as simple as that, though. The financial problems with her father's business would still be there, and even worse, Ronda and Charlotte would still be out there trying to track them down. That was the biggest problem they had to somehow deal with, or escape from.
"Escape from?" she asked herself, wondering why she'd thought of it in those terms. Was that really the only option left? Leaving everything behind and fleeing the country to start a new life? Now that she thought about it, it really did seem that running was the only viable option. It would mean leaving her parents and their problems behind, but that would be the case if she was arrested or killed anyway.
Okay, she decided, as hard as it would be, running seemed like it was the way she had to go, but would Becky really go with her? Bayley really wanted to think that she would, that they both had genuine feelings for each other, but was that the case? And would Becky be willing to leave her life and her multi-million dollar invention behind? Again, it was likely to be the only option. Ronda and especially Charlotte would stop at nothing to kill her, so returning to her old life wasn't an option for Becky, either.
Hoping that Becky was using the time alone in the room to do some thinking herself, and hoping that handcuffing and gagging her again wouldn't have scared her off the idea of them being together, Bayley decided to grab some breakfast and head back to the motel. She got out of the van and walked across the parking lot into the diner. That was where her luck ran out.
As she ordered two meals to go, she paid no attention to the man in a black leather jacket sitting in a cubicle by himself, eating a breakfast. However, the man didn't fail to pay attention to her. Being as discrete as possible, he took out his phone and loaded up a picture that had been sent to him the previous day. The cute dark haired woman in the picture sure looked like the woman who had just walked into the diner and was now standing at the counter.
He put his phone away and carried on eating his breakfast, glad that he was sitting facing the counter so that he could watch the woman without seeming to be paying any particular attention to her at all. As she talked to the woman who was serving her, she turned slightly, giving him a better look at her face. It was the same woman. He was sure of it. What a result. He'd be able to claim the reward Ronda Rousey had offered for information on the location of the woman, Bayley Martinez, he remembered, and he hadn't even been out there trying to track her down at the time. That was well worth a smile.
When Bayley walked out, carrying two boxed up meals in a large plastic carrier bag, the man got up and followed her, leaving enough money on the table to more than cover his half-eaten meal. Out in the parking lot, he got into his car and watched Bayley climb into a white van, which also matched the description he'd been given. If he'd had any doubts about his identification of the woman Ronda was trying to track down, they were gone now. As he pulled out of the lot, following the van from a discreet distance, he made a call.
"Corbin," a woman's voice said when the call was answered.
"Hello, Ronda." He gave his location, then said, "I've just seen Bayley Martinez buying two meals to go at a breakfast diner."
"You're sure it's her?" Ronda asked quickly, voice as sharp as a razor.
"I got a good look at her and compared her face to the picture you sent. She also happens to be driving a white van that exactly matches the description you gave. It's her. And I'm following her now. If you want her, get your ass down here. And remember the reward you promised."
"You'll get it, in cash," Ronda assured him. Before she ended the call, Corbin heard her speaking to someone else on her end of the line. "Charlotte, let's move."