Chapter Eleven
"Are you guys sure? You can still stay here with us," Michael says. Shane and I decided that we needed to get our own house. I shake my head.
"You know that there's not enough room here," I say, looking at the houses for sale. Eve pulls the puppydog eyes.
"But you and Shane can move in your room and we can put the babies in Shane's room," Eve pleads. Shane's at work, so I'm going to show him what I find when he gets home. Shane has been perfect during all of this. He holds my hair when I have to throw up and he gets me my weird crazings, everything.
"Well, yeah it would work that way but I would be waking you guys up all the time with the babies crying and everything," I say. Eve looks a little thrown by that.
"Here's a compromise. Since Shane works, why don't you and Shane live here until you have the babies and then you can move into the new house. Gives you more time, plus, after eveything that happened, none of us want you to be alone," Micheal says, and from the sounds of it I don't have much of a choice.
"Talk to Shane about that, not me," I say, ending the conversation. There's a house for sale down the road from here but it's a founder house so I'll have to talk to Amelie. I sigh and grab my purse.
"Can someone drive me to town square. I need to talk to Amelie," I say. Michael stands.
"I'll take you but I have to go to work after that, can you find a way home without getting yourself killed?" Micheal asks. I roll my eyes.
"I'm pretty sure I'll be okay," I look at my phone. It's six now," I'll be back by 7:30." I say, following Michael out of the house. He drives me to town square and drops me off.
"I'll be back by eight. If your not there, your introuble," he said, trying to sound like a dad. We both laugh and he drives off. I walk in, having called ahead to say I need to talk to Amelie. They usher me into a room and I sit in a chair facing Amelie.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" she asks coldly. She's not happy with me, still.
"There is a founder house for sale a block from the Glass house. I came here to request permission to purchase it," I say. She looks at me, genuinely surprised. I realized that she didn't know.
"Why?" she ask, verifying my train of thought.
"I'm pregnant. I had been suspecting that I was. That's why I didn't want to go with Myrnin," I say. This is actually true though I didn't want to admit it, even to myself. She blinks and then regains her composure.
"Congratulations are do, I believe. You and Mr. Collins must be very happy. If that is all that you want, then I'll agree. You can have the founder house. Now, if you'll excuse me," Amelie says, standing. I nod and leave. I walk outside and look at the time on my phone. 6:15. Shane's home by now. Maybe I'll call and ask for a ride.
Actually, I want to surprise Shane so I'll walk. I'm supposed to get exercise anyway. I'm starting to look fat and I need to exercise to keep my ankles from swelling. Someone grabs me and I yelp in surprise. A knife is pressed to my throat, silencing me.
"Remember me?" a voice asks. I blink in surpise. It's some random person," This is gonna be fun." I move my hand down to my pocket and hold down the one, two, and three at the same time. It links the calls automatically, calling Shane, Eve, and Michael.
I hear the faint noise of someone answering. Kim throws me in the back of a waiting car, actually in the trunk, which sucks. She slams it shut and drives off. I pull my phone out.
"Are you there?" I ask quietly, though I can hear music blaring from the car.
"Claire? Are you okay? What's going on?" Shane asks frantically.
"I am for now but some girl grabbed me in the town square. I'm in a trunk," I say, Shifting so I'm on my back. There's something digging into my back and it hurts really badly. I shift and pull it out. It's a tire iron.
"What!" Eve and Michael yell at the same time. I hear the car stop and hang up, putting my phone away. I grip the tire iron tightly, and shift position. Kim opens the trunk. I pop up and hit her with the tire iron. She goes down. I climb out and see some other people there too.
"Put the tire iron down," a male voice commands. It's one of Frank's bikers, well they don't work for him anymore. Frank, Shane's dad, is technically dead.
"What do you want with me?" I growl. He just rolls his eyes and pulls the tire iron from my hand. He grabs me by the back of my neck and I hold back a yelp. I can't let them know it hurts. I have to stay strong. He drags me in the building. It's an abandoned hotel. He throws me and a bed in one of the rooms and I slide across the bed, hitting my head on a bedside table. I sit against the headboard and wrap my arms around my stomach.
"Give me your phone," he says, holding his hand out. I look at him, feigning confusion. He pats my pockets and pulls out my phone. He opens the window and throws my phone out there. He grabs both of my wrists in one hand and throws me on the floor. I twist in the air and make sure to land on my back.
He grabs both of my wrist again and ties them to the end of the bed. He shoves a bandana in my mouth and tapes it in place. I jerk against the slack. He laughs. He twiddles his fingers at me and closes the door. I hear the click of the lock. Well, this sucks.
Shane's POV
We follow the police as they track Claire's phone to an old hotel in town. When we show up, they're arresting a man. He's one of dad's old biker buddies. I stalk up.
"Where's Claire?" I growl. They're also arresting an a young woman, who looks to be barely conscious. She's got a long bruising mark on her face. I turn my attention back to the man.
"She's outback with her phone. Follow it," he says, smiling. It's nightfall so Michael's with us. I look at him and he nods. He gets the tracker from an officer and follows it. He comes back after five minutes and hands me her phone.
"Whe wasn't with it," Michael says, glaring at the man. He laughs, throwing his head back. I glare at him too and Eve looks worried.
"Your too late now," he says. I hear a popping and fizzing sound and I turn to see that there's a redish light in the window on the first floor. I dash through the door and begin to yell for her. I can't lose her. Not now.
Claire's POV
I reach my hands up and manage pull the tape off my mouth. I gag and spit out the bandana. I hear a weird noise, like a roaring and then I hear yelling. It sounds like Eve, Shane, and Michael. I look at the bathroom and see fire. I duck toward the floor and scream.
Shane's POV
I hear a faint screaming from an upper floor. I take off, running up the stairs. She's on the second floor. The door's locked. I kick it repeatedly until it opens. Man, that's harder than they make it look in the movies. I look and see a spill of hair from beside the bed.
"Claire!" I yell, untying her hands. She's out cold and I see a fire in the bathroom that's creeping closer. I pick her up and run back out. The stairs are engulfed in flames. Shit! I turn and run to the glass wall in the building. I set her down and open one of the rooms and grab the besdie table. I throw it through the window.
"Michael!" I yell, picking Claire back up. I see him come around the side.
"Shane?" Michael calls. I sigh.
"Up here!" he looks up and freezes.
"What are you doing!" Michael yells. I shake my head. I'm defenitly crazy.
"The stairs are on fire. Catch Claire!" I say. It takes everything in me to let her go. He jumps up and catches her. He hands her to a paramedic and comes back.
"Jump Shane!" Michael yells. I close my eyes. Think of Claire, she needs you. I take a deep breathe and jump. Arms wrap around me and I'm jolted by hitting the ground. I begin coughing.
Well, I had been coughing the whole time but I ignored it because I was focused on Claire. Micheal walks me to the paramedics. They put me on one of the breathe machines for a few minutes.
Claire's got a few first degree burns, nothing serious. She walks over to me after they take me off the machine. I wrap my arm around her and she cuddles into me.
"I talked to Amelie. There's a founder house for sale down the road from Eve and Michael. She said we could get it. It's laid out exactly the same. Michael said I have to stay with them until I have the babies though," she says. I kiss her head and hug her tightly.
"Makes sense. Your not staying anywhere alone after what happened today," I say. I watch her roll her eyes and I help her up," Let's go home."