Defending Bridget - P.J. Fiala Page 0,30

and get you to Lynyrd Station within the hour."

"Thank you.” Aidyn said.

Axel walked him up the steps to the inside of the plane, sat him in the same seat he'd sat in on the way here and buckled him in. Vivian sat across from him.

Axel then sat in the empty seat next to Aidyn and said, "Josh and I won't be going with you and your grandma. We're going to stay back and help find your momma. But, Sophie is your momma's friend and she's waiting for you to get to the compound and she'll make sure you and Grandma are comfortable and safe there."

Aidyn looked into his eyes and then over to his grandma. "Do you know Sophie?"

"Yes, sweetheart I do. She's very nice and she is a very good friend of your momma’s."

"Okay." Aidyn scooted back in his seat and Axel's heart swelled. What a wonderful brave young man he was. Just as Axel stood to leave the plane, Aidyn turned to him.

"You promise you'll bring my Momma back?"

"I absolutely promise I'll do everything I can to find her and bring her back to you."

Aidyn thought for a moment, then nodded his satisfaction with that answer.

Axel looked over at Vivian. "Are you alright about this?"

She smiled, her head cocked to the left slightly she said, "Yes. We'll be fine. You just go find my girl."

21

One of her captors untied her hand from the back of the chair, grabbed her by the hair roughly and proceeded to half drag her, half escort her to another room in the cabin. It was a small cabin, but she managed to keep her head up while she was forced to walk through what could be called the living area, so she could see as much as possible. Noticing two closed doors, she mentally imprinted where they were. She was pushed against one door while her captor unlocked it with his free hand.

Once unlocked, she noted that he wore his keys on a ring from his belt for easy access. He twisted the knob on the door and thrust her inside where she stumbled but didn't fall. He pointed to the wall to the right of the door, which when the door was open, was partially covered.

"Sit." he barked.

She saw the metal ring screwed to the wall close to a corner and knew she'd be tied up again to sit in this miserable room. Hopefully she'd be allowed to use the bathroom at some point.

She sat against the wall and slightly aside from the ring on her left side, the corner on her right and Igor, or whatever his name was, grabbed her wrist with the rope still attached and tied her to the ring. She refused to watch what he was doing but she did count the times he threaded the rope through a loop. Three. Three times she'd need to unloop to get away.

Once he finished with his handiwork, he stood back, nudged her leg with his foot and gruffly said, "Hey."

She looked up, still reminding herself to remain contrite looking though anger and hatred seethed through her. When she met his eyes, a sick smile creased his face. "You be good. Ya?"

Nodding she then waited for him to turn away before daring to look around the room. There was a ring on each wall just like the one her wrist was tied to, close to the corners. Her hand wasn't over her head, but more to her left even with her shoulder. He didn't cut this rope like he had in the van and there was a tail left on the rope about a foot long. There was one window in the room, completely boarded up so no light shone into the room except the waning light from the living area where he left the door open. Likely to bring in Sydney and Jennie Lee.

On the wall across from her there was a light fixture attached to the top of the wall, and the wire ran up the wall and was loosely attached with bent nails in about two places.

She heard scuffling and a chair slide back and then the uneven footsteps of someone being half dragged through the room and knew it was likely Jennie Lee being brought in. Sydney would be crying.

She averted her eyes to the floor and waited until Igor and Jennie Lee were in the room. Once he had her sitting on the floor and his back was to her, she watched how he tied