The Wrong Path - By Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris Page 0,28
her parents to come get them her friends would never forgive her. But every other person she could call was crammed into Trevor’s SUV.
She held a hand to her head to try and calm down as she mentally went over every person she knew. She had a cousin who could have come to get them, but he was away at college in another state. She had only had a few acquaintances at her private school, and she hadn’t spoken to them since she had transferred, so it wasn’t like she could just call them up randomly and ask for a ride. And she just didn’t know anyone else. She had tried to drive the SUV, but she kept killing the engine, growing more flustered when Parker had started screaming incoherent instructions at her. Finally, even though she hated to admit defeat, she had given up.
Most of her friends were only children, or the oldest, so it wasn’t going to be possible for someone’s sibling to come out and…
Annabelle straightened, swiped the tears from her eyes, and quickly reached over to the passenger seat to rummage through Trevor’s pockets.
“Oooh, baby, why not me?” Parker taunted. She felt more tears in her eyes as her fingers closed around the cell phone in Trevor’s jeans. “At least I’m awake. I can show you a good time.”
She cried out when she felt his hand on her neck and lunged back to the safety of the driver’s side door, Trevor’s cell phone in her hand. She scrolled through the numbers while Parker started singing at the top of his lungs, pausing occasionally to interject a nasty comment about what he wanted to do to her.
Fear set in and she reached for her purse, closing her hand around her pepper spray. She twisted in the seat to lean sideways against the steering wheel, facing the back of the car to prevent any surprises. Then, to her vast relief, she finally found Will’s number.
She just prayed that he would answer.
Her fingers trembled as she hit the call button. She listened to it ring once, twice, three times… then voice mail. She nervously looked around the packed parking lot, hoping a security guard wouldn’t show up and ask to see their IDs. Parker was certainly going out of his way to draw attention to them—people walking by the SUV were staring into its tinted windows, making puzzled, annoyed faces at the noise.
“Parker, shut up!” Annabelle hissed as she called Will’s phone again.
“Oooh, she’s got a mouth on her!” Parker taunted, as Annabelle desperately listened to the phone ring. Suddenly, a hand clamped around her jaw in a vice-like grip. She cried out in terror, Parker’s face only inches from hers. “I don’t like it when my girls talk back to me.”
“Get away from me!” Annabelle shrieked, trying to push herself further into the corner of the SUV.
“What the hell is your problem?” Parker laughed coldly, his dark eyes glassy. “I’m offering to show you a good time. Your boyfriend’s too messed up to do it right now. Shouldn’t you take what you can get?” His voice lowered. “And you’ve got such a body on you…”
“I swear, Parker, I will use this pepper spray on you if you don’t back off now!” Annabelle all-but screamed at him, brandishing the bottle inches from his face.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Parker objected, holding up his hands. She felt hot, heavy tears stream down her cheeks as he fell back into his seat. “I was just offering, sweetheart. No need to get so angry.”
She sniffled, and then, to her complete disbelief, heard through the cell phone, “Belle? Where are you?”
She let out a sob of relief. Will. Will had answered his phone. She hadn’t heard the click or heard him say hello, but he must have answered while she and Parker had been fighting. She had never been so happy to hear another person’s voice before. “The-the new club that opened. Rainstorm.”
“How far is it?”
“I-I don’t know… Twenty minutes?”
“Where are you parked?”
He sounded so calm and in control… So reassuring. She choked on another sob and tried to compose herself. She could hear his feet through the phone, moving quickly, and then the jangle of keys. “We’re… we’re facing the right wall of the building. We’re in the first row.”
“Okay. Don’t. Move. If Parker gives you any trouble at all, spray him until he screams. I’ll be right there.”
She watched Parker reach around and start groping under Erin’s unconscious body. “Hurry,” she pleaded. She