The Vacation

Chapter 26

Brenna took a breath and tried to steady herself. Listening to Mac take charge and make orders had been comforting. At least she knew something was being done and she could hope for a light at the end of the tunnel. Now, sitting alone in the dark and the silence but for the sound of pavement rushing by beneath her, her fears preyed upon her.

The moment she'd awoken in the truck she'd been disoriented and panicked by the pain and unfamiliar surroundings. The last she'd remembered she'd stopped to check on a car on her way home, there had been pain and then only a missing period of time before finding herself in her current location.

She knew she was in her own trunk because of the shoes and gym bag she'd felt out in the darkness. She was ashamed to admit she hadn't immediately remembered her phone until it started vibrating in the darkness against her hip.

She swore loudly as it slipped from her hands into the darkness in her frantic attempt to pull it from her pocket. She'd almost sobbed with relief when she'd heard Mac's voice calling to her and followed his voice to her phone.

Now, trying to maintain a level head, she searched around her again with her hands while trying to remember if she had anything stored there that could be used as a weapon. Best case scenario, they'd locate her car and save her long before it ever stopped but she didn't want to rely on that theory and not be properly prepared.

Brenna ran through the memory of packing her gym bag that morning and patted the left side pocket where she had put her glass nail file. It was long and pointed on the end and could definitely do some damage if used correctly. Brenna palmed the nail file and resumed her search for weapons but found nothing more of use.

She made the vow that should she come out of this she would definitely be storing more useful items in her trunk for the future.

Suddenly the road noise changed and the ride became rougher as the car pulled onto what sounded like a gravel or dirt road. Brenna frantically ran through all of the gravel or dirt roads surrounding her neighborhood.

If he'd driven north there was a dirt road about 2 miles up the road. She estimated they'd been driving much longer than it would have taken to reach that. To the west were only paved roads heading toward the city. South continued with paved roads for quite some time, they hadn't made any more than 1 turn in the time frame she'd been awake so she didn't think they driven long enough to have gone south and reached a dirt road.

Her best guess was that they'd gone east in which case they could have easily reached the entrance to the state park and its maze of dirt roads in a short amount of time. Of course all of this was based on the time frame she guessed had elapsed but what if she was wrong? What if she'd been out far longer than she thought?

She decided to focus on her theory which was really all that she had right now and at least something was better than nothing. She knew the park well: it was one of her favorite places to go when she needed a short getaway. She also knew that it had miles and miles of dirt roads and trails, not all of them marked. It made sense that he would select somewhere so remote and difficult to navigate.

Even if the county deputies were already headed in their direction once they hit the park entrance it would be nearly impossible to track which way they had gone. Her heart sped up at the thought of her assailant pulling off in a remote forested area and opening the trunk to do who knew what to her.

Her mind automatically placed Tony Herrick's face as her assailant. She'd never seen him and had heard no voice issuing from elsewhere in the vehicle to confirm her suspicions but it seemed too much of a coincidence that after being stalked by the man she could so conveniently end up the victim of some other random villain.