Never Alone

Chapter 27

            With everything packed and ready, Annie stood by the pickup waiting for Trevor as he made sure no traces of them were left behind. As he stepped up beside her, he tossed her a lopsided grin that turned her knees to Jello.

He held out his hand to her, and she didn't hesitate to take it. Tying something on her ring finger, he bit back a smile. "Now it's official."

She looked down and saw a red thread tied into a bow around her finger.

"I promise, I'll get you a proper ring as soon as I can, but this is the best I can do for now." He kissed her, and she wrapped her arms around him.

"But what if I love this one?" She looked at the red bow that represented his love for her and couldn't imagine anything else could ever be as pure and beautiful.

"If you love that one, then I'd say I got off the hook pretty cheap!" He laughed and pulled her close. "I know I've already told you today, but I love you, Annie." He kissed the end of her nose. "Now, let's get moving. We'll want to get our campsite set up before dark. These days are getting shorter and—"

Gunshots ripped through the air, and the hands around her waist dropped as Trevor fell to a heap on the forest floor. He ground his teeth in pain as a crimson stain grew on his shirt.

Dropping to her knees beside him, she kneeled in stunned silence. Tears stung her eyes and her hands trembled as she reached out to him.

"Trevor," she finally stuttered.

He forced a smile, but his face still betrayed the pain in his shoulder.

Before she could collect herself enough to tend to his wound or wonder where the shot came from, a pair of hands clamped down on her arms and dragged her toward the clearing in the trees.

A scream climbed from her throat, and she kicked and fought the vise-like grip. No amount of wriggling freed her, and she watched in horror as a man carrying the kind of gun she saw on gangster movies stepped up to Trevor and took aim.

She was pulled out of sight of the man who owned her heart and thrown into a van. As the door slid shut, a crack of gunfire filled the air and her heart shattered as if it had been hit by the bullet.

They killed Trevor.

Tears burned her eyes and throat, and her stomach lurched as she lost her breakfast all over the back of the windowless vehicle. Curling into a ball on the dirty floorboard, she cried and begged God to help her. To please let Trevor survive somehow.

The man with the rifle climbed into the passenger seat and the van roared to life.

"He's been neutralized," the man said as he buckled his seat belt. "Let's go."

"You got it, Bagwell," the driver nodded.

Looking down at the red bow on her finger, her vision blurred with tears.  She didn't care what they did to her anymore.  They could kill her, they could torture her...it didn't matter.  She wouldn't tell them anything or help them in any way.  They already took away what she held the most dear.  None of their threats would move her. She would die carrying the secret Tracy entrusted to her, and from the look of that gun, she would see Trevor and his sister again very soon.