The day her heart shattered

Chapter twenty-one

After being on the road again for a while, the large man gets a phone call.
"Hello? Yeah, we got her," he stares straight at me as he's saying this and then looks away. "We've only been on the road for about two hours now. We still won't be there for a few days. Yeah, she's fine. Nobody's hurt her. We bought her food, but she refused to eat. Ok, understood. I'll do it. Alright, bye boss," he's now looking me straight in the eyes.
"Alright, that was boss on the phone," he's saying this as if it wasn't totally obvious. "He wants you to eat. He told us to do whatever we have to in order to get you to eat. If you don't cooperate, we'll let's just say, it won't be pretty. So, I suggest you be a good girl and eat your food. Understood?" He doesn't wait for a response before he teachers over and unties the thing from my mouth. Once he's removed it, he throws me my cold burger and stares at me waiting for me to unwrap it and eat it.
After a few minutes you when I still haven't unwrapped the burger, he gets annoyed and says "What are you waiting for? Unwrap the burger and eat it!"
"Like I already told Steve earlier, I'm not hungry and you can't force someone to eat if they're not hungry," I try to look as serious as possible even though I'm terrified. I know they won't do anything to hurt me because of him. He would kill them if they ever touched me or hurt me. Everyone knows that.
       "Do you really want to bet on that? He told me to do whatever was needed to get you to eat. So I suggest, if you don't want to get hurt, you better eat your damn food now!" He's pretty much growling at me like a dog now but I don't care. I'm not scared of him or these other men. The only thing I'm scared of is where they're taking me and who they're taking me to.
       "Alright fine. I'll eat," this is obviously a lie because why would I eat anything they give me?
       "But I've got one question for you first." He's probably not going to answer this question, but I need to know. It's been eating me alive ever since they knocked on the front door at Max's.
       "If that's the only way to get you to eat, then fine. What's your question?"
       "Who is Max? I know there's no way you found me all on your own. Plus, how would you even know I wasn't at my house and how would you know that's where I was?"
       After a few minutes of staring at me and still not answering me, I ask him again. "Who the hall is Max? J know he was working with you! None of this is just coincidence! So, who is Max?" I'm starting to yell now, but honestly, I don't care. I'm upset and scared out of my mind.
       He let out a big sigh before answering me. "I don't see why this matters to you. It's not like you even knew the guy anyway. But yes. He was working for us, and you're right, this wasn't all coincidence. It's a long story so I'm not going to get into it."
       "Yes, you are. I don't care how long the story is. Tell me who the hell Max is and what is going on." I'm still talking loud but not like before.
       "Fine," he says as he lets out a large sigh and runs his hands through his hair. "About two weeks ago, two of my men were out patrolling the streets of your neighborhood, obviously because we were looking for you. Anyway, the day Max found you was the day you ran out of your house crying and went to Luna's. The plan was for him to surprise you by grabbing you from behind and putting you in his van, but by the time he got there, you were already walking in the door, so I told him to wait until you left and then grab you."
       My eyes are starting to water now, but I hold my tears back because I will not let them see me cry. He continues, "About 15 minutes later, he saw you running out of Luna's house crying and he called out your name, but you just kept on running and didn't look back. He immediately jumped back into his van and followed behind you from a safe distance. You eventually ended up running into the forest, so he stopped the car and waited there for you to come back out, but you never did, so he went in there to find you."
       "When he did, you were in the middle of the forest curled into a ball and sleeping, so he picked you up, took you to his van and drove you to his house where you were in and out of consciousness for a week before you finally woke up. He called boss and I everyday and night giving us updates on you. When you finally woke up, we told him to make him believe you were his friend, and he was just taking care of you until you were well enough to go back home, and he obviously did a great job doing so since you fell for it so hard."
       He starts chuckling as he finishes his sentence. "Anyway, when he called us this morning to give updates on you, boss told him to tell you that he was going to take you back home this afternoon, when in reality, he was going to bring you to us instead. But boss started getting impatient and didn't want to wait until this afternoon, so he sent the ten of us to go get you instead, and to my surprise, it was really easy." He's laughing now and I hate it.
       "I actually thought it was going to be challenging trying to get you, but it really wasn't. Anyway, we warned Max that plans had changed, and we were on the way and to act surprised like he didn't know who we were. It was so funny watching your face when you saw us. You went from confusion to pure terror in seconds."
       "Just like I expected, you ran and tried to get away, and even though we shot and killed Max, you still didn't stop running. I'm not quite sure why you stopped running but I'm glad you did because you made everything ten times easier. I must admit, you put up quite a fight, and it was quite funny watching you try to get out of my grasp even though you knew you wouldn't be able to. You still tried anyway, and now here we are."