Under My Skin

Part Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two

Isobel felt pain, her head throbbed. She tried to open her eyes but they felt as they weighed a ton, she tried to feel her body, work out what and where she was but it was all a blank. Racking her brains she tried to remember her last thought. Sam. She remembered seeing Sam, getting the pictures, beautiful pictures for the nursery. The baby...her heart filled with joy at the thought of the baby in the nursery, or Marc beside her. She tried to touch her stomach but it was then she realised her hands were behind her back, and her shoulders hurt. Pulling at her hands her wrists screamed out in pain, she was stuck. Her wrists throbbed as she tried to separate them again, then she groaned as knife sharp pain lanced at her hands, and she realised they were bound behind her, she was trapped.

Taking a steadying breath she once again tried to remember what had happened, she had left Sam’s he waved from the kitchen...then pain, and blackness. She wriggled a little, stifling a groan as pain seared through her body, she couldn’t even isolate it to one limb she seemed to hurt everywhere.

Again she focussed on what she could decipher. She was face down propped on her knees, an awkward position, and her arms were obviously tied. Moving her legs she also realised her ankles were bound too. It was dark, she could barely see anything when her stinging eyes managed to flicker open. Then she lurched with movement and realised she was in a car, was this the back seat? Or maybe she was in the floor? So instantly knew it wasn’t the boot...it wasn’t pitch black. Her body protested at the forces pushing at her body as it felt as though the vehicle turned a corner, but nothing seemed to yield, she was stuck and the pressure on her body, the way her head was wedged still all caused pain.

Panic threatened, she could feel her heart racing, terror taking over her every cell, but then a calm voice told her to pull herself together. It sounded as though Marc were on her shoulder, sullying her sensitive flighty side. She focussed again; she had to work out what was happening if she wanted to get out of there.

There was a rough coarse blanket over her head, it was scratching her face as she moved, but as she wriggled, it started to fall away, shafts of light catching her eyes. It took a moment to acclimatise to the shards of daylight, and her eyes streamed with tears at the initial pain. Eventually she looked to the front seat through the smallest of gaps, and her heart sank. Richard. She could only see a cheek, the lone of his jaw, but she knew it was him. He was driving, he was at the wheel. It was all her nightmares come true. Richard Portman had snatched her.

At least it wasn’t Taylor was all she could think as she closed her eyes to hide the tears of desperation that threatened to fall.

                “Marc? We had an urgent message to call you! What is it?”

Marc had been pacing frantically waiting desperately for something, ANY thing to change. A phone call, an email, anything that would offer him hope. But this ringing phone didn’t yield one of the police officers on the case, instead he sighed at the sound of his mother’s voice, “is Claudia there? I need to speak to her urgently.”

There were some muffled noises until Claudia’s voice came clearly through the earpiece. “Marc? What is it?”

                “Richard. He’s been threatening me for days, but Iz has disappeared this afternoon. They think someone has taken her. Do you have any idea where he would take her if he got her?”

Claudia was immediately defensive, “was it him? You’ve no proof. He wouldn’t hurt her...”

Marc almost growled, “he has a history of beating and raping her, she ran away for months to avoid this happening...don’t start with your rose tinted specs.”