Captured Heart Read Online Free PDF Page A

parked on the street. I was thrown into the back and landed hard on the metal floor. I groaned from the impact and rolled off of the lump in the metal that had impacted with my back. I pushed myself against the wheel well and, with nothing else to do, I sobbed. I wish I could say I had put up a great fight and they'd learned not to mess with me, but I was a wreck. I'd never even been mugged before, and that's saying something when you live your life in Baltimore. Being a victim of this kind of thing was far beyond anything I'd come across in my life. I just prayed that I was right that these men were the other side in the conflict Ronan had come to Belfast to fight on his father's behalf. If they weren't then I didn't know what I was in for. I might never see Ronan again. I might be dead or worse before nightfall. I laid my head against the floor of the van as the engine started and tears flowed from my eyes. I sobbed quietly against my gag, trying my best not to choke on my own tears.
    We drove for 20 minutes and I could barely make out quiet words of conversation between the two men who had abducted me. They'd been talking together about something, but it wasn't until long minutes had passed that I realized I should be listening in. When you're safe and comfortable, you might think of how you'd act in a situation like this but you can't really know until it happens. Everybody thinks they'd be vigilant and remember everything, but the truth is that you're so terrified that memories just don't stick. I didn't know where we were going and I only knew the time because I'd checked my phone right before they took me and there was a lit-up clock on the van's dashboard. Wherever they had taken me, it wasn't far.
    The van stopped and they each got out without sparing a glance back for me. I leaned upward and tried to get a look out the window but couldn't see anything other than that we were still in the city. I considered yelling but between the gag and the van, I doubted we'd be so surrounded by people that anyone would hear me screaming. Better to save my energy, I thought. If I was going to get out of this, I had to keep my wits about me. I couldn't just could on things to work out fine in the end. This was a whole new kind of danger - the kind I'd never experienced before. If I wasn't careful, everything I knew could be over in an instant.
    I waited for long minutes in the back of the van. The slow tick of the minutes on the dashboard clock was my only companion. Had they left me here for good? For all I knew, they'd abandoned the van in a junk yard and I was going to lay here until I starved to death. I could hear traffic nearby but that was meaningless. I didn't know this city and I couldn't begin to guess at my location. I slowed my rapid breathing and tried to calm down as best I could. If I was going to survive this, I had to stop myself from freaking out. I thought about Lila and her yoga. Then I thought about her lying on the floor of the apartment. It would be hours before Darren came home from work and probably even longer before Ronan returned to the apartment. As frightened as I was for my own predicament I was just as scared for Lila.
    I heard the back door of the van being opened and tried to clear my head. The doors swung open and sunlight poured in, momentarily blinding me. I could make out two silhouetted figures in the light that I presumed to be my captors. They stood there looking at me for just a moment before reaching down and dragging me from the van. I put my feet onto the ground but my legs were wobbly and if they hadn't been there holding me stead I probably would have been unable to stand.
    "Come on," the older one said to me, "We're going inside."
    They led me towards a large industrial building that the van was parked beside. Now that I could see, I looked around to get my bearings, but it was useless as I suspected. There was a street with cars on it and a number of brick buildings around, but that