Chapter 11

Money. The one thing she needed the most, she didn't have. Money, or the lack thereof, continued to haunt her and was the main reason Amanda had gotten involved with Joe in the first place. Big, big mistake!

Her minimum-wage job barely paid the rent on the lavish condo she lived in, let alone the necessary utilities. She had felt overwhelmed with hopelessness, at a dead end. She didn't think she would ever be able to get ahead.

She had met Joe at a bar they both frequented and only knew each other by name and face. Neither had talked to the other at length about anything except maybe the weather before he finally sat at her table one night while she was nursing a poor-poor-pitiful-me beer.

When Joe approached her about making some good and easy money for doing a couple of simple jobs, she got excited. She could almost begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The jobs sounded easy enough, and she was confident she could handle them. All she had to do was make friends with certain girls Joe picked out, invite them over to her house, and Joe would take care of the rest. She would make a bundle, pay off her credit cards, and maybe even be able to buy a newer car.

She couldn't stop thinking about everything she could do with all the extra money and how relieved she would feel-no more debt collectors calling or embarrassing, harassing moments with her landlord. After a few weeks of great consideration, she decided to do one job and evaluate the results or any negative consequences.

But after working the first couple of jobs with Joe and receiving the much-needed extra cash, she was able to pay some past-due bills. Since it was "untraceable cash" no one knew anything about it, she supported Joe and his activities one hundred percent.

She didn't really think about getting caught even though she knew it was wrong and breaking the law. Eventually somewhere down the line, before the law could catch up with her, she was going to quit. Move away and change her identity. But for now, she still had so many unfulfilled dreams that she wasn't ready for it to end. She loved the money. But now, thanks to Joe and his mistakes, she really needed to be careful since this particular job had just gotten too careless, too complicated, and they could both be in big trouble.

Amanda tossed and turned all night trying to come up with a plan to help her put an end to all the secrets and lies of which had become her pitiful life. This simple job should have gone so smoothly. Amanda had done her part. She had made friends with the girl Boss or Joe picked out, took her wherever whenever he said. That's how it had worked with previous, similar jobs. When Joe delivered a girl or kid to Boss, Boss paid Joe and Joe paid her.

But Boss's plans had changed. Instead of getting the girl a week ago in Colorado, he had suddenly left town. They had to take the girl all the way to Virginia in order to make the delivery.

She even considered aborting the whole plan, cutting her losses now, getting back to her condo, and settling down. She wanted out. She didn't want Joe breathing down her neck, telling her who to make friends with, who to keep asleep, and who to keep awake. She wanted to go straight for a while, try to get a better job with a regular paycheck, try her best to get by and stay clean.

She didn't think Boss would agree to let her just walk away. She knew too much about Boss and his organization even though she'd never met him. Even if Boss did let her out of the deal, she wouldn't get any money for this gone-bad job. She wouldn't be able to get back to Colorado without transportation or money for transportation. Maybe she'd already been gone too long.

Isabella woke up in the early morning hours. It took a few minutes for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, for her to recognize her surroundings, to remember where she was and how she had gotten there. She had hoped to wake up from this nightmare to find herself in her own bed, that she had only been dreaming but no such luck.

Now she needed to find a bathroom. She vaguely remembered the large house and had no idea where one might be located. She tried to recall her hurried run-through a short time earlier but couldn't remember seeing a bathroom along the way.

She lifted her head and noticed Wyatt asleep in the recliner. She warily glanced around, then got up and tiptoed to the stairs. Her feet throbbed with pain with each and every step she took, and she winced, looking back to see if Wyatt had moved. He hadn't.

At the top of the stairs, she turned left into the kitchen. She tried to remember if he had said anything about a wife. She couldn't recall. If he did have a wife, where was she? Or maybe he had a girlfriend. Why did that trouble her? And why did she even care?

She rounded the corner into the dining room to the open staircase leading upstairs, which probably led to the bedrooms, and bedrooms always had bathrooms nearby.

Fumbling through the dark, she got to the top of the stairs, stopping in front of a set of closed double doors. To her right were three closed doors; to her left, the open railing overlooking the dining room, foyer, and a darker room, possibly a living room according to the faint moonlight coming in the windows.

She decided to be quick about it since she really had to go, so she opened the double doors straight ahead. She walked on smooth and cool wooden floors toward the dim light coming into the room from the left.

Finally! A bathroom! A well-equipped one too, with a big bathtub and a huge separate shower. She exhaled after realizing she'd been holding her breath. What she wouldn't give to take a long, hot, soapy bath? She felt dirty, sweaty, and so stressed. She would love to relax, let the feelings of hopelessness and anguish wash away down the drain with the dirty water. Running her fingers through her matted short hair, she found short sticks and leaves poking out everywhere. The corner of her mouth hurt too.

When she looked at her feet, she saw they were caked with dirt, covered with scratches and dried blood from the briars and bushes in the woods. She took a closer look at the large multiple sprays in the shower. She knew the pulsing hot water would feel so good on her aching muscles.

She couldn't wait any longer. Before she could talk herself out of it, she removed the remnants of her clothes and jumped into the shower. As the hot water began running over her, she relaxed. Closing her eyes, she relinquished her body to the hot water, running her soapy hands over her sore muscles, melting away the aches and pains. She washed and rinsed her hair and relieved her feet of the dirt and caked blood. She breathed the moist air deeply into her lungs, savoring every second-she didn't want it to end.

Fatigue soon overwhelmed her. She grew tired and wanted to lie down. She quickly got out, found a big fluffy towel nearby, and took advantage of every inch of it to dry off her body and hair. The scrapes on her feet and ankles had begun bleeding, so she had to take extra time to stop the bleeding with tissue paper.

She didn't want to put her dirty clothes back on, so she searched the bathroom and found a soft, white terry bathrobe hanging on the back of the door. She thought it would be okay to borrow for a short time so she slipped it on. It was too large for her: the sleeves hung down to her knees and the bottom almost reached the floor, but it felt so cozy that she decided one night wouldn't matter. She opened the door and walking precariously on her heels or toes, limped out of the bathroom.

From the dull bathroom light, she could see a large, king-size bed in front of her. If only I could get a good night's rest. It would feel so good after my relaxing shower, too. She decided to lie down a moment, just to think in the quiet of the night. Closing her eyes, she listened to the sounds of the leaves rustling in the trees and the bugs making their various noises. The open French doors leading to a balcony allowed a light breeze to gently sway the sheer curtains carrying them across the bed. With her arms propped behind her head, she breathed deeply and relaxed her entire body. Her thoughts spun as she tried to wrap her mind around the possibilities, of her recent experience.

She dreamed about the handsome man sleeping

downstairs and wondered what it would be like to feel his security, his strength, and his warmth lying next to her.