No! Oh, please, no!she thought desperately. She gazed about the lobby wildly. Businessmen were still milling about, the matrons were still chattering, the tall man in the suit and the trench-coated man with the strange dark hair were still pacing.
Her nails cut into her palms, creating deep crescents. An insane scream started to rise in her throat as she looked into the little phone booth and saw the woman still talking. Bryn stood, clutching her purse and the package of film. She started toward the phone booth and leaned against it, pointedly staring at the woman inside. It was very rude, but...
She managed to fluster the woman who said something, then clicked down the receiver. She rose and slammed the door open. "There are other phones in the hotel!" she snapped to Bryn.
Bryn couldn't seem to swallow so she could murmur out an answer. She glanced at the clock as she slid into the booth. Three minutes to go.
The extremely tall man started walking toward the phone booth. Was he one of the kidnappers, she wondered wildly. Or was he just a businessman about to demand that she use the phone or leave it free for others? She smiled at him and picked up the receiver. As soon as he turned around to start pacing again, she turned her back to the window of thepaneled booth, using it as a shield for the hand she placed over the hang-up switch in place of the receiver. Pretend to talk! She warned herself. Lee... pretendit's Lee. "What the hell was the matter with you this morning? Keeping your music in a linen closet is ridiculous to begin with. And to jump down my throat over a set of lyrics when you're a musician is absolutely crazy. You're giving and good, but only to a point. There's a part of you that is dark and frightening and I'm half crazy that you'll leave me, half crazy to see you go...."
She bit her lip, turning to stare at the clock again. It was two minutes past the limit. Three minutes past ten. Oh, dear God, Adam! Where are you? God, if you just give him back to me, I promise I'll be the Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
best parent in the world....
Four minutes past. The tall man in the business suit was coming toward the phone booth again.
"Lee, you rotten son of a bitch!You had no right to snap at me that way, and a simple 'I'm sorry' just isn't good enough. Lee, I want to know you. I want to know what happened in your past. I want to know what your favorite flavor of ice cream is; I want to watch you shave and have you yell at me for stealing your razor for my legs. I want to know what kind of movies you like, and I'd love to see into your past and understand how you can sometimes be so gracious, and sometimes so encased in rock that I don't know you at all and I become frightened. Frightened, but always attracted. I want Adam to be with you, Lee. I want to see Adam. I want to--" The phone began to ring. Bryn briefly noted that the tall businessman was looking at her as if she were crazy. She remembered that she already had the receiver in one hand; all that she had to do to answer the phone was to lift her other hand....
She almost shrieked, "Hello!"
It was Lee. Now, she was really and truly talking to Lee. Well, she was listening to him.
' 'Bryn, Adam is here. Drop the pictures.Calmly. Get away from the phone. Drop the pictures on the couch--and get out. Do you hear me? Don't look back; don't do anything. Just get out."
"Adam is there? Oh, Lee, let me talk to him--" "Bryn! Drop the pictures and come home!" The phone clicked on her. She could barelystand, her knees were trembling so hard. She managed to stand and walk out of the booth. She walked by the couch, dropping the packet of pictures. And she continued on, straight for the revolving doors that led to the portico.
She gave the valet her ticket and extravagantlyovertipped him. The van rolled beneath the portico and as the man held her door open, she crawled in. Her hands were damp against the wheel, but she gripped it firmly.
By happenstance she gazed into herrearview mirror. The man with the strange dark hair and the trench coat was staring after her. She started to shiver as if the temperature had suddenly dipped well below zero, but she forced herself to look forward and keep her eyes on the road.
Home, home, home. She was going home, and Adam was going to be there. Time seemed to crawl.
The roads were ridiculously busy. Bryn glanced in her rearview mirror to try and change lanes to make an exit off the highway. She swore softly in exasperation. There was some kind of a dark sedan right on her tail. She put her blinker on. The sedan backed off. She eased over a lane, but left her blinker on. Her exit road was coming up.
Adam. I'm going to see Adam. She thought about his chubby little cheeks and his wide green eyes. She was going to hug and kiss him so hard that he'd be ready to leave home again. Bryn started to exit.
Suddenly she felt a heaving jolt wrench through her; she heard the shattering of glass and the screech of metal against metal.