Dax POVSweat started to drip down my forehead as he kept his gun locked on me. He gave a sinister grin at me.I stood my ground and wasn't going to go down like a coward. I narrowed my eyes at him and showed him that I wasn't afraid.Was this really the end? My mission was going to be in vain. I had been so close to saving Danica. It would be all for nothing if I died. But I was out of luck, since no one else was around to help me out.Suddenly, there was a shot fired from the doorway. When I looked over, one of my security team members was there. He must've have been quietly following me the whole time. The gangster gripped his leg and went to the ground. He deserved getting shot. My heart wouldn't stop beating. That man had almost killed me. It had been one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I was glad that it hadn't been my final moment.I turned to the staff and said, "Thanks for saving my life. I won't ever forget this."He gave a nod of acknowledgment and kept an
Danica POVDuring the car ride, Dax held my hand and glanced over at me often. He seemed very concerned about my well-being which made feel appreciated. We didn't converse while we drove along. I wasn't quite ready to talk again, or my voice would betray me. I still wasn't over the stress of being imprisoned by criminals. It had felt so unreal, almost as if it hadn't happened to me.Dax must've understood that I didn't want to talk and didn't try to press me to say anything. We had comfortable silence in the car. I wanted to thank him for getting me out of that situation, but no words could describe how grateful I was.He had gone beyond what I expected of him. I glanced at him and noticed that he looked at ease now that I was back with him. I had no idea how Dax was so affected by hearing about what happened to me. I didn't like how I had caused him more stress by getting involved in that mess. It made me feel guilty that I hadn't tried to tell him about it before. But back the
Danica POVAs the next few days went by, things started to get back to normal. Each day I got less and less anxious. Dax made sure to be around as much as possible and was trying to do some work at home. I was shocked that he had given up being at the office for me.He was really showing off how much he cared for me. I knew he was still feeling terrible that I had been kidnapped. It was easy to see on his face when he thought that I wasn't looking. Part of me wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault.No one could've prevented that from happening. I didn't want anyone to feel guilt for that. I would try to reassure him as the days went by.The first day back, I had been more nervous than usual. Dax helped a lot that day to calm me down. He made sure to stay around me for most of the day. At one point, he made me popcorn and cuddled me on the couch. I knew he disliked seeing me suffer like that.I was glad to have been back to routine at the mansion after my experience. As much a
Dax POVIt was so hard to believe that my own sister-in-law would stoop so low for Jared. In the past, I had never cared for Wendy that much. There was something about her that felt off at times.At least she would never be able to return to my home. I would have to ban Jared from coming back. There was no way that I could trust him ever again either. He may have been behind Wendy's actions. It was if I couldn't trust anyone these days. I definitely couldn't let my guard down quite yet. Things had been quite dangerous. I'd make sure to keep Danica safe for the remainder of her time with me. Almost losing her made me value her even more than I used to.A little after Wendy left, I wanted to offer Danica some comfort after that close call. I had seen that she had gone up to her room and headed there myself.I knocked on her door and she let me in. Danica was lying on her bed, and I looked at her."Would you like some company? I understand if you want to be alone for awhile.""Sur
Danica POVDax rushed me into the hospital and talked to a nurse immediately. I was put onto a gurney and taken down a long hallway. I got more nervous as this was finally happening.We got to the delivery room quickly, and doctor was already prepared with his team. The contractions were bringing me a lot of discomfort in my lower abdomen. I wanted this to be over as soon as it could be.I knew my mom had taken hours to deliver me. She said it had been the most pain inducing experience of her life. More nerves started to build inside me at the thought of having to go through that.The fear and nervousness must've shown on my face. The doctor came to my side and looked at me with kindness in his eyes. He spoke in a calm tone and said, "I've delivered a lot of babies in my lifetime, so there's nothing you should be worried about. Everything will be okay."His words gave me some reassurance, but I couldn't calm down. I was worried that something could go wrong. I had gone through too
It took me extra long to clean the tables after the dinner rush was over at the diner. Some teens thought it'd be funny to stick their gum underneath their table; I had been scraping it for at least fifteen minutes. How much gum had they been chewing?The diner was one of those retro restaurants that tried to imitate the fifties and had a jukebox playing 24/7. All of us waitresses had to wear fifties style dresses and roller-skates while serving. By the end of a shift, I was pretty exhausted.Callie was the only one remaining on the shift with me, though she wasn't much help. She had one reason for staying late and it wasn't to help me out. The secret smiles and winks shared between her and our manager made me want to vomit, but I just put my head down and finished cleaning my section.It had been a couple years since I had been hired for this job. I knew it wasn't something that would help my nonexistent savings account, but at least I could make ends meet.I knew that I shouldn't
I arrived at the headquarters of Ryan Inc. without any major traffic on the way. It was my lucky day. Slowly, I walked into the tall and looming building. It was almost the height of a skyscraper but fell a little short. I went up to the fifth floor where the ad said to go for the interview. There was a short line in front of the receptionist's desk. I saw one other woman in front of me. She looked around my age and was pretty with a tall and slender build. The woman was being overly perky."I can't wait to get interviewed for this position! I can't believe that I found the ad."The receptionist looked bothered by this woman's enthusiasm and motioned for her to sit down.Shortly after, the perky woman got out of her chair and left the room. I was relieved that she wasn't going to stay around me any longer.I took the opportunity to walk up to the receptionist. I said, "I'm here for an interview for the position of a surrogate. Where exactly do I go?""You can sit over there an
I drove to the hotel which housed the restaurant I had agreed to meet Dax at. My stomach felt a little nauseous.I reluctantly handed the valet my keys and twenty bucks. Unfortunately, this emptied my wallet.The hotel looked elegant and luxurious and stood several stories high. It had gold on the name of the hotel sign and entrance. Even the bellhops wore expensive looking uniforms in the shade of a royal purple. When I walked in, people stared at me without trying to hide it. I felt majorly underdressed with my black slacks, flats, and bright blue blouse. Why did these people have to judge me? I was already out of place without their staring. I had to go up to the sixth floor to get to the restaurant. I noticed elegant light fixtures throughout the restaurant, and the servers had black and white formal wear on.Their tables had expensive looking glasses, tablecloths, and napkins set on them. I could even see the view of the city skyline from the windows. The sun was just star
Danica POVDax rushed me into the hospital and talked to a nurse immediately. I was put onto a gurney and taken down a long hallway. I got more nervous as this was finally happening.We got to the delivery room quickly, and doctor was already prepared with his team. The contractions were bringing me a lot of discomfort in my lower abdomen. I wanted this to be over as soon as it could be.I knew my mom had taken hours to deliver me. She said it had been the most pain inducing experience of her life. More nerves started to build inside me at the thought of having to go through that.The fear and nervousness must've shown on my face. The doctor came to my side and looked at me with kindness in his eyes. He spoke in a calm tone and said, "I've delivered a lot of babies in my lifetime, so there's nothing you should be worried about. Everything will be okay."His words gave me some reassurance, but I couldn't calm down. I was worried that something could go wrong. I had gone through too
Dax POVIt was so hard to believe that my own sister-in-law would stoop so low for Jared. In the past, I had never cared for Wendy that much. There was something about her that felt off at times.At least she would never be able to return to my home. I would have to ban Jared from coming back. There was no way that I could trust him ever again either. He may have been behind Wendy's actions. It was if I couldn't trust anyone these days. I definitely couldn't let my guard down quite yet. Things had been quite dangerous. I'd make sure to keep Danica safe for the remainder of her time with me. Almost losing her made me value her even more than I used to.A little after Wendy left, I wanted to offer Danica some comfort after that close call. I had seen that she had gone up to her room and headed there myself.I knocked on her door and she let me in. Danica was lying on her bed, and I looked at her."Would you like some company? I understand if you want to be alone for awhile.""Sur
Danica POVAs the next few days went by, things started to get back to normal. Each day I got less and less anxious. Dax made sure to be around as much as possible and was trying to do some work at home. I was shocked that he had given up being at the office for me.He was really showing off how much he cared for me. I knew he was still feeling terrible that I had been kidnapped. It was easy to see on his face when he thought that I wasn't looking. Part of me wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault.No one could've prevented that from happening. I didn't want anyone to feel guilt for that. I would try to reassure him as the days went by.The first day back, I had been more nervous than usual. Dax helped a lot that day to calm me down. He made sure to stay around me for most of the day. At one point, he made me popcorn and cuddled me on the couch. I knew he disliked seeing me suffer like that.I was glad to have been back to routine at the mansion after my experience. As much a
Danica POVDuring the car ride, Dax held my hand and glanced over at me often. He seemed very concerned about my well-being which made feel appreciated. We didn't converse while we drove along. I wasn't quite ready to talk again, or my voice would betray me. I still wasn't over the stress of being imprisoned by criminals. It had felt so unreal, almost as if it hadn't happened to me.Dax must've understood that I didn't want to talk and didn't try to press me to say anything. We had comfortable silence in the car. I wanted to thank him for getting me out of that situation, but no words could describe how grateful I was.He had gone beyond what I expected of him. I glanced at him and noticed that he looked at ease now that I was back with him. I had no idea how Dax was so affected by hearing about what happened to me. I didn't like how I had caused him more stress by getting involved in that mess. It made me feel guilty that I hadn't tried to tell him about it before. But back the
Dax POVSweat started to drip down my forehead as he kept his gun locked on me. He gave a sinister grin at me.I stood my ground and wasn't going to go down like a coward. I narrowed my eyes at him and showed him that I wasn't afraid.Was this really the end? My mission was going to be in vain. I had been so close to saving Danica. It would be all for nothing if I died. But I was out of luck, since no one else was around to help me out.Suddenly, there was a shot fired from the doorway. When I looked over, one of my security team members was there. He must've have been quietly following me the whole time. The gangster gripped his leg and went to the ground. He deserved getting shot. My heart wouldn't stop beating. That man had almost killed me. It had been one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I was glad that it hadn't been my final moment.I turned to the staff and said, "Thanks for saving my life. I won't ever forget this."He gave a nod of acknowledgment and kept an
Dax POVI tried to figure out the location of the gangster's hideout for a few hours before I made a breakthrough. There had been rumors about suspicious activity happening at this abandoned facility. A few people had said they had seen some shady looking people around that area within the past few months. All of the accounts from eyewitnesses seemed believable. I had to go with my gut feeling that this was their location.Besides, it was in a location that not many people knew about. Where else would they hiding out in? They couldn't be found by the police. I met up with the security team shortly after discovering this information and shared it with them. I also told them information they should know, "Everyone must keep on high alert when we arrive at the location. These are dangerous individuals we'll be facing."We got into separate vehicles and headed out towards the facility. As I drove along, I was getting more anxious about Danica's wellbeing. What if they had been negl
Dax POVAfter I set the ransom note down, I felt an immense rage come over me. This whole situation was terrible and shouldn't have come to this. Danica was in danger because of this gigantic mistake on their end. I wished this had all been a nightmare. The woman that I deeply cared about was gone. She must've been absolutely terrified. It was too hard to imagine her in such a situation. The thought of her captors made me feel sick.They could do unspeakable things to her. I needed to stop myself from thinking of anyone harming her. It would make me even more enraged. There was nothing I could do yet. I wasn't sure of the location of where she was being kept.Those people would pay once I figured out where they were hiding. They wouldn't know what was coming their way. I had to take them by surprise or else this would all fail.I knew I had to get to her and rescue her before it was too late. I almost lost Danica once and wouldn't lose her for good. She was the only woman I ever
I hoped that what had happened earlier had been a nightmare. I slowly opened my eyes; when I saw that I wasn't in my bed at the mansion, I knew that it had to be real. I felt rope tied around my wrists and ankles and could feel the coolness of the metal from the chair. There was even a piece of cloth covering my mouth. I felt the urge to scream but knew it was pointless. Nobody would be able to hear my cries for help.This was the worst possible situation I could've been in. I never imagined that this scenario would happen to me. How had I gotten caught up in this? Maybe I shouldn't have been so careless earlier. I wished I wouldn't have been walking in that shady area. I knew better than that, but it was too late to blame myself for what had already gone down.I tried to get a sense of where I was by looking around the room. I didn't want to lose all of my hope for getting out of here. It was too dark to see anything to give away where those men had taken me. The one lightbul
Danica POVI continued to walk towards the car and looked behind me. The security detail was still following me and kept glancing around often. He was checking for any signs of trouble, which made me feel relieved. I felt very safe having someone look after me.Not that it looked too dangerous. We were the only two people around the area. I didn't see anyone suspicious around as I made a brief scan of the area.Nothing bad could happen as long as I had this person around. I completely trusted that he wouldn't let anything happen to me. Dax wouldn't let any of his people fail me, especially after Jason had broken into the mansion.I knew Dax still felt guilty about that happening. Neither one of us had brought it up since Jason had been taken away. I hoped nothing else like that would happen again. It was unfortunate that the car was so far away this time. The chauffeur couldn't find an easier parking spot. As I came to an alley, there was a very scruffy looking young man. His ha