I feel my phone buzzing in my back pocket and decide to ignore it for a moment. If it’s important they’ll call again but if not I’ll just call back later. I let the phone stop ringing and continue cleaning the dishes, but the phone rings again. I decide to go ahead and answer it in fear that it’s important. I pull the phone out of my back pocket to see it’s Damian, my newly wed husband. I slide the answer button and before i could even say hey he was already talking.

“Hello Honey.” He used his seductive, charming british accent on me, but not like normal, its more like.. he’s trying to get a treat, if you catch my drift.

“Hey, what’s up you tried calling earlier is everything ok?”

“I’m fine Em, how was your day, Hm? Lovely I hope.”

“Have you been drinking?”

“Not a drop Love, honest. Can’t I just love on my perfect wife?”

“Babe.. what’s going on? What’s with the constant nicknames?”

“I just love you, princess. Now, I’ll be home in 20 if you wanna… go to bed early.” I could hear his smirk over the phone.

“I- are you sure you havent been drinking?”

“I don’t ever want to hurt you my darling, I’d never drink and you know that.”

“Yeah, ok.”

“Love you Em!”

3 minutes passed and I got another call, this time from Damian’s boss.

“Hello,” I say as politely as possible.

“May I speak to Mrs. Emma Baker?”

“This is she. What can I do for you?”

“I was just calling to ask where your husband is, he never showed up to work today and didn’t call in sick either. Everything alright?”

“That’s weird, he left this morning. I just got off the phone with him too. He said he was on his way back from work.” I feel my brows furrow as I try to recall the conversation. “Come to think of it, he was acting strange.”

“Would you like me to make a couple of calls? Check in on him?”

“Oh- y’know what, I don’t thing that’s very necessary. I just remembered he uh.. had a thing to take care of. Thanks for calling have a good rest of your evening.”

“Alright, if things change or if you find him just have him give me a call.”

“Will do, buh bye.” I hang up the phone and lean againts the kitchen counter. I try to recall the conversation and the things most suspicious about it. I decided to write out the nicknames he called me in order of which he said them. He used too many varying names. He usually would pick one and use it the whole day.

I grab a pen from my junk drawer and a napkin off of the table and write them out:

Honey

Em

Love

Princess

My darling

Em

I stare at the napkin looking for something irregular. Then it occures to me. The first letters of each nickname spell something.

H, E, L, P, M, E.

My eyes widen and I drop the pen on the floor. “20 minutes” I mutter under my breath. I look at the clock, it had already been 15. I had to get out QUICK! And make it seem like I know nothing.

I grab my keys, purse, and grocery list on my way out to the car. I quickly start it and pull out of the driveway. I open life 360 on my phone to see if I can track it. I can thankfully, however, the person who’s headed to my house has it. I drive down the road to the corner store where I wait another 20 minutes. I get a notification that ‘Damian left home’ and I keep my distance but follow the phone.

I park about a block away once the phone hasn’t been moving for about 10 minutes before I walk the rest of the way to the location. Once I get there I realize it’s the old abandoned warehouse that the one teacher was murdered by one of her students in a few years back. The guy was never found which makes me terrified to enter the building, but I know Damian’s in there.

I take a few deep breaths before I muster up the courage to go inside. I quietly sneak in through the back where a window was open. Once I got inside it was like a mazed of shelves and police tape. I took off my heals so my shoes couldn’t make sound and I tiptoed through the laberynth.

I started to hear voices. One deep male voice that I didn’t recognize and the other was Damian. I listened in for a minute while I devised a plan. I peaked around the corner to see Damian tied to a rusty, metal chair. His dark brown hair is in his face almost hiding his pericing blue eyes. I can tell he’s nervous but not afraid.

I notice a gun sitting on the chair behind him facing me. I pray that if I wait I could get to it before the other guy. I tip toe a little closer and Damian’s eyes lock on mine. He looks relived and even more scared at the same time. He quickly shifts his gaze back to the captor before the guy notices he ever saw me.

I silently walk over the the chair and grab the gun I pull back the safety and aim for the guys chest. He turns around and smirks slyly. “I was wondering if you were ever gonna show. You’re quiet as a mouse, too bad that gun’s a decoy. Unloaded. Useless.”

He reaches into his coat pocket and I flinch slightly. But not because I’m scared of whatever gun he has. “I can’t beleive it’s you,” I mutter under my breath before continuing to say, “Too bad this gun wasn’t my main plan. You’ve been on the run for a while now, haven’t you. The police were very thrilled when I told them you were here.”

“Very funny but I know you didn’t, you’re bluffing. And you’ll find fear isn’t in my vocabulary.”

“Maybe not, but it’s in your eyes.”

That’s when the large metal doors caved in and the S.W.A.T. team breaks in surrounding us.

“Hands up!” The Colonel yells. “We’ve been trying to catch you for years Locke.”

“But how did you-?”

“Easy, after I deciphered your little code and arrived here, I called the police just before I came in, giving them plenty of time to areive before anything could happen.”

“Well. I’ll give it to you, he was blabbing on and on about how smart you were. I figured it was just because he’s your husband so he’s a bit biased. But wow.” He smirks at me then winks as they cuff him. I roll my eyes and rush over to Damian.

They just untied him and he opens his arms to me and I run right into them. He wraps his strong arms around me in a tight embrace and I can’t stop the tears.

“Hey, hey it’s ok.” He squeezes me tighter and says, “I got you.” I tilt my head up toward his face and he cups mine in his hands. “I love you. My gosh I love you.” He says before kissing me. It started out slow but then became more passionate.

We walked to the car hand in hand and drove home. Well, he drove home. I fell asleep on his shoulder. I woke up just slightly when we got home but didn’t let him know and he came around to my side and carried me in.

And the thing that was the hardest about this whole experince was that the next morning I realized I forgot my heals at the warehouse.