Hermit's Rescue

By BJ Wingate

Sarah McVey is a modern woman working to keep her head above water in the business world. Taking a day, or rather a night, off to rest and just have fun, she runs afoul of some bad people and almost lives to regret it. In the process she meets up with a rather enigmatic man who steps in when he is needed.

Mathew Hardecker was an up and coming architect who found he couldn't deal with the world any more and simply stepped away from it all. His sorrow over a deceased wife leaves him pained and broken.

Can two such people come together to make the world better for them both? Or is this another disaster in the making.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BJ Wingate
• Release date: Oct 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393994046

BJ Wingate

BJ Wingate was born in Baltimore but has spent the latter part of her life in the south and Midwest, currently living in Arkansas. She is an avid reader and has a vivid imagination. Her characters come across as real-life individuals and thus her stories are compelling and interesting to all age groups. Her many life experiences have given her an abundance of ideas for stories. She recently received an L. Ron Hubbard award for her writing. Keep watching for more exciting books in the future.

Book preview

BJ Wingate

Other works by this Author

Carnival Chaos

Second Chance Love

Driving for Love

This is a book of fiction. All characters, names and places are the fabrication of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental.

Copyright 2019 by BJ Wingate

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN: 5800136463503

Sarah McVey is a modern woman working to keep her head above water in the business world. Taking a day, or rather a night, off to rest and just have fun, she runs afoul of some bad people and almost lives to regret it. In the process she meets up with a rather enigmatic man who steps in when he is needed.

Mathew Hardecker was an up and coming architect who found he couldn’t deal with the world any more and simply stepped away from it all. His sorrow over a deceased wife leaves him pained and broken.

Can two such people come together to make the world better for them both? Or is this another disaster in the making.

One

Sarah McVey awoke in the dark, disoriented and dizzy. Her head hurt so bad she could barely think. Her mouth was so dry it was like she had cotton in it. A sudden rocking of her surroundings had her bouncing around and gasping in pain. She was laying on her side, knees drawn up almost to her chest with her arms behind her. She tried to pull her hands around in front of her to catch herself, but they wouldn’t move. Tied? Were her hands tied? She felt around with half numb fingers. She could feel the roughness of the rope holding her hands in place. She tried to move her feet, but they were also bound together. She blinked her eyes to clear them but still saw mostly darkness although, as her eyes adjusted a little, she did notice a suggestion of light somewhere. Her surroundings rocked again and then seemed to stop suddenly. At that point she saw a reddish light from somewhere behind her. She lifted her head to look and bumped something above her. She got a whiff of something, gasoline she thought, and it hit her as to where she was. She was tied up in the trunk of a car. She had to be. What the hell? How had this happened? When had this happened? She moved her feet again and realized they were bare. Her shoes were missing. Were they somewhere in here with her? Or what? She wasn’t sure. She felt around as much as she could with her hands and found something round but with a straighter section. A screwdriver? Maybe. She wasn’t sure if she could use it to get herself loose or not, but she held onto the tool anyway. It gave her a semblance of security. The vehicle started off again and she tried to keep from rolling with the movement because of the pain it caused.

Sarah tried to remember what had happened earlier that day. Her thoughts went back to when she had been at work first. It had been a very hectic day. Being a photographer had always been her dream, but she had always wanted to photograph nature for the most part. To be outdoors in the fresh air. Instead she had ended up working at a small studio, taking pictures of screaming children who would rather be anywhere else. Or she was taking pictures of families that always had bad things to say about the finished photos. She was a good photographer and yet she just never seemed to get a break or to advance. She had to admit that it was a dead-end job. She had done some freelancing for a time but that didn’t exactly pay the bills. She still often went out to the country and took pictures of clouds, flowers and whatever else was there.

That day, as Sarah remembered it, she had had four children back to back who wanted to do anything and everything other than sit still for a picture. They had screamed and cried and ran around. One had even thrown up all over her. Luckily for her it had been close to quitting time by then and she had happily left work to go home, get cleaned up and change.

It was as Sarah was getting out of the shower that her friend Beth had called to invite her to go clubbing with her and two other girlfriends. At first Sarah had said no but Beth had pleaded with her until she had finally given in. And it would be a nice change from sitting in front of the TV all evening alone. Since she hadn’t wanted to get too dressed up, she had chosen to pair the one good pair of designer jeans she had with a pale blue camisole top. She had added a frilly blouse over that and low-heeled shoes. She had blow-dried her short blond hair and brushed it into the pixie she loved. With a moderate amount of makeup, she had been ready to go. Just before leaving her one bedroom second floor walkup, she had looked in the mirror and wondered why she was going at all. She didn’t really like clubbing and yet she did need a way to unwind. She hadn’t bothered driving her car. Instead she had called a cab to take her to meet Beth and the others. She had intended to drink at least a little and wasn’t about to drive home even partially drunk. She never did that.

Laying in the trunk of whatever car she was in, she moaned thinking that if she had just decided to stay home, she wouldn’t be in this predicament. She felt it when the car left the paved road and turned onto what had to be a dirt road of some sort. The vehicle bounced a lot more now, and so did she. She would definitely be black and blue later. Her thoughts drifted back to how it all started once again.

At the first club they had gone to, one of Beth’s friends met up with a guy who told her that he knew about a new exclusive club downtown that he could get them all into. Sarah was hesitant about going. She didn’t know the guy. She thought his name was Chuck or Charles or something. Hell, she didn’t even know the girl who was with Beth. She only knew that Beth said they worked together, and that Beth trusted the girl. In the end, all four had climbed into Beth’s car and followed Chuck’s car with two of his friends in it, downtown to a rather seedy area. Sarah kept trying to talk Beth into going back while the other two girls kept saying it would be fine. Sarah wasn’t happy. It just didn’t look like the safest area to go into, not to her at least. But Beth was adamant that it would be fun, and Sarah wasn’t about to desert her friend.

They had gone into a club that on the outside looked shabby and disreputable but on the inside was lively, well-lit and very noisy. The music was loud, the booze flowed, and people danced all over the place. They were all soon caught up in it all and Sarah relaxed a little. She sipped her rum and coke and watched as Beth and the others danced and had fun. For her, it was fun just being able to sit and watch. Every so often she would take a picture of someone dancing with her phone. Often it was Beth or one of the other girls. She never took her camera with her when she went out like this unless she was specifically looking for this type of picture. And at those times, she didn’t drink.

About two hours after arriving at the club, Sarah wanted to go home. She was tired and just wanted to sleep. One of the guys that they had followed sat at her table with her and kept asking her to dance. She didn’t remember his name at all. She finally accepted thinking to talk to Beth on the dance floor and tell her she was ready to leave. But she never saw Beth on the dance floor or after for that matter. She had no idea where her friend had disappeared to. After the dance, she returned to the table and took a sip of her drink.

Back in the trunk of the car, Sarah frowned. She could remember the drink tasted a little funny but after that, she couldn’t remember much. A sick feeling came to her at that point. Had she been drugged? Was that what had happened? The more she tried to remember the more her head hurt. Suddenly the car gave a lurch and she bounced hard enough to hit the top of the trunk. She was dazed from the blow, so it took her a few minutes to realize the vehicle she was in had rolled to a stop. She listened or tried to. She thought she could hear two men’s voices. Two would be hard to deal with, but she was hopeful that she could manage it. She maneuvered the screwdriver into her hands, so it would be hidden and prayed for strength. She knew it would be hard to move once she was untied but she would manage. She would have to. She hoped they would untie her for what they had in mind, if not ... well ... she hoped she would be found in time.

Suddenly, the trunk was yanked open and someone grabbed Sarah and pulled her out, dumping her on the ground as they did. She moaned in pain and they laughed. The rough male voice sounded familiar. Was it the one she had danced with? The way she was laying she couldn’t see him. She felt him untie her feet and she was hauled up and forced to walk around the car. Her eyes adjusted, and she saw a fire flare to life. She looked around as best she could and realized they were in a wooded area. How far had they come from town? In what direction? Since she had obviously been unconscious for the start of the drive, she had no idea.

The fire revealed a man bending over and tossing small logs and twigs on it to get it going. He was facing away from her, so she couldn’t see his face, but he seemed a bit rounded and out of shape. She prayed that was so. The one