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“Don’t,” he hisses. “I’ll shoot you. Right here. And that little family walking down the street? Them, too. And maybe your friends inside the library. I believe I heard the security is getting installed next week, is it?”
Oh, no.
“Go.” The gun—yes, it’s a gun pressed to my stomach, but we’re standing so close no one else could tell—jabs into my skin. “You’re going to walk to the black SUV and get inside without trying anything. Or I will shoot you. I swear it.”
What choice do I have?
For a second, I still have hope. My purse is still over my shoulder, with my phone. But Alec snatches it away and shoves it under my car.
“Go,” he repeats, the friendly man I remember turned into a monster. “Get in the damn car.”
As I walk toward it on shaking legs, I ask myself, why aren’t I wearing those earrings the Blade and Arrow guys gave me, the ones with the trackers in them?
But I know. I was in a hurry this morning, my first time bringing Laila to school, wanting to get there with plenty of time to spare. I only realized I’d forgotten the earrings once we were in the car and Laila was already buckled in; I didn’t want to run back in the house and take the risk of being late.
So I didn’t. I figured it was fine, I didn’t really need to wear them. The danger was gone.
Except it wasn’t.
At least Laila’s not with me. She’s safe at school. But she’ll be so upset when I’m not there to pick her up. To go on our special shopping trip.
God. The pain nearly knocks me to my knees. Ben. Laila. Will I ever see them again?
I should be doing something, trying to escape, but how?
Alec yanks open the driver’s side door and jabs me in the back with the gun. “Get in. And don’t try anything.”
Maybe I can jump out of the car. If he’s distracted…
As soon as I’m in the passenger seat, he leaps in after me, the gun still dangerously close to my body. And still pointing at me.
Then he pulls something out of his pocket. A clear bag, with a white cloth inside it.
“Sorry about this,” he says, his face transforming to a kindly library patron again. “It may give you a headache.”
And before I can move, he whips out the cloth and holds it over my face.
I struggle against him, but he’s freakishly strong.
Or is it me already fading?
Darkness whispers in around the corners.
My head spins.
A black fog closes in.
Ben!
Chapter 21
BEN
It’s strange, getting back to normal life again.
Like working from home, the house quiet except for the faint ticking of the clock in the living room and someone mowing their lawn down the street. Sitting alone in my office, working at my worn wooden desk, searching for cybersecurity breaches instead of the person who was trying to hurt Thea.
I went for a run around the neighborhood after my video call, instead of using the treadmill in the basement, or using Blade and Arrow’s well-stocked gym.
