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“Sorry, love,” a gruff voice whispered in my ear, one I didn’t recognize, sending a shiver down my spine. “Nothing personal.”
My mind screamed at being bound, bringing up a sudden wave of helpless fear, like an echo of what I’d felt as a child. But I wasn’t a child. The next second, I lashed out hard with my feet, and heard a grunt as I connected. I rolled desperately toward the blur of light outside, even though the car was accelerating. I was better off fighting here than being taken to a second location.
The car door slammed shut with a thud that echoed through my bones, the darkness of the van swallowing me whole.
Escape was gone.
I was still for a moment, disoriented. My breathing was ragged. I looked up, searching for Sunny, and he stared back down at me—one of three faces leaning over mine, but every bit as much a stranger.
“Keep quiet,” he grunted.
As the car lurched forward, I was thrown around the wide expanse of the open back of the van. Rough hands grabbed me, flipping me onto my stomach. Another zip tie—this one biting into my ankles. The tightness around my limbs dragged me back through time, to a darker place where I was just a little girl.
“Please,” I managed, the words echoing now in the hollow space of the moving car.
But of course, no one came.
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, both then and now, as I fought the bindings that held me, fought the memories clawing their way to the surface.
“Shut up,” one of the strangers spat, and the world outside the tinted windows blurred into streaks of light and shadow as we sped away. My past and present collided in a dizzying spiral. Frank’s cruel laughter might as well have been theirs.
Except…
The memory of Jack pulling Frank off me came to my mind, and I whispered the names of my men, fervent as a prayer.
I knew they would always come for me.
21
The van jolted to a halt, throwing me forward. I rolled across the harsh carpet of the trunk.
They had blindfolded me, and the knot someone had made tugged at my hair painfully. I couldn’t see anything, but that seemed to make all my other senses sharper. The universe of sound around me had become overwhelming—tires crunching gravel, then the van’s engine idling down, and above all, the erratic symphony of my own breathing.
Iron hands clamped my upper arms and hauled me up. The grip was bruising as they dragged me down from the van into cold air.
My right high heel was almost as big a traitor as Sunny. It had twisted halfway off during my fight, clinging to my foot by one defiant strap. It buckled underneath me when I tried to stand, and my heel hit cold concrete, my ankle twisting painfully. Then my knees buckled. My legs and feet were numb. The drive had gone on forever. I collapsed with an undignified yelp.
“Careful!” The sharp command cut through my panic. It was Sunny, Greyson’s second-in-command.
“Are you all insane? Don't hurt her!” His words echoed off unseen walls as he knelt beside me and undid the zip tie. Hands,surprisingly gentle, reached for my feet and deftly removed the offending shoes. The coolness of the ground seeped into the soles of my feet.
“Come on, Kennedy,” he told me kindly, gripping my arm, and I felt the other captor move away. He tugged me forward, but his grip was far softer.
I took slow, tentative steps forward, feeling as if I might slam into something.
The other man loosened his grip so he was no longer bruising me and let out a dark scoff of a laugh. “I guess she’s not going to run barefoot. But those heels were probably better than the zip ties.”
“Kennedy won’t run,” Sunny repeated, and the certainty in his tone hurt my feelings. I wasn’t exactly a wimp. I’d been through more than most people could ever dream of—and I even remembered some of it. He went on, “Kennedy is going to wait for Greyson to negotiate for her...because she knows he will.”
Greyson.The thought of his icy blue eyes and easy charm toward me—and his terrifying violence toward others when I was in danger—sent a ripple of feeling through me.
And Jack, Carter, and Sebastian had reentered the world of the Jackals, which they had never wanted, to protect me. The four of them had forged themselves into a team of dangerous men to make sure I was safe.
I knew they would come for me.
And I knew hell would rain down on anyone in their way.
But for now, I was lonely and afraid and so cold. I didn’t even know where I was, or what they were dragging me so steadily toward.
