A punch knocked me off my precarious balance. My body yanked my wrists against the cuffs. My leg screamed in pain as my foot swung at an unnatural angle.
If I survived this, I’d walk with a limp for the rest of my life.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d been there, but I trusted it wouldn’t be long before SSI and Shepherd Security rode in on their white horses.
Hold on, Nina, they’re coming.
I prayed it’d be sooner rather than later because I knew too much and the countdown on my life had already begun.
Chapter 58
Nina
The guy behind me said, “Take him to the other room and shoot him.”
“No!” I screamed and tried to pull away from the man yanking on my hair. He’d kept a firm grip on it, and any time I’d tried looking away, he’d forced me to watch what they were doing to Austin.
Blood covered Austin’s swollen and bruised face. He hung almost lifeless from the chain in the ceiling. Blood pooled below his shattered left leg.
More than anything, I wished that Austin really was made of steel so these assholes couldn’t hurt him.
I’d always prided myself on finding a reason to smile during hard times, but this was the worst thing I’d ever seen a human do to another human. Smiling wasn’t an option.
But losing my shit was.
Twenty-six, nay, twenty-seven years of frustration bubbled over.
“No!” I screamed again. “If you kill him, I won’t tell you anything.”
“You’ll tell me everything I want to know, Miss Singer.”
“The treasure you’re looking for doesn’t exist. The only things they left me were some fucking baby pictures of me with my parents. Parents I can’t remember. You want my fucking baby journal so you can read about my mother’s morning sickness? So you can read about the first two years of my life, before they had to send me away to protect me from you! Two years I have no fucking memory of? Then it’s yours. I’m sure you already found it in my bag.”
They smiled as I sucked in a breath to refill my lungs.
“Miss Singer—”
“My. Name. Is. Novak!” They’d adopted me, raised me, loved me. If I was going to die, I would do it with their name.
The asshole laughed. “Miss Novak. We found the photos and the journal. Or should I say, the copies? I have men combing through them as we speak to find clues.”
Would they find them? If they did, they wouldn’t need me anymore.
“So far, we haven’t had any luck. So, you’ll tell us where it is, or your grandmother will pay the price.”
Nana Sue.
If my heart beat any harder against my ribs, it’d fly out of my body.
They couldn’t.
Could they?
John promised.
Images of Nana Sue flashed through my mind. She took care of me after my parents died, and I’d spent the last two years caring for her.
Losing her to cancer would leave a hole in my heart, but losing her to these murderous assholes would destroy me.
