A man who spent that much money on a knife was a man who took pride in owning one. Who probably really enjoyedusingone.
Therefore, I stopped fighting and got out of the vehicle, taking in my surroundings and feeling rage rush through me when I realized where we were.
It was a private airstrip.
And sitting on the tarmac was a small private jet.
The screech of tires drew my gaze. Whoever drove the SUV was already hurtling away, done with their part in my kidnapping.
Hatred threatened to overwhelm me as the stranger nudged me forward toward the stairs that led onto the plane. I knew who I would see as soon as I stepped inside, and the dark feelings building within scared the shit out of me.
The stranger gave me a brutal shove when I paused at the top of the stairs. I stumbled into the plane, barely taking in the plush leather seats and mahogany tables. It wasn’t huge inside. There didn’t appear to be any attendants on board.
In the middle of the jet seated at a booth was my ex.
Nick slid out, eyes hard as steel, a small, triumphant smile curving his mouth.
“I told you I’d bring you home. You didn’t think I’d disappear without you?” He cocked his head, his gaze traveling over my body like it was something heowned.
For a second, I almost lost myself in the violence of my animosity. In my furious indignation that this man, this vile piece-of-shit human being, thought he had the right to take control of my existence. To literally steal me off the street and fly me to some godforsaken place.
Rationale miraculously fought through all my roiling, explosive emotions.
If this plane took off, I might be lost to my family forever.
I might not get off this plane alive.
A glance to my right revealed the stranger blocking the still-open doorway. His fancy knife hung on a leather strap clipped around his waist. His fingers tapped the top of it as if in warning.
“Nothing to say?” Nick asked, drawing my gaze back to him. “Two years we’ve been apart and you have nothing to say.”
Refusing to engage with a madman, I looked over my left shoulder into the cockpit. The pilot was already seated, readying the jet for takeoff.
The pilot had to know Nick was on the run. He was doing this for money, endangering his own life by throwing his lot in with Nick. That’s what I told myself, anyway.
A fire extinguisher hung on the wall of a hidden storage unit at the cockpit entrance. Before fear could convince me otherwise, I darted for the heavy canister, grabbing it off thewall, and plunged it with my whole weight into the back of the pilot’s head.
Hands grabbed at my hair and waist; pain rioted across my scalp as I was hauled out of the cockpit. Triumph cut off my cry of pain as the pilot slumped forward, unconscious.
“You bitch!” I heard Nick seethe at my ear seconds before I was tossed violently onto the floor. My head caught the side of a table before I hit the aisle. I groaned, pressing a hand to the throbbing ache near my temple as my vision pulsed in and out.
“Is he dead?” Nick barked.
I looked up through the hair that had fallen over my face to see Nick bristling as hishenchmanleaned into the cockpit.
“He’s just out.”
“I fucking knew we should have hired a second pilot.” Nick whirled on me, eyes blazing. “You think you’re smart?”
I hurried to my feet, the world spinning a little, whether from the blows to my skull or adrenaline. Probably both. “Honestly? Yeah, I think that was pretty smart.”
“We need to get off this plane,” Nick’s security stated calmly. “Find alternative travel.”
“You don’t touch her.” Nick flashed him a murderous look, halting the stranger’s stride. “She’s mine to deal with.”
His security nodded and stepped back, clasping his hands on his hips. Waiting.
My pulse raced as Nick moved toward me. I braced my legs and my ex cocked an eyebrow. “Are you going to fight me, baby?”
