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“Well, she’s a fucking handful, isn’t she?” the one holding me says, sounding cheerful about it for some reason.
I narrow my eyes and keep kicking, trying to aim my foot back and hit him in the balls with it to give him something to be fucking cheerful about.
“Let’s just get her out of here, Rory,” Levi mutters. He doesn’t look at me as he helps his buddy restrain me, and together they haul me out of the building.
I half expect them to let me go outside, or to knock me out or something so they can go back to beating the fuck out of Dad, but instead they bring me to a car. It’s all black with tinted windows, the kind of car people drive when they have too much money or something to hide. I think about trying to run away if they let me go, but Levi’s buddy, Rory, just drags me into the back seat with him, moving me around like I don’t weigh anything.
He’s the most muscular of the two Levi was with, taller than both of them and towering over me, even though at five-eight, I’m not short for a woman. The hands that grip my wrists together may as well be steel cuffs for all the leverage I can get, and I’m pulled unceremoniously into my captor’s lap and held there.
I throw my head back, trying to catch the bridge of his nose with the back of my skull, but he ducks his face out of the way at the last second. I manage to catch him with a hard elbow in the side, but even though he lets out a pained grunt, he doesn’t loosen his grip.
“You’re a feisty thing,” he mutters, and with how close he is, I can feel his breath huffing warm against my ear. “You know, in another circumstance I’d find that pretty hot.”
“Fuck you,” I spit, letting my fury bleed into my voice. “Let me go.”
“Mm, nah. I don’t think I will,” he teases, and I can feel my rage mounting.
Breathing hard, I finally stop struggling in his grip. My hair is sticking to my face with sweat from the exertion, and my heart races, but I’m no closer to breaking free. And even if I could, I’m in a car with these two goons, stuck in the back seat with one of them. There’s nowhere to fucking go.
As soon as I have the thought, the car’s engine revs and it starts moving. My heart crawls up my throat, and I strain in Rory’s grasp to peer out the window at the warehouse as we pull away.
“What’s going to happen?” I blurt, addressing anyone who will answer me. “What are you doing with my dad?”
There’s a moment of silence, and then Levi speaks up from the driver’s seat. “I wouldn’t worry about that.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I snap. “He’s my father.”
Levi sighs. “He shouldn’t have crossed us,” he replies. “It’s not going to end well for him.”
I don’t need him to elaborate on that. There aren’t many things his words could mean other than the obvious, and I feel my stomach drop out.
Fuck. Fuck. Fucking fuck.
They’re going to kill him. I have no idea what my dad has gotten himself involved in, but there’s no way it’s anything good. These are the kind of people who play for keeps, and he’s managed to get on their bad side.
From the front seat comes the trilling sound of a phone ringing, and Levi takes one hand off the wheel to dig into his pocket and pull it out.
“Yeah?” he answers, and I can just barely make out the sound of a deep male voice from the other end. Levi’s quiet for a second, listening, and then he nods. “Okay.”
Without another word, he hangs up and turns the car in a different direction at the next exit.
I don’t recognize the streets as we go down them, and we end up at a place that looks like it might have once been an old gas station or something. There are pumps outside and a little convenience store type place with boarded-up windows. There’s another car parked around the back, and before I can ask what’s going on, I’m being dragged out of the car like a sack of potatoes and pushed in front of Rory.
He keeps that same tight grip on me, his arms wrapped around me and his large body crowding mine, looming tall behind me. I huff, irritated. But I don’t fight back. I’m not stupid. Even if I could manage to break his grip, I’m in the middle of nowhere with no ride. If I try to run, he’ll probably just shoot me in the back.
Levi holds the door open, and Rory muscles me inside. The interior is dark and dusty, but obviously not abandoned the way it looks from the outside. The men usher me through the empty storefront and into a large room at the back. It probably used to be a storeroom or something, but it’s pretty much empty now too, except for the people in it.
I let out a sigh of relief when I catch sight of Dad, slumped in a chair and looking worse for wear, but alive.
“Dad!”
Instinct overrides everything else, and I try to jerk free of Rory’s grip to go to him, but he’s as unyielding as he was in the car, holding me back.
“Mercy.” Dad’s voice is raspy as he looks up at me.
The little crow’s feet at the edges of his eyes crinkle up as he grimaces, his lips pulling back in a pained expression. Blood trickles down one side of his face from a cut near his eye. He looks worn down and sad, but he doesn’t make a move to get up.
He’s not alone in this place. There are at least six other men in the room, most hanging back, watching with sharp eyes. Two men stand over Dad though, and I take a second to look them over.
