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They’re here!
The sideboard screeches on the hardwood floor as someone pushes it out of the way. I suck in air when Leon and Liane reach the ground. Their forms melt to the wall and disappear from sight.
“Stupid move.”
My heart lurches into my throat as a tall male’s frame presses against me from behind. The sickening dread coils like acid in my guts as his face leans over.
“Call them back!” A hot breath pours into my ear, rendering me speechless. Taking my silence for my defiance, he yanks my hair, bending me backward like a string, exposing my throat just to press a sharp blade into my delicate skin.
I struggle to draw in a breath as fear grips me, but I utter, “No.”
The fist slams into my face and stuns me, and I fall into the furniture. My head swims, pain burrows into my skull, and before I can take a lungful, someone’s hand wraps in my hair and jerks me to meet his face twisted in rage. Sharp features and blazing dark eyes hold me hostage. The stranger’s tall, burly frame like a boulder is pressing against me.
“Make another mistake to disobey, and I will fuck you up so hard you won’t be able to speak for the rest of your pathetic life.” A sadistic smile on his face keeps me from screaming. My eyes water and my chin trembles with aftershocks of pain. He strolls and grabs me by the hair, dragging me up until I hover on my tiptoes.
“Where did they go?” His tone’s threatening and cold, but my resolve is uncanny. “Speak, or I swear you’re going to regret it.”
My scalp burns as he pulls on my hair even tighter with controlled precision until I have to hold back a whimper.
“Kids aren’t here.” Someone from behind reports and he stills, dropping me to the ground, and my legs almost give out from relief.
“They’re somewhere in the garden, go find them.” His hand slips from my scalp and wraps around my forearm. I stagger after him since my feet are unable to move fast enough with his stride. When he stops at the stairs and turns to face me, I realize why. I’m shaking, from fear, but my jaw is locked like shackles.
He leans closer, getting into my face. “They’ll be found, don’t doubt me.”
I tremble at the sadistic promise, but no sound escapes my sealed lips.
Frustrated from my lack of response, he hauls me over his shoulder, carrying me downstairs like a sack of potatoes. At the bottom, he tosses me down to the ground by the entrance. I yelp in pain as I hit a sore spot.
“Look after her. Don’t leave her side,” he commands and moves toward the open sliding door leading straight to the garden.
The man, a little bit taller than me, with scruff and sharp eyes, lights up a cigarette and bends his knees until our gazes align. Caressing me with his intimidating gaze, he blows the pungent smoke into my face. I start to cough as it tickles my throat.
“You’re going to be a good girl, aren’t you?”
I nod. The less he perceives me as a threat, the better chance I have to gain the upper hand. I can manage a few tricks as long as I’m not fighting them all at once.
“Good, because it would be such a waste to kill you.” Then he stands and cocks his gun at me to reinforce his threat. I freeze, but he dismisses me almost instantly and walks away.
I need to do something before they find them and hurt them.
Over my dead body!
While the guard stands by the window smoking, I shift my body, ready to spring to my feet.
The moment he returns to his sentry position at my side, I act. My legs, powered by adrenaline, leap into action. I kick him in the groin and then I grab his head and bring my knee into his face. While he withers in pain, I grab his knife I saw attached to his leg and dash to the door.
Dammit! The code doesn’t work. I jump over his writhing body and run to the kitchen. Where is my phone? Where is it! But it isn’t there.
Lucas’ words echo in my head. The only option you have is to fight and leave as much evidence of struggle as possible for the family to find. He always pushed me through various scenarios as we trained. I hope it won’t come to that. I slip through the gaping sliding door to the garden and then sprint toward the little hidden road that trash trucks use to collect waste.
If the intruders did their homework, they’d know Leif’s living a few houses away. I tremble, afraid I sent them straight into their waiting hands, but I push through it and concentrate on the task at hand.
A pitch-black street makes me beyond apprehensive of these men’s preparation level. Did they know how to cut the power and that I’d be alone at home tonight? It’s like 3:00 a.m. Where are my bodyguards? I don’t have time to ponder because someone leaps from the shadows and tackles me to the ground. I let out a screech, and before I can start screaming, I’m slammed against the concrete. My vision blurs as a sharp blade presses into my throat. It’s the same sadist from the bedroom.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t make a sound. Your kids are in the van, Mrs. Cade. Do you want to go with them or die here like a pig with your throat cut open?” His words are so cold and indifferent it paralyzes me. My hands like icicles fall down and my eyes frost with terror.
I gasp like a fish, trying to tell him not to hurt them. But I can’t. He smiles like a maniac, getting off my terror, and then pulls me to my feet. “Good, it would be such a waste to kill you.”
