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I would only have one shot—and it could very well be my last.
“I’ll take him. You bring the girl,” a gruff, heavily accented voice spoke from outside the van.
He was close, but not directly at my feet. The sound had come from just left of me.
“My pleasure,amico.”
This voice was raspy, equally accented, and right in front of me.
Two assailants, but if luck would help me out just a little, one of them would have his hands full with whatever “him” they’d been talking about—probably the tall, gangly man from the hotel hallway floor.
Warm hands latched onto my ankles. I forced my body to remain lax while he tugged me toward him, painfully aware of the way the movement hiked up my dress.
It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but landing a kick that would do the most damage. The solar plexus or the head. I needed to hit one of them.
He released my ankles and my legs dropped, dangling out of the van. I couldn’t see him, but I could envision him there, leaning forward to grab hold of me and heave me up.
The moment his fingers made contact with my ribs, I attacked, drawing up my leg and kneeing him just beneath his rib cage, dead center in his chest.
He stumbled back, gasping over and over again, trying to draw a breath.
Yes!
I surged to my feet, still blind, but with one less assailant for at least a few more seconds. I started to run, but the click of a gun being cocked somewhere in front of me made me freeze.
I’d heard that sound hundreds of times, maybe thousands, but it had never rippled down my spine like ice water before. Despite the blackness over my eyes, I could see the barrel of the gun, aimed right at me.
Stupidly, I tried to reach out with my mind to feel it, like I’d developed some sort of sixth sense. Was it aimed at my head? My heart?
“I admire your spunk,SignorinaLuca, but don’t make me drug you again,per favore.”
I nodded because the last thing I wanted was to be rendered unconscious again. At least awake, I could watch for every opportunity to escape.
“That’s my girl.”
He spoke right in front of me. I could kick him. Headbutt him.Where was the gun?If he still had it pointed at me, either move would be a mistake.
Fingers slid up my temple. I flinched at the contact, but then forced myself to remain still as he removed the blindfold.
It was dark out, but not as dark as I’d been anticipating. I’d been imagining a dilapidated cabin in the middle of nowhere, but he’d taken me to some beat-up industrial site. The few streetlamps overhead that hadn’t burned out flickered their light on the dismal scene around us.
At least if I escaped—whenI escaped—it wouldn’t be a long trek back to civilization.
“Now, Sergio is going to take you inside,” Diego, the handsome man with the crooked nose said, motioning to the peeling paint-covered warehouse behind him. “But don’t worry. I’ll be back to collect you shortly. I trust you’ll behave until then?” He cocked an eyebrow while he pulled out a syringe from his jacket pocket and held it up in front of me.
Though my mouth was dry, I swallowed hard, staring at the needle in his hand, the silver tip gleaming under the streetlight.
I nodded. I had to do whatever it took to stay awake, to stay alert… tostay alive.
“Words,signorina. Answer me with words.”
“Yes.” I forced the word out no matter how repugnant it tasted on my tongue.
“Yes, what?” His lips quirked up in a smile that reminded me of those plastic vampire fangs kids wear for Halloween.
I glared at him, hating him with every fiber of my being.
“Yes, I’ll behave,” I spat out.
