AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dream
He shuts the trunk of the car and immediately grabs my arm. His grip is like iron, firm and unforgiving as he drags me over to his SUV and pushes me over the hood.
“It’s not mine,” I whine, but it’s obvious that he doesn’t care.
He pushes me against the hot surface of his hood, and I cry out from the heat. I’m not in a place to negotiate, but this seems like a gross overreaction to drug smuggling. I’m clearly not a physical threat to him, but he’s treating me like I’m trying to fight back, using his oversized muscles to force me into a position where I can barely breathe.
“Stop it,” I wheeze, panic lurching up into my throat.
“Shut up,” he growls, pulling me off the scalding surface of the hood and holding me over it like a threat. “You’re in a world of trouble. Where the fuck did you get that much Protodafinil?”
“I don’t know what that is,” I cry. “I don’t know anything.”
“Don’t play stupid with me. Nobody just happens to be driving toward the Mexican border with that much P50 in their trunk. Who are you running drugs for? The Cartel?”
It’s hopeless. He’s already figured me out, and pretending like I’m innocent isn’t going to help me. Pleading the fifth might work better, so that’s what I do. I close my mouth and shut the fuck up before I get myself into the type of trouble that even the best lawyer can’t get me out of.
But it’s probably already too late for that.
“Tell me what you know, god damn it,” he snarls, shaking me over the car as his partner comes out.
“I’m pleading the fifth,” I reply, trying not to sound so uncertain of myself, “So take me to jail if you need to.”
He laughs, and it’s unusually cold for a police officer. “You’re not going to jail, Dream. You’re going to someplace where people don’t come back from, but that’s only if you keep playing games with me and dodging questions. Do you want that? Do you want to end it all for the Cartel?”
“You can’t do that,” I whine, trying to wriggle loose. “Let me go!”
“I can do anything I want,” he replies. Then he looks toward his partner. “Jasha, make room in the back seat. She’s coming with us.”
I yelp as he jerks me away from the hood of his car, keeping my hands pinned behind my back as he moves me toward the rear of the SUV. I don’t want to go with them, but I’m still relieved when I’m tossed in the backseat and I’m met with crisp, cool air conditioning.
Jasha slides into the front seat and glares at me, his eyes just as vivid and piercing as the officer who found the drugs. “You’re so fucked,” he says, shaking his head. “Nikolai must’ve found something real bad if he’s taking you in.”
I shrink away from him, mortified by his tone and deep Russian accent. I’m beginning to suspect that neither of these men are typical Border Patrol agents.
But then who are they?
I don’t have time to ask before Nikolai comes back with the duffle bag and tosses it into Jasha’s lap. “She had this in the trunk of her car. Claims she doesn’t know where it came from,” he grumbles as he starts the car.
Jasha’s eyes grow wide as he opens the bag, and then he looks at me. “P50? Where the fuck did you get something like that?”
“She claims to be pleading the fifth,” Nikolai replies for me.
Jasha laughs, rubbing the stubble on his prominent chin. “You can’t do that out here, missy. People go missing all the time. You wouldn’t be any exception.”
My stomach twists in a knot so tight that I can barely talk. “You can’t… you can’t do that.”
“We can do anything we want,” he replies, turning to Nikolai. “Is that right, Nikolai?”
Nikolai nods, smirking at me as his green eyes flash in the rearview mirror. “That’s right, Dream. We can do anything we want because we’re not actually Border Patrol agents. We’re above the law, and we don’t play nice with the Cartel.”
“Then who are you?” I ask, almost too afraid to hear the answer.
“Should we tell her?” Jasha asks, turning to Nikolai again.
He shrugs. “I don’t see why not. It’s not like we’re going to let her go.”
Jasha gives me a mockingly apologetic look. “Boss says you’re screwed, so it doesn’t matter if you know we’re with the Bratva.”
