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“Be right back.” As he passes me, he gives my ass a smack.
“Hey!”
He grins back at me before disappearing into the building.
I think back to our evening and can’t help but smile. I don’t know what’s to come for our relationship but I’m excited about it. Knowing him, I might not be wearing clothes for the rest of the weekend, and I am very okay with that.
A man in all black strolls down the sidewalk. His suit is well-tailored—it moves with him fluidly. Makes sense. In this neighborhood, I doubt anyone wears anything that isn’t bespoke. A vehicle rumbles by, then stops in front of the building. One of those sprinter vans, black with tinted windows. Odd, but I imagine someone in the building is getting a late night delivery. Rich people can get anything they want at any hour, I’m sure of it.
The man in black’s pace picks up as he comes near, and I smile at him and give a nod of acknowledgement. But he doesn’t smile back. In fact, he walks faster. My pulse picks up, and I take a step backward. “Hello?”
When he’s an arm’s length away, he grabs a fistful of my hair and shoves something into my mouth. I punch him in the face, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He grabs my arm and twists it around, so it’s in the small of my back, and suddenly, there’s something sharp at my throat. He growls, “Do not struggle, princess. I don’t like cutting pretty girls, but I will.”
Oh my fuck!
The van door opens in the back, and the man in black pushes me forward toward it. But I drag my feet—if I get into that van, I’ll die. I know it. He presses the knife to my throat harder. “Walk.”
“What do you want?” I ask against the gag.
He ignores me and shoves me inside the back of the van. Two more men in black are waiting for us, but they wear masks. There’s four seats back there—three for them, one for me. This isn’t just some random thing. They’ve planned this. I start to panic and struggle, but the door is shut before I can get back outside. The other two move just as fast as the first one. They throw me into one of the seats and tie my feet and wrists to it. The engine revs as they pull away from the building. I’m close to hyperventilating, and the first guy must notice, because he pulls the gag out of my mouth.
“What do you want?” I ask between fast breaths.
“I want you to breathe through your nose so you don’t pass out and hurt yourself. No one pays for damaged goods.”
“Where are you taking me? This is kidnapping.”
“And to think, she’s a smart lawyer,” one of the other guys mocks.
“But I don’t have any money. Is this because I’m in this neighborhood? I promise, you are barking up the wrong tree. I’m not from here. This isn’t where I live. I’m just as broke as you guys probably are. You have the wrong woman.”
The first guy smirks sinisterly. “And with that little speech, you’re not hyperventilating anymore.” He puts the gag back in, only this time, he ties it around the back of my head.
Okay, I can handle this. I just need to be able to talk myself out of being their target once he removes the gag again.
But then, he pulls out a blindfold, and the panic hits all over. I try to thrash away from his hands, but he pops me in the back of the head. “Cooperate, and this will go much easier for you, Ms. Devlin.”
Fuck. They know exactly who I am.
“Why?” My question is muffled and I sit still this time to let him get the blindfold on. No point in fighting this. Not yet. Save my fight for later.
“I’ll assume you asked why this is happening. It’s nothing personal against you. Just business. We’re going to see if your boyfriend and his family will pay for your safe return. We’ll see what loyalty really means to them.”
This is business. Okay. I can survive a business transaction. That’s all this is. Once it’s settled … except, he’s not really my boyfriend. Or my fiancé. We’re whatever we are, but am I someone he’d pay for? Would his family?
“It’s a pity the Wests aren’t good at paying their bills, or we would have avoided all this unpleasantness in the first place. Understand, Ms. Devlin, we don’t want to hurt you. But we will if we must. They have to know we’re serious. We will do whatever it takes to get the money they owe us. If that means sending you back to them piece by piece to prove our point, then we will.”
Chapter Thirty-Six-June
By the time the SUV stops, a cold sweat trickles down my back. My mouth is so dry from the gag, and my wrists and ankles are abraded by the rope on them. The vehicle smells new. Light and shapes stream in at the edges of my blindfold, and the longer I sit with it on, the more I wonder why these bozos didn’t use a head bag. I’ve been counting the seconds and the turns, and I’m pretty sure we are still in Boston.
The tiny details are the only things keeping me from losing my shit right now. Paying attention to them instead of what might happen is the only option I have. Otherwise, I’ll hyperventilate.
The problem is, I know too much about kidnapping and the fact that if you see the kidnapper’s faces, there’s a good chance they’ll kill you. And I’ve seen one of their faces.
Maybe he’s a mark. Someone they’re using to get the job done, and he’s the one they’ll offload, not me. Only the others seem to take his orders. Which means he’s in charge of this operation. Not good. Definitely not good.
“Ms. Devlin, we have arrived.”
