AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With lightning speed, Haileigh stepped in front of her, sinking her nails into Belle’s upper arm. Her instinct was to wrench away, but if she did, the woman’s talons would only dig deeper and tear at her skin.
“Let. Me. Go. Now.” She drew up to her full height. Haileigh still towered over her.
She yanked her arm, and Belle pitched off-balance, barely catching herself before hitting the floor again.
The woman dragged her to the table. When she shoved her down on the bench, she grabbed the marble edge to keep herself upright. The RV revolved in a slow circle of sickness and pain, but she managed not to pass out again.
Her stare zeroed in on a computer monitor in front of her, then shifted to the keyboard. Oh god. They knew about the patch she made.
What other reason would they have to hold her here against her will and force her in front of a computer?
How did she get out of this mess?
It was too late to play dead, so her only alternative was to play dumb.
Ethan braced both palms on the table and leaned over her, his sour breath washing over her cheek. “We want you to hack into the WEST Protection system, Belle.”
She shook her head. “How would I know how to do that?”
His lips twisted cruelly. “We know you did it once.”
She stared at him.
“The patch?” He arched a brow.
A sigh stuck in her throat, as jagged as glass.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she countered.
“Told you she would play dumb!” Haileigh stepped closer to the table so both of them were looming over Belle like cartoon villains.
Was this really happening? When Ethan jumped into her car with bags stuffed with cash from robbing that bank, she questioned whether or not it was really happening. This moment felt just as amplified. Skewed from reality.
“Belle.” Ethan’s low, urging tone brought more bile into the back of her throat. It was the same tone he used whenever he wanted to get his way.
Her spine snapped as she thrust her shoulders back.
“Put your fingers on those keys and hack into the system.”
She tilted her jaw a notch. “Why don’t you do it? Weren’t you already in there?”
“We tried,” he continued in that wheedling voice. “Your patch stopped us every time. We almost set off the alarm and backed out just in time.”
“Do it. Or…” Haleigh trailed off.
She leveled a glare on the woman. “Or what?”
Ethan swiveled to give his minion a look. Haileigh’s smug expression terrified her more than anything had yet. She walked over to a wall of drawers and opened one. She pulled out a small square of paper and returned to Ethan’s side.
He took the item from her and set it down. A cry burned up her throat. She was staring down at a photograph of her parents. Not any old photo—this one was taken recently. She knew because they’d sent her a similar selfie of the pair of them two days before.
That meant that Ethan knew her parents’ whereabouts and had no bones about snapping photos of them when they were unaware. He wouldn’t stop at just a photograph.
Her heart slammed around the empty cavern of her chest, knocking loudly in her ears.
Her stare ticked up to Ethan’s cold, cruel one.
“Or else we’ll get your parents to persuade you to help us,” he uttered in a quiet oath.
