Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
I’d managed to roll to my ass and get in a position where I could rest my back against the side of the van, but this was not in the slightest bit comfortable. Especially since my bag was jammed between me and the van.
My ass began to hurt first. Then I knew my muscles were getting tight. The ties were cutting in at both wrists and ankles. And every bump or turn wasn’t fun.
Tex had given us penknives for this very situation, and he’d told us to keep them in our back pockets.
This was a good plan, and mine was in my back pocket (I was in jeans and a burnt-orange, ruffly blouse today). Except for when a guy was sitting across from you, keeping an eye on you. And even if you managed to free your hands, you then had to free your feet, and after that, you had nowhere to go except, if you got past them, tossing yourself onto a highway.
Therefore, that plan was out.
But I was keeping that knife in the back of my head for later.
It was dark by the time we got where we were going, and I was both tweaked the van stopped because I had no idea what lay before me, and relieved because I was going to be able to move.
They hauled me unceremoniously out of the van, and yes, I could confirm my body was one big ache from being in a single uncomfortable position for two hours.
One guy clipped my ankle ties so I could walk, and maybe I could have made a play for escape, but I had no idea where I was and therefore no idea where I should go.
It sucked, but I needed to get the lay of the land.
Jessie got kidnapped, but Javi did that (long story), so she was never in any danger.
Willow and Harlow got kidnapped, but a United States Congressman called for that play, so that was a little worrisome, but in the end, that was about a negotiation, not a hostage situation or…whatever this was.
I had no idea what I was in for.
And I’d admit it.
I was scared.
Someone was always in the courtyard at the Oasis. Someone had to have heard me. Not to mention, the guys at NI&S would have seen me taken, and they tracked my phone, so I had no doubt they were close on our heels.
I was just not liking this, and not simply for the obvious reason that I’d been kidnapped.
We were at a warehouse, one that was remote. There was nothing but a Tarmac parking lot around it, beyond that, darkness, which meant desert.
The door was opened for us, and I started surveying when they pulled me inside.
The three guys from the van.
The guy that opened the door.
Four more loitering in a vast space that was empty, save for a seating section with folding chairs and a folding table on which were bottles of beer, overflowing ashtrays and a mostly empty bottle of Jack Daniels, along with a pimped-out Escalade and another van.
Metal stairs up to some rooms that overlooked the space, all dark, except one that had a window facing out to the warehouse.
Another guy stationed on the stairs to where they led me.
And up.
We went to the occupied office, and they knocked on the closed door.
“Got her?” a man called from inside.
One of the guys with me opened the door and yanked me inside.
He pulled me to a stop.
A man sat behind a desk.
He looked up.
And that was how I met Knox’s father.
TWENTY-SIX
CLOSURE
“Cut her free,” Knox’s dad ordered. “And take off that fuckin’ gag.”
My hands were freed, but that wasn’t the relief I thought it would be.
The zip-ties cut into my skin, my shoulders were frozen in a backward bend, and my fingers were numb.
I rolled my shoulders, pins and needles attacked them, and I shook out my hands as one of the guys untied the gag.
That felt better, though my cheeks ached.
Thus, I shifted my jaw side to side, all while taking in Knox’s dad.
The good news: Knox’s genes stated he’d be hot for a very long time.
The bad news: Knox’s dad kidnapped me, my phone was pinpointing me right where I was, Knox and the men would know where that was, and as such, who took me, and I knew Knox right then was going out of his mind.
“Take a seat,” Mr. Chambers said.
I looked to the chair opposite the desk.
Then I replied, “It wasn’t a fun ride down here. My body’s all tied up. I’d rather stay standing.”
“That wasn’t an option I offered,” Knox’s dad replied. “Sit.”
So Knox’s dad was a dick.
Not a shocker.
I drew in breath.
Then I rounded the chair and sat.
He studied me.
After he did this awhile, he said, “Got his good taste in women from his dad, I see.”