Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 76022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76022 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
But all I could truly feel was trapped.
Helpless.
Utterly at their mercy.
Tears pricked my eyes, forcing them open so I could blink them away.
The dark wasn’t just around me; it was inside.
It pressed behind my eyes, filled my throat, and wrapped cold fingers around my chest until I felt like I might stop breathing altogether.
The car hit a bump, making me slam against the metal.
Stars burst behind my eyelids, but even they winked out too quickly, leaving me once again in the suffocating dark.
I tried to twist my wrists; the cuffs bit deeper, metal slicing at my skin. No give.
I threw myself onto my back, looking for the glow-in the-dark lever that would pop the trunk.
But it wasn’t there.
Not that I had anything to grab it with anyway.
No way out. No way out. No way out.
My heartbeat hammered as I inched around, aiming my heel toward where the taillight was situated. I couldn’t stick my hand out like you saw on TV or in movies. But maybe I could get my foot out there. Or get the car pulled over for the busted taillight.
But as I kicked out, pain shot up my heel and calf, all the way up to my butt.
There was something in the way, something protecting the taillight from tampering.
How often were people thrown in this trunk?
Worse yet, what happened to them afterward?
The car slowed.
Then stopped.
The engine cut.
A sob wrenched through my chest, muffled and strangled by the gag.
I cursed myself for hoping for an end to my dark prison as the car shifted, first to the left, then to the right, as two people climbed out.
The doors slammed, the sound reverberating through my chest.
It was okay.
I was going to get out.
Out was good.
Out meant that my legs wouldn’t be so cramped and useless.
I could kick.
I could run.
The ugly voice whispered that I would never outrun two pursuers. I wasn’t as fit as I once was when I could run up and down the field in high school and college.
Over the whooshing in my ears, I could hear the shuffles of footsteps.
Moving back.
Closer.
Closer.
There was a beep that had my legs shooting out involuntarily, ramming into the side of the trunk.
It was the key fob unlocking the trunk.
It unlatched with a quiet click.
Fresh air washed over me.
I expected the oil and grime scent of a garage. But the moon and stars blinked down at me.
Well, for a second they did.
Before two figures stepped in the way and blocked them out.
Wait.
What?
No.
“No,” I tried to say around the ball gag, but all that came out was an unintelligible gargle.
I wasn’t sure if my chest felt looser or even tighter at the sight of my kidnappers.
Not Irina and the guy who had my job before me.
No.
It was the Novikoff brothers themselves.
“Come,” Konstantin said, having the gall to give me a little come-hither gesture with his hand.
A snort escaped me at that.
Because, oh sure, just let me climb out and willingly walk to my own execution. I’d hate to be a pain in the ass while you’re trying to lure men out into the desert to shoot me.
They could drag me kicking and flailing if they wanted to murder me that badly.
I dropped back down into the trunk, making every muscle in my body go lax as I remembered trying to physically drag my college roommate out of a party when she’d blacked out from drinking too much.
Dead weight was hard to move.
“As you wish,” Konstantin said, snapping at Mikhail.
Then the two of them reached inside, each grabbing me under one arm and dragging me out of the trunk.
My shins whacked the metal of the car hard on the way out, and my shoulder cried out as I dropped my weight until my knees nearly hit the ground, making the men yank me back upward.
The brothers were frustratingly silent as they dragged me along in the night air.
From what I could tell, there wasn’t anything around for miles.
That said, I was only thinking that because the night was pressing in on us, no light pollution to break it up, to make it easier to see.
The brothers seemed to have an exact location in mind, though, as they kept dragging me along with them.
This might be the only time, however, where the darkness could work in my favor.
If only I could just wrench away from them and run.
Sure, they were probably faster, more fit. But I would have my desperation and the lack of visibility working in my favor.
Before I could think of a way to get them to drop me, though, the two of them did it for me.
Well, fine, they placed me down. Surprisingly gently, even. But I was determined not to think anything nice about the men who were probably going to paint the ground a lovely new shade of blood red with brain matter accents.