Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 40057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
“Excuse me,” I tried, my pulse spiking. “You can’t be in here.”
The first man’s expression sharpened. “We won’t be long.”
I barely had time to inhale before a hand clamped over my mouth. A second set of arms locked around mine, pinning them to my sides. I bucked instinctively, but they were too strong.
There was a stinging sensation in my neck. I started to feel dizzy, and my voice was too muffled for anyone to hear when I cried, “Stop, please.”
“Easy now,” one of them murmured, his breath hot against my ear. “There’s no use fighting. We’ve already got you.”
The room tilted, and my legs gave out as whatever drug they’d injected me with hit. My vision went hazy around the edges, and I knew I was losing my chance to get away. Panic coursed through my system. I fought even harder, trying to kick and scream, but it did me no good. The men just tightened their hold on me.
This couldn’t be happening. Not here. Not in a spa filled with my friends, out in the waiting room, and a prospect sitting on his motorcycle in the parking lot.
The last thing I felt was my body being lifted off the floor. And then nothing at all.
The next thing I felt was cold. It sank into my bones and made my skull throb. I groaned as I came back to consciousness with no idea how long I’d been out.
My eyelids fluttered, my vision swimming in and out of focus. Everything was dark and fuzzy at the edges. My head pounded with each flicker of my lashes.
When I finally jerked fully awake, pain stabbed behind my eyes so hard I thought I might throw up. I tried to push up from the floor but couldn’t.
My head was so foggy that it took a moment to realize something thick and rough was digging into my wrists because my hands were bound behind me. I couldn’t separate my legs, either. My ankles were tied together, forcing my knees at an awkward angle.
A whimper escaped before I could swallow it.
The floor beneath me was cold and unforgiving under my cheek. Concrete with no carpet. The air smelled damp, and from what little I could see, there wasn’t any furniture.
It finally dawned on me that this wasn’t the spa.
My tongue felt thick, and my mouth was dry from whatever drugs those guys had used to knock me out.
“H-hello?” The word rasped out, barely a whisper.
There was no answer.
I forced my arms to move, testing the restraints. They bit into my skin, tightening when I pulled too hard. Panic turned my breathing into quick, shallow bursts.
As a tear slid down my cheek, I told myself that Reeve would come. Somehow, he’d figure out where I was. He’d get here in time. He had to.
Two sets of footsteps sounded somewhere beyond the closed door to my right. They were unhurried. Then male voices drifted toward me.
“Is she awake yet?” one asked.
“Nah, haven’t heard anything. Won’t be long though. We were careful with the dosage.”
The first man snorted. “Jareth should’ve kept a better leash on his pet. The Hounds snatched her right out from under him.”
“We’ve got her now,” the second replied. “He marked her, didn’t he? Wanted everyone to know she was his.”
My stomach churned during a beat of silence.
“We’ll carve that mark right off her,” the man continued. “Can’t claim what you can’t keep.”
A shaky breath ripped from my lungs before I could swallow it.
“And send it where it’ll hurt the most,” the first guy added.
The laughter that followed was cruel. These men didn’t see me as a person. I was only a pawn in whatever game they were playing with Jareth. It didn’t matter to them that he’d betrayed me, only that they could use me against him.
I squeezed my eyes shut and forced air into my lungs. Hopefully, Reeve would find me before they started cutting into my leg. And if he didn’t, I’d just have to figure out how to stay alive long enough for him to rescue me. Because I needed the chance to tell him I loved him.
16
ONYX
We tracked her fast. The second Stella called from the spa, Wizard was on it.
I was already dressed and down in the armory with Kevlar and King, shoving weapons into my gear bag when Wizard shouted from the back hall, “Video on your phone.”
Before I had a chance to retrieve my cell, Blaze stalked in, staring at the screen of his with a grim expression. “They carried her out.”
My head snapped up. “She was unconscious?”
Blaze nodded and passed me his phone. When the prospect we sent with them had confirmed Elena never came out the front entrance, Wizard tapped into the security footage.
Rage boiled inside me as I watched two men follow her into the bathroom, then come back out with her lying limply in one of their arms. They headed toward the back exit, then nothing.