Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
Panic makes my breaths race over my lips, and my arms shoot up in a surrendering motion. “Sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Get in the car,” he orders.
Instinct tells me to run. To just run as fast and far as I can.
My heart makes my feet move toward the car because I won’t risk Carson’s life.
“Hailey,” Lars calls from the bar’s entrance. I glance over my shoulder, and then a gunshot goes off. The sound is softer than I expected. Lars staggers back into the bar before he falls.
I hear myself scream, my hands flying to my mouth. Shock mutes everything. My fear thickens until it’s darker than the night.
When an arm comes around me, I struggle against the hold. I'm lifted off my feet, and I kick out, my hands slapping and scratching at the arm around me. It’s useless, though, because I’m not strong enough.
My mouth dries up with terror. My muscles tense painfully.
I’m dragged to the car and forced into the back seat. When I turn to try and get out, there’s a hard blow to the side of my head. The pain is sharp, making my brain rattle, and then everything goes dark.
Coming to, there’s an ache pounding against my temple.
Opening my eyes, the first thing I see is a grimy floor, then someone slaps my cheek a couple of times. “Wake up.”
Turning my head away from the hand, I struggle to comprehend what’s happening. When I try to move my hands, I realize they're tied behind my back. It makes the last of the grogginess lift, and then panic and fear shudders through me.
Shit.
My eyes dart around me, and they stop on Carson, where he’s sitting across from me on the other side of the room.
Where my legs are free, his are restrained to a chair with zip ties around his ankles. His hands are also tied behind his back, but instead of panicking, he looks calm… relaxed. He just stares off as if he’s caught in a daydream.
“C-Carson?”
He doesn’t look at me or say anything. He just keeps staring at nothing with an impassive expression on his face.
I can’t… I don’t understand.
“Tell Admir the girl is awake,” the man next to me says to another who’s standing by the door. It’s only then I notice all the men. I count nine.
They all look like trouble, the kind I’ve only seen in movies.
Shit. Shit. Shit. This is bad.
I have a million questions, but I don’t dare open my mouth.
Keep quiet. Don’t draw attention to yourself.
Then the memories start to come. Carson fighting, I’ve never seen anything like it. The gun. Lars.
Lars. Poor Lars.
My breathing begins to speed up, and my heart rate increases.
My eyes dart to Carson again, and finding no warmth, no assurance… nothing on his face to tell me we’re going to be okay makes a sob build in my chest.
“Carson, what’s happening?” I ask him.
He doesn’t answer me. No one does.
“Can anyone tell me what’s going on,” I say, my voice stronger this time, my rising panic the driving force.
The man closest to me swings around and backhands me across the face. “Shut up.”
I pinch my eyes shut, and sit frozen for a moment, trying to process the blow.
Everything was normal… and then it wasn’t.
It’s like I’ve been dropped into a weird nightmare where nothing makes sense.
Maybe it’s just a bad dream?
Maybe…
Admir comes into the room, and he chuckles cruelly. He glances at me before turning his attention to Carson. “Carson fucking Koslov. We meet again.”
Carson doesn’t say anything. Instead, he keeps staring at the floor.
“Who’s behind the contract?” Admir asks.
Contract? What contract?
There no reaction from Carson. He hardly blinks.
My eyes keep darting between Admir and Carson, hoping to learn why we’re here.
“Tell me, and I’ll make it quick,” Admir says.
Make what quick?
When Carson remains frozen in silence, Admir turns to me. He makes a gesture with his hand, and then two men come at me.
Petrified my lips part, but I can’t think of a single word. I try to yank at the bonds biting into my wrists, and when I dart up from the chair, the one guy grabs hold of my neck.
I make a slight squeaking sound as I’m shoved back, and my legs are swept from under me. I hit the floor hard, pain vibrating through me, my hands digging into my lower back. The chair is kicked to the side, the plastic making a scraping sound.
Dreadful emotions crash into my chest. My mind goes blank in absolute terror, and then a cloth is shoved over my face. Tepid water fills every hole and drowns the air from my lungs.
I struggle against the hold on me. I choke and cough, the water suffocating me. When I begin to gag, my lungs burning for oxygen, they let go of me. My body convulses as my throat and lungs work to get the water out.