Chapter25
Goddamn it, what had she done? I knew it was Becks. Alek would have slipped in unnoticed like a ghost. Of course Becks would have made some big fucking production.
The second the three men in the room with me were distracted, I rolled over enough to give myself leverage, ignoring the broken ribs and eyes already swelling shut.
Zip ties are made to be secure and stable. It would hurt to break off even if I weren’t already tenderized.
But I closed my eyes and thought of Becks as I tensed my muscles and jerked my arms, tugging myself free of the bonds.
“Fucker,” said Artem in English.
Apparently, he had sent his goons to look into this supposed fire, and had stayed behind to have fun with me. Which meant he now knew I was unbound. While he was uninjured, I was barely conscious.
Fuck it. I’d faced worse odds. As he approached, I kicked out, hitting his ankle and sending him careening to the ground.
Time to even the playing field.
I aimed for Artem’s ribs and got a few forceful kicks in before he scrambled away. We were by no means even, but at least he was injured, too.
It was a start.
Now I needed to stand and get my ass out of here.
I rolled to brace a hand on the ground and immediately collapsed. If I had a broken collarbone, I was really fucked. That would leave me completely dependent on one arm.
Using the other side of my body, I wormed myself into a crouch only to see that Artem was up and holding a knife now. “I might not be able to deprogram you, but I will be able to kill you.”
He started towards me, and I braced myself to either block his blow or jump out of the way.
But he never reached me. Because that’s when a truck blasted through the front of the house.