Chapter Nineteen
Ariella
Sweaty rough hands snatched me from the hiding space in the hallway. My phone fell to the ground, and the assailant stepped down with his boots, smashing my device to pieces, crunching the screen under his steel toe boots.
I hadn’t expected anyone to come from behind, not when the man with the baseball cap had been just a few feet away, around the corner, in front of me.
I had kept hidden. Little good it did me. My defensive tactical training kicked in. My years at the C.I.A. had involved hands-on combat training even though I was practically a desk clerk with a background in technology, science, and profiling. The only fieldwork I had done was surveillance assignments, a side effect of my health issues that had occurred early in my career but after passing all required training and tests. Lucky me.
He restrained my neck in a headlock keeping me from breathing, I had seconds before I would go unconscious. I slammed my elbow into the assailant’s groin, smashed my head back into his nose, and spun around to escape his grip around my neck. Gasping hard, trying to drink in all the oxygen that I could, my heart screamed for help, but the words never left my lips. I didn’t recognize the blond, beady-eyed man. His thick muscles protruded from his t-shirt.
“Connor. She’s over here!”
Connor? He must have been the one asking for me with that stupid baseball cap. I didn’t recognize the man’s name, and the beady-eyed attacker was a stranger to me as well.
Connor, the man with the baseball cap, strolled around the corner. His footsteps were thudding against the tile floor, coming toward me, blocking off my exit out of the hallway.
“What do you want?” Had it been the money Benjamin stole, or were they after me because I had once worked for the C.I.A.? Had my identity been leaked by my previous employer or someone else? I had no access to state secrets, no special privileges as a former agent. I was a disgrace to the agency, and they’d make that clear when I had been forced to resign.
Yanking on my long dark hair, the beady-eyed man took a fistful into his palm, gripping the strands. He tugged hard. I screamed from the pain while he dragged me out the back hall to the exit.
Screaming for help, I kicked and dug my toes into the stone road, but it didn’t help. I tried twisting to break free, but he moved fast, my hair tangled in his grip.
Connor was in front of me, a switchblade in his hand. The cold steel grazed my cheek. “Scared yet?” he seethed between crooked teeth, his partner held me captive.
“Let me go!” I struggled against him and fought back with every ounce of strength I could muster. My elbow jammed into his stomach.
He chucked me against the icy brick exterior of the building. My head smacked the rough texture before my legs buckled beneath me.
“We know who you are,” Connor said, kicking my chest, knocking the wind out of me again. “We want our investment returned to us. All two million dollars, and since we’re generous, we’ll only tack on another two million in interest. You’ll get it to us by sundown tonight.”
I snorted under my breath. It had to be dirty money. What the hell had Benjamin thought when he took their money to invest and steal? Two million wasn’t a small amount, and they wanted four million by sundown?
Beady-eyed man held me down, his weight pinned me to the ground, his arms overpowered me, while Connor brought the blade against my skin. Laughing, he tore at my coat, ripping my warmth to shreds. The edge scratched my skin and tore at my clothes. A fire burned over my arms and chest. I fought back with my forearms, struggling to get up, and while I tried to roll him over, having two men made it an impossible match.
The longer I stayed down, the easier it was for them to continue to attack me. My fingers grazed over the stone pavement. I slipped a rock into my palm, prepared to use it to defend myself.
Connor released his grip, closed the switchblade, and shoved it into his back pocket. A heavy snort left beady-eyes lips, and with only one man and no weapon against my skin, I swung my hips and thrust my body around, using my legs to kick his legs out from under him, forcing him onto his back as I pinned him down and smacked him with the rock.
“Never touch me again,” I snarled, breathing heavy anger chilling me along with the cold.
Connor reached down, offering a hand to his buddy to help him up. “Four million or you’ll be digging a grave for the little girl and her daddy.”
How did they know about Jaxson and Izzie? I held my breath for a few seconds before exhaling a slow and even lungful. How long had they been watching me? Since the day I moved into the cabin? I hadn’t seen Izzie in over a month. Jaxson and I hadn’t been close again until last night. The world spun around me. I leaned back against the cold, rough brick of the building and let it support my weight and my shaky legs.
“I’ll get you the money.” I gritted my teeth, and a toughness washed over me. I didn’t know how I would save them. I didn’t have four million dollars, but I would let nothing happen to either of them. “Where is the drop?” I asked.
* * *
I stood outside with a torn jacket, shivering by the front entrance. I walked from the back exit where I’d been threatened and beaten to the main doors. I threw away my shredded coat, the bloodstains a reminder of my weakness. I didn’t even know where I was bleeding from. Everything ached, and the cuts where the blade had gashed my skin burned, but I hadn’t seen any significant injuries.
Waiting for Jaxson, time appeared to stand still. Shivering, I stood in my torn pale pink sweater. It was too thin for winter, and my jacket was worthless, as was the sweater I wore, but that wasn’t hitting the trash until I got home.
His dark blue truck tore into the parking lot and came to an abrupt halt in front of the resort. Jaxson left the car running before he leaped out of the vehicle. Lincoln sat in the passenger seat. His expression gruff. He didn’t look pleased to see me or to have his day interrupted.
Jaxson hurried around to me, removing his coat and pulling it on my shoulders. He opened the back door and helped me into his truck, the warmth of his jacket and the heat surrounded me.
“Thanks,” I said. My shoulders trembled as I shivered in the truck.