Seventeen years earlier––
“Fuck,” I cursed, groaning as the asshole who stood in front of me flashed a cocky, self-satisfied grin. To my immediate left and right, two of his goons took turns slamming their fists into my stomach, jaw, and kidneys inflicting as much pain and injury as they were able. Even though I never stopped fighting, there was only so much I could do from the moment I was injected with a paralytic toxin. My movements were slow, nearly nonexistent. The fog in my brain wouldn’t lift. Sluggish thoughts kicked around like a basketball rolling across an empty court. There just wasn’t enough control to concentrate or command my body to listen.
One of the men who held me chuckled low. “He doesn’t get it, boss.”
The sharp tip of a knife scraped against the smooth skin that stretched over my neck since my shave this morning. That was twelve hours ago now. A lifetime since I’d left work and pulled up to the bar, parking in the lot with my beat-up Ford.
“Get what?” I asked, slurring my words.
The two goons laughed. My head tilted to the side, memorizing each of their features. The first guy was bald as a baby’s ass with a jagged scar that stretched across the left side of his face from the apple of his cheek all the way up to his forehead, where it was buried in his upper skull. He was big and beefy. The clothing he wore seemed too small to fit his rounded shoulders and sculpted arms like he thought it added to his pussy game. Fucker was ugly.
The second guy was pasty with skin that appeared too thin over his frame. Greasy dark hair hung in lifeless curtains to his shoulders. He wasn’t as big as baldy but definitely more robust than I anticipated.
Didn’t matter. They were gonna pay for what they did tonight: one way or another.
My body was dragged over to an open grave, and it didn’t compute why I was there. Screams from somewhere close tried to penetrate my brain but couldn’t break through.
“Tawni,” I whispered, wondering where she went.
Someone shoved my back hard, and I tumbled into the dirt below. My dulled senses didn’t recover. I watched as the dirt piled on top of me, and I couldn’t lift a finger to stop it. Soil covered my skin and clothes and grew higher as my breath hitched and awareness slowly crept back in. By the time I could wiggle a few fingers, I was almost completely covered.
Only one thought penetrated my skull as the final shovel full of dirt covered my face and cut off the air supply to my nose and mouth. I was going to die in the worst way imaginable.
They fucking buried me alive.