Kaige tapped in a second time several paces ahead of me and turned around with a wave and a cocky grin. Oh, I’d wipe that off his face soon enough. He’d forgotten that not all of us needed to stick to the paths.
I let him take even more of a lead, pacing myself as we started the final circuit. When I came up on the back of the Nobles’ property, Kaige was already charging past the estate beyond it. I swung around and threw myself at the brick wall that surrounded the massive mansion’s yard.
It only took a quick scramble and a twist of my hips to fling myself over. I landed on the grass and took off across the lawn to meet Kaige out front, tapping my toes against the front step for good measure.
When I reached the sidewalk in front of the mansion, he hadn’t come around the corner yet. After bobbing on my feet impatiently, I jogged several paces back and forth. Stopping in the shade of a tree at the edge of the neighbor’s lawn, I pulled out my phone, thinking I’d text a few taunts to get his ass into gear.
My thumb was just reaching for the screen when a van roared down the street and jolted to a halt right next to me. As I spun around, three guys dressed in black from their pants to their ski masks leapt out and tackled me.
My phone slipped from my fingers, but I was too busy fighting to snatch after it. I rammed my elbow onto one guy’s gut, getting a grunt out of him, but when I opened my mouth to shout, another clapped his hand over my lips, snuffing out the sound. I struggled harder.
The heel of my hand smacked into a masked nose with a satisfying crunch, but three against one were shitty odds at the best of times, and they’d caught me by surprise. One wrenched my arms behind my back, another scooped up my legs, and they hauled me into the van.
I hit the thinly carpeted floor, the blood seeping from a scrape on my lip leaving a metallic flavor in my mouth. With a lurch and a rumble, the van peeled away from the curb. Before I could strike out again, someone lashed a rope around my wrists behind me. A bandana was tied across my mouth, half-choking me.
As I squirmed onto my side, glaring at the figures around me, a face loomed over me that turned my blood to ice.
Colt gazed down at me and let out a cold chuckle. “Hello there, Mercy. You didn’t really think the Nobles would ever respect a cunt like you, did you? We’ve struck a very generous deal, and they’ve called me in to take out the trash.”