Crack. He slapped me across my face again, the force of it whipping my head to the side. My ears rang, and a fresh trickle of blood dribbled down the side of my lip. I licked it before turning to him. “Is that the best you’ve got?”
Colt shot off the bench and grabbed my hair at the roots, pulling it back. I winced but tried not to show the pain on my face, instead turning my chin up to look at him. At this man who’d slaughtered my entire family in cold blood without blinking twice.
“You’re going to tell me everything you know, bitch,” he said, his dark eyes twin orbs of fury. “If you won’t talk to me, I have a man waiting for us who’s very good at digging answers out of people. By the time he’s done with you, you’ll be begging for a chat with me.”
I gritted my teeth. My voice came out strained but steady. “Don’t you know that information you get through torture is notoriously inaccurate? I might say a lot of things just so I can get the pain to stop, but what’s the guarantee that I’m not lying? I could make up all kinds of ridiculous things. Then you’d look awfully ridiculous in front of your new master.”
Colt looked at me as if he wanted to strangle me right then and there, but a flash of doubt crossed his face. He shoved me away, releasing my hair. “Gag her again. We’ll let Billy deal with her.”
As the gropey guy shoved the gross bandana back into my mouth, my ex-fiancé sat back down on the bench. I didn’t like the look of concentration that’d come over his face as he stared at some distant point beyond the van wall. He played with his thumbs, paying no attention to me, as if I wasn’t even in the van anymore. As if he had bigger things to worry about.
Doubt began to trickle into me. It’d been my mention of disappointing his “master” that had thrown him off. I’d thought that story was all a ploy, but maybe Colt really was answering to someone else, at least as far as this kidnapping went.
I’d dismissed Wylder as the one who had put Colt up to this, but what if I’d misjudged him? Even if it’d seemed like I could believe his promise to help me, I’d been incredibly wrong before… about the man right in front of me.
And I had to consider Wylder’s father too, didn’t I? Ezra Noble had just gotten home this morning. I hadn’t even met the man yet, so it was hard to picture him hating me so much he’d throw me to the sharks, but Ezra hadn’t established himself as the most powerful criminal in the county by playing nice. Who knew what might go on in his head?
If the leader of the Nobles really did want me gone, I was so screwed.
I shook off those doubts, trying to refocus on the here and now. Nothing mattered unless I could get away from these assholes. I’d figure out the rest later.
Colt barked at the driver to put on some music. A moment later, the screech of thrash metal reverberated through the enclosed space. My ex returned his attention to me, tapping his gun against his knee, but he didn’t speak again.
The windows were tinted, so I couldn’t make out more than a blur from outside. I assumed they were taking me out of Paradise City into the Bend, where Colt’s power was based.
My mind whirled, trying to think of an escape plan. It seemed almost impossible right now. I’d have to see where they took me first.
The van finally pulled off the road with a rattle of gravel against the undercarriage. The door opened to reveal a yard of cracked concrete and stubby weeds—and a few more of Colt’s men. Two of them dragged me out.
Several feet away stood a squat one-story building with peeling paint. The yard was so large that all the neighboring buildings stood at a distance—and from their grungy state, who knew if they were even occupied? Colt had picked this place to ensure there were no witnesses. I had no idea where in the Bend we even were.
One of the men shoved at my shoulder. “Keep moving.”
They escorted me into the building. Pieces of trash and scraps of metal littered the floor. It didn’t look like a place Colt did much work out of. I’d guess he didn’t plan on keeping me here for too long.
Most likely, he planned on me being dead when we left.
The men marched me into a room at the back of the building and pushed me into the lone wooden chair in the middle of the space. The windows around me were so coated with dirt that barely any sunlight penetrated them, most of the room’s illumination coming from the flickering bulb above me.
At Colt’s gesture, his men untied my arms just long enough to bind them to the arms of the chair. “Good,” he said. “I want her hands where I can see them.”
I couldn’t help taking a little satisfaction at his wariness of me. He’d already underestimated me once. Maybe he would again, and then I’d get my opening.
Colt’s phone rang. When he saw the caller ID, he winced. Interesting. This mysterious boss of his?
He answered, and I caught the faint crackle of sound from the other end, but I couldn’t make out a single word. “I’m working on it,” Colt said. “We’ll get everything we need.”
When he’d hung up, he turned to me as if deciding what he wanted to do with me. I tested my arms, moving them slightly to check their mobility. Colt’s men had secured my bonds so tightly that my flesh was going numb.
Colt’s eyes roved over me for a second before he looked away. “She’s ready for you, Billy.”
One of the men who’d met us here stepped forward, leering at me so avidly my skin crawled. Then a jolt of recognition raced through me, turning my gut even colder.
I’d seen that face before—he was one of the guys who’d been acting as a server at the rehearsal dinner. One of the men who’d gunned down my family.
He took out a knife and turned it slowly in his hand. Anger and horror churned together inside me.
Colt gave him a sadistic smile. “You know what we want from her. Let me know when she decides to speak. I’ve got other business to attend to.”
“With pleasure, boss,” the man said.
Colt stalked out of the room with his other men trailing behind him. The door shut with an ominous thud and a click of the lock.
Billy walked around me, grinning and twirling his knife. “You and me are going to have lots of fun, darling.”