Over and over.
Nothing seems to help. My heart beats erratically in my chest like it’s trapped in a cage a size too small.
Now the tears start to come.
I realize how fucked this situation is, but I don’t have the mental clarity to figure out a solution. I’m just fucked, and it’s only a matter of time before I find out exactly how fucked I am.
Just when I don’t think things can get any worse, I see three black SUVs coming over the horizon in my rear-view mirror. It looks like they could be cops, and after all of the insane driving stunts I’ve pulled in such a short time, I wouldn’t have any kind of defense at all.
Maybe jail would be better than the estate. At least that way, I’d know who I really am.
I panic internally as the SUVs begin to surround me. They start as three, then five, then seven. At this point, I stop counting.
As if the situation couldn’t seem any bleaker, I recognize the lack of sirens and police lights as a warning that these people are likely far worse than the police.
It’s Adas’s men.
Somehow, he’s found me all the way out here. I thought I really had a chance to break away, but I’m apparently the most unlucky person on the face of the fucking planet.
The SUVs park all around me, blocking me in as I stare into a concrete divider.
I can’t believe I didn’t think to bring any kind of weapons with me. In a split-second moment of panic, I check the console and the glovebox for a gun of some kind, finding a pistol with no ammo and none to be found anywhere in the vicinity.
Before I even have time to get upset about the missed opportunity, I hear the driver’s side door fly open, and a large man in all black grabs me, tossing me to the ground and cuffing my wrists together.
All I can do now is cry. I’ve been caught, Adas is going to be absolutely furious with me, and I’ll have to figure out a way to tell him about the baby without angering him even further.
“Get the fuck up. It’s over for you,” the man barks as he lifts me from the wet gravel with one arm.
I look up and see Gregory driving one of the SUVs, and he glances over and smiles wickedly at me just before the larger man shoves me into the back seat. He chains me to the headrest, which has been glued down into the seat to prevent escape.
Have they done this before?
The possibilities of all the torture and fear perpetuated in this SUV begins to haunt me, and all I can do is sob and wail uncontrollably as the fleet of Adas’s goons flies out of the parking lot as if they were never there.
Adas is a very dangerous person.
The only act of defiance that I can force from myself is to scream at the top of my lungs for the entire drive back, but Gregory turns up the music all the way to the highest level, drowning me out and causing a horrific dissonance between my voice and the music being played.
I am completely alone, and now my fate lies with the one person I should have never crossed.
29
RIVER
Erik meets Gregory at the SUV to maintain control over me, gripping my upper arm with force as they both work against me to have me unchained.
“Put me the fuck down, you goddamn monsters!” I spit, feeling a feral rage overtaking me. If I’m going to be treated like a wild animal, I’m going to fucking act like one. No way around it.
I slam my head into Erik’s chest, knocking him back momentarily before he grabs me by my hair and looks me dead in the eyes.
“Listen, you fucking bitch, I have no idea what the fuck you’re actually doing here, but I know Adas a hell of a lot better than you do, and he’ll have your head on a spike if you try to cross me,” he growls, his face inches from mine.
I spit right between his eyes as a final act of silent defiance before I’m dragged across the driveway to the front door.
All of my screaming and fighting has taken what little energy I already had after getting back from Mexico. I want to fight back, to be as relentless and brutal as they are, but I just don’t have it in me. My body is still healing, and it won’t let me fight until I’ve allowed it to rest.
Erik and Gregory pick me up by my arms and carry me up the stairs to Adas’s office, lacking the patience to even wait for the fucking elevator.