Bonus Scene
SABLE
The smile fell from my face when I saw a man step into the restroom. He wasn't any of my guys. I'd spotted him outside, in the opulent holding room. He'd stood in a corner, but still in the presence of the elite assholes.
He wasn't one of them though. He looked like a bodyguard. Or a hired thug. Or one of the Men in Black, but he didn't seem to be holding a memory erasing device.
"Excuse me." I tried to step past him, but he didn't move. He stood in front of me, arms by his sides, doing an admirable impression of a brick wall. Including his expression, which didn't change as he regarded me.
That was something to be thankful for, I supposed. If I was going to be cornered in the restroom, I didn't want it to be by someone who planned to assault me. Although whatever this was? It didn't look good. Should I scream now or try to get the door open first?
"You can go out that way." He gestured toward the window.
I looked back over my shoulder, only taking my eyes off him for a moment.
"I don't think so. I prefer to go through doors." I smiled, but for some reason he didn't seem impressed. Tough crowd.
"If I don't step out of here shortly, people are going to look for me," I pointed out. Should I say that? Guys like this didn't usually like to be cornered. It might make him do something I'd regret.
"Better hurry then." He took a few steps forward, crowding me back toward the window.
"It's probably locked," I said quickly.
He reached past me and pushed it open, his massive arm brushing past my shoulder, polyester fabric and all.
"Well, how about that?" I gave a nervous laugh. "I still prefer the door."
"Hurry the fuck up." A voice snapped from outside.
Also male. Also in a dark suit and with an unimpressed expression on his face.
Either it was contagious or they were together, along with the other two guys that stood to either side of a dark sedan in the delivery area. They looked like an FBI reunion.
"You heard him." The first thug said, "You can climb out the window or I'll push you out." One hand went to his hip, revealing a gun.
"You don't want to go doing that," I told him "I might fall and hurt myself.
" I wouldn't. We were on the ground floor of the building.
Falling out the window would be like tripping.
Which isn't to say I wouldn't hurt myself but it wasn't like we were on a rooftop.
No, then there'd be thugs surrounding a helicopter, wouldn't there?
Either way, I'd stall for as long as I could. The guys must have noticed I was missing by now, right? One of them would step into the restroom at any moment, ready to start throwing hands. Attached or otherwise.
"I will if you don't hurry up," the thug growled. He crowded me in a little further until my hip was pressed against the open window.
"Okay, okay. Keep your panties on." One increasingly sweaty hand on the side of the window, I sat down on the wide sill and swung my legs over.
If I landed just right, I could run…
I'd barely finished that thought when the other thugs swarmed in around me, herding me toward the car.
There goes plan A. Time to start on plan B: continuing to stall for as long as I could. Technically, that was plan A, since I'd been doing that from the moment he stepped into the restroom, but whatever. I had more important things to worry about right now than the order of my plans.
"My mother said never to get into the car with strangers," I said. My mother never told me that, but I'd seen it on TV a time or two, and on social media. This was no van full of books or coffee. These were dangerous men, each twice my size, no doubt all armed.
"We weren't asking," one of the thugs said. He opened the back door of the car and put a hand on my shoulder, giving me a shove.
I flinched. Waited for a slap, or an insult that didn't come.
"Don't hurt her," another one of them warned. "The boss will get pissed off."
"Good advice," I said under my breath. If whoever was behind this was pissed off, they might take it out on me. Who was it anyway?
A shiver went through me, along with a sick churn in my stomach. I had a feeling I wasn't going to like it when I found out. Unless this was some kind of prank? No, I doubted it. These guys seemed serious as fuck. They'd kill me if they were told to.
I'd have to do everything I could to make sure they weren't told to.
I hurried to pull my legs in in front of me, and sit in the centre of the seat. I ventured a glance back toward the window. If the guys knew I was missing, they weren't there, ready to leap to help me.
No, I was alone, trapped between two burly bodies, both sitting too close. I sat with my hands in my lap while the one of the thugs got into the driver's seat and pulled out onto the road.
"I don't suppose anyone wants to explain what's going on?" I asked. As expected, I got no answer. Not even a sidelong look. Rude.
I sank back against the seat and watched the city go by, waiting for a chance to get away from these men. Hoping like hell I could.