Chapter 15 #2
Hearing his given name made Lefty flinch.
The only person who called him Gage was his mom…
and Kinley. “Later,” he said and clicked off the phone.
He appreciated Cruz’s attempt at giving him hope, but it was very hard at the moment to believe a professional hitman would somehow make a mistake.
It was likely Kinley had already been dead for hours.
“I’ve texted Doc and he’s calling the others,” Trigger said. “We’ll head out and search for her.”
“Where?” Lefty asked in agitation. “She could be anywhere by now. It’s been hours since she was taken.
You know as well as I do that the Hill Country around Austin is incredibly vast. He’s probably already dumped her body somewhere.
Not to mention, he probably didn’t even go south, since that’s what he said he was going to do.
He’s probably on a plane headed back to DC by now. Fuck!”
Without thought, Lefty turned and threw his phone as hard as he could.
It flew across the room and smashed into a hundred pieces when it hit the wall.
He heard Gillian shriek, but he couldn’t get the picture out of his head of a broken and bleeding Kinley lying helplessly in the dirt somewhere.
Dying or dead. And he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
For once, Trigger didn’t have anything to say. He was always the one who was giving pep talks to the team and telling them to hang on, that everything would be all right. But Lefty didn’t think this time things would be all right.
“Well, we aren’t going to just sit around here and wait,” Trigger finally decided.
Lefty took a deep breath and nodded. He tried to pull himself together. Kinley needed him, and he’d be damned if he let her down now.
Kinley had no idea what time it was. All she knew was that she’d been in the trunk of Simon’s car for what seemed like forever. She was pretty sure he was lost, which would’ve been funny if she wasn’t so scared and if she didn’t hurt so badly.
It turned out, Simon liked to choke her until she passed out, then let go and let her regain consciousness.
He’d done it at least three times, and every time she’d thought that was it.
That she was dead. But she’d realized the last time he’d strangled her that as soon as she stopped fighting him and went limp, he let her go.
She figured maybe she could use that against him later. If she had a later, that was.
She literally had no way of fighting him.
The last time she’d regained consciousness, she realized Simon had duct-taped her hands together in front of her, then he’d wound tape around her torso and legs.
She was basically a mummy; she couldn’t move her arms to protect her face and throat and couldn’t kick him now either.
He’d picked her up without too much difficulty and dropped her in the trunk of his car, laughing when she turned her head and puked because the motion hurt her ribs so much. Both her eyes were swollen so badly, she could only see through slits, but somehow she was still alive.
As she rolled around in the trunk, listening to Simon swear and do a bunch of U-turns, she thought back to something Gillian had told her once.
She’d said that people generally had no idea how strong they could be until they had no choice.
Kinley had never felt strong. She’d lived a hellish life and had somehow muddled through, but had never thought of herself as particularly strong.
Lying there, she realized that if she was going to live through this, she had to be strong.
Simon hadn’t simply shot her, like most executioners would’ve.
No, he’d decided to inflict as much pain on her as he could.
And he’d done a hell of a job. She hurt.
Bad. But the thought of how Gage would feel when he realized she and Gillian had been tricked hurt even more.
Kinley decided that she’d do whatever she had to in order to survive.
She’d watched true crime shows and read books.
Some victims played dead and others fought back.
Well, fighting back was out of the question.
She’d tried and failed at that. Her only other option was to make Simon think he’d succeeded at killing her.
Of course, that might not work, and there was a high probability that she’d never see the light of day again, especially if he just shot her in the head.
Kinley also knew she was on her own. She knew Lefty and his friends would do their damnedest to find her…
but they’d fail. Hell, Simon obviously had no idea where he was, how could Lefty find her?
And judging by the twists and turns of the roads they were on, Kinley suspected they weren’t in the Killeen area anymore.
Her best estimate was probably somewhere in the hills around Austin.
Her stomach rolled with every dip the vehicle made, and she was definitely carsick, something that only happened when she was in the mountains.
Kinley wanted Simon to both stop and keep going at the same time.
Her breaths came out in short pants because it hurt to breathe deeply and every movement of her body rolling around the trunk was excruciating.
But she knew when he stopped, her nightmare was going to continue.
Simon had definitely broken some bones, and she’d never forget the look of excitement on his face as he hovered over her with his hands around her neck.
It could’ve been ten minutes or an hour later when she heard Simon swear again, and the car finally began to slow.
Doing her best to brace herself, Kinley still flinched when the trunk opened.
Simon stood over her. It was completely dark outside.
“Time to die,” Simon said calmly, as if he was telling her something as inane as the time.
He leaned over and grabbed hold of her shoulders, pulling her out of the trunk and letting her fall to the ground.
The movement was enough to make black spots dance in front of Kinley’s eyes.
He might as well have stabbed her in the side with a knife.
She tried to lift her head, but it hurt too much, so she turned it instead.
She saw they were in the middle of a narrow country road, and she heard what sounded like water from somewhere nearby.
But she heard no other sounds. No other cars, no birds, no sounds of civilization.
There were even weeds growing up through the asphalt, as if the road wasn’t very well traveled, which made Kinley’s stomach drop.
Simon was obviously in a hurry because he didn’t take the time to taunt her and tell her exactly what he had planned, something he’d done previously. He just bent over her legs and began wrapping something around them.
Kinley tried to kick out at him, but her attempt was weak, and Simon merely laughed at her.
When he finished whatever he was doing, he grunted in satisfaction, then straddled her chest again.
“You’ve been fun to fuck with,” he said as he wrapped his hands around her neck once more.
“But I’ve got two million bucks waiting for me, and I need to figure out where the hell I am and how to get out of here.
This wasn’t exactly what I’d planned, but I need to get this shit done while it’s dark. Any last words?”
“Karma’s a bitch,” Kinley croaked. There was more she wanted to say, but she barely had time to take a deep breath before Simon’s hands tightened.
She fought him on instinct, because she really, really didn’t want to die, but it was no use. Simon outweighed her, her hands and arms were completely immobile, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to protect herself.
Remembering what she’d thought about in the trunk, she forced herself to relax her body and go limp.
She internally panicked when he didn’t immediately remove his hands this time.
He really was going to kill her now. He wasn’t playing around anymore.
Kinley’s last thought before her world went black was how devastated Gage was going to be when someone, someday, found her bones.
Simon King drove east, away from the random fucking bridge he’d found, and called the contact number he had for Drake Stryker. It rang and rang, and eventually went to voice mail.
Swearing at how shitty his luck had been, and ready to be done with this fucking job, he left a message.
“This is King. It’s done. I’ve sent a photo for proof. If I don’t have the money we agreed on in my account in twenty-four hours, I’m comin’ for you. Don’t fuck me over, Stryker. I’m not a man you want to piss off.”
He clicked off the phone and threw it onto the seat next to him.
This job had been nothing but a pain in the ass since the beginning.
He’d had to hang around fucking Killeen, Texas, for way longer than he’d wanted.
There were too many soldiers and everyone was so damn friendly.
It made it harder to blend in, to not blow his cover.
He hadn’t wanted to approach his mark in the middle of the day, and in public, but she’d given him no other choice.
She’d been too smart. Too wary. And of course, her living with that fucking Delta Force guy hadn’t helped.
Simon smiled. But he’d shown her. It had been fun to beat on her.
He loved hearing her scream and cry. He didn’t always get the chance to play when he took out a mark.
Excitement filled him every time her body went limp under him, when his hands were around her throat.
He could’ve fucked with her for days…but he wanted his money more than he wanted to deal with her crying and pleading.