Chapter 18 - Nikki #2
This is it, she thought. They’re going to take me back to Lucas, and there’s nothing I’m going to be able to do.
Her eyes narrowed, and her fingers curled into a fist. No. She wasn’t going to think like that, not this time. She was going to keep fighting. She wasn’t going to freeze or give up. She just needed to figure out how to get out of the room without being noticed.
She considered locking the door, but she decided against it. That would only confirm that she was in here, and it would make it easier for them to find her. No, she had to let them search the room. They just couldn’t find her while they did.
Her eyes snagged on the window, and she gasped. Of course. She dashed across the room and fumbled with the latch. Shoving the window open, she peered down. It was only one story up, but the jump looked daunting. Still, it was either that or risk getting caught.
Just as she was about to clamber over the sill, she caught sight of someone moving below the window.
It took her only a second to recognize Rick, one of the shifters who had antagonized her and Amber earlier.
It didn’t surprise her that he would be working for Lucas.
The problem was that she couldn’t jump from the window and get away fast enough, not with him right below her window, and she couldn’t wait for him to move.
She heard floorboards creak in the hallway and realized she was out of time. She didn’t have any other options. She left the window open and dashed toward the door. She stepped silently next to it so that the door would block her from view when it opened. She waited.
The door opened. She didn’t breathe, praying that, if they did catch her scent, they’d assume it was because she slept in here, not because she was hiding behind the door. Her hands trembled, and she had to force herself not to scream.
A long moment seemed to stretch for an eternity.
The person on the other side of the door stepped further in.
She could hear their footsteps moving slowly deeper into the room.
She heard them pause, then head toward what she assumed was the window.
She swallowed, willing her hands to stop trembling. They didn’t listen.
Time stretched agonizingly long.
Leave, leave, leave, she pleaded.
They turned and walked back out, keeping the door open.
She let herself relax. She was in the clear. All she had to do now was wait here until they left.
Just as her shoulders began to sag, the door flung back, and she came face-to-face with Vincent.
“Nikki,” he said cheerfully, like they were friends reuniting after a couple of weeks apart. “Good to see you.”
Words wouldn’t come. She froze, paralyzed. When she was able to finally move again, she tried to shuffle around him. He moved with her, toying with her. A smirk played on his face. He glanced behind him at the bed, at the open suitcase.
“Thinking of leaving?” he asked in that horrifying, unsettling conversational tone. “We can help you with that, you know.”
“Don’t do this, Vincent,” she said, her voice flat.
“Sorry,” he said with no real regret, that unnerving smile still plastered across his face. “But I’ve got my orders. I’m sure you understand.”
He reached out and grabbed for her wrist.
Her arm lashed out, nails raking across his cheek. He yowled, reeling back, his hand clasping his face.
Not giving herself any time to react or celebrate, she sprinted around him, barely dodging his grasping hand when she darted past. She whipped around the door and out into the hall, not entirely sure what her plan was with the house swarming with Lucas’s cronies, but she couldn’t stand there, either.
“She’s up here!” Vincent shouted from the bedroom.
She barely heard him, too busy trying to make a break for it.
She raced down the stairs, clearing two at a time.
Just as she reached the foot, one of the other intruders, another ex-pack member she vaguely remembered seeing around town before, appeared at her side.
She dipped around him, once again barely avoiding his lunge.
Another person—Alek, from the group that had heckled her—stood in front of the front door, blocking her easiest exit.
She sprinted toward the kitchen, rushing toward the back door.
If she could open it, she could scream, and someone would hear her.
She sprinted in the opposite direction of Alek into the kitchen.
She could see the door. It was unguarded. She made that final dash, fully aware of the thunder of footsteps chasing after her. She only had a little bit of time.
Mercifully, she reached the door and grasped the handle, aware of the pounding footsteps growing closer and closer every moment.
She fumbled with the lock. Just as she was about to open the door, someone grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her back.
She let out a scream, and someone covered her mouth, muffling the sound.
She struggled, prying at the large hand smothering her shouts to no avail.
The man pulled her roughly against his chest, pinning her in place.
Her foot slammed down on the man’s foot. He grunted, and the hand around her mouth loosened. She wrenched her head away and bit down on the man’s arm. With a yelp, he released her.
She sprinted for the kitchen door once more, only to be yanked back again.
One arm snaked around her stomach, pinning her arms to her side.
Her head lashed toward the man’s bicep, preparing to bite him again.
A hand clamped over her mouth once again, harder this time, not relinquishing when she tried to kick out once more.
She writhed in the man’s grip, but she already knew it was too late.
Vincent and the other man hurried into the kitchen, slowing when they saw her already pinned.
Vincent took in the sight and laughed. It was a jovial laugh, sickening in how friendly it sounded.
“You almost got away, you know that?” he said. He had long scratches scored along his cheek. “Who would have thought you’d have that sort of fight in you?”
She narrowed her eyes and struggled against her captor, trying to break free.
But even if she did get free, what would she do?
There were three other shifters who would grab her the second she tried to make a break for it.
She might have had a chance against one. She didn’t have a chance against four.
Vincent ran his fingers against the scratches, pulling them away and examining the faint traces of blood on his fingertips with interest. He made a sound that might have been impressed or amused. He glanced back at her.
“You gave us more of a headache than we would have thought, I’ll give you that much.
But it’s over. Now, if you stop fighting and come with us quietly, we can all leave now and be on our way,” Vincent said.
“But if you want to keep fighting, then we can stay here for a while, wait for your husband to come home. It’s four-on-one.
Do you think that you’ll be able to warn Jasper before we slit his throat?
She understood what he was saying: come quietly, and they would leave Jasper alone. If she kept fighting, they would kill him in front of her.
Trying to fight now was pointless. She knew that. But that didn’t mean she was entirely helpless. She had other avenues, alternatives she could pursue. Except it would have to wait. She needed to bide her time now, even if she wanted to keep fighting.
Glaring, the fight not leaving her but changing from impulsive to something more rational, she stopped struggling. Her arms fell to her sides, going limp, the struggle slipping out of her. She glowered at Jasper, her mouth still covered.
“Are you going to scream if Alek lets go of your mouth?” he asked.
Promising herself it wasn’t the end, that she would find a way out of this mess, she shook her head.
Vincent nodded. “Atta girl,” he said. “Figured you would see sense.”
He nodded to the person holding onto her, and Alek uncovered her mouth. When she stayed silent, they spun her around, put her hands behind her back, and began binding her hands tightly together. Once they were sure she wasn’t going to make a break for it, they thrust her out of the back door.
***
They shoved her into an idling car, wedging her between Vincent and Rick in the back. The other two shifters took up so much room that she couldn’t move. She didn’t say anything as they peeled down the road.
The drive seemed to be taking them up into the wooded mountains far from the outskirts of town.
Silently, she kept track of the twists and turns, following their path out of town and committing it to memory.
The shifters must not have thought she would bother, because none of them noticed just how intently she was staring at the road.
Eventually, they twisted onto a small dirt road, barely visible from the road unless you knew it was there.
Her hope began to dim the deeper they got in the woods.
The road would be tricky to follow, but doable.
The problem was how far into the woods it was.
She would be on foot, and if they found out she escaped, it would be easy enough for them to chase her down in wolf form.
Despair began to sink in, but she shoved it down.
She could get out of this, but she couldn’t give in to that hopelessness. The second she did, it was over.
They pulled up in front of an old log cabin, one that looked as though a strong breeze could blow it over. A sagging roof hung over ancient rough wood. A light peered out of a filmy, cracked window. A generator whirred and groaned off to one side of the house.
The men hauled her out of the car. She stumbled and would have fallen had one of her captors not grasped her shoulder. The wrenched her upright again and dragged her toward the cabin.