Chapter 12
Iwas jolted awake by not just my body colliding with the seat in front of me, but the undeniable bump from another vehicle.
At first, I wondered if I had been dreaming until I heard raised voices around me.
I tried to quickly wake from my slumber, but my eyes felt heavy and I could barely hold them open.
“W-what’s going on?” I asked Zarren, who had his hand on my leg as he barked out orders to his men, but my head was so foggy I couldn’t quite make them out.
His hand tightened down on my knee in what I assumed he meant to be a comforting gesture, but it only made me worry more. Pulling away from him, I forced my lids to fully open, and I kept them that way as the pitch-black around us came into sight.
Another hard jolt was felt, and I looked behind me out the back window to see a vehicle gaining speed on us again. Each time it got close to us, our vehicle would shoot forward, but I knew it would just be a matter of time before...
Who is it? And why are they messing with us?
“We’re almost out of gas, Boss. What do we do?” I heard Liam say from the driver’s seat.
“They want to dance, let’s get ready to tango,” Zarren told him.
If I had never thought Zarren was deranged before, the shit-eating grin he had on his face would’ve convinced me for sure. Here we had someone trying to run us off the road, and he was ready to just stop and what? Fight? Talk to them? When I saw the gun in his hand, I nearly stopped breathing.
“What is that for?” I whispered to him as I pointed at the weapon.
“That’s of no concern to you. I need you to promise that you’ll stay in this fucking vehicle and not move a goddamn inch. Do you understand me, Aurora?”
His voice didn’t hold the same condescending amusement I had come to expect from him in the short time I’d known him. His voice was clipped, and it held an edge of lethalness that made a full body shiver wrack me. From the top of my head to the tip of my toes.
I opened my mouth to assure him I would, but no words came out when I tried. Not sure how much he could see, I nodded profusely, and his grip on my knee loosened a little.
“Whatever happens, you stay inside.”
“Who is it?”
“I don’t know, but I’m about to find out. You just stay put.”
“I will,” I promised, this time able to find my voice. Our vehicle came to a jarring stop, and the one behind nearly ran into us, but swerved to the side at the last moment. I had thrust my hands out in front of me to brace for impact, but thankfully, there was no collision.
Zarren’s door opened and shut quickly, followed by Liam’s and Conor’s doors. I almost thought about crawling up front and locking them, but I didn’t in case they needed to get back inside quickly.
Zarren had told me that he was in the mafia, but it hadn’t truly registered in my head until this moment. While tense, they acted like this was a normal occurrence, and I suppose in their world, it was.
It almost felt like something in the movies.
While I would be at the theater and my heart might skip a beat during the tense standoffs, it had nothing on the nonstop racing of it now.
It had quickened to such a high rate that I couldn’t hear anything out of its roar in my ears.
Unrelenting... Unyielding... Constant...
I brought my hands to my head, intending to cover my ears, when a distinctive and ear-splitting sound pierced the air as my blood-curdling scream split the darkness.
Seconds later, my door was thrust open. Sure it was Zarren, I opened my mouth to scream again when a masked stranger covered my nose and mouth with his gloved hand, then effortlessly pulled me from the vehicle.
Whoever this was had at least four or five inches in height and about fifty more pounds than me, most of which seemed to be muscle. I struggled, however, especially when I saw Zarren pointing his gun at the other guy standing over what looked to be Conor as he writhed on the ground in pain.
I knew in that moment that the one who’d been shot had been the right-hand man of Zarren’s, who actually seemed to tolerate my presence. He’d been the most understanding of my plight, and he’d constantly tried to make things less scary for me.
Tears sprang to my eyes, especially because I knew it would also devastate Zarren if he didn’t survive. He was extremely close with both Conor and Liam. A sob escaped me, and when Zarren turned in my direction, his facial expression changed instantly.
I struggled to break free from the hold on me, and Zarren’s eyes conveyed for me to be still. It was easier said than done, especially when the man holding me hostage started to back away with me still in his arms.
My hands were trembling uncontrollably, and despite the winter air, I could feel the beads of sweat on my forehead. My heart rate quickened even more from what it had been back in the vehicle, and I tried to calm myself so I didn’t have a panic attack.
Another gunshot pierced the air, and I tried to scream, but the hand over my mouth muffled most of it. I tried to stand firm, but the man was much too powerful for me, and he began to drag me toward his vehicle.
“Abbiamo la piccola troia,” the one man currently treating me as a ragdoll said to the other man holding a vehicle door open.
“Don Barganella owes us extra for this bitch,” he replied.
I knew then that the other man had called me a little slut. I wasn’t very fluent in Italian, but one of my favorite doctors at the hospital spent several years in Rome, so I’d picked up a few things from her during our time together.
Another flurry of gunfire erupted, and this time, the man holding the door open fell face-first onto the ground, nearly falling on top of my foot. Blood quickly soaked the ground around my feet, and I could feel how thick it was as it coated the bottom of my sneakers.
A second vehicle arrived, and three men joined the others who had ambushed us. Ahead of me, I could see Conor on the ground with Liam tending to him while Zarren was approaching us with his weapon drawn.
My newest captor’s breath reeked of stale cigarette smoke and garlic as if he’d just finished eating before trying to kidnap me as his post-meal entertainment.
I couldn’t stay still any longer, and using the self-defense moves I’d learned in high school from an instructor at my parents’ country club, I reared my arm back and elbowed the asshole.
He growled in my ear and his grip tightened instead of loosening. The cold exterior of the vehicle sent a fresh wave of adrenaline rushing through me. Grabbing onto the sides of the frame, I started to kick wildly at my captor as I refused to let him stuff me inside.
I might’ve been stupid once and gotten willingly inside of a car, but I wouldn’t make that mistake again. I kicked him again, and this time the man did release me moments before his blood sprayed onto me.
This time, I did scream, especially as he crumpled into a heap at my feet.
I looked over at Zarren, who walked over to me and pulled me to his side.
Two men approached us and Liam said something, but I couldn’t hear what it was.
Zarren turned suddenly and pushed me behind him.
I nearly fell but was able to maintain my balance as Zarren put himself between me and danger.
Before he could even try to defend himself, an anguished growl pierced the air.
I watched as Zarren staggered backward and collapsed just as Liam emptied his clip into the two men. Then, there was nearly silence other than the groans coming from both Conor and now Zarren. Liam watched Zarren try to stand and quickly swatted his boss’s hand as if to tell him to stay put.
I was frozen in place for several more seconds until the slight crack of a branch made me look to my left. It was then that I noticed the woods. I had no idea how dense they were, or even where they led. I only knew that while Zarren and his men were preoccupied, I could disappear into them.
The thought about taking one of the vehicles also crossed my mind, but I knew Zarren’s was nearly out of gas, so I wouldn’t get far in it.
Dashing into the other one, the keys were nowhere to be found.
I didn’t have time to check the dead bodies lying in the street for them, so I looked back over at the woods.
I’d always been very outdoorsy as a child. I loved camping, hiking, and all the things most girly girls did not. I’d always been very athletic until my autoimmune issues caused me to develop flare-ups of joint pain, which cut short my playing days. Surely, I could last long enough to get help.
I took a few steps toward the wooded area, but stopped at the sound of Zarren’s pained grunt.
Liam was beside himself as he alternated between the two men.
I shouldn’t have stopped, but as I saw the two men lying there, and Zarren in a rapidly expanding puddle of blood, I couldn’t make my feet move.
“Zarren and Conor are down,” I heard Liam say to whoever he now had on the other end of his cell phone. “C will be okay, but I’m worried about the bossman. He’s been shot, and he’s lost a lot of blood.”
The man might’ve been a kidnapper, and the bane of my recent existence, but he’d saved my life.
There was no telling what those men, or even my own father, would’ve done with me, but I knew the end result would’ve been the same.
I’d still be betrothed to fucking Mikhail Bocharov, but to my father’s benefit versus the man who’d just saved my life.
“The girl is right.... Hey,” Liam called out to me. “Get your ass in the car.”
“Zarren’s sacrifice won’t be in vain. Get the girl, and continue on to New York City.”
“What about Z?” he asked.
It was then that I remembered Zarren. Choosing not to seek freedom, I rushed over to the wounded man and knelt down beside him. The wound was bleeding heavily, and I was thankful that I didn’t get squeamish around blood. I looked at him as he stared up at me with weary eyes.
“Leave him. I’ll call an ambulance to have him brought to the hosp—”
“He can’t wait,” I said aloud, and Liam looked at me while the man on the other end paused.