Chapter 12
Oh my god. Oh god. No. Ryker.
They hit us on purpose.
Where is Ryker’s phone? I can’t remember where mine is.
“Help! Help! We need help.” I scream.
My fingers are numb. Not moving correctly. Even the muscles in my neck are weak.
Slumping forward, I blink the smoke out of my eyes.
Think, Jade! Stay awake.
But the light fades. My body becoming useless. The crash scene turning into a distorted dream.
I’m jolted back by a loud smash against my window.
Stunned, paralyzed, I watch as the window is knocked out, safety glass warping. The flimsy barrier being pulled back. An arm reaches inside to unlock the door.
I try to lean away, but he fists my hair, yanking my head back making a silent scream form in my open mouth.
A man leans in, gas mask protecting him from the poisonous smoke.
“There you are,” he mumbles through the shield. Dark colorless eyes quickly inspect me. “You’re worth a lot of money.”
His muffled voice grips me with terror causing saliva to pool in my mouth and a wild pitch in my stomach. Sick awareness rolls through my limp body. Ryker’s going to die because of me.
He shakes me once, chuckling as I slump to the side. “Time to collect my paycheck.”
My heart breaks open, whimpers leaving me with every breath. I need to fight. I need to call for help.
Ryker’s collapsed body is folded forward, blood running down his face.
I can’t even move to help him.
They crashed into his side on purpose. This is because of me. They want me.
“Out you go,” the monster growls, and I’m flying backwards out the passenger door that I didn’t even realize he opened.
It’s nothing to his massive bulk. His hands bite under my arms as my legs drag limply through broken glass and gravel before bumping across the edge of the asphalt.
Ryker. I try to yell for him. But broken sounds come out, my lungs laboring to produce wind.
“Clock’s ticking, we need to go, help me load her up.” The gas-mask guy grunts as he drags me across the double yellow line.
Red lights from the rear of our SUV blur, growing more distant. Shadowy figures moving around the wreckage.
These aren’t police. Definitely not medics.
“Hard to believe someone so plain is worth so much.” Another voice says as I’m dragged along the side of a white van.
Headlights are everywhere. There must be four vehicles now. The lights bounce off the smoke and the trees, made worse by my blurry vision.
“She won’t be down long, the gas will wear off,” my kidnapper tells the other man.
A hinge squeaks as boots crunch gravel. I’m heaved into the air. Momentarily weightless before the bone jarring impact.
“Ah!” I gasp. Another hit to the face. This time the bare metal floor.
All I hold onto is what the man said—the gas is going to fade. So I focus on breathing, getting it out of my system. Tasting dust tinged with the smell of oil. Dirty, but not a drug.
Move, Jade. I coax my muscles. Trying to reconnect networks. This might be my only chance.
With all my might, I slip my hand up next to my face. Lord, my fingers are weak. Blinking, I clear angry tears, and focus on my hand.
If I can move my hand now, I’ll soon be able to move other things.
Resting, I slow my breath and focus on listening. But my ears still ring a little from the crash.
The van dips, startling me.
Don’t move. Let them think you’re still paralyzed.
“Dose her up. If you don’t want to do it, give me that fucking needle.”
They shift behind me, the shadow moving over my face. Then there’s a man standing over me, hunched in the van as he lowers something toward my arm.
This is it.
I pray with everything I have and kick him. Connecting my heel to his balls.
The needle clangs on the floor.
“You fucking cunt,” he hisses, doubled over.
“What about him?” A voice from outside.
The man I kicked is wheezing. “Second vehicle. Vesuvius wants them both.”
Even though I’m about to pay hell for kicking the man, I hold onto the fact that Ryker is alive.
I roll to my back right as he lunges for the needle. Somehow I knock it away.
Eyes seemingly red with fury, his hand flies out, pinning me by my throat. “If you so much as move, I’ll break your face. Do you hear me?”
I glare at him, breath hissing out of me as he applies more pressure to my airway.
“Who did this? Who wants me?”
He snags the needle, leaning closer. “Wouldn’t you like to know… too bad, cargo gets treated like livestock.”
“Let the man go, he’s not important,” I choke out.
With a horrific laugh, he stabs the needle into my shoulder.
The sting is shockingly painful. I buck under his hold, but the medicine kicks in fast. Not the same as the gas. More brain than body this time.
“I’m going to enjoy watching this show,” he mutters, standing as much as he can inside the van, his shadow swaying over me.
I can feel the floor, my throat where he had gripped it, the bruise on my face throbbing, but I can’t hold onto a single thought long enough to finish it.
Ryker’s face surfaces and dissolves before I can grab it. I try to count the men in the van and lose my focus.
Were there two?
Looks like two. Sounds like four.
The man said something about a show.
Ryker told me…
What did he say?
“She out?”
“Not yet,” is the muttered reply.
Another guy climbs in, rocking the van, but I’m fading in and out.
“Flip her over and bind her legs and feet. She’s a kicker.”
Someone laughs. “She get you?”
“Fuck. Right in the nuts.”
Too bad it wasn’t his brain.
They flip me over. My body is useless and my mind isn’t much better.
A few sensations filter through the fog. The borrowed sweatshirt riding up to expose my stomach to the cold metal floor. The sound of breathing above me.
Zip-ties are jerked into place. Hands and feet both bound brutally tight behind my back.
Ouch! Ow. Ow. Pain from the sharp plastic grounds me for a few seconds.
Stay with it, Jade. I need to listen. To try to gather any information I can.
“Just got a call. Shit.” One of the men jumps out of the van, jolting the floor. “Police are on the way.”
The door slams shut, sealing me in the dark as the engine rumbles through the van’s frame.
Come on. Please let the police get here before they get away.
Ple—
My mind grays out.
Please. My lips move in a silent please. I think they move.
No don’t go to sleep!
Cops. Coming.
Co…ps.
The dark swallows me whole.