Chapter Twenty-Three #2
Willow spotted Lily sitting on the pavement nearby and lunged toward her, but someone caught the back of her shirt. She twisted free, only to have another man grab her arm. She struck him, tried to move again, and felt a third man wrap both arms around her waist.
There were too many of them. Nova had never pretended a few weeks of training could turn Willow into someone capable of defeating three grown men. She had taught her to survive long enough to find an opening, but every time Willow created one, another man closed it.
Still, she refused to make it easy for them. She kicked, twisted, scratched, and used everything she had learned until one man finally caught her legs while another forced her upper body toward the pavement.
Willow screamed Mia’s name again as the side of her face hit the asphalt.
She could see Lily. One of the men had picked her up, and her daughter was sobbing while reaching toward Willow.
“Momma!”
“Don’t touch her!” Willow screamed as she fought against the men holding her. “Get your fucking hands off my daughter!”
“Hold her still!”
“I’m trying!”
Some distant part of Willow almost wanted to laugh at that.
It was taking three of them. Three grown men were struggling to control her when, once upon a time, one man coming up behind her had been enough to steal her entire life.
The thought gave Willow another surge of strength. She ripped one arm free and drove her elbow backward, connecting with someone’s face. The man cursed, and Willow managed to get one knee beneath herself before something sharp pierced her upper arm.
She knew immediately what it was. The terror that swept through her was worse than anything she had felt since seeing Liu beside her SUV.
“No!”
Willow twisted violently, trying to see who had injected her.
“What did you give me?”
Nobody answered.
She tried to push herself onto her knees, but her arms were already becoming heavy.
“No. No, please.”
She hated the fear she heard in her own voice, but she wasn’t afraid of what they were going to do to her. She was terrified for Lily.
Willow clawed at the pavement, trying desperately to reach her daughter even as the strength began draining from her muscles. The men holding her slowly eased some of their weight away as the drug did what they hadn’t been able to accomplish on their own.
“Lily.”
“Momma!”
“I’m here, baby.”
Her vision began to blur. She couldn’t pass out.
Someone inside the rescue center had surely heard her scream.
There were cameras, and people knew where she was.
Willow tried to reach for Lily again, but her arm barely moved.
Then a pair of polished black shoes entered her fading line of vision.
The tiny bit of strength she had left disappeared beneath a fear so deep it seemed to reach all the way into her soul.
She didn’t need to look up. She already knew. She knew who those designer dress shoes belonged to. After all, she had been forced to kneel at his feet more times than she could count.
Still, Willow forced her heavy eyes upward until the man who had haunted her nightmares for months came into focus.
What she saw made her blood run cold. Those dark eyes bore into her. They were full of promise—promise that he was going to make her pay.
He crouched beside her and studied her face for several seconds, almost as though he were savoring the moment. Then his mouth curved into a smile that made Willow’s stomach turn.
“I told you from the beginning that you could never escape me.”
When he reached toward her, Willow tried to pull away, but her body no longer obeyed. His fingers brushed several strands of hair from her face, and the familiar touch made nausea rise in her throat.
“Don’t touch me.” The words came out slurred.
Chen’s smile widened. “You made this much more difficult than it needed to be.”
Willow ignored him and searched desperately for Lily. Her daughter was several feet away in one of the men’s arms, crying so hard she could barely catch her breath while Ellie remained crushed against her little chest.
“Don’t hurt her,” Willow managed. “Please. She’s just a baby.”
His eyes moved toward Lily before returning to Willow.
“Still begging for the child.”
“She didn’t do anything.”
“No. You did.”
Willow’s eyes burned as darkness began creeping around the edges of her vision. She fought against it because she needed to stay conscious, needed to remember where they were taking her, but she could already feel herself slipping.
Then she remembered Nova’s words from less than an hour earlier.
Ending up on the ground didn’t mean the fight was over.
Neither did getting captured. Willow had escaped Chen once, and if she had to do it again, she would. She would fight him every step of the way because Lily deserved better than the life Chen had trapped them in, and Willow had finally gotten a taste of what their future could be.
She had a real home, friends, a job she loved. Lily had friends. She thought about Jay Bird standing in the kitchen pretending he wasn’t completely wrapped around a two-year-old’s finger.
Jay Bird. His face filled her fading thoughts, and Willow remembered the message he’d sent only minutes ago.
Proud of you.
She looked up at Chen. “He’ll find me.”
Something shifted in Chen’s expression. It was quick, but Willow saw it. He knew exactly who she meant.
“Your SEAL?” he asked quietly.
Willow couldn’t make her mouth work well enough to answer, but she didn’t need to.
Chen leaned closer, his expression filling the last clear part of her vision. “Let him try.”
Willow’s eyes finally closed as the drug dragged her into darkness, but even then, she refused to give Chen the final word.
Because Jay Bird would come for them, she knew that with every piece of her heart.
But this time Willow wasn’t going to sit quietly and wait for someone else to rescue her.
She had escaped Chen once before. And the moment he gave her another opportunity, she intended to make damn sure he regretted ever taking her again.