Chapter 47
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
THORA
I don’t know how long I’ve been down here, but I’m afraid I’m running out of time. One wrong move, and Drew might kill me.
He paces in front of me again, staring at his phone and muttering under his breath.
“Can you please untie my hands?” I ask, knowing if I’m free, running will be easier than first slipping out of the rope. “They’re really starting to hurt.”
He shakes his head, avoiding my eyes as he keeps pacing.
“Drew, look at me. Please.”
When he does, I find the hurt little boy inside him, the trauma and pain he must have endured. But none of that excuses what he’s doing to me.
“If you truly love me, then you’ll untie me. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“But you’ll run.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I swear I won’t. We can talk all you want, but you have to let me go before everyone starts thinking the worst. I don’t want them thinking badly about my brother.”
His nostrils flare, and a low chuckle slips out of him. “Do you think I care what a bunch of criminals think? They’ve killed so many people, and you would still choose them.”
“No, please. That’s not true. I’m not choosing them.
” I try not to make my voice shake, even though I can feel him slipping further away from me.
“I just want us to think this through. You’re back in my life, and I want us to have a relationship.
But what will that look like if you keep me tied up down here? Will I be here for days? Weeks?”
My chest constricts, panic sinking its teeth into me. This can’t be happening.
He grips his hair, his features twisting with anger. “You don’t have to worry about that. Your big brother has it all figured out. No one will come between us, Penny.”
My stomach lurches.
Please, Anton. Please find me.
I know it’s an impossibility. No one will know I’m here, but hope is the only thing I have left.
When I realize he won’t untie me, I come up with an alternate plan—or at least I hope it’s somewhat decent.
“May I have some water? I’m thirsty.”
If I’m right and his supplies are around the bend, to the left, I might be able to slip out of the rope, untie my feet, and run up the stairs before he reaches me. It’s a risk, but staying tied to this chair is worse.
He studies me, then gives a sharp nod. “Sure. Give me a minute.”
Take your damn time.
As he makes his way down the dirt path, I start to shimmy my hands out, twisting and yanking while I watch him grow smaller.
When he glances back, I freeze, my pulse pounding in my ears. I manage a smile, and he falls for it, facing forward again.
I work one wrist against the restraint, careful not to make any sudden movements. I’m almost free.
Come on, come on. Just a little more…
There. Oh God, yes.
I slip my other wrist loose, then bend down and untie my ankles just as he takes the left turn.
Fuck, I don’t have much time. I need to run.
My body trembles as I start to rise, and just as I do, I register voices above us. Men’s voices, muffled and hard to make out, but definitely there.
Adrenaline floods my veins just as Drew appears, his eyes filled with wrath.
“You bitch!” And he runs.
Oh God, no. He’s gonna kill me!
I rush for the exit, climbing the stairs as fast as my shaking legs will carry me.
“Help me!” I shout with everything I have. “Please, it’s Thora! Help! HELP! He—”
Drew reaches me just as I make it halfway up and throws me on my back, the air knocking from my lungs as his fingers close around my throat.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” He snarls, sitting on top of my chest as he starts to choke the life out of me. “We could’ve been a family. You could’ve loved me.”
He squeezes until my vision blurs, and I kick up, trying to fight him off. My foot connects with his back, and he groans, loosening his grip. Then he fists my hair until my scalp burns, smashing the back of my head against the ground again and again, until stars burst across my vision.
“Please, Charlie. P-p-please stop. I’m sorry. I’m…”
The words drift away as my vision grows wobbly, everything slipping further from me while he keeps slamming me into the dirt until I feel lighter.
As the room disappears into darkness, a woman’s face appears. Her eyes are kind, and they remind me of his.
Of Anton’s.
She takes my hand and holds it. “It’s okay, Thora. Don’t worry. You’re safe now.”
ANTON
By the time I reach the farm, Thora’s car isn’t there. But the tracker still shows her phone somewhere deeper on the property, past the barns and stalls, about a mile from the main house.
What would she be doing there? I cut the engine and start running.
I keep my eyes on the blinking dot on my phone while I cross the open land, following it until the distance closes and the signal says I should be standing right on top of her.
Except there is no Thora. There’s no fucking sign of her anywhere.
“Gde ty, detka?” Where are you, baby?
I pull the small flashlight from my keychain and sweep it over the ground, expecting to find her phone half buried in the grass or thrown in the dirt, but all I see is dry patches of earth and weeds.
A crunch comes from behind me, and I turn with my gun already in my grip.
“Hey.” The man walking toward me lifts both hands when he sees the weapon pointed at his chest. “What the hell are you doing here?”
I recognize him immediately. The svolich who was smiling at her in the diner, Boone.
My teeth grind as I step toward him. “Where is she?”
“Who?”
“Thora. Where the hell is she?”
“She’s not here.” His gaze flicks toward the dark field around us. “Why would she be here, let alone wandering around at this hour? Hell, I only got out of bed because I heard something. Then I followed you.”
“That’s a wonderful story, but I don’t give a shit.” I hold up my phone, the tracker still glowing on the screen. “Her phone says she’s here. Right where we’re standing.”
He glances at it, then looks around the field. “Well, do you see her? Because I don’t.”
“Don’t get cute with me. I don’t like cute.”
“Fine. Whatever, man. If you want me to help you look for her, I can.”
Two pairs of eyes are better than one.
“Fine.”
He pulls out his phone and turns on the flashlight.
“Thora!” he calls, moving ahead of me. “You out here?”
I join him, wondering if maybe she is hurt somewhere. She could’ve taken a walk and an animal could’ve gotten her. The thought sends a hard punch of panic through my chest.
“Thora!” I shout, cutting right while Boone heads left.
I’m about to call her name again when a faint sound rises from somewhere farther off.
“Thora? Is that you?”
The distant sound comes again, and when I follow it, my attention drops to the ground beneath my feet.
Oh, fuck.
“Did you hear that?”
Boone nods. “Yeah, man. I heard it.”
We sweep our lights across the ground, searching for an opening, a crack, anything that shouldn’t be there.
Did she fall down there somehow?
I listen for the sound again, but this time, nothing comes.
Panic claws through me as I keep searching, dragging my light over the dirt and grass until I spot it. A strip of wood, half hidden beneath packed earth, with a small piece of rope tucked beside it.
I clamp the rope and pull, and a hidden door lifts from the ground, stale air spilling up from below. I listen for a sound, but I don’t hear her anymore. Instead, there’s a man’s groan.
Every sick thought I have crashes through my head as I rush down the steps, not knowing what I’ll find on the other side.
Boone holds the light above me while I descend, and when I drop into the narrow space and hit the dirt below, the first thing I see is Charlie on top of her.
Everything in me goes dark with rage.
His hands are in her hair, her body limp beneath him, blood running from her head into the dirt. He doesn’t even see me, too consumed with hurting the woman who means everything to me.
My gun fires before he realizes I’m there. The first shot tears into his shoulder, the second into his leg, and when he screams and rolls away from her, I put a third round into his other leg because I need him alive.
“I will skin you like a pig.”
“F-fuck you,” he whines, curling on the ground, choking on pain.
But I’m already dropping beside Thora and lifting her into my arms. She doesn’t react when I press my fingers to her pulse. It’s there—faint, but still there.
I climb the stairs with her carefully draped over my shoulder, terrified I’ll hurt her worse, but knowing there’s no other way to get her out.
As soon as Boone sees her, his face goes white. “Oh, Jesus.”
When I’m close enough, he reaches for her, and I let him take her only because I need both arms to climb out. The second I’m out, I take her back, hating that anyone else had to touch her.
“Who did this?” he asks.
“Charlie. I shot him. He’s alive, but he won’t be getting out.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me.”
“She needs our hospital, or she might not make it.” I hold her closer, her blood smearing across my shirt. “Call her family. Tell them what happened and tell them to meet us at Marinov Hospital.”
Her body lies limp in my arms as I press my lips to her hair and carry her toward the car, Boone keeping pace at my side.
“Everything will be okay.” The promise scrapes from my throat as I hold her closer. “Ya s toboy.” I’m with you.
“Hey!” Boone calls after me. “Let me drive. You stay with her.”
For once, I don’t argue. I hand him the keys and climb into the backseat with Thora on my lap.
After ripping off my shirt, I press it to the wound at the back of her head while Boone gets behind the wheel and tears out of the field toward the road.
Her face is too pale, her lashes resting against cheeks streaked with dirt and blood.
Bending over her, I kiss her forehead. “Stay with me. Please, detka. Just hold on.”
Her fingers twitch against my shirt, or maybe I imagined it.
“I can’t live without you. Do you understand?” My voice breaks, and I don’t care that Boone can hear me. “I will die with you, Thora. If you leave me, I will follow you, so don’t you dare.”
Boone drives faster, the tires screaming around a turn, but her blood on my fingers is the only thing I can focus on.
My forehead presses to hers. “Stay.” My mouth moves over hers, desperate for any sign of life. “Please, Thora. Stay with me.”