Chapter 53
Austin
When the guy threatened to shoot me, Nina’s eyes doubled in size.
Holding eye contact as best I could, I nodded again.
As Nina reached for the lock button, a black van rolled past the sedan and parked in front of it.
Despite my slightly unfocused eyes, I recognized the guy getting out.
Retired CIA Officer Kane, the man responsible for the death of Nina’s parents.
The man who’d order our murders without hesitation.
He casually opened an umbrella, fucker’s afraid of a little rain, and walked towards us.
As a goon dragged Nina from the back seat, I ordered her to breathe. Despite knowing it wouldn’t do either of us any good, I also said, “Don’t fight.”
You’d think they’d be happy I told her to comply, but no. My help earned me another punch to the gut. The guy knew what he was doing too, because he was aiming below my vest and cutting up.
Within seconds of Kane joining us at the back of the sedan, I was cuffed. So was Nina.
Other than the order to cuff us, no one spoke.
Applying a vice-like grip on my bleeding arm, they forced me into the back of a van with dark tinted windows. Nina was shoved in right after.
Water dripped off us as we sat on the hard floor. Before long, Nina looped her hands under her butt so her hands were in front of her body.
Not an easy task, given the ride was rough and were bouncing around the open space.
I couldn’t see outside the van, so I couldn’t get a sense of which direction they were driving.
Leaning against the wall between the holding area in the back and the front seat, I yelled, “Where are you taking us?”
“Does it matter?” The response was muted, but the meaning wasn’t.
It didn’t. Wherever they took us, it wouldn’t be pleasant.
While I’d never deployed them myself, I was well aware of the tactics CIA officers would use to collect information.
I didn’t even want to know what kind of guerrilla warfare training their goons had.
How do I keep them from hurting Nina?
My face throbbed. My arm stung. My normally calm demeanor shattered as fear settled in.
Not that I’d let Nina or anyone else see it.
The Navy and the CIA trained me to withstand enhanced interrogation tactics. But everyone had a breaking point. I didn’t know what mine was yet, but I had a feeling they’d find it if they had to resort to torturing Nina.
Fortunately for Nina, they wouldn’t start with such extreme measures. They’d manipulate the information from her, or torture me to get it.
Unfortunately for Kane and Gable, the treasure wasn’t the windfall they expected.
Sure, Nina had inherited almost a million dollars, a lot to someone struggling to support their sick grandmother, but to corrupt officers, the value wouldn’t be enough to justify the time and money they’d invested.
Nina and I would pay for it. Most likely with our lives.
I failed her.
Not knowing what had happened to Ryan, Jay, Cate, and AJ, I prayed for them. Please don’t let me be the reason they lost their lives.
Then I prayed that our tracking devices still worked and that Shepherd Security was en route.