Chapter 21 Royal #2
I collapse, and both arms are pulled behind my back. Instinct has me fighting back as Charlie scrambles into the van on top of me, pinning me down.
“Shit. Missed. Get the bag.” A new voice draws my attention, and I get a glimpse of Tommy O’Halloran moving in the back of the van.
A canvas bag is pulled over the top of my head, and cable ties are used to secure my wrists behind my back. Then I’m pulled by the shoulders farther into the van. The door slams closed.
We ride in silence, down the driveway to the gate. My kidnappers don’t mind when I move from lying on my stomach to sitting crisscross applesauce, as Kerrianne would call it, on the van floor.
It takes two minutes to get to the front gate from my parents’ house. The van slows, but I don’t hear the sound of the motorized gate being opened.
The driver’s side door opens, and James gets out.
They killed the gate guards. So they’re really not as stupid as I thought they were.
Growing up in the same house means I know the roads in intricate detail, so I follow the mental map as the van slows and takes corners. We turned left, meaning we’re moving away from Barrington and the mansion-filled neighborhoods toward the country rather than right into Chicago.
We’re ten minutes down the road, nearing the highway, and I can’t handle the silence anymore. “So what’s the plan?”
“Shut up,” James snaps.
But Tommy isn’t so tight-lipped. “Well, there’ll be a new regime, and you can either get with the program or get dead.”
“Regime change.” I shake my head a little more vigorously than usual to emphasize my mock confusion through the bag over my head as the van pulls onto the highway.
I lean forward to counter the physics of the older vehicle’s poor acceleration, stopping myself from sliding around.
“You want someone new in charge of tech? I don’t know if anyone is better qualified than me.
Clearly not the three of you. The last time we chatted, you still thought the dog filter on the social media apps was funny.
I mean, Kerrianne likes it too, but she’s seven. ”
“God, you’re so fuckin’ full of yourself,” James growls from the driver’s seat. “We’re getting rid of you while Neil takes care of your Dad and Valor. Lucky for us, there’s an easy traitor to pin everything on.”
“Poor Antonella, saved Kerrianne just to be murdered by her own husband.” Charlie drops his voice, and it’s laced with actual empathy rather than sarcasm.
“What do you mean? I see you’re doing the whole evil villain laying out their plan, so let’s hear this bright idea you’ve got.” I sigh and try not to fidget and reach for my phone. But pressing a couple auxiliary buttons would throw more than a wrench in their plans.
“Well, we’re going to make it look, at least to the pack, like the D’Medicis were spying, breaking the truce.” Tommy explains, but the lack of information makes it seem like maybe he doesn’t really know how the framing will work.
My wolf rolls his eyes. Low-level grunts. We’re not getting enough information.
My phone vibrates, and I raise my hip, but it’s too late. The fabric of my pocket is too thin, and it rattles against the metal van floor.
“You didn’t take his phone?” James snarls.
“Hand it over,” Charlie tells me.
“Really? It’s not like I can move with my hands cable tied together.”
Total and complete lie. If I wanted out of these things, it’d be a breeze. Dislocate the thumb, and slide right out. Lord knows Valor and I have practiced enough times over the years. Even Kerrianne is pretty proficient at getting out of cable ties.
“Get his phone,” James orders from the front.
Tommy, from behind me, jostles me this way and that, shoving until he finds the pocket with my phone in it. He must extend it over my head as he says, “Here, take it.”
Maybe I can pit them against each other. “Why are you handing it to Charlie? You’re better with tech than he is, Tommy. Though I thought there was a chance I could live through this? If so, just give it back, and no one has to get hurt.”
The van is slowing, and I hear the tick of the blinker.
It’s been three minutes. My wolf calculates. We’re less than a dozen miles away from the house.
“You’re so full of yourself. Gotta be the smartest ass in the room, don’t you?” Charlie growls.
It doesn’t matter that they have my phone. None of them are smart enough to access any information on it anyway.
“Better the smartass than dumbasses like you.” I laugh at my own joke.
Immediate regret stings as Tommy smacks the backside of my head with an open palm. “You really don’t know when to shut your mouth, do you?”
I take that as my cue to rest before whatever they’ve got planned next. A headache blooms. Whether from the smack upside my head or being hit earlier, I can’t tell, but it only gets worse.
My phone is in a military-grade case, and it makes a really distinct sound when it bashes against metal shit. And over and over again, something is hitting my phone case. If I had to guess, the back of a gun. Probably the same one I borrowed from the living room table.
Why would he not take it out of the case first? My wolf groans, experiencing this amateur hour like it’s actually entertaining.
The van takes another turn. I’m less familiar with where we are this far from the house, but we’re definitely headed out away from civilization.
“Enough!” James shouts, and I’m clearly not the only one suffering from the noise. “We’ll destroy his phone when we get to where we’re going.”
“Which is where?” I attempt to figure out more of the plan.
“Nice try, nerd.” James scoffs at a normal volume now that Charlie is done trying to destroy my phone and its military-grade case.
“Again, I thought there was a way I got to live in all this. Survival of the fittest and all that? I’m just trying to figure out how to stay on this side of the grass.”
I know from hostage negotiations training that I need to relate more to these guys, but I’ve known them forever. If there was more I could do to get on their side of things, I’d try, but we grew up playing in the same pack. We already have things in common, and they’re doing this anyway.
“It’s not up to us. Neil is deciding if you’re worth saving,” Tommy answers. “We’re taking you out to the preserve and waiting for instructions.”
God dammit, Uncle Neil.
“The preserve? With notoriously bad cell service?” I force myself to clench my fists rather than break out of these cable ties and smack him up the side of the head as he sputters like it’s not something he considered.
There’s got to be more information about what’s going on. Maybe he knows it. Push harder. My wolf urges me. Or kill them now?
“Alright, so what?” I ease up on the pressure I was pushing with my questions and try a more casual tone. “Neil is framing Antonella, and he’s going to try to kill Valor in his own house?”
“No, that’d be stupid. He’s not doing it in the house. He’ll do it on the lawn, make it look like the D’Medicis showed up and ambushed the place,” Tommy answers with a smug scoff.
“When?” I feel sick to my stomach and start thinking through the movements.
Break the cable ties, assess, grab the closest gun from Charlie or Tommy. Shoot whoever had the gun, then kill James, then finish off Charlie or Tommy, whoever I didn’t shoot the first time.
Moving van. Need to stop first. My wolf catches the flaw in the plan. Could pull James out of the driver seat, but would we drive off the road first? Would have to kill Charlie and Tommy first.
“They should be on their way to Valor and Antonella’s soon. They wanted to make sure you were out of the way first. Couldn’t have you warning Valor or shutting down that smart house of his.” James draws out his words, calculating something.
That’s the most surprising part of the plan. They knew I’d be watching, should have been watching. I was busy watching Leticia. Would I have even noticed?
Of course you would have. You get door alerts for Valor’s torture chamber. If they’re framing Antonella, then Valor would take her there. My wolf continues. Leticia is not the problem. Our mate is not the problem.
The van slows further, and we turn off the paved road onto a gravel one. Without seat belts, or even a seat, I’m jostled around, sliding on the floor, while the van drives too fast on uneven ground.
Five more minutes of plotting, my head throbbing, and suffering in silence pass before the van comes to a stop.
James shoves me out of the way as he opens the door and climbs out. “Gotta take a leak,” he says, and I hear his footsteps crunch in the gravel as he walks to the right.
Another pair of footsteps approaches.
“Get out,” Tommy snaps.
Tactically speaking, this is the right time to make my move. I make my lousy excuse. “Really, guys, not like I can just get up and follow. Cable ties and a bag over my head, remember?”
Tommy pulls the bag off the top of my head, taking a little hair with it. I let out a low growl but force composure.
Luckily, it’s early afternoon in winter, so I’m not blinded by the sun since it’s starting to set. It’s still cold as fuck though, and despite running warm as a wolf, I’m freezing and wishing I had at least a pair of sandals in all this. That’ll teach me for answering the door barefoot.
When Tommy goes to pull me up by my shoulder, I resist, pressing the cable into my left thumb socket. Almost . . . there . . .
After a painful pop, my thumb dislocates, which I time with a fall to the floor of the van.
“Are you fucking stupid?” Tommy barks, stepping into the van to pull me out.
Slipping my hand free, I roll backward over my shoulder and bring my arms in front of me.
Tommy is a big dude, taller than me and built like a bus.
But no amount of muscle can stop him from reacting to a painful kick in the groin.
I press back on my right hand and kick out my left foot, catching him right in the balls.
He doubles over, causing him to fall forward over the top of me.