“Frankie, I don’t care. Do something,” I said, but it was too late.
My cousin flicked his wrist, and the man holding me started dragging me back toward the car they attacked us with. I continued screaming, but it didn’t do any good. No one listened to the words, and no one flinched at my screams.
Westley’s foot arched out and kicked Frankie in the side moments before they shoved me into the waiting vehicle. I lunged for the other side, hoping to get out, but the man who dropped me held me down in the seats as I squirmed and fought to get away.
The driver of the vehicle stared at me as if he didn’t expect my reaction, and then we sped away, leaving my cousin and the man I came to love on the side of the road.
I screamed one last time, angling my mouth for maximum annoyance at my captor. It was a yell born from frustration rather than any chance of a rescue. Right then, on a desolate road outside of Pelican Bay, my heart shattered. Things would never be the same again.
Frankie already returned from the dead once. No way would he survive the encounter with my cousin. The Grandmaster was heartless when dealing with a foe.
Our vehicle sped down the road as my body stayed locked in my captor’s tight embrace. Trees sped past the window, but all I saw were random shapes. Landmarks I’d driven by with Frankie, but they didn’t come to memory.
My entire time as Frankie’s captive, I never felt unsafe, but now at the hands of a family member, my future seemed hazy.
Tears clouded my vision, making it impossible to see our direction when the SUV made a tight turn and tossed all the inhabitants to the left. I kicked again, hitting Jason, one of Westley’s top men, in the leg. He didn’t budge.
“Fuck, Shiloh. What is your problem?” So much annoyance lay in his voice, as if he really couldn’t figure out what was going on.
I answered in the only way I could. Another scream. My voice echoed off the windows circling the SUV, but even though my pain was enough to take down the planet, my screams weren’t enough to shatter the windows.
I had nothing left in me but angry growls. I was just so freaking sick and tired of being kidnapped. Of having my life’s choices ripped out of my hands and given to someone else who didn’t understand the situation or even ask me what I wanted.
Frankie took care of Greg, so we were supposed to have our happily ever after. I wanted my fucking happily ever after, damn it.
Instead, I was being tossed around from one villain to the next, the worst of them being my cousin.
Once our vehicle stopped, if Westley decided to show his face again, I’d personally tear out his eyeballs. I’d rip his heart out of his chest like he did mine when he touched Frankie. I was raised in the same streets of Chicago as he was, and while I hadn’t inherited a massive criminal empire, I’d learned as many ways to draw blood.
Our vehicle continued to zoom its way down the paved road, the wheel being jerked and Jason reasserting his hold on me even as I pounded at his shoulders to let me you go.
“Slow down, Damien,” he said, tightening his grip around my waist. “We don’t need the cops on our tail.”
The driver, a man I never seen work with Westley before, laughed. “That’s what’s so great about this Podunk shit hole. There aren’t enough cops to patrol the roads. They probably have all their police cruisers responding to the dead body outside of town. They have to pace themselves.”
The mention of the dead body was enough to renew all my previous efforts with more heat. I’d heard enough. “Shut up. Shut up!” I hit Jason’s shoulders even harder, my hands turning into a fist as I aimed for his face so he couldn’t block my moves.
Pelican Bay wasn’t a shit hole. It was the cutest small town I’d ever visited.
Unperturbed by my outburst, the two men continued to laugh as if they were still sharing a silent joke between them. One crazed, heartbroken woman didn’t mean shit to them.
Our vehicle veered to the side and made a quick turn off the main road. Damien slammed on the brakes, but we were still going too fast as we careened over the dirt road, which had gone from paved to a small two track. We bumped along, our bodies feeling each pothole.
Jason’s hold slackened for a fraction of a second, giving me a chance to clobber him with my fist. I missed his chin but hit him in the neck.
“Let me go,” I said, getting another hit to the top of his shoulder. “I have nowhere to escape.”
I slapped at him, resembling a small angry child who didn’t get their way, until finally Jason loosened his grip and I slid off to the side. Unfortunately, what I used as an excuse for my freedom was still the truth. I had nowhere to go.
I stared out the windows, tenting my fingers on the cool plastic of the door handle as I plotted my next move. Even though our speed slowed considerably once we pulled off the main road, we were still going too fast. The trees lining the sides of our road were close, and I worried if I threw open the door and chucked myself out of the car, I’d only break my neck once I hit one of them.
Before I decided exactly what my options were, we slowed considerably more. My fingers twitched on the door handle, but before I gathered enough strength and courage to make an escape, we came to a slow stop in front of a gorgeous log cabin home. It sat nestled in the middle of a clearing surrounded by trees and had to have put the homeowner back at least a cool million, even in this part of the world.
It was unlike any home you’d find in Chicago but fit perfectly in the rough landscape of our surroundings. Two stories with tall, large windows gave a view of the mass of trees obscuring the home from the road. The logs were a deep red color and they fit against one another perfectly, as if they were bricks.
I’d never seen anything like it, but I imagined Martha Stewart herself throwing a party on the large wrap-around deck. There would be a lot of plaid and definitely apples. Her party guests wouldn’t be a bunch of Chicago ne’er-do-wells but sophisticated socialites from New York.
I had no time to stop and enjoy the abundance of what the log home looked like as our driver jumped out of the vehicle and ran to the back, opening the door for us.
