I jog back over to the car.
“There are weapons in the bungalow. Shoot first. Ask questions later.”
“May the Lord grant me the opportunity.”
Chapter 37
Vaughn
My damn head hurts. My everything hurts, actually. I’m not sure how much time has passed since they took me, but it feels like I’ve been out for a while. I’m dizzy, and my eyesight is blurry.
Eli. Did they do something to Eli? No. There’s no way they got him. They want him, though.They just don’t want to die to get him. That’s why they have me. Bait.I have to get myself out of this before he gets here.
These guys are different. They aren’t political heirs with too much money and too little sense. These guys are killers. If the throbbing in my face is any indicator, they don’t care who they hurt.Pretty sure I’m only alive in case they need me to be so they can lure Eli here.
They could’ve drugged me to get me on the plane without a fight, but they didn’t. They knocked me out with the butt of a gun to the temple.Fucking dicks.
“Ah, there she is. The pretty little thing.”
He’s speaking English, but he still sounds like the men who took me from the bungalow. Their thick accent isn’t one I’ve heard before.
“Not so pretty anymore. Face of a walrus on that one.”
Am I too tired to fight? That cannot be right.
“It must feel pretty emasculating that even a walrus wants to vomit at the sight of you.”
The man jumps up from his plush leather seat, coming over to me where I lay on the floor. My hands are bound behind my back. My ankles and knees are duct taped together. I took quite a beating in the bungalow and at least one more since then.These guys sure love a little physical assault.
“You are nothing, little whore. Dirt under my shoe. You will die. Your friends will die. Your husband will die, and I will go home. My most difficult decision will be which mistress do I want to fuck while your body rots in the ground.”
Rolling to my side and doing my best to ignore the intense pain, I come to my knees so that I can look him in the eye when I speak.
“You create quite the visual with your TALK. Fortunately, that’s all it is. We both know why you don’t have Eli right now. Why you needed me. It’s to keep YOU safe. It won’t work, but you gave it the old college try.”
His hand across my face makes a loud clapping sound. The impact knocks me to the floor, causing bright sparks of light to dart across my vision. My face was already painful to the touch. Even a slap from a pansy like this guy is too much, but he takes it a step further kicking me in the chest.
“Agh!”
“Eeeasy. We can’t kill the esma. Look at her. She’s one more crack to the head away from permanent damage. Then who will buy her?”
“Sell her?”
“Of course. Why not? Trap Post Man. Sell the rest to whoever will pay for them? What is it these Americans say? Ah, yes. Two birds. One stone.” The whole time he’s talking, I’m testing the restraints on my hands. They’re too thick and tight to break through. “We’ll get revenge on a very deserving soldier, make our new friends extremely happy, and pocket some money off what’s left.”
“You hear that, you little whore? We’ll sell you to the highest bidder. Plenty of people would love to fuck the wife of the Post Man. Maybe we throw his body in with the deal once the Russians have their fun with him. They can fuck you on his corpse.”
My head is swimming, and I’m barely clinging to awareness. Fury is the only thing keeping me tethered. No one threatens my husband.
“Better call those mistresses. Tell them their days of faking orgasms are over. You two are fucking dead men.”
One hard fist to the temple snaps my last thread to consciousness.
Chapter 38
Elijah
Abbi and Abel are missing. Mom, too.Something is different about their homes. There was a struggle and a mess at the bungalow. At Mom and Abbi’s houses, the guys said it looked like they just got up and walked out. Mom’s car is still at her house, but Abbi’s is gone. Back at Abbi’s, a half-eaten lunch was still on the table. It’s like they had been eating when they decided to just get up and walk through the door. All except for my empty artillery room. That room alone housed enough ammo and weaponry to arm a small militia.
