“But you’re fucking sexy, and I love you.”
"I know, and I love you too. I plan on showing you many times, but let’s get out of here first. If you’re a good boy, I'll let you have full rein of the sex room. I’ll be nothing but your fuck toy.”
He takes my mouth with his, ignoring the cut, and kisses me with desperate fury. A taste of copper hits my tongue as it tangles with his, and I know his lip has started bleeding again. Panting, I pull away. “Babe, focus.”
Before he can say anything, the car starts to slow down. The drive starts to get bumpier, and Jaxon and I are tossed around in the trunk. My head bangs against something sharp. “Ow, fuck, that hurt,” I mutter, then I feel something trickle down my face. Shit, I must be bleeding.
“Are you okay?” Jaxon asks as we continue to jostle around.
“‘No, I think I cut myself. Where do you think we are?”
“I bet we’re going down that service track that runs down the side of the house.”
“Dad’s?” I ask him, confused.
“No, ours,” he tells me, and my heart melts despite the circumstances. I love hearing him call it ours.
“They talked about taking us to the vaults, and we have to go through the tunnels because neither of us have the keys. Thank god I gave them to Oli and Holden the night of the gala.”
“How long do you think they’ve had us?” The car hits a particularly nasty bump, and I throw myself on top of Jaxon in the hope that I don’t cut my head again.
He grunts beneath the sudden pressure of my weight. “They grabbed us from the gala, but I think this is the next evening, so the family probably hasn't noticed we’re even missing. Though hopefully Thomas will soon, if he hasn't already. His level of paranoia can be extreme,.”
My heart sinks at his words. “No, they probably haven't. Hopefully Jacinta makes it somewhere so she can call for help, or Thomas puts two and two together.”
“Who knows how long we’ve been driving? It might take her a while to find help,” Jaxon reminds me, and I feel even more depressed.
Finally, the car rolls to a stop, and within minutes, the trunk is opening. Peter is standing there, holding a pistol at our faces, the second that I have a clear view of what awaits us. Behind him, I can see the sky lighting up, so the sun must be starting to rise. It’d almost be a pretty sight if it wasn’t interrupted by Raquel and Julia’s looming figures, guns now clenched in their hands, too.
“Get moving,” Peter orders, but it’s not like he offers to help, so with great difficulty, we struggle our way out of the car. When I look around, I realize Jaxon was right. We’re at the beginning of the zoo, so now we need to trek through it to get to the tunnels. Unfortunately, we’re too early for there to be any workmen on site. I was hoping one of the McCallister brothers would be here, but they’d probably just end up getting shot.
“You’re never going to get away with this,” Jaxon promises them as Peter gestures for us to start moving. “Workmen will be on site today, and they're going to wonder whose car that is.”
“Well, I suggest you hurry up if you want to save their lives,” Peter snarls.
“Maybe we should wait until tonight,” Julia says from behind us before there’s a smacking sound. She cries out in pain, the sound giving me a slight flicker of satisfaction that I in no way feel guilty about.
“No. Because of your stupid bitch daughters, the other one got free. How long do you think it will take for them to figure out we’re in the tunnels? We need to do this quickly.” Jaxon and I had deliberately slowed down as they argued, but he suddenly stumbles forward when Peter shoves him from behind. “Get moving. Don’t fuck with me.”
“What is it you want?” I ask, not wanting to lay all my cards on the table. He has no idea what I did or didn’t overhear, and I’d like it to stay that way for now. “Maybe if you told us, we would be able to find it quickly for you.”
“No,” he snaps.
“Peter, it might not hurt. They may know where it is, then we can be done with this,” Julia cajoles.
There’s silence for a moment as we trudge our way through the zoo, but a noise up ahead has me stopping. The sound of hooves on the uneven footpath. Slowly, I move to the side of the path, my eyes imploring Jaxon to follow me, and he quickly does the same.
Peter finally notices our movement. “Hey, what are you doing?” he yells, loud enough to scare the herd of deer that’s just out of sight. And as I had hoped instead of running away from us the stupid creatures run toward us, coming around the corner in a mad out of control dash.
Our kidnappers shout with surprise and try to move out of the way, but they’re not quick enough. As they get battered by the panicked animals, I shove Jaxon.
“Go! Maybe we can lose them in the zoo.”
He and I move as well as we can with our hands tied, though at least I have a slight advantage over everyone else because I actually know where I’m going. If we can make it to the tiger’s cage and down to the tunnel before the other three, we can lock them out by closing the door on the vault end of the tunnel.
But we’ve still got to make it there first, and there’s about a hundred yards to go. It’s still not completely light out, and we can’t go as fast as I’d like on the uneven surface.
“Fuck!” I hear Peter shout behind us. “If you don't stop now, Iwillput a bullet in Raquel. Do you want to be responsible for her death?” I slow down, and Jaxon runs into me.
