“I’ll be back in a second,” I murmured, pointing toward the sign for the restrooms.
“Don’t take long,” Courtney warned. “We’re about to get pampered.”
I smiled and ducked into the restroom. After using the first stall, I washed my hands and splashed cool water on my face, trying to breathe through the nerves still lingering from this morning.
When I looked up, my reflection stared back at me. My cheeks looked washed out, like the nerves I’d tried to ignore were finally catching up with me. And there were dark smudges under my eyes.
The door opened behind me with the softest click. I glanced up, expecting a woman. But a man stepped inside.
“Uh, this is the women’s restroom,” I pointed out, turning slightly.
His lips curved into a creepy smile. “I know.”
My stomach dropped. Before I managed a single step back, the door opened again, and another man slipped inside, blocking the exit entirely.
“Excuse me,” I tried, my pulse spiking. “You can’t be in here.”
The first man’s expression sharpened. “We won’t be long.”
I barely had time to inhale before a hand clamped over my mouth. A second set of arms locked around mine, pinning them to my sides. I bucked instinctively, but they were too strong.
There was a stinging sensation in my neck. I started to feel dizzy, and my voice was too muffled for anyone to hear when I cried, “Stop, please.”
“Easy now,” one of them murmured, his breath hot against my ear. “There’s no use fighting. We’ve already got you.”
The room tilted, and my legs gave out as whatever drug they’d injected me with hit. My vision went hazy around the edges, and I knew I was losing my chance to get away. Panic coursed through my system. I fought even harder, trying to kick and scream, but it did me no good. The men just tightened their hold on me.
This couldn’t be happening. Not here. Not in a spa filled with my friends, out in the waiting room, and a prospect sitting on his motorcycle in the parking lot.
The last thing I felt was my body being lifted off the floor. And then nothing at all.
The next thing I felt was cold. It sank into my bones and made my skull throb. I groaned as I came back to consciousness with no idea how long I’d been out.
My eyelids fluttered, my vision swimming in and out of focus. Everything was dark and fuzzy at the edges. My head pounded with each flicker of my lashes.
When I finally jerked fully awake, pain stabbed behind my eyes so hard I thought I might throw up. I tried to push up from the floor but couldn’t.
My head was so foggy that it took a moment to realize something thick and rough was digging into my wrists because my hands were bound behind me. I couldn’t separate my legs, either. My ankles were tied together, forcing my knees at an awkward angle.
A whimper escaped before I could swallow it.
The floor beneath me was cold and unforgiving under my cheek. Concrete with no carpet. The air smelled damp, and from what little I could see, there wasn’t any furniture.
It finally dawned on me that this wasn’t the spa.
My tongue felt thick, and my mouth was dry from whatever drugs those guys had used to knock me out.
“H-hello?” The word rasped out, barely a whisper.
There was no answer.
I forced my arms to move, testing the restraints. They bit into my skin, tightening when I pulled too hard. Panic turned my breathing into quick, shallow bursts.
As a tear slid down my cheek, I told myself that Reeve would come. Somehow, he’d figure out where I was. He’d get here in time. He had to.
Two sets of footsteps sounded somewhere beyond the closed door to my right. They were unhurried. Then male voices drifted toward me.
“Is she awake yet?” one asked.
