And he had. He’d pulled the yearbook down from the shelf in his closet and opened it to pages that had yellowed around the edges from where he’d run his fingers over them.
Tommy and Tasha had both been gorgeous.
Hew had inherited his mother’s auburn hair and his father’s square jaw. But more than that, he’d inherited their light.
The teenagers had seemed to shine from the pages of the yearbook. And not just with the glow of youth, but with the brightness of something deeper. Something more fundamental and?—
Hallelujah!
She snapped out of the memory when she felt the zip tie give way under the relentless pressure from the glass shard’s edge. Every part of her wanted to stretch out the tension in her muscles and joints. Keeping her arms behind her back took all the self-control she possessed.
She knew the zip tie lay somewhere on the floor behind her. But didn’t dare look. Didn’t dare move.
She couldn’t draw attention to herself until it was time. Until she was ready.
Shifting her weight ever so slightly, she winced when the chair creaked. But lifting her chin a little and cracking open one eye showed her captors paid her no mind.
They were having some sort of discussion at the far end of the room. The men were gathered around Black Widow, their faces rapt as they hung on her every word.
Neck or eyes? She thought as adrenaline tried to pulse through her sluggish veins. Neck or eyes?
If she went for the eyes, she imagined screams, blindness, chaos. Maybe her captors would panic. Maybe they’d rush her victim to the hospital and reduce their number.
One less gun for the Black Knights to contend with when they get here.
They’d come. She knew they would.
She wished they wouldn’t. She wished they’d stay safe and sound inside the high brick walls of the compound.
But they’d come.
Because they were family. Because they considered her family.
The jugular, she thought, and imagined stabbing one of the men in the throat. Imagined the shock in his eyes. But no scream. Just gurgles followed by collapse and a pool of blood.
That too would deplete the number of her enemies by one.
But her arms felt like they were lined with lead, and her shoulders ached something fierce from the hours she’d spent restrained. She had no strength. Little stamina. And only a small chance she’d actually hit what she was aiming for with enough force to do any real damage.
Still, it was a chance worth taking.
Anything she could do to help her situation, to help the Black Knights, was worth the effort. Even if it came at the cost of her soul.
Uncertainty suddenly gripped her.
Can I do this? Can I take a life?
Guess I’ll find out, she thought determinedly.
All this was happening because she’d been dumb enough to hop in her car despite the late hour, despite the rain. Because she’d been so caught up in her own tangled thoughts that she hadn’t recognized she had a tail.
It was her duty to level the playing field if she could. She would level the playing field.
Which one will answer my call? Which one will come to me, thinking I’m beaten and broken? she wondered as she counted her ragged heartbeats.
Her thumb brushed against the jagged shard. Touching. Testing. Tensing.
Holding her breath, she waited for the perfect opportunity to make her move.
