Once the last stack was in place, I stretched my back, noting my ribs seemed slightly less tender and hadn’t hurt as much while I’d moved the totes. The sound of a shoe scuffing along the floor behind me caused me tofreeze.
I was about to turn and find out which guy had decided to come help me—my money was on Ellion—when a searing pain crossed the back of my head and I blackedout.
* * *
My head feltlike the world’s worst hangover. Pain, fuzziness, nausea. I was so confused. Had I drunk a bunch of wine the night before? I tried to open my eyes, but the light hurt too much. I moaned a protest at wakingup.
Memories flooded back into my addled mind, and I realized I was uncomfortable. I wiggled around and discovered my hands were bound behind me. I thrashed, attempting to freemyself.
“You won’t escape,” a masculine voice interrupted mystruggles.
I forced my aching eyes open and looked for the source of thevoice.
The last time I’d woken up injured had worked out great for me… after a while. I didn’t have high hopes for this predicament. I was lying in the back of the same SUV I’d taken refuge in before. I was fairly uncomfortable being tied the way I was, but a makeshift pillow had been placed under my head, and I had a blanket over me. The owner of the voice sat in the frontseat.
He was breathtakingly handsome. Long black hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, and his face seemed to be chiseled from stone. I blinked slowly and focused on his beautifulfeatures.
His brown eyes were almost as dark as his hair. They bored into my own. His gaze was intense, unsettling. I tried to clear my head, shake thegrogginess.
“What’s going on?” I asked. Best to get him to talk before I saidmuch.
“Oh, I’m kidnapping you,” he replied. “I was going to leave you alone, but you had to come back in here. You’re ruiningeverything.”
My BFF, anxiety, perked her head up in the form of panic. “I’m sorry to rain on your parade. Who the hell are you?” I realized as soon as the words left my mouth that being a smartass might not be the best move. I forced my breathing to staycalm.
“My name is Hunter.” He nodded at me in introduction, like we were meeting in the middle of a park instead of in a freezinggarage.
I nodded back at him. “Hello, Hunter. Why are you hiding out in Griffin’s barn?” I fought the scream that wanted to erupt and managed to speak like a normal person not beingkidnapped.
At Griffin’s name, Hunter’s face darkened. “I’m biding my time,” he said with a sneer. “I watched you struggle last night. I considered helping you, but I hadn’t decided what to do about you yet. When you got into this vehicle to sleep, I decided to leave youalone.”
“You watched me the whole time?” My skin crawled while he nodded again. He could’ve killed or raped me at any point. My meager little life flashed before my eyes, and all my regrets—mainly not finding love—haunted me. “So, thanks for not hurting me yesterday,” I said. “It’d be great if you could let me go now.” Fatchance.
“Yeah, that’s not happening,gorgeous.”
I blinked at him. Why’d he call me gorgeous? He was about to killme.
“Do you mind if I situp?”
He nodded his assent, and I struggled my way onto my bottom. At least I’d die bravely, facing him, not cowering on the floor of anSUV.
“So, again, why are you in thebarn?”
“I’m finalizing my plan to ruin Griffin. I’m going to kill him, once and forall.”
Oh shit. What the hell had I bumbled my way into? Why couldn’t I have wrecked in front of a normal, boring person’s house? “Is that really necessary? Couldn’t you just…not?”
“I’ve planned this day for the past ten years. I took everything he loved from him and watched him suffer. Now I’ll take his life. And if his stupid friends get in the way, I’ll kill them, too.” He shook his head regretfully. “I didn’t want to kill you, but you just had to come back and snoop somemore.”
“Why do you want to kill Griffin so much?” I asked, afraid of theanswer.
“He took everything from me, so I’mreciprocating.”
I didn’t reply. I wanted him to tell his story to buy myself sometime.
“Griffin and I went to college together alongside Chandler and Ellion. We were all positioned to do great things when we graduated. We had the best plans.” He lookedwistful.
“What happened?” Iasked.
