She’d lost sight of the twins and the carriage, as the boys were now standing between her and safety, making a lot of noise.
“Walk back to the lane.” The stranger turned, putting her before him, and they walked, his body obscuring hers from anyone behind them.
“Samantha!”
That was Somer’s voice.
“Run.”
She could not allow her friends to be hurt, so she did as he asked, hurrying down the narrow lane he’d pushed her into.Think, Samantha.She pretended to trip. The man cursed, releasing her briefly. She ran.
Footsteps followed and she heard a gunshot. Fire burned in her arm.
“Stop! The second one will kill you!”
A hand clamped down hard on her shoulder.
“What do we do now?” another voice asked, and she realized there were two men.
“There. See that door? Open it, and we’ll get inside!”
“Someone could be in there!”
“Now!” the man holding her roared. “We have to get her out of sight. She’s bleeding.”
Samantha was dragged toward a door. A hand reached around her and opened it, and she was pushed through. It slammed behind her.
“Lock it!”
“It was supposed to be simple,” a voice rasped. “We saw a chance to snatch her and handed out good coin for those boys to make a scene. But now you’ve shot her, and we’re hiding. He won’t be pleased.”
“We’ve got her, don’t we! Shut up and get her up those stairs.”
Blood was running down her fingers now, and her arm felt like a red-hot ember. She was nudged through another door at the top, and that too was shut.
“It’s empty,” one of the men said.
“Thank God.”
“She’s worthless to him dead, so you better hope that shot doesn’t kill her.”
“The bullet is in the bleeding arm. Now be quiet. We can’t alert anyone that we are here.”
Samantha was forced down to the floor. A wad of cloth was pushed into her mouth, and then her hands were pulled behind her back and bound along with her feet. The pain in her arm was vicious and made her vision blur. But she willed it away.
My family will come for me.
She lay there, bleeding and scared, but knew they’d come. Her family would find her. They would have felt her pain now and would stop at nothing to get to her.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Zach lunged at Warwick. He feinted right and then swung his fist and landed a satisfying blow to his friend’s jaw, sending him to the floor. Ash and Wolf, who had accompanied Warwick today, cheered. Zach’s brother Nathan was there also. He did not look happy.
“You have become lazy, brother. Get up and move your feet!”
Zach rose and leaned on the ropes that circled the ring they were currently boxing in.
“He’s angry and taking it out on me.”
