Blurry visions, warm wetness trickling down to my lip, cars and people falling behind as Jonah hit the gas. My cheek and forehead pressed against the cool window’s glass. The left side of my face throbbing. My head exploding into instant beats. My shriek dying off into the silence.
“Don’t even think about fucking running,” Jonah ground out, grabbing the wheel with both hands instead of one.
I hadn’t even seen the blow coming. He was too friggin’ fast. He had backhanded me in less than a second. His skills were being shown.
I pushed off the door, my hand immediately going to my left leg. My blade hadn’t been revealed, thank God. It had slid across the seat with me under my leg. I wiped the blood away from under my nose, shaking my head so my double vision would clear. I squinted out the front window, staring at one focal point in the distance amidst all the passing scenery. I had learned a long time ago the tricks to staying conscious during a beating…and also the ways to pass out faster to avoid the pain.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked when my vision began to clear.
“Stupid question. You know the answer.” His hands clenched on the wheel like he wanted to hit me again. He wasn’t one to suffer fools lightly. I had learned that not too long ago. “You’re father wanted me to pass on a message to you after it became apparent where you were and what you were up to. It’s a simple message, really. If you ever think about running to them again, he will break their business and their personal lives as well.” He glanced at me. “You know he can do it, almost as easily as you could.” His eyes went back to the road. “Also, you should know that the General will give the order again to end them, ifyou ever try running back to them or tell them anything about our situation when they come looking for you. You haven’t told them anything, have you?” His voice was death’s vicious threat.
I shuddered. “Of course not.”
“I told him you wouldn’t have. You’re too smart for that,” he said quietly, his hand landing on my knee. I jerked and tried to push it away, but he gripped me with bruising force, his blunt strong fingers digging into my bones. I grunted and tried to keep still.
“I can’t wait to get you somewhere private,” he sighed in cruel glee. “You’ve got so much fire. It’s going to be my pleasure to snuff it out and put it to better use.” He showed his teeth.
I tried not to puke all over him at the scenario I could only imagine he was planning for me. I jolted my attention from him and stared out the front window trying my best to think through the fog of his combined mental and physical blow he had created inside my head. The facts were simple. They would ruin, or kill, Brent or Cole if I escaped again to go back to them, or even spoke to them about the deal between Daddy and the General. I hadn’t expected this
be my home. Ditto always and forever. Ember.”I had written both of type of retaliation. I had expected to be taken and beaten and used for their purposes. I had known it would come eventually, but I had thought to have more time for…“normal”.
In fact, I had thought that I might actually have a life by blatantly showing Daddy, the General, and Jonah that I wasn’t onboard for their long-term goals. It had been simple. Run and show them I wasn’t game for their plans. Most would have quit and moved on to greener pastures if their target was so blatantly mutinous. But after Mr. Fresby had told me about Daddy tracking me I knew they wanted me back, but I hadn’t known it would come to this. I had been simple put: a blind fool.
And now Brent and Cole were in danger. I couldn’t let that happen. I could never see them again. My heart clenched tighter than I had ever known before, breaking, knowing I’d had my last glimpse of them tonight. Everything I knew about them, my love, their love, their pasts, their kindness, their quirks, their goofiness, their protectiveness,them…home. I was leaving it and my heart behind forever.
It was too much to try and comprehend right now or I would break. I would shatter. I would dissolve into a broken mess that Jonah and Daddy and the General would be able to use at their digression. I had to be strong right now. I couldn’t crumble just yet. I had to save myself. I had to fight this animal next to me.
I tried to keep him pacified to my mutinous thoughts by asking, “How did you find me so quickly?”
He chuckled evilly. “You got on a plane. That wasn’t very smart, pumpkin, but I don’t hold it against you because Mr. Terrance was the one who booked the flight.” He laughed outright, making me shiver. “He even booked the seat under your own name. It didn’t take long to show up on our databases once your father finally informed the General you’d gone missing and he needed help finding you.”
Brent hadn’t known what he had been up against at the time. And I should have known better. Blind, I had been so blind to their level of authority. It wouldn’t happen again.
My mind resolved, and firmly placing devastating thoughts of the heart aside, I began formulating a plan. But good intentions rarely ever pay off. Like the rest of my luck this evening, I didn’t get far with my scheming because The Pain Bringer’s hand started creeping up my leg. I froze as his hand dipped below my thin dress. I began trembling, vivid thoughts of what he had planned and knowing full well that if he got me out of this car and tried to rape me, I wouldn’t be able to stop him.
He bent his fingers so his short fingernails scraped harshly along my sensitive inner thigh.
The scratching irritation snapped me out of my inner turmoil. I didn’t care what I did; it didn’t have to be pretty. I just needed to get the heck away from him. And his plans. The General’s plans. Daddy’s plans. They could all go to Hell before I let them have me.
I jerked over grabbing the wheel and gave it a hard yank toward the right. The move surprised him and we swerved into the car next to us. Jonah slammed on the brakes, but we still hit it going about fifty miles an hour. I was already reaching for my blade as the car behind ours rear ended us, jolting us into the oncoming traffic on the other side of the road since Jonah had yanked the wheel to the left after the first crash, aiming us in that direction.
“You goddamn bitch!” Jonah shouted, swerving the car to try to avoid the cars speeding right at us, but I took that opportunity to stab his left inner thigh where it was soft and twist even as it sunk into his flesh.
He roared and punched me in the face, just as a car the oncoming car smashed into the left front side of us when Jonah had been unable to move us back into our lane fast enough.
Pain exploded inside my skull and my vision blackened for a moment, but I held onto my knife, which sliced through his leg at a different angle sliding back out when I was jerked by the third collision. He screamed, grabbing his leg with his left hand even as the airbags deployed from the front end collision.
My head was throbbing and I couldn’t see out of my left eye, but I unbuckled when the car stopped moving and pushed my airbag back and stabbed his bloody right hand that was gripping the armrest from the jolt of us being hit from the front and skidding backward. I had struck hard, jabbing straight through bones, down to the hilt, effectively pinning his hand to the blackleather like a butterfly to a board. He shouted again, but I was already moving, pushing open the door and hurling myself out onto the asphalt.
Cars were honking and tires were still squealing as people came to sudden halts. I picked myself up of the dirty black ground and ran even though my left eye was useless and my face was a mass of fiery throbs. Everyone was yelling around us, but I could only here Jonah screaming in fury. I dodged behind a parallel parked car, ducking, knowing that he had a gun somewhere on him, but I didn’t hear any gunfire behind me.
Brent and Cole had taught me the vital places to aim for when using my blade and I had gotten one with my first stab. He wouldn’t be running after me or anyone for a while. He may not even live. I had so much blood on me I know I had managed to hit a major artery like they had taught me. People were staring at the major pile-up that had occurred, so I had plenty of cover as I ducked behind the groups gawking. I kept my head down and crossed my arms and I brought my sprint to a fast walk, trying to cover as much blood and my battered face as much as possible.
I hung on to my purse and turned down a street that was less crowded and sprinted again, my heals clacking like race horses running in the derby. I kept turning down different streets that became more and more vacant of high end retailers. Eventually, I stopped and dropped back into a darkened alley, catching my breath while rapid thoughts ran through my head.
I hadn’t been thinking intelligently enough these past few weeks when it came to men like Jonah, the General, Daddy, and even Brent and Cole. I needed to think like them. I needed to react like them.Be ruthless.
I dropped to my knees and started rifling through my bag. Cole and Brent were cunning enough to place a bug on me somewhere. I never went anywhere without my bag. That’s where they would have hidden it. They would have wantedadditional protection for me even with a constant hidden babysitter I’d had watching me.
