“What? You can’t handle a little ol’ girl like me?” I’m a glutton for punishment. My mother must have passed her loose tongue down to me, because I never know when to shut the fuck up.
“Do you like being used as a punching bag?”
“Would shutting up even stop you?” When he doesn’t respond, I say, “Didn’t think so.”
Mark helped the bald one zip tie my hands and ankles. Due to my unfiltered mouth, they tightened them until they cut into my skin, and I finally decided to shut the fuck up if I wanted to keep my appendages. My arms are suspended above my head, and the sticky warmth rollsdown my arms; luckily, I’ve lost feeling in my hands and feet, so the biting pain is nonexistent at this moment.
It would have been a good idea to remember the turns and stops, but eventually, they became a faint memory lost in the pain.
My head lulls as I continue to fight the sleep that keeps calling to me. I’m afraid to sleep. Afraid to die.
“There are worse things in life than dying, Kelsey.”
But I’m not ready. Not yet. I hold onto the little hope I still have. They say hope is fragile, and I’ve never understood what they meant—until now.
My head droops lower and lower as I lose track of the time on the road. It feels like we’ve been gone for hours. Finally, the darkness weighs on me enough that I can’t fight it anymore. The weariness takes me into a blissful oblivion that I can only pray to never wake up from.
14
RYDER
It normally takes me forty minutes to jog home, but at a full run, I made it back in fifteen. Hurrying up the front steps, I reach for the doorknob, but stop. The door is already cracked open, but there’s no sign of forced entry. My eyes roam the property around me, finding nothing out of the usual, so I creep inside.
I reach for my Glock in the back of my waistband, cock it, and train it ahead. The house is eerily silent, but Hayden and Jessie are gone to the office, so that’s expected. What’s unusual is the door being left open. Neither of them is careless enough to forget to close it and lock it behind them.
The house is in perfect order, not even a fleck of dust out of place. After I clear the first floor, I creep along the staircase railing to the upstairs. Mine and Hayden’s rooms are clear, so I take the moment to send a text to Hayden asking who was the last one out of the house.
While I wait for a response, I continue down the hallway towards Jessie’s room, keeping my side pressed to the wall. The silence of the house gives me a sour feeling in my gut. Something isn’t right.
Rounding the corner to the hall, my stomach twists. Jessie’s door lies in pieces, completely shattered. Half of it still hangs limply from the hinges. The lump forming in my throat is painful, and I curse myself for sending the extra security home this morning.
Jessie’s dresser sits crookedly in front of the door, letting me knowsomebodywas here and tried to stop them. There’s only one person stupid enough to pull this stunt in my house.
Alejandro. Vipers.
And there’s only one person they would be here for. My stomach plummets. “Fuck!!” I scream, kicking the dresser hard enough that it splits down the side.
Keeping my gun aimed ahead of me, I kick the bathroom door open, finding it empty and once again nothing out of place. Moving to the open balcony door, I look over the rail, terrified of what I might find. The concrete is spotless, no signs of blood, which gives me hope that my Little Bird didn’t jump. I look up and spot the security cameras and immediately dial Teegan’s number. It rings once.
“What’s going on?”
“I need you to check through security feed. They took Kelsey.” My breaths are heavy as I run back downstairs to the patio.
“Son of a bitch! I’m on it.”
We end the call just as a new message from Hayden comes through.
Hayden:
“Kelsey’s there, why?”
Hayden’s negligence is turning me murderous. How can he fuck up twice within twenty-four hours? My jaw ticks, and the vein in my neck pulses with each strained breath. It takes everything in me to stay focused on the issue at hand and not drive to the office to knock the sense Hayden lacks into his pebble brain.
My phone lights up with an incoming call. Teegan.
“Find anything?” I get straight to the point, not having the time for a proper greeting.
“I have their vehicle, and I’m currently tracking them via live feed.”
