My stomach revolted, but his threat couldn’t change anything. All I had left was savage satisfaction that this piece of excrement masquerading as a human being would end up behind bars. I laughed a bit hysterically. “You won’t get away with this. You’re on an island, you moronic pile of bird shit. There’s no way off without getting caught. You literally drove yourself into a corner.”
Pollock let out a growl of outrage, raising his arm as if to hit me, but his expression slackened instead. His head whipped toward the road and that’s when I heard the engine.
Relief tore through me as I looked up and saw my car. That relief was short-lived as Pollock hauled me to my feet with one hand and started shooting at the approaching vehicle. A bullet shattered my car windscreen and the car suddenly spun to the side as he fired more bullets that dented my doors and blew off a wing mirror. Then the gun clicked.
He was out of ammunition.
I made a gurgled sound of triumph as the car doors flew open and Quinn and Ramsay jumped out. My heart leapt into my throat as my eyes connected with Quinn’s.
“Taran!” he roared, running toward me, his face a mask of fury.
Pollock threw the gun away but yanked me against him. I struggled as he wrapped his arm around my neck.
“Stop!” Silver flashed before my eyes.
A knife.
He had what looked like a small dagger in his hand. He pressed it to my throat, the blade a biting scratch against my skin. “Come any closer and I’ll slit her throat.”
Quinn and Ramsay abruptly halted. I met Quinn’s gaze and saw a million emotions. His eyes moved to my head, and wrath darkened his features at finding what I assumed was a bloody wound if the intense throbbing was any clue.
“If you touch her again, I am going to tear you limb from limb,” Quinn warned just loud enough to be heard over the water lapping the shoreline.
“Give me the watch, and I’ll let her go.”
I met Ramsay’s gaze as Quinn seethed with rage, looking seconds from exploding at Pollock.
I tried not to tense when I realized Ramsay was moving his eyes in a very deliberate way from mine to somewhere lower on Pollock’s body. It took me a second to figure out what he was trying to communicate. But then I realized how we were positioned. Pollock wasn’t directly behind me. He was slightly off to the side.
Just enough that if I hit my target correctly, I could get away from him.
I’d have to hit the target the first time.
I started to shake with hope and despair as Pollock argued back and forth with Quinn about the watch.
We were running out of time.
Sweat gathered under my arms as the blood pulsed so loudly in my ears, I lost track of the confrontation.
I tentatively tried to sense his position behind me, moving my hand ever so slightly.
One, two, three—I flung my hand back and grappled for his crotch, fury fueling me as I found the appendage and crushed it with all the strength I had in me through the fabric of his navy joggers. The shriek that escaped him would have been deafening if I hadn’t lunged from him as soon as he dropped his knife hand. Ramsay, having anticipated my move, reached forward and hauled me toward him and out of the way.
“Quinn, no!” Ramsay yelled.
I whirled around, the world spinning as I watched Quinn run at Pollock like a bull. The two men fell together in a grapple, and the flash of a knife sent my knees out from under me. “No!”
51.Taran
“Stay back!” Ramsay held me too tight against his body as Quinn and Pollock fought viciously.
Quinn let out a curse and rolled away, scrambling to his feet, pressing one palm to his ribs as he held another out defensively.
Pollock still had the knife.
There was blood on it.
He’d stabbed Quinn!
