With surprising strength, he forcefully ripped the weapon from her grasp. Before she could protect herself, Martin swung the butt of the gun toward her head, the hard metal slamming against her temple.
Brynnon dropped to the ground, blood immediately beginning to run down the side of her face. Its warmth was an almost welcomed sensation.
“Get up!”
She felt a rough pull on her left arm as she was yanked back up to her feet. Stars danced before her eyes, the dizziness making it hard to fight back. But she still tried.
“Let me go,” Brynnon pushed against him.
“Knock it off!” Martin yanked her body close to his. “Try a stunt like that again, and I’ll shoot you right here.”
Pushed forward, Brynnon winced when she felt the gun’s barrel being pushed against her ribs.
Forced to walk quickly up the smooth ramp, she groaned, “You’re gonna shoot m-me anyway. Doesn’t really m-matter where you d-do it.”
“You’d just better pray the wind muffled that gunshot enough for no one to notice. And don’t even think about screaming for help. Anyone comes to your aid, they’ll be shot, too. Don’t think you want that on your pretty little conscious.”
Good god.The man had gone from being her father’s trusted chief of staff to someone who didn’t blink at the thought of killing an innocent person.
“What’s the p-plan? Y-you take me somewhere else and shoot m-me. Then what? N-not like you can just v-vanish.”
“Actually, I can.” He smirked. “Unlike your brother, I think ahead of the game. I made a contingency plan. Invested well and made a nice little nest egg for myself with a new I.D. and everything.”
“You’ll have every p-police department s-searching f-for you.”
“Not in Mexico, I won’t.” He glanced over at her, disappointment shadowing his expression. “After all this, you’re still underestimating me.”
A blustering wind whipped through her hair, it’s below-freezing temperature stealing the breath from her lungs as they cleared the garage’s entrance and onto the open parking lot.
If she felt cold before, it was nothing compared to now
With his free hand, Martin pulled the keys from his coat pocket and pressed the fob. An SUV parked a few spaces up beeped, its brake lights flashing to indicate the doors had been unlocked.
If you get into that vehicle, you’re dead.
Brynnon tried—and failed—to come up with a way to get herself out of this unbelievable situation. Between the intense, wintry air and the shock of what she’d learned, her mind felt as though it was shutting down. Protecting itself from what it knew would inevitably happen.
Fear, unlike any she’d ever felt before, consumed her as she realized her only chance of escape would be to run from the man she now knew was planning to kill her. He may still succeed, but against the odds or not, she damn sure wasn’t going to make it easy for him.
Before she could change her mind, Brynnon used all the strength she could muster to shove him away from her. Not wasting a second, she spun on the balls of her feet and began to sprint as fast and as far away as she could.
Though she’d anticipated it, the painful force from the bullet was a shocking surprise. Brynnon cried out as she flew forward, her legs crumbling beneath her as she fell.
Fire filled the entire left side of her back, it’s burning tentacles spreading throughout the rest of her torso. She tried to move, but the pain was too much, and this time, even the warmth from her blood did nothing to fight off the ice-cold pavement beneath her.
A string of curses barely reached her ears as Martin stormed over to where she lay. Rather than putting a bullet in her brain—as she’d assumed he would—the man reached down and wrapped his gloved hands around her wrists.
Unceremoniously, he began dragging her limp body across the rough asphalt, rock salt and the occasional rock digging into her abs as they went. Brynnon opened her mouth to scream for help, but the pain from her gunshot wound and the bone-chilling air stole her ability to scream.
Stopping in the shadows between two cars, Martin released her arms, letting them fall onto the ground above her head. He squatted down next to her, his voice barely audible over the strong wind.
“I would’ve made it quick, you know.” He gently moved some hair from her face. “I was going to take you someplace secluded and be done in one shot. Because you didn’t listen, you’ll have to lie here in the cold, waiting to die. Don’t worry.” He glanced at the wound on her back. “From the looks of it, you’ll probably bleed out soon.”
“P-please...” she begged.
“I’m sorry, Brynnon.” Martin stood. “Just remember, it didn’t have to be this way.” Then he left her there. Alone and bleeding.
She thought of her father, her heart breaking for what he’d be forced to live with if both she and her brother died tonight. Brynnon prayed Billy would pull through.
