The blacks around the sides of my eyes.
Then complete unconsciousness.
I came awake with a gasp, the adrenaline shooting through my body to counteract the unconsciousness.
Everything felt fuzzy and itchy.
But there was no time to focus on that.
Because I was facedown on a pile of clothes, hard paper bags crunching under me as I tried to sit up.
Only I couldn’t sit up. My arms were behind my back.
I felt the plastic rings around each wrist.
Then I felt them both tighten down. Hard. Hard enough to bite into my skin, but not quite enough to cut off all circulation.
I knew from the thickness and feel of them that they weren’t just ordinary zip ties. These were flex cuffs. Which were much harder to get out of.
Doable, though.
That is until I felt another set layer on and tighten. And another.
Everything about it saidI know you well.
But how?
Before I could even try to figure out who it could be, though, I felt him pull off my boot then slide the fucking flex cuffs around my ankles too. One set. Then another. Which was way overkill. Clearly, he was anticipating me trying to escape and wasn’t taking any chances.
I tried to kick out, aching ankle be damned.
He was out of reach, though.
I didn’t know why until, a second later, I felt something cold on my shoulder. Coldandwet. Almost like, as absurd as it seemed in that second, an alcohol wipe.
When that sensation was followed by the unmistakable prick of a needle, though, it wasn’t so crazy after all.
It wasn’t long before I felt the effects. My heartbeat slowed, a weirdly lazy thump in my chest. My head throbbed. My mind was sluggish, foggy.
“Whatdidyou…” I slurred.
“Just a little something to make you nice and cooperative,” the man said as his hands closed around my arms, pulling me off the bed.
Again, the thought surfaced. That voice. I knew that voice.
But just as quickly, it was gone, my mind refusing to focus, to think.
“Whoops,” he said when, as soon as I was on my feet, my body swayed to the side. “Maybe that was too much. But you’re a fighter. No worries,” he said, coming around me, ducking low, then pressing his shoulder into my stomach.
The ground fell out from under me.
I couldn’t reach out, try to grab onto something. I just had to feel myself swung over someone’s shoulder like a sack of laundry.
The pressure of his shoulder made my already slow breath feel more restricted.
I dangled there for a second, his arm anchored around the backs of my thighs.
Then he was moving.
