“We leaving as soon as you wake up,” Booda said firmly. “No arguing with me either.”
“I know,” I whispered.
I tossed the pills into my mouth and swallowed them down with water from a bottle I had left on the nightstand. As I stretched out across the mattress with a groan, the room began to blur. Darkness crept in, and just like that, everything went black.
CHAPTER 19
The first thing I registered was the cold air where the sheets had just been.
Something yanked me sideways. Then I was airborne and weightless for half a breath before I slammed into the hardwood.
My lungs seized, refusing to expand.
My shoulder took the impact, then my skull slammed against the floor, and the splitting headache I’d gone to sleep with doubled back, driving white-hot needles behind my eyes.
The room pitched. Shapes moved in the dark. My arms wouldn’t lift. My legs were still tangled in sheets that had twisted into restraints while medication coated my bloodstream, keeping my thoughts sluggish and disconnected from my limbs.
Hands grabbed at me. From the left. From above. Fingers dug into my biceps, my ankles, and my hair. Someone twisted my wrist. Another hand caught the back of my shirt, and I was dragged, my hips scraping the wood.
For a second, I couldn’t understand what was happening.
“Move! Move!” Someone shouted. “Get her hands!”
Panic detonated inside me.
“What the fuck—” I spat as I was lifted and slammed onto my stomach.
Pain shot through my ribs, and my cheek mashed the hardwood.
My vision kept glitching in and out of focus. Shadows stretched across the room while my mind lagged behind everything happening to me.
Hands forced my arms behind my back, and for one disoriented second, I thought I was still dreaming.
“Get the fuck off me!” I shouted, struggling blindly beneath the weight crushing me.
The pressure against my spine intensified immediately.
“Quit resisting!”
“I’m not resisting!” I screamed back. “What the fuck is happening?”
Another sharp pain shot through my shoulder, and tears sprang into my eyes when somebody jerked my arm higher.
That was when reality finally started breaking through the fog.
Police.
The room was full of police.
Black boots stomped across my bedroom while flashlights cut through the darkness from every direction. Drawers slammed open. Men shouted over each other. The mattress was thrown aside behind me as someone ripped the blankets completely off the bed.
“Clear!”
“Bathroom clear!”
“Closet clear!”
The pounding in my skull made every shout feel like it was happening inside my head.
