And Jeff…
Oh, God. He shot Jeff.
My head jerked up as a door opened above me. Boots stomped down the stairs, and I found myself staring at each step, waiting to see who emerged. My heart hammered hard in my chest as I watched the work boots descend the stairs until finally revealing the man who was holding me captive.
Terror ran rampant through my body as the man stepped closer, until finally, I could make out his features.
Tall. Muscular. Dark eyes and an evil grin that sent chills down my spine and made me want to throw up. Somehow, I held it together, refusing to look away from him even though all I wanted was to curl into a ball and hide as far away from this man as possible.
I didn’t dare open my mouth. I was too scared that I’d just start crying, and this did not look like a man who had a single sympathetic bone in his body. Very slowly, he stalked forward until he was right in front of me.
As he lowered to his haunches, I curled in on myself, pulling my knees tighter to my chest. His eyes flicked to my legs, to the dress that was probably revealing everything underneath it.
A smile curved his lips as he ran his hand along his jaw, chuckling darkly.
God, I was going to throw up.
“So fucking pretty,” he said, his voice low and gravelly as he slid his hand up my leg.
A whimper left my lips as I flinched away from him, but I had nowhere to go, no way to defend myself. I didn’t even have my shoes anymore.
“Go ahead,” he grinned. “Fight. I like my women when they’re not compliant. Makes me fucking hard.”
I didn’t even think as he sprang forward. My foot shot out, catching him in the face, but it did nothing to slow him down. His fingers dug into my hips as he dragged me down to the cold floor.
My wrists screamed in pain as the rope caught on the pole, dragging slowly to the base.
“No!” I screamed as loud as I could, kicking hard at anything I could make contact with.
His firm grip settled on my knee, pushing it to the side as he shifted, kneeling right beside it as his fingers yanked down the zipper on his jeans. This was my last chance, and I took it.
I quickly lifted my left leg and slammed my heel into his groin. A pained cry left his lips as he bent over, but I didn’t stop. Rearing back, I slammed my foot into his crotch over and over again until he laid on the ground, barely breathing as he held his junk.
I scrambled back, shifting into a new position, then went on the attack, slamming my foot into his face, breaking his nose. Whimpers and terrified, muffled screams left my lips with every hit, but I didn’t stop.
Not until he suddenly grabbed my ankle and twisted hard, contorting my body into a position where I could no longer attack him.
“Fucking bitch,” he wheezed, crawling over my body, pressing my chest against the floor. My scalp screamed in pain as he grabbed a fistful of hair and yanked hard. “You’ll fucking regret that.”
He torqued my head back, and it was only a second before he slammed my head against the concrete that I realized I was not getting out of here alive.
43
MICHAEL
“Anything on the vehicle?”I asked Wayne over the phone as I paced the waiting room.
“There are just too many roads,” he answered. “Mike, unless we get a vehicle description, it’s gonna be pretty fucking hard to narrow down who this guy is.”
I glanced at the double doors, willing someone to step through them and tell me what the fuck was going on with my brother. More than one life hung in the balance right now, and if he died on the table, we’d most likely lose Ellie, too.
Rubbing my hand across my eyes, I tried to focus on the task at hand. “Uh…alright, what about clues at the scene? Broken tail light, footprints, blood?—”
“Only your brother’s,” he confirmed. “There are scuff marks from where he dragged Ellie away, but nothing that would give us any clue as to?—”
“Tire tracks,” I interjected. “Where are we with those?”
“From the width, it’s definitely from a truck. They’re taking samples to the lab now to determine what the exact tire is. But Mike, this is Montana. Everyone drives a truck.”
