Page 2 of The Pilot & the Athlete

The man in the front passenger seat yanked out a knife, pivoted to face her, and pointed the blade in her face. “Stop the racket or I will remove your tongue.”

Shay’s bare back slammed against the leather seat behind her, and she stopped screaming.

“Thank you.” He smiled but didn’t put the knife away. His lips and blue eyes were the only parts of him she could see through the mask. He was thinner than the other three but just as muscular. None of them looked familiar at all. They weren’t the guards she’d seen with Big T that fateful night. She had to assume they worked for the mobster, but what did she know?

Her entire body had the shakes. She didn’t cry. She was proud of that fact. It was a good flex.

They drove away from the safehouse.

Not so safe after all. How had these men found her? How had they penetrated the security and overcome her guards? Were her FBI agents really dead? Ah, Turner and Meacham. Her bruhs since her protective big brother Darian couldn’t be here with her. She’d liked both of them. They were abrupt and loved to tease her but good guys. Turner had a baby daughter and was always instigating the pranks on her and Meacham.

The questions hardly mattered and her sorrow for the agents’ deaths would do nothing, but it was better to let her mind scramble for answers than to focus on the fear of what would happen next. Tears stung her eyes thinking of Turner and Meacham and their sacrifice to protect her. All in vain. Were they really dead? She hadn’t seen any bodies.

The man on her right ran his fingers through her blonde hair and skimmed them across her shoulder. She jerked in the other direction. Through the holes in the mask, she could see his smirk and his brown eyes roving over her swimming suit and bare flesh.

“Ah, coming to me, then?” The man on her left slid his arm around her and yanked her against his sweaty armpit. His fingers traced along her waist and hip, dipping down to her thigh.

Shay shivered violently from his touch, shoving his hand away.

Usually she was as comfortable in a swimming suit as a turtle in a shell. Right now, she felt exposed and vulnerable. She wouldn’t have been safe in a snowsuit, but at least these men wouldn’t be able to ogle and touch her so easily.

The air conditioning blew full blast in her face. The cold air on her damp skin was much more welcome than these men’s hands. They wouldn’t quit touching her. She batted at their hands, squirming one direction then the other. The two in the backseat laughed at her vain efforts to keep them at bay. She felt disgusting and dirty. Their foul hands were almost as horrifying as the terror of her imminent death.

She tried to block out their vile touch and prayed in her head. She didn’t even know what to pray for. A valiant rescue? The men seemed confident none was coming. Had the FBI notbeen alerted to her abduction? Had these men completely dismantled the security, cameras, and sensors at the safehouse?

Was a quick death the only hope she had?

Shay couldn’t believe how low she’d sunk. She used to be exuberantly happy and focused on working hard to succeed. Her days had been busy with many hours spent in the pool, lifting weights, doing yoga and ice baths for recovery, coaching her swim team and private lessons, cooking healthy meals, and spending any spare time with friends and family.

After witnessing a well-known Denver crime lord, Big T, slice a woman’s neck open in the restroom of an exclusive party celebrating the Olympic hopefuls, her life had taken a drastic turn.

That night, she’d been blessed to sneak away, hide in a supply closet, and call Darian, her protector, brother, and trusted confidant. He’d immediately connected her with the FBI through his college friend, Agent Pike Larkin. The police and FBI had come for her and arrested Big T. She’d never forget the man’s hazel eyes focused on her as they cuffed him and took him away.

Shay had been shuttled through protective custody locations for the past two months. She’d missed her chance at the Olympics, but at least she’d survived.

Not any longer. These men had somehow found her, penetrated the FBI’s security systems, killed her friends Meacham and Turner, and now they were going to murder her. Why not just kill her and leave her at the house? At the moment, fighting off their disgusting hands, she might have preferred being in heaven already.

The trial for Big T was scheduled for next week and she’dimagined she would finally be free. She’d been wrong. Everything was being torn from her grasp.

“Are you going to kill me?” she asked in a wobbly voice. She hated that. She wanted to show how brave she could be, even if it was a lie. Her stomach pitched violently. The vehicle raced around corners, flinging her across the man on the left’s lap and increasing her nausea. She shoved herself away, her shoulder hitting the front seat.

“Soon,” the man up front said. He pointed the knife at her again. “Sit still.” Then he gave the men groping her a look. “Give her a break for two minutes.”

They both grunted in disgust but thankfully stopped touching her. Shay straightened, holding herself erect so she wouldn’t brush either of the men. The violent shaking of her entire body betrayed her fear.

Please. At least let me die with honor.

The man up front took off his mask, ruffling his thick hair. He was a deceptively good-looking blond, a boy-next-door kind of look. She shivered harder. “Big T’s lawyer wants to know everything you know first. We’re flying you to him.” He looked her over as if he were surveying his dinner choices at a succulent buffet. “If you tell him every last detail that you’ve told the feds, I won’t let Lyle and Ross torture you before I kill you.” He tilted his chin to the men beside her and smiled like that was the best offer he’d ever given anyone.

“Don’t make promises like that,” Lyle whined, squeezing her leg. “Take away all our fun.”

She yanked away from Lyle, but she had nowhere to go and bumped into Ross, who grinned behind his mask and reached for her swimsuit strap. Shay grabbed at her shoulder to try to keep her suit on. The driver whipped around another corner.The fear and movement of the car and repulsive look in Ross’s eyes overwhelmed her. Bile rose up her throat and she spewed all over him.

“Hey!” He cursed and shoved her back at Lyle.

The blond man laughed as Lyle secured his arms around her from behind. The vehicle slammed to a stop and Shay hit her head and shoulder against the back of the driver’s seat. Chills, her burning throat, her racing pulse, and the disgusting taste in her mouth made her even more miserable.

There was a pause in the fondling, the vehicle movement, and their foul tongues. She looked outside the windows. They were parked next to a big building where a large cargo door was slowly clanking up.

---