Page 8 of Take Me

My heart pounds in my rib cage. Has someone hacked my account?

I press the reply button and type out a message, explaining that my plans remain the same and I’ve been hacked. But nothing happens when I hit send, so I copy the text and refresh the page, only to get a white screen.

Turning my eyes to the thick forest below a darkening sky, I curse under my breath. No service when I most need it, of course.

Fuck it.It doesn’t matter that people think I’m headed for Italy for another hour. So I shut off my phone and close my eyes, trying to expel the scary questions pressing for attention in my mind.

***

The sound of screeching metal stirs me from a deep sleep, and I jolt in my seat as the train comes to a stop.

As I peel my eyes open, I find pitch-black darkness outside the windows. No lights from a station platform, no cars, no people. Only dead still darkness and the shadows of mountains looming in the distance.

Great!The train gives out in the middle of nowhere. You really can’t trust things to run smoothly in this part of Europe. I’ve learned this firsthand more than once.

Hopefully, it’s just a minor issue and we’ll be up and running again in half an hour or so.

I close my eyes and lean my head back to let sleep take me back in its gentle arms.

But the peace is brief.

The sound of movement behind me jolts me wide awake. My eyes fly open, and a gust of air blows across my skin just before something descends over my head. A hood or a bag. Thick enough to cover my world in darkness. Then hands press down on my shoulders to keep the hood—or me—in place.

Terror pounds through my veins, and I burst into uncoordinated panic. Shooting my arms up, I rip at the hands. Rip at the fabric. Squirm in the seat and try to wriggle down, out of the bag.

But it’s no use. The hands are like two vises, pinning me back against the seat with terrifying ease.

A shrill sound fills the air around me, and it takes me a moment to realize it’s my own scream. I can’t stop it, and I can’t stop my frantic struggle.

A hand releases my shoulder to snake around my throat, probing a bit before digging into the sides. My airflow remains intact, but the strength seems to drain from my very bones. Terror blazes in my mind as I remember what Nikolai said as he pressed against my pulse points.In a matter of seconds, you’re out.

My scream dies, darkness descends over my mind, and I sag in the seat, hovering on the precipice of consciousness.

Before the darkness can claim me whole, the fingers relax, and awareness seeps back in. But it’s slow and muddled, and it takes me a moment to remember what’s going on.

Someone is beside me too—someone big. His enormous size is evident when his muscular shoulder brushes my arm and when a hefty, calloused hand grabs my wrist.

It’s not the same one who shoved the bag over my head. That man is still behind my seat, holding my droopy head in the crook of his arm as he secures a knot on the bag.

There are two of them.

And the one in the aisle is tying knots at my hands. Ropes around my wrists.

The realizations filter in one at a time, filling my head with an urgency I can’t act upon. At least not until it’s too late.

Once my limbs wake up, the ropes are already secured, locking my hands firmly together. I make an effort, anyway, twisting my wrists against the coarse material. But there’s no give.

“No, no, no, no,” I whimper as I squirm, putting in more energy as my strength returns. I try to twist my head and bite the arm around my neck, but the man behind me simply traps my head against the seat with a hand on my forehead.

So I kick my legs instead when the bulky man grabs my foot. But my body either hasn’t regained all its strength, or he’s simply too strong. Within seconds, he has my feet gathered with rope and is securing the knot.

I make a final attempt at getting free, but the effort sends a stab of defeat through me as I become achingly aware of how trapped I am. Head, hands, feet. And with the way my head is stuck, I can only move my body a few inches.

Hopelessness sets in, devastating and severe. The knowledge that these two men are going to take me no matter what I do burns through my mind.

Choking terror infiltrates my system, twisting my gut and squeezing my chest so hard I can’t breathe.

I feel like I’m drowning as I heave for air without getting any. All I achieve is getting fabric into my mouth and blocking my airway further.

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