Page 53 of Falling Fast

Silent, unwanted tears gathered in her eyes. They slipped down her right temple and over the bridge of her nose to drip into her hair, her shoulders jerking under the force of the pressure in her chest. Jamie made another low sound, and even without words she could hear the plea in it.

Don’t, pequeña. Don’t cry.

The car came to a stop and the engine shut off. A rush of icy fear froze her tears, every muscle in her body locking tight. Doors opened, muffled voices sounded nearby. She hurriedly wiped her eyes with her shoulders, not wanting Baker or any of his men to see how terrified she truly was. She refused to give them that satisfaction.

Footsteps came around to the back of the car. A second later the trunk popped open.

She squinted as bright light split the darkness, turning her face away from the glare. Rough hands reached in and dragged her upright. She went rigid, fought to gain her balance and scrambled with her bare feet to gain leverage as the man unceremoniously yanked her out of the trunk and dumped her on her feet. She winced as sharp gravel dug into her tender soles and staggered for a second before widening her stance to regain her balance, and looked around.

They were at some kind of construction site in its early phase. A chain link fence enclosed the area beyond where the two cars were parked. Cranes and other heavy equipment ringed the various squares for the foundation dug into the ground, but nothing was moving and she didn’t see anyone on site. The silence was unnerving.

A tall, well-built man in a black T-shirt and cargo pants stepped in front of her, his eyes hidden by dark sunglasses. Another man stood a few feet behind him, observing everything, and two more men dressed like the others were pulling Jamie from the trunk while he twisted and kicked at them, to no avail.

“This one’s still got a lot of fight in him, boss,” one of them said with a laugh, then slammed his fist straight into Jamie’s stomach.

Jamie blanched and doubled over, face pinched as he struggled to suck in air. The men shoved him sideways, sending him sprawling to the gravel on his knees. As soon as he hit, one of them pulled out a pistol and pressed it to Jamie’s temple just as Baker came around the back of the trunk.

Charlie’s entire ribcage contracted in terror. She couldn’t handle seeing Jamie die. Couldn’t even bear the thought. She’d beg, do whatever she had to in order to save him.

“That’s because he’s no ordinary personal trainer,” Baker said with a sneer, his gaze shifting to her. “Is he, Charlie?”

She couldn’t have answered even if she’d wanted to because of the tape, and she was too afraid to look away from Jamie anyway. Her mind spun, desperately trying to think of a way to save him. Baker would know if she lied. He’d hurt or kill Jamie for sure.

“Pull the tape off her.”

The man closest to her stepped up and ripped the duct tape off her face. Charlie winced at the sudden burn, and licked her dry lips.

Baker moved a few paces closer then stopped, arms folded across his chest, still in that immaculate white tux. Behind him, a freshly dug pit yawned in the earth, the large square still empty. “You killed two of my men.”

Charlie tensed her thighs to keep them from shaking and didn’t answer.

“If any of my personal files transferred to whoever you’re working for, it’s going to take them some time and effort to decode them—if they ever do. One of the things they’d find is over there,” he said, nodding over his shoulder before looking back at her. “That’s the start of what’s going to be a multi-million dollar resort, which my investors and I are funding. After what you did today, I wanted you to see the progress up close and personal.” With that he nodded at his men.

Two of them converged on Charlie. She shrank away, but wasn’t stupid enough to try and run. “What are you going to do?” she blurted as the men clamped steely hands around her upper arms and began towing her toward the edge of the pit. At a pained grunt she looked back in time to see Jamie sag in his captors’ grips, his good eye squeezed shut, face pinched with pain.

“Bring them over here,” Baker said, stalking off the gravel road and toward the edge of the closest pit, past an excavator and front end loader waiting there, along with several concrete trucks lined up in a row, their huge drums turning slowly.

The sharp edges of gravel dug into her bare feet as the men dragged her toward Baker. He walked past the concrete trucks and stood poised on the very edge of the hole in the ground, maybe forty feet long, twenty feet wide and ten feet deep. From what she could see, there was only one way in and out of it, a small dirt ramp just behind Baker.

The men hauling her forward stopped near the edge, and Baker swung around to face her. The arctic fury in his eyes sent a shiver of foreboding through her. “What’s your name?”

She couldn’t tell him her last name though. He would definitely try to target her family as retribution. “Charlie.”

“And him?” he nodded at Jamie.

“Jamie.”

“And you’re not really neighbors.”

She didn’t answer, because he already knew the answer to that one.

Baker shook his head, a fake expression of regret on his face. “It’s a goddamn shame it’s come to this, Charlie. I really liked you.”

Yeah, so much you drugged me so you could fuck me and then do God knows what. The bitter words burned inside her but she didn’t dare say them aloud.

He cocked his head slightly. “Do you even have an ancestor who fought in the Civil War?”

“Yes.” God, why was he playing with her like this? How much should she tell him? Because she’d tell him every last detail about the op if it would save her and Jamie. And she was betting he knew it.

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