Page 73 of Fast Vengeance

What if there is no team coming for you?

Terror slithered in her belly, cold and oily. “David. Tell me, dammit!”

“To somewhere safe,” he said, hurrying along the tunnel.

They seemed to be moving downward, the angle increasing as they went. There was no breaking his grip. Even when she stumbled and went limp, becoming a dead weight in a desperate attempt to get him to drop her, his fingers remained locked around her arms.

Finally, they reached the source of the light. A small safe room stood off to one side, its thick steel door open. Nieto appeared in the doorway and her stomach lurched.

His expression was icy cold as he stared at her, a pistol in hand. For one fleeting instant, she was afraid he would shoot her. “How long do we have until they come for you?” he demanded.

She swallowed, debated her answer for a moment before responding. He knew she had been with the authorities. No point denying it now. “I don’t know.” She didn’t dare add that they might not know where she was. If he was worried about cops arriving, maybe he would just leave on his own, without her.

He shook his head, his jaw tight. “You don’t know what you’ve done.”

“What I’ve done?”

He glanced toward the end of the tunnel where another steel door stood between them and whatever was on the other side. “It doesn’t matter now. It won’t change anything.” He checked his watch, looked at David. “Let’s go.”

David began to pull her forward once more, and a fresh shot of alarm sliced through her. “You can’t just kidnap me!”

“You’re my daughter,” Nieto called back to her, marching ahead of them toward the steel door. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

“Then let me go,” she begged, too afraid to keep the fear at bay any longer. “That’s the only way you can keep me safe now.”

He whirled on her, his eyes blazing in the eerie overhead lighting. “Never.”

Her heart sank along with her stomach. She didn’t know this man. Had never known him at all.

He paused at the door, checked his phone. After a moment he looked back at David. “They’re here. You ready?”

“Ready.”

Her father hit a switch, plunging them all into darkness. Then he opened the steel door.

Oceane stopped struggling for a moment, peering out into the night. The rush of the surf against the beach reached her ears, the salty smell of it filling her nose. And above the sound of the waves, the distinct roar of a powerful boat engine racing toward them.

A speed boat. Probably like the one she’d been on before with Nieto. Small and fast enough to get them offshore without being detected. Able to slip past the Coast Guard and out to sea before anyone could catch them.

Distress pulsed through her, along with a renewed resolve to fight. She twisted in David’s grip, kicked at his shins as he held her prisoner. “No, you can’t do this.” She was beyond the ability to try and argue her way out of this, the words bursting from her, flinging them at Nieto like bullets. “I don’t want this. I don’t want any of this. This is your life, not mine. You’ve already taken everything from me—everything. I won’t let you take my future too.”

It might have been her imagination, but she thought David’s body went rigid, his grip easing slightly. She twisted her face up to peer up at him, faint moonlight illuminating his features. She wasn’t too proud to beg. Not if it freed her.

“David. Please, I’m begging you. I’ve known you forever and you always looked out for me. You know about what happened to me when Ruiz’s men attacked our house. How my mother died because of Montoya. I watched her die. I don’t want to be part of that life anymore. Please, don’t do this.”

His grip eased even more. She could feel him hesitating. Battling with himself. Knew instinctively that appealing to him was her only shot at freedom.

“David,” Nieto warned, taking a menacing step toward them. “Get moving. Now.”

But David didn’t move. “At least listen to her.”

“I don’t have fucking time to listen. Move.”

“She’s right. If you really want her safe, if you really love her like you say, you’ll do as she says and leave her here. You know it’s the only way to ensure she makes it out of here alive.”

Oceane gasped and stood frozen, heart knocking in her throat, hardly able to believe what she had just heard. Her eyes pinged back and forth between Nieto and David, waiting to see what would happen next.

Nieto stared at him for a moment in stunned silence. She saw the exact moment he snapped, his face contorting with rage. “God dammit,” he snarled, and lunged toward her.

---