Page 6 of Shattered & Returned

In the distance, a black van came into view in the center of the dirt road. They’d parked far away to avoid alerting me, to prevent me from bolting.

A gorgeous woman in a sharp, elegant leather suit and boots leaned against the hood of the van, smoking. She didn’t wear a mask but had sunglasses shielding her eyes and a silky scarf wrapped around her strawberry blonde hair. Rings pierced her nose, eyebrows, earlobes, and lips.

The woman was tall, and these two thugs were bigger than any men I’d seen, except the stranger in my dream. I glanced down at their shiny shoes. If you wanted to know whether a man was cheap, look at his shoes.

It dawned on me that the trio had taken me for another purpose instead of ramson.

Fury shot through me as I renewed my struggle against the giant man. His one arm pinned my arms and torso, his other my legs since I’d tried to kick him. I couldn’t fight him off, but I could still spit on his shoe, so I did.

“Why did you do that, Carrot?” he asked in displeasure. “Orren, gag her.”

“No way,” Orren said. “You gag her. I won’t become her enemy. She’ll hold a grudge.”

“If you don’t want me to hold a grudge, let me go,” I said. “I don’t just hold one for a long time; I hold it for a lifetime!”

“Don’t do that please,” Orren said.

“We can’t let you go, Carrot,” Dante taunted. “We’ll be a joke if we do. No kidnappers let their captives go.”

Orren nodded eagerly. “It took us years, decades even, to locate you.”

“I need to tend to my garden. If you take me away, it’ll die.”

“Someone else will manage it. You need to look forward,” Dante said, not a drop of sympathy in his voice.

“Look forward to what?” I hissed.

“You’ll see, Miss Carrot,” Orren said, forcing a tone of semi-civil calm over my anger.

Fear seized me, sending knots twisting through my stomach. If these people had spent decades searching for me, they had a terrible agenda. They wouldn’t listen to reason or my explanations that they’d made a mistake by kidnapping the wrong girl.

But was it a mistake?

“Hide her well.”Mom said a goddess gave her the warning in a dream.

My heart sank. All this time I’d thought Mom was paranoid, but she’d been right. I’d made an irrevocable mistake by removing the amulet. It was out of my reach now, buried deep with Mom.

Now they were tearing me away from the only home I’d ever known, nineteen years of memories left to rot. Dragging me from Mom, leaving her alone in her grave.

And my garden…no one would tend to it now.

Chapter

Three

Bloom

Captivity

Dante broke into a run, hauling me like I was weightless. Orren trailed close behind. The van materialized in a blur.

The woman peeled herself off the hood, slid her sunglasses up into her hair, and fixed me with a stare.

“Hello, darling,” she said. “I’m Morrigan. What’s your name?”

I glared at her. I didn’t answer kidnappers’ questions, and she had no right to call me darling.

“Carrot calls herself Bloom,” Orren offered.

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