Page 11 of Being Bold
“Why are you doing this?” Selene challenged. If she was going to die, she deserved to know why.
“Oh look, we’ve arrived!” he exclaimed, ignoring her question.
The vehicle crunched to a stop in the middle of nowhere. If there were hiking trails nearby, she didn’t see any signs for them.
“We’ll have to walk from here,” Felix announced.
A sliver of hope that she might get away fluttered to life in her chest. As much as she didn’t want to step outside into the frosty night air, she wanted to escape from Mr. Dao more. She had every intention of bolting as far from them as she could as soon as they uncuffed her because she’d rather take her chances with the forest.
Felix opened her door, dragging her out by her attached arm. The temperature felt colder than it had earlier in the day. It stole her breath with a cutting gasp, sneaking in through her open parka, and chilling her to the bone.
“Uncuff her.”
At Mr. Dao’s command, her body flooded with adrenaline, warming her up. She was ready when Felix released the cuff from around the door handle. With a jerk of her wrist, she took off like a track star.
She made it maybe ten feet before she got stuck in waist-deep snow. The ground was like powder. With every step she’dtaken, she’d sunk a little more. Behind her, she could hear Mr. Dao’s roaring laughter.
Before she could climb out, a hand gripped her shoulder and held her in place.
“Stupid woman.” That was the first time Felix had spoken directly to her.
Praying he’d be more sympathetic than her crazy boss, she turned in her hole and begged, “Please, let me go. I’ll leave. I’ll go back to California.”
The beast of a man huffed. His coal-colored eyes held no remorse.
“I don’t know anything!” Tears flooded her eyes, and her breath sobbed out. “There’s no need to do this, please.”
Mr. Dao appeared through her blurry vision. “Put these on her and make her get moving.” He dropped a set of snowshoes into the powder next to her. They didn’t sink. Blowing into his cupped palms, he said, “It’s too cold to stay here long.”
Felix grabbed her underarms and lifted her out of the ground like she weighed no more than a doll. His strength scared her, but not as much as the gun he pulled from inside his trench coat.
Pointing it at her, he commanded, “Put them on.”
With shaky fingers that had turned red in the cold, Selene struggled to snap the snowshoes around her boots. When she could stand, Mr. Dao shoved two hiking poles at her.
“May you have a good journey,” he said in Mandarin, his tone ripe with false sincerity.
“Go to hell,” she told him in the same language.
The sociopath grinned at her. She’d never hit anyone in her life, but she had the sudden urge to beat him to a pulp.
Before she had a chance to act on it, Felix shoved his gun in her back. “Move.”
Selene stared at her feet and took a deep breath. She’d only used snowshoes one time in her life. Her dad had cajoledher into trying something new on a skiing trip to Mammoth Mountain in California. She’d never gotten the hang of it.
Picking up her right foot, she trudged forward as fast as she could. The gun at her backwasa good motivator.
By the time they’d gone a hundred feet, she sweated with the effort of constantly kicking snow off the shoe deck. Her leg muscles burned worse than any workout she’d ever done. Her breaths formed puffy clouds in the freezing air, while Felix and Mr. Dao didn’t seem to have the same issue. She wanted to stab them with the ends of her poles, but the sight of Felix’s weapon stayed her hand.
“That’s far enough.”
At Mr. Dao’s announcement, her inner voice simultaneously said, “Thank God” and “Oh shit.” Would they leave her now? Or, and she hated to acknowledge the thought . . . would they shoot her?
I don’t want to die!
“Give her the sedative.”
What?At that moment, what they intended to do to her became very clear. If they knocked her out again, she’d surely die from exposure.
