Page 13 of The Forsaken Heir
I was not a tiny waif of a girl, but the two hauled me up as though I was nothing more than a struggling and fighting toddler.
They placed me in the backseat, and their gentleness was almost comical.
“Are you okay? Are the ties too tight?” Vincent asked, a worried frown on his face.
“What is happening?” I asked, at last a hint of defeat in my voice. “Please tell me why you’re doing this.”
“Sorry, babe,” Rasp said as he climbed into the driver's seat. “Can’t do that yet.” He started the car, then turned back to face me. “Shit, are you, like, hungry or anything? I’ve got some trail mix in the glove box. Thirsty?”
I stared at him, wanting to cackle out a mad laugh. This was surreal in the most manic and bizarre way I could imagine.
“Uh…” I frowned at him. My throat was dry, like it had been packed with sand, but I wasn’t sure I wanted anything from them.
Finally, my need overwhelmed my wariness. “Okay, I’m thirsty.”
Rasp’s eyes widened, and he smacked Vincent on the shoulder. “Get her a water, dude. She needs a water.”
“Huh? Oh, okay,” Vincent said and opened a small, refrigerated compartment below the dashboard.
He pulled out a plastic water bottle, nearly fumbled it, righted his grip, then twisted the lid off before leaning back to offer it to me.
I hesitated, eyeing the bottle with trepidation.
“What’s wrong?” Vincent said. “I didn’t put my lips on it. Promise.”
Something about him gave me the impression that he wouldn’t hurt me, even though he’d just kidnapped me, and that put me strangely at ease. I should have been terrified of this huge, hulking man and his friend, but I wasn’t.
“Here you go, Brielle,” he said. “It’s safe.”
I froze. Of course they knew who I was. They’d targeted me. They probably knew everything about me. Still, hearing your name spoken by a kidnapper—albeit a remarkably polite kidnapper—was disconcerting.
“Thanks,” I mumbled as I held my hands open for the bottle. When he gave it to me, I raised my bound wrists and drank half the bottle in four quick gulps.
“Rasp, are we gonna get in trouble?” Vincent asked, glancing at his partner with a combination of fear and worry.
Rasp let out a snort of derision. “Trouble?Dude, I told you, this is gonna make us freaking legends. He’s gonna love us for this.”
“Who’she?” I blurted, accidentally dribbling water down my front in my hurry to speak.
“Oh, uh…” Rasp muttered, glancing back at me. The smile faded from his lips. “Don’t worry about it.”
“We’re really sorry,” Vincent said, frowning at me apologetically as he turned. “We gotta keep that secret. You’ll see in a while though.” His eyes widened a bit as if he’d recalled something. “Shoot! Can you promise not to shift? Please? Not while we’re in the car, at least.”
I lowered the water bottle and let out a belly laugh. I couldn’t help it. Part of me wondered if I was still asleep on my balcony and having the weirdest fucking dream of my life. At thatmoment, I decided to see where this disaster of a kidnapping was going to take me. If I died, at least it would be under hilarious circumstances. I could tell the angel at the Pearly Gates a really funny story before heading into paradise.
“What’s so funny?” Vincent asked, his face falling in embarrassment.
The look on his face gave me the sudden and inexplicable desire to apologize. Why the hell did I want to apologize? What was wrong with me? I stopped laughing and composed myself enough to look at the guy again.
“Uh, I’m not laughing at you. It’s…oh, never mind.”
The two men went quiet, and I did my best to watch my surroundings as Rasp drove out of the grassy field onto a nearby country road. I logged each turn and twist, as well as any landmarks, in my mind. A neighborhood here, a farmhouse there, a river on the right, a bridge. With every mile that slipped by, we went higher into the mountains. Soon my brain was filled with dozens of pieces of information I could use to retrace our movements. Those would only be usefulifI escaped, though.
“Is he going to be home?” Vincent asked after ten minutes of driving.
“Yeah,” Rasp grunted. “He only stayed at the penthouse last night. He told me he was going to stay at the country house for a few days to relax after the trip.”
Country house?Penthouse? Who the hell were they taking me to? Fuck, was it one of the major royal families? Maybe someone was trying to curry favor with the dragon king Decimus? If that was the case, then they might be in for more of an ass-chewing than praise.
