Page 43 of Brody

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Once again, I had no choice but to rely on him to save me. I really was completely useless.

It ended when one of the kidnappers got fed up with the struggle and punched me in the stomach. The sudden pain made me curl up, and they were able to drag me from the truck. I still tried to fight back, flailing like a drunken madman with no fighting skills, but another punch to the face made my whole world spin and I dropped to the ground.

Everything was a blur after that. I lay on the ground, fading in and out of consciousness. Every thought left my head, except for the surprising observation that asphalt was more comfortable than I expected.

There was so much noise. I wanted to cup my hands over my ears to block out the repetitive banging sounds, but I couldn’t coordinate my arms enough to bring them up by my head.

After an unknown amount of time, with the late morning sun beating down on my back, more hands hauled me to my feet and an arm around my throat kept me standing.

Something cold and hard pressed painfully against my temple.

What was happening?

I thought I heard Brody’s voice, but it might have been my hopeful imagination.

Some of my senses came back to me when I was suddenly slammed down into a chair. As I looked around in confusion, several straps were secured across my body, keeping my arms and legs pinned in place.

“Where is Aaron?”

“Wha yu mean?” My slurred words were barely understandable, not even to me. My vision swam when I pried my eyes open, and a masked face loomed over me.

“Aaron Beckham,” the same voice demanded, and it took me longer than it should have to realize that the masked person was trying to talk to me. “Where is he?”

“I don’t… know.” My neck had the strength of a pipe cleaner as I tried to hold up my head, and my chin kept dropping back down to my chest.

A hand grabbed my jaw, forcing my head up so I had to look at the masked person.

“Don’t play with me. Where is Aaron Beckham?”

Aaron Beckham?

I knew that name. I couldn’t match a face to the name, but the sound of it reached down into my chest and a sob bubbled up my throat. Tears dripped unbidden from my eyes and carved hot paths down my cheeks. I didn’t even know why I was crying, but I couldn’t make myself stop.

Another masked person shoved the first one aside and grabbed the front of my shirt, shaking me so that my back repeatedly slammed against the chair I was bound to.

“Stop blubbering and tell us where he is. That thief is going to pay, and if you don’t cooperate, then you’ll be joining him.”

I barely heard what they were saying. That familiar but unknown name was still bouncing around inside my head, echoing in my ears and blocking out all other sounds. I didn’t even realize we were in a vehicle until everything suddenly swerved to the side.

“What the—” The person holding me had to brace against the side of the van to keep from toppling over. “What the hell are you doing up there?”

All three of the people in the back of the van with me looked toward the front where another masked individual sat behind the wheel.

“That ginger bastard is chasing us.”

“What?” Three faces peered out of the van’s small windows, all jostling for a better view. It was such a ridiculous sight that I couldn’t help laughing.

Laughing and still crying at the same time. I must have looked like a lunatic.

One of the masked people jumped into the front of the van to lean out the window and started shooting a gun behind us. Thewhole van swerved again, even more drastically than before. People stumbled and shouted as they were thrown around.

Ironically, the straps meant to imprison me actually kept me secure in my seat.

The sound of a second gun joined the fray, then the whole van shook violently. We swerved so hard that everyone still standing was knocked off their feet and even the driver struggled to hang onto the wheel.

Someone shouted “Oh, shit!”

The whole van spun.