Page 67 of Never Fear (Whiskey Ridge)
Chapter 26
McKenna
My head was trapped under the current of an unseen ocean, waves tossing me side to side in a boat as unsteady as my mind. Water rushed in and out of my ears, ringing one moment and muffled the next. My temples pounded, eyes dried shut despite the sea surrounding me. But as I peeled them open, I found there was no water. Only vast darkness, enveloping me in cold.
The hard surface beneath me bit into my cheek, and when I moved my palm along the concrete floor, tiny rocks scraped against my skin. The moon beamed through a window in a towering wall, illuminating the space just enough to see that I wasn’t alone.
A man, dressed in all black, sat in a metal chair nearly twenty feet from me. A gun was gripped in his hand, a finger on the trigger like he’d be happy to pull it.
I tried moving my other arm, but when it wouldn’t budge, I swiveled my head from where I was laying on my side to find a rope around my wrist. The other side was knotted onto a metal ring bolted into the floor.
I was stuck.
“You won’t be getting out of that,” the man announced.
“That’s real fucking obvious,” I shot back, words not as biting as I’d like them to be in my vulnerable state. My vision shifted, my body feeling like it was floating before I blinked away the dizziness.
“Even in this condition, you’re still a raging bitch.” Two footsteps sounded, signaling the man was standing now.
Slowly, I turned to watch him approach before he was crouching before me.
“I’ll be pretty damn pissed if I have to get my last sweatshirt dirty with your blood again.”
A shiver coursed through me at the thought of him making me bleed while I was unconscious. I fought the urge to check myself for injuries. Wherever I was bleeding, I’d deal with it later.
“Real mature of you to hurt a girl while she’s knocked out. Does that get you off?” I morphed my groggy features into an innocent look as I stared up at him. “Does that make you feel big and strong?”
The pain hit before I even saw the weapon coming. The butt of his gun slammed into my already pulsing temple, sending my face into the unforgiving floor. Stars burst behind my eyes, blinding me. I felt something wet, and assumed my still-healing cut from the car accident had split open. That, or he’d torn a new wound in my head.
The man said something but I couldn’t hear it past the ringing in my ears. Through it all, I refused to make my pain known. I wouldn’t whimper. Wouldn’t cry or groan or let him see that I was weak.
“I thought I told you not to touch her until I arrived,” a familiar woman’s voice said, filtering in past the ringing.
A lock of my hair was shoved away from my face by the barrel of a gun. I fought the urge to spit at the man. “Just having a little fun, Monica. Calm down.”
The name had my eyes going wide before I sighed. I fucking knew I didn’t like that bitch.
The man stood, receding back to his chair. When I turned to face Monica, I found he was still standing. Still holding his gun with his damn finger on the trigger.
I’d be surprised if I made it out of this without at least one bullet wound.
“Happy to see me?” Monica asked, white teeth on display in a catlike grin. She was still wearing the outfit she’d been in when I left the diner. Slacks and a blouse, as if this was some sort of normal business meeting for her.
“I think your ego’s a little too high for that assumption.” I hated how raspy my voice sounded. How tired I felt, like every breath was an effort. I could only hope I could keep up the facade long enough for Austin to find me.Ifhe found me. Right now, I was clinging to the knowledge that at least Brynne wasn’t here with me. He’d keep her safe.
Monica ignored my comment, instead facing the man. He had short black hair, almost completely shaved to show off the tattoo that spanned his forehead, neck, and upper cheek. I had half a mind to assume he got all three of them in prison. But maybe I was profiling him a little too hard.
“Did anyone see you take her?” she asked.
He started to shake his head. “She was with her friend?—”
“The girl with the blonde tips in her hair?” Monica gritted out.
The man shrugged like remembering the details wasn’t important to him. “Yeah, I guess. What about it? She was in the way. I accidentally drugged her food instead of this bitch’s.” He gestured the gun in my direction, and I nearly rolled my eyes at how careless he was with the weapon. “I’m sure the bears will find her friend soon enough. All’s good. No witnesses.”
Monica’s lips rolled together before she grabbed the gun from him, thankfully not setting off the trigger in doing so. “I told you that if you have the opportunity to grab both,grab both.” The end of her sentence was so loud, I winced at the sound.
Fuck, my head hurt.
