Page 44 of Call Sign: King
“Then your jammer is broken. I have nothing,” she asserted, desperately working to hide her fear of them finding her best, last hope for rescue.
Seconds ticked by as the man glared at her. She was just hoping he’d believed her when he barked, “Untie her. Examine every inch of her body until you find it.”
“Don’t touch me!” she screamed as the goon’s calloused hands pawed at her. As the ropes around her loosened, she flailed harder. It felt great to elbow one of the assholes hard enough that blood sprang from his nose.
“Suka,” he yelled, just before backhanding her face in exactly the same place he’d struck her back at the airport.
Khloe’s neck cracked under the velocity of the strike, giving the men time to yank her out of her seat before tackling her to the carpeted floor. Through the pain, she remembered how she’d wanted to leave her DNA behind. This wasn’t exactly how she’d wanted to accomplish that, but it would have to do.
Her struggle ended when one of the men straddled her back, holding her down with his weight while yanking her arms behind her back. He mashed her face into the carpet until, with effort, she managed to turn her head giving her a close view of her abductor’s shoes.
The beeping she’d heard before grew louder and faster as the other henchman walked around her body with his device. After shouting something in Russian, the man sitting on her back pushed to his feet, still holding her arms at her wrists, yanking them high enough to bring a shooting pain in both her shoulders.
“Fuck!” she shouted, using her now free bottom half of her body to try to break free.
A long hunting knife appeared directly in her line of sight and stopped her cold.
Seconds later, her abductor bent low, until his face came into view. He was close enough to her now she smelled his foul breath. His evil grin reminded her he took pleasure in her distress.
“I suggest you hold still. I wouldn’t want to cut off more of you than necessary, at least not yet.”
His words were chilling, but she couldn’t let him take the tracker out of her. It was truly the only thing left giving her any hope of ever seeing the man she loved again.
“You’re making a mistake,” she said, trying to reason with the madman as she felt his hands on her body.
More words in Russian just before they forcibly rolled her onto her right side.
Calloused hands roamed over her again, stopping to pinch and prod her roughly while moving the scanner around until finally pinching exactly where the GPS chip laid hidden under her skin.
“No!” she cried out, desperate to break free.
Khloe held her breath as she felt the cold metal of the knife gently grazing her skin. “Nicolai thought he was clever. As usual, he underestimated me.”
New tears blurred her vision. The tip of the knife pierced her skin. Khloe screamed out in pain, jerking hard but the men held her down harder.
As soon as they’d taken the small round chip out of her, she had to watch as they crushed the small device, crushing her hope along with it.
For the first time, true despair swept in. The removal of the tracking chip deflated the tiny bit of hope she’d been clinging to, leaving her wallowing in the reality of her situation. Her brain flashed a warning for her to stay strong, but the darkness closed in too quickly, engulfing her in the hopelessness of her situation.
A wall of fear and regret hit her so hard, she could do nothing but cry out. Manic sobs wracked her body. Finally releasing her arms, Khloe curled into the smallest ball she could, right there in the middle of the airplane cabin. Her three abductors formed a ring around her. Their laughter and light-hearted words in Russian confirmed they took joy in her distress.
She didn’t even try to stop crying. What was the point? She’d already lost everything and everyone important to her. Trevor and Ricky were probably dead by now, and it was her fault. Reaper and Tank must be dead too—there was no way they would have let the gunman get to her if they’d been alive.
And while he may not have killed Ryder yet, her abduction would ultimately be the end of her husband. He would never forgive himself for not keeping her safe.
Khloe let herself sink deeper into the darkness, unable to maintain even a tiny grain of hope for coming out of this alive. Maybe it was time to just start praying for a swift and painless death. Surely that was preferable to the torture her assailant had promised.
But even in the pitch black, a pinprick of light still shined.
A baby.
What if she were pregnant? Oh, she wished she’d had just a few minutes more back at the hotel so she could know for sure.
She remained limp as a ragdoll while her kidnappers lifted her, shoving her back into the seat she’d been in as the plane had taken off. Everything hurt. Her cheek, head, knees, shoulders, and hip all throbbed in a pain that paled compared to her breaking heart.
Chapter Thirteen
RYDER
