Page 39 of Sinners Keepers
I left quietly and headed toward the car without telling the others. This was a mission to keep the peace and if Ijah found out that Alec chugged his last energy drink this afternoon, heads would roll.
Or at least one head would… Alec’s.
I steered into the deserted gas station parking lot, barely aware that a car had been creeping along behind me. I threw the SUV into park and cut the engine, but the tense energy of the night's events still pulsed through my veins.
Something felt off, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.
I shrugged it off and exited the vehicle, convincing myself that I felt uneasy because Hunter was constantly in the middle of all of this shit. My protective instincts went into overdrive when it came to her.
I slammed the car door and had barely taken two steps away from it when a deafening crack split the air. My body was thrown backward, pain searing through my abdomen as I fell towards the ground. My back collided with the side of the car and I grunted loudly, sliding down the side of it and clasping my hand to the wound as blood wept between my fingers.
My brain felt like it had rattled against the inside of my skull from the impact. I was dazed, unsure if it was from the hit, shock, the pain, or all of those things combined.
I lifted my head toward the direction from which the shot came. My eyes watered, blurring my vision, but there was no mistaking who walked toward me.
“That was fucking fast,” I ground out.
Ellis swaggered slowly toward me, his ugly fucking penny loafers clacking against the pavement with each step. His lips twisted into a menacing smirk, making him look like some evil villain straight out of a comic book.
“I don’t respond well to others touching what belongs to me,” he replied, the cigarette between his lips teetering precariously with the movements of his mouth.
Hunter's face flashed in my mind. She had her father's green eyes andmaybehis nose, but a delicate elegance he sorely lacked. It seemed impossible to me that such a stunning, perfect human could be the product of someone so vile.
In almost any other scenario, Ellis wouldn’t have been able to stand on his own two feet against me, but pumped full of what I assumed was rock salt, I was down for the count.
I felt like I'd been socked in the gut with a thousand tiny needles, the shards embedded into my skin through the thin fabric of my shirt.
The full weight of his punch snapped my head to the side, dulling my senses even further. Before I could react, he grasped me by my collar and slammed my head against the pavement. The asphalt bit into my skin, and my vision tunneled as I lost consciousness.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Law
Icame to, raddled. I squinted in the darkness, frantically searching for any hint of light.
There was none.
I felt around, flecks of dust—or dirt?—nipping at my face with the movement. My fingertips met surfaces on all sides that were unmistakably damp cardboard. Panic rose in my throat as I realized I was completely boxed in. I sucked in a breath, trying to keep my claustrophobia at bay.
My eyelids were heavy, and the weakness in my body threatened to overwhelm me.
Snick. Thunk.
The sound of a shovel piercing the earth, then tossing chunks of dirt into a heap on top of my enclosure sounded from above.
I’d seen somewhere once that a person has two hours of air once buried alive. I hoped this motherfucker worked fast because there was no way I could attempt to make an exit with him still nearby and I had no idea how long I’d already been in there. I was in no shape to fight anyone off.
“Hurry up,” a muffled voice hissed, carrying through the pile of dirt and the thin walls of my container.Ellis. “This place gives me the fucking creeps.”
I kept completely still, holding my breath so as not to make a single fucking sound. I wasn’t about to give them any inclination that I was awake now.
There was a beat of silence before a male voice replied, “Fuckingleave, then.” I had no idea who it was that spoke. “You’re the one who called me out here to do this shit in the middle of the fucking night.”
“It’s yourjobto come when I call,” Ellis replied. “Day or night.”
“Yeah. Well. Maybe next time call mebeforeyou make a sad attempt at incapacitating someone with the intent to hold them for negotiations,” the guy huffed. “You can’t very well negotiate much of fucking anything when your captive has a head injury like the one you inflicted. The rock salt should have beenenough.”
“I wastryingto cover all my bases,” Ellis said. “The fucker is twice my size.”
