Page 66 of Unloaded
Awareness comes slowly.An acrid scent is in my nose causing me to cough.Where am I?When I force my eyes to open, my vision is blurry and I blink repeatedly, but it doesn’t help much.
My head is pounding like a base drum and nothing makes sense. I attempt to lift my hand to my head, but my arm feels like it weighs a ton. My hand trembles from the effort, but at last, I manage to reach my forehead. There’s a wet sticky substance that is running down my face.What the hell happened?
I can’t move my legs, but blessedly there’s no pain in them. I blink again to clear my vision, but I still can see a thing. Steam, or is it smoke, is pouring from under the crumpled hood of my van. I’m unable to see what’s beyond the hood.
Memories come flooding back all at once.Lawrence Winthrop ran me off the road, and I crashed.Oh God!Did he leave me for dead or is he somewhere nearby?
Movement in the corner of my left eye catches my attention. The pain is overwhelming, but I manage to turn my head. Menin suits are coming down the embankment with guns in their hands. Lawrence Winthrop is leading the charge.Shit!
Fear overrides the pain. I begin to franticly scramble to get out of my seatbelt, but it isn’t budging. I reach for the glove box where I have my gun stashed, my right arm stretched out as far as it will go, but it’s too far away. Between the seatbelt stuck and the metal bent around my legs, I’m pinned in place.
Without that gun, I have no way to defend myself.Is this how my life ends?
Lawrence reaches the van and pulls on my door, but it is mangled so badly he can’t open it. Terrified beyond belief, I keep trying to free myself or at least reach the glove box without success.
“Get down here, Vinnie!” Lawrence yells. “I can’t get this door open. I need help getting her out.”
“Get away from me!” I yell and pain shoots through my head. Shit! I must have hit my head harder than I thought. Lawrence is still jerking on my door, trying to open it when a rather large man appears at his side.
“Move out of the way, I got this,” the large man, Vinnie, I assume, commands in a deep rumble. His voice is as deep as he is tall. His shoulders are wide and even with his suit on, I can tell he is built like a brick house.
He grips the frame of my door where Lawrence had managed to pry it open slightly. Vinnie gets his fingertips between the door and the frame, then he pulls, hard. Metal groans and screeches. My door opens a bit more. Enough that he can get his huge meaty hands between the door and the frame of my van.
This time when he pulls, the door gives. With another loud screech of metal, the door opens enough that Lawrence reaches in to grab my left arm. He pulls on me roughly, causing pain to shoot through my body at the harsh treatment.
“Ow!” I scream. “Stop, asshole!” Lawrence lets out a string of curses when he realizes he can’t just yank me out of the driver’s seat. He tries to release my seatbelt, unsuccessfully I might add.
Vinnie pushes him out of the way and whips out a large knife. I cringe when the blade pops up with a click. He comes at me with menace in his eyes. “No! Don’t! Get away from me!”
“Shut up!” he commands and reaches over me to slip the blade of the knife under my seatbelt cutting through it with ease. Once I’m cut free, he scoops me out of the seat as if I weigh nothing and turns to Lawrence.
“We need to get out of here. The cops will be here any minute.” He begins to climb up the embankment with me in his arms. I have no intention of going anywhere with these assholes if I can help it, so I begin to kick my legs and beat my fists against him.
“Ugh!” he grunts. “Stop! Don’t make me hurt you.” The tone of his voice is frightening, but I’m not giving up. I’d rather die than be taken by these men. Who knows what they’re planning to do to me? Unafraid of his threat, I don’t stop my assault, but his next words give me pause.
“Stop now or your brothers will pay for your actions.” I still immediately, giving up my futile attempt to get away and confirming that my brothers are my weakness.
“That’s better,” he mutters as we reach top of the embankment. Their cars are parked along the side of the road. Despite having rammed them into my van, they don’t look to have much damage. My poor van is definitely totaled.
I look around to see if Vena’s SUV has also stopped, but there’s no sign of Vena or my brothers, which causes a mixture of relief and fear. Did Vena know I was following him? Did he have his brother run me off the road to abduct me? Has he decided to torture me before killing me? I need information.
“Where are my brothers?” I ask, not caring about the consequences.
“They’re no longer your concern,” Vinnie grumbles. He reaches the first sedan and places me into the backseat, then climbs in next to me. “The best thing you can do is keep your mouth shut.”
Lawrence appears at the window. Vinnie lowers the glass. “What do you want?”
“You have the girl,” Lawrence states. “What assurance do I have that you’ll keep your end of the agreement?” Vinnie tenses beside me. His hand sliding into his coat. Lawrence notices the movement and raises his hands into a surrender position.
“Don’t disrespect me or my boss by insinuating that he won’t honor the deal,” Vinnie growl, angrily.
“Look, I’ve stuck my neck out here,” Lawrence insists, which surprises me. I’m about to shit my pants from the pissed off vibes Vinnie is giving off. Lawrence must have balls of steel, or he’s a complete idiot. I’m leaning toward the latter. “Vena wants her dead. I’m the one he’ll come after if he finds out I let you know where to find her.”
“Vena knows my boss has been hunting for her,” Vinnie replies, sounding disinterested. “He doesn’t have to know where we got the intel. For all Vena will know, we were simply monitoring his activities, as we’ve done for years. In the process, we happened to find the woman trailing him. Nicolai wants what was promised to him.”
Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!Nicolai Caprice has found me. This is bad, so, so bad.
“He will convince Vena that we’ve done him a favor,” Vinnie continues, “when in reality, he should execute Vena for not turning her over the moment he knew where she was. Vena should count himself lucky Nicolai is going to let him live.”
