Page 77 of Red Hunt

I clenched my jaw, clamping down against the shivers running down my back. Clamping down on the bile rising up in my throat.

“I’m a survivor,” I repeated inside my head, again and again, like a mantra. Stoking the fire inside. Creating an emotional armor. No matter what might be coming.

When he grabbed my arm, I didn’t even feel the pain though he likely wasn’t being careful. He marched me to the door on the other side and unlocked it. “Emergency Exit,” the sign on it said. What a joke.

Time of truth.

Scream and run. That was the plan. But how I would manage that while this guy was holding me tight, I didn’t know.

Behind the door was a staircase, steep and slippery and dark. He marched me upstairs, maintaining his grip on my arm while walking behind me. A single porch light shone a sliver of light on the stairs, nothing more. I just had to break away once we were upstairs. I could do that. He would be occupied with getting the car open, wouldn’t he?

I looked back down over my shoulder. Belinda was farther down with the other girls. I needed to wait. To give them a chance to escape, they all needed to be clear of the stairs. So, I bid my time. Once up on street level, I realized this was a dark alley between two buildings, small but wide enough for a white van parked a couple of feet away.

My tormentor opened the back and pushed me inside before I could even try to escape or brace myself. I scrambled back up when all hell broke loose. Belinda and the girls started screaming, and I joined them. They all ran in the same direction—away from me. I kicked the guy standing guard at the van with both my feet, and when he doubled over, I crawled outside as fast as I could.

Free.

I watched Belinda and the other girls race along the alley, and I followed them. But not only was I a couple of feet behind everyone else, but between me and them were the two guys, who were in a deer-in-the-headlights state, frozen in place.

“Don’t let her go,” the tall guy squeaked behind me just in time when I almost passed the other two guys.

Suddenly, arms clamped around my body, my feet lifted off the ground, and a sob broke through me.

Caught.

I clawed and kicked, screamed and cried. I made contact with his kneecap, and he stumbled but didn’t fall.

And then I was back in the van.

Game over.

49

MAX

Goofy listened, nodded at me, then opened the door. We entered another empty room, just in time to hear the outer door thunk shut. It smelled of expensive perfume and lots of it.

We cleared the room quickly, aiming at the other door. I made a detour to the door on the side, which was locked, then joined Goofy as fast as I could.

Goofy opened the next door just as the screaming started.

No holding back now.

We barreled up the stairs, two, sometimes three steps at a time. Once on street level, I looked around. To the left, I could see three guys climbing into a white van, while to the right, several scantily-clad women were running for their lives.

Goofy and I nodded at each other, me going after the van, Goofy following the women.

I memorized the plate, then approached the van to open the rear lid. But just as I was about to grab the handle, the van started and jumped forward, slowly gaining speed.

Milli’s face appeared at the small window, and my heart jumped in my chest. I wouldn’t have seen her, wouldn’t have recognized her, if I hadn’t been so close. She pressed her hand against the window, her mouth moving, saying something I could neither understand nor decipher. I sped up, but the van gained traction, the distance between us increasing. I moved into full-on sprint mode, desperate to catch them at the end of the alley where they needed to slow down to take the turn. But even though I could see the brake lights come on, the van barreled around the corner, not slowing down enough for me to catch up.

Fuuuck.

I ran until my breath sawed in and out of my chest. My throat hurt. and somewhere deeper. a pressure slowly squeezed at the hollowness inside. I had lost sight of the van long before, but I couldn’t stop, couldn’t face the fact that they had Milli. That I had lost Milli.

My Milli.

“Max. SITREP.” Carter’s voice sounded strained through my earpiece. There had been talk on the comms, but I had drowned everything else out. Everything else except Milli’s face pressed against that damn window. Caught inside that fucking van.

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