Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Loki didn’t reply, and I wondered what he was doing.
He had to have been detained by someone, because I knew it would take nothing short of a miracle to keep him away from me right then.
“Get on with it, V. I’ve got some business to address with this pretty boy, and I can’t do that with you yacking in our ears,” the man, Varian called Mick earlier, snapped.
“Alright, alright. I’ll get on with it. Show him the phone, let him see what I’m about to do,” Varian instructed just as his weight, which had been lessening on my arm, pressed down twice as hard.
I could almost feel my bones bending, straining with the effort.
“You stupid fuck,” Loki hissed, and a scuffle could be heard from the phone.
“Uh, uh, uh,” Mick said. “Watch, so we can get back to business.”
That’s when Varian stopped fucking around, and stomped on my arm.
I’m not really sure what happened next, because I was seeing nothing but white, as I experienced pain like nothing I’d ever felt before.
Then, blessedly, I passed out only to be rudely awakened by somebody torturing me.
I felt my body moving across the floor as pain started to awaken me from the blissful place where nothing mattered.
“Oh, dear God,” I heard Andrea cry hoarsely. “Please.”
My eyes opened to slits, and then further to half-mast as I took in my surroundings.
Andrea was dragging me towards the garage, and being none too gentle about it.
One particular bump had me turning my head to the side and puking over and over again from the pain.
“Oh, dear God,” Andrea said again.
It was around the time she dragged me into the car that I lost the battle with consciousness, and went back to that place that allowed me to feel no pain.
***
“Yes, it’s my daughter in law,” Andrea’s voice said from far away.
My eyes strained to open as I listened to the conversation going on around me.
“She’s very lucky, ma’am. The bones aren’t broken, but they’re going to need a lot of rest for the next few weeks. I’m almost tempted to go ahead and cast her arm, but I think that’s a little overboard. I’d be more comfortable with an orthopedic specialist checking it out tomorrow,” I heard a man’s voice say.
“Okay, we can do that. And what about the baby?” Andrea asked, worry lacing her voice.
I perked up at that, too.
I’d really like to know about the baby.
“Baby boy Rector is doing perfect. He looks big and hearty. A perfect twenty four and a half weeker,” the man said encouragingly.
“Thank you, Dr. Royce,” Andrea said, followed shortly by the door to the room closing.
Andrea’s weight shifted to the side of the bed, and I finally managed to open my eyes to find her staring at me, tears steadily dripping down her cheeks.
The only thought that I kept thinking about, though, was that it shouldn’t be Andrea sitting on my bed right now. It should be Loki.
Where was he?
“Where’s Loki?” I rasped.
Andrea shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Then it all came back to me, and I wished I hadn’t woken up to this nightmare.
***
Loki
“You son of a fucking bitch!” I snarled, launching myself up from the chair only to be stopped short by the chains that Mick conveniently took from the equipment room.
One end was connected to the table, while the other was connected to my ankle.
He hadn’t bothered to restrain me any other way.
The son of a bitch was too cocky.
“Oh,” Mick grinned. “Temper, temper!”
I wanted to shove Mick’s smile through his throat by way of my fist. Stupid fucking arrogant bastard.
The metal of the cuff cut into my ankle, but the pain didn’t lessen the ache inside my heart each time I replayed Channing’s agonizing scream over and over again in my head.
I closed my eyes as the scream reverberated through my head once more, making my skin go clammy; although, part of that might’ve been the after effects of the percussion grenade.
I was still nauseated, but now I couldn’t tell if it was because of my terror for Channing, or the goddamn grenade exploding in front of my face.
“Got the two of them in the cage, boss,” a man said as he came in the room.
He was dressed nearly identical to what I used to wear all those years ago.
Black leather pants, cut off black t-shirt, and a leather cut that declared him a member of The Crimson Horde, the gang I’d used to belong to. The man didn’t look familiar, though. What he did look like was a dirt bag, and the picturesque version of what everyone in America considered a common criminal.
Long hair. Greasy and unkempt. Soiled, ripped jeans.
The red bandana was even wrapped around his head exactly like every low-life thug in the business sporting their ‘colors.’
Then what the man said finally struck home. He’d only put two in the cage. Not five.
My guess was that Sterling and Parker were out, and most likely Cleo. They were the furthest away from the exploding grenade, and the most likely to be able to orient themselves the fastest. Their training was extensive.
Mine hadn’t been anything to sneeze at either, but ours was nothing like the parajumpers and the SEALs.
“Did you search them?” Mick asked.
The man nodded. “Took their guns. They had one each.”
Rookie mistake.
I knew for a fact that my stepfather carried one gun on his hip, and one on his ankle. I’d learned a lot from the man in that way, which was why I still had the gun at my own ankle, too.
I was just waiting for more information on how many more men there were; however, now that I knew that three of us weren’t locked up and/or being contained, I had a little more wiggle room.
That was good, too, because I couldn’t stay here much longer without getting to Channing.
I wasn’t stupid though. There could be a hundred men outside. If I were to take out Mick, they could all pour through the door, and I’d never make it to her.