With a half sob, I climbed the steep embankment and tore off through the trees, hoping that I could hide myself among the shadows that they provided. I didn’t have a weapon on me, now wishing I had asked Gavril for one before I left just in case.
Oh God. What if Gavril had been targeted as well? We were only about an hour away from the mansion.
What if I was the final kill?
That only made me run faster, even though my body protested and I stumbled over a root, catching myself against a tree before I fell flat on my face. There was the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked behind me, and I whimpered as I felt the cold steel pressed against the back of my neck. “Don’t move,” a dark, angry voice stated, grinding the barrel against the base of my neck.
I pressed against the tree, the bark biting into my clothing, and tried to hold back my sobs. I didn’t know who I was dealing with, so I wasn’t about to reveal to them that I was pregnant unless it was going to benefit me. The last thing I needed was for them to use it against Gavril and have him do something stupid as a result.
The sound of boots crunching in the pine straw sounded a moment later, and the gun was finally removed. “Turn around.”
Shaking from head to toe, I did as I was instructed. There were three men before me, all dressed in army fatigues and decked out in all sorts of weapons and vests. The lower half of their faces were covered by bandanas, and I immediately identified the one that had held the gun to my neck, wanting to kick him in the shins for doing so. “What do you want?” I asked, hearing the tremor in my voice. “Why did you have to kill him!” Anatoly, the burly guard that I had shared a deep and intimate conversation with just moments before, was now gone. Gavril’s trusted advisor, and probably his only friend at that.
Gavril was going to be devastated.
The men just moved to the side, and I felt my stomach drop to my feet as I recognized the familiar swagger of the man approaching, the sickening grin on his face that I had seen in my nightmares for years.
“Jon.”
“Naomi,” he said lightly, holding his gun at his side. “You gave my men a good chase, even in your condition.”
Hot tears welled up in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. “He’s going to gut you for this.”
Jon let out a harsh laugh. “Oh, but he will have to find me first. Besides, I think he’s just a little bit busy with his war to worry about poor little me.” He motioned with his gun. “Come on. Don’t make this difficult.”
I refused to move. “You are going to have to physically get me away from this tree, because I will never go anywhere with you.”
Jon tsked, and I could see the skin near his mouth tighten. He hated when people didn’t do his bidding and fought back. “God, you are still a fucking handful,” he finally said, motioning to one of the men near him. “Get her. It’s time we get the hell out of here.”
The man stepped forward and pointed the gun at my face this time. “Move.”
“Not like that, you idiot!” Jon shouted, pointing his own gun at the man. “What are you thinking? I told you! You. Don’t. Get. To. Hurt. Her!”
The man seemed to sigh, clearly irritated, but he lowered his gun and tucked it into his vest, reaching for the set of zip ties that were hanging off it instead.
“Don’t make this difficult,” he muttered, looking at me. “Your wrists.”
I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to continue to fight until help came. Surely someone was going to see Anatoly’s body and come investigate, or better yet, call the cops.
If I left with him, I would never see Gavril or anyone else again.
He motioned with his hand, and I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood as I held out my wrists, wincing as he tied them until the plastic cut into my skin. “Good girl, Naomi,” Jon called out, tucking his gun into the waistband of his pants. “You can listen then. Come on. It’s fucking hot out here.”
“Move,” the man grunted, making no move to touch me. I glared at him but moved forward, ignoring Jon’s hand on my elbow as we trudged through the woods back to the highway.
“Don’t touch me,” I growled, shaking off Jon’s fingers on my elbow.
He laughed and tightened his grip around my elbow, to the point where his fingers were digging into my skin.
“Oh, Naomi, Naomi, Naomi,” he murmured, his lips brushing my cheek before I could shy away. “I’m glad to finally have you here next to me again. You and I? We’re going to have one hell of a time getting reacquainted. So much lost time, so many things that we have missed in each other’s lives.”
I shuddered, fighting against the bile that rose in my throat. I was back in the situation that I never wanted to be in, with the man that I had sworn would never be in my life again.
What was I going to do? How was I going to get out of this?
No matter what happened next, one thing was for sure.
I wasn’t about to let Jon touch this baby or have any control over my life ever again. I was stronger than he realized. I wasn’t the same scared girl he had abused in the past, and he was going to find out at the first opportunity exactly what I was capable of.
I whispered a prayer for God to watch over not only me but also over Gavril as Jon led me toward a truck on the fringe of the woods.
This wasn’t going to be my end.