This couldn’t be happening. There had to be a way out.
Knowing that her survival rate nearly became non-existent if they got her in the car, Alexis tried to buy herself more time.
Her luck swayed in her favor as the men carried her back toward the cabin. Just as they rounded the top of the porch movement from the field caught her eye. At first, she thought it was just an animal, but she saw a bright red shirt as the person hurried toward the tree line.
Preston.
She didn’t know how the man knew to come or that Cliff needed his help, but she won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Distracted, she almost missed that they’d opened the back door and were shoving her inside the cabin. Wade’s lifeless body was ignored as the men stepped around him.
“Where did he keep his weapons?” her father asked as he began tossing objects around the room, ripping doors off of cabinets, and ripping the couch cushions. She grimaced at the mess that they made to Cliff’s home.
“Where?” her father shouted at her when she didn’t answer.
Like she was going to give up that information to him.
“I don’t know.”
Standing nose to nose with her, Lev fumed, spit spraying from his mouth as he spoke. “Don’t lie to me, girl.”
Remembering her father’s phone call at the shop, she used his words for her against him. “I’m not lying. I’m just a dumb whore, remember?”
This time she expected the hit and masked her flinch as his uppercut knocked her teeth against each other.
“Search the house,” he commanded his men, except for the captor holding her against his frame. The small elephant man stayed still.
Time. She needed time.
“I don’t suppose you’ll allow me to change? I’m sure whomever you’re taking me to won’t appreciate the blood or medical scrubs,” she tried to reason with her father using the techniques she developed for interrogations.
“You suppose correctly.”
The beast holding her replied, “I don’t know, boss. Harposia doesn’t like us not looking our best.”
Idiot.
“You idiot. Keep your mouth shut.” At least she and her father both agreed on something. Shaking his head, her father looked her over, sneering as he took in her ragged appearance. Hell, if he ran through the woods for dear life, he probably wouldn’t look too great either. “You have five minutes to change into something sensible. If I were you, I wouldn’t consider doing something stupid. And wash your face, you look like a mess.”
She tried to cock her eyebrow at him, knowing that he was the reason she looked the way that she did, but the swelling on her face was already hindering her movements.
“Stand guard at the door,” her father told his minion, who promptly carried her toward the hallway.
He dropped her at the foot of the door and she barely had a chance to catch herself before she landed on her bottom. As Alexis stepped inside the room, she moved to close the door, but the beast reached out and stopped the motion.
Great. She got an audience too.
Alexis stepped toward the dresser where Cliff allowed her to place her clothes in the drawer. From the full-length mirror in the corner, she could see the man watching her back, but she knew that he couldn’t see but a sliver of her. Grabbing a tunic style tank top, Alexis figured she could put this on first, giving her a little bit of coverage as she tugged on a pair of shorts.
Lifting the dirty shirt over her head, her intake of breath was followed by a sharp pain under her ribs, most likely where the man had kept her pinned against him. Biting her cheek to counter the ache, Alexis slipped the bright pink tank over her chest.
Reaching in the second drawer, Alexis moved aside a few pairs of pants in search of her d
enim shorts. Hopefully, that’s what the muscled-man believed she was doing. Below the second pair of pants rested her loaded gun. She didn’t need to check it to make sure that it was ready to go. It was small and compact and if she settled it a certain way along the waist of her shorts, it wasn’t as noticeable.
Toeing off her shoes, she shimmied the scrub pants over her hips, trying her best to ignore the muscled man’s gaze in the mirror as he stared at her ass. Holding the gun and shorts in one hand, she slid her legs through the holes and tugged them up her thighs. A quick tie of her tennis shoes and she was as prepared as she could be.
Right now, the only prayer she had was that her father didn’t have her searched. She’s counting on his underestimation of her skills.