Buttons & Hate (Buttons 2)

A flashlight hit me in the face and blinded me. My first instinct was to scream and that’s exactly what I did. I screamed at the top of my lungs and hoped Crow would hear me.

“Shut her up!” A man grabbed me and threw me on the ground. The alarm to the house went off, so loud it was going to make me deaf. They tied a handkerchief around my mouth to quiet my screams. One punched me in the face and then the stomach, momentarily paralyzing me.

Crow, come on.

One man grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me to a stance. He kept my hands pinned behind my back as she shoved me to the broken window.

I twisted my body to evade his grasp but his hold was too strong. My stomach screamed in pain and my mouth started to bleed.

He shoved me through the window and I let out a muffled scream as I flew through the air, expecting to hit the grass at the bottom. My body landed on a stack of mattresses and I bounced in place, recovering from the realization that I wasn’t broken on the ground.

The men followed me and grabbed me again. One positioned me on a motorbike and sat behind me so I couldn’t escape his grasp. He turned on the engine then sped out of the yard, moving through a row of vines to return to the main road.

The wind blew through my hair and I tried to turn in the seat to see if Crow was following me. Just wen I turned the man punched me in the back so I would face forward. I slumped toward the handlebars as the pain shot through my body.

They continued driving through the pastures without turning on their headlights. It was pitch black and I couldn’t see where we were going. When I saw the guy next to me I realized he wore night vision goggles. They could see the road in front of them but Crow couldn’t detect their headlights.

This wasn’t looking good.

Fifteen minutes later they reached a road. They pulled onto the turf and slowed down as they reached a midnight black town car parked off to the side. They killed the engines to the bikes and I was yanked off.

Now that my feet were on the ground, I tried to escape. I kicked the guy closet to me in the balls before I broke the other guy’s nose. There was nowhere for me to fun so I had to incapacitate my captors if I had any chance of getting away.

“Hands above your head where I can see them.” A woman’s voice sounded from behind me. It was distinctly feminine but rang with authority. She cocked the gun and it the sound echoed in the nighttime air.

I turned around and saw the gun pointed right at my face. The barrel was aimed directly at my nose. With a single touch of the trigger my face would be gone.

The woman was my height with dark brown hair. She had blue eyes that looked kind despite her no-bullshit appearance. She stood in a pencil skirt and jacket, not fitting the criminal bill. “Enough of that. Let’s go.” She nodded to the car.

I expected Bones to be inside the vehicle, not a woman. None of this was adding up. The men didn’t look like the kind of backup Bones would employee, and he certainly wouldn’t have a woman working for him. “Who the hell are you?”

“None of your damn business. Get in the goddamn car.” She stepped closer to me and pressed the gun to my temple.

She needed me alive. I knew that much. Bones probably put out a bounty for my head and she was the first one to track my whereabouts. “I’m not worth anything to you if I’m dead.”

A smile that looked more like a sneer formed on her lips. “You’re absolutely right.” She moved the gun to the center of my palm and held her forefinger over the trigger. “I’m sure you could survive a few shots.”

I didn’t give into the fear. Showing weakness, even for a moment, would undoubtedly lead to my demise. “I hope you do shoot me. I’d rather bleed out and die than go back to that psychopath.”

This time she smiled. “I understand his infatuation. You’re a toy that just won’t break.” She grabbed my and spun me around with lightning speed. She pressed the gun to my right shoulder blade. “Hands behind your back.”

I didn’t move.

She kicked in the back of the knee.

I bit my lip and fell to the knees in the middle of the road. My body automatically reacted to the hit and I couldn’t stop myself from falling. My bones ached when they hit the concrete.

She tied a string of rope around my wrists then yanked me to my feet. “Get your ass in the car.” She opened the back door and continued to hold the gun to my shoulder.