Crow’s angry voice came over the phone. “Button—”
I dropped the phone in the sink and ran for it. I couldn’t defend myself and hold the phone at the same time no matter how much I wanted to listen to his reassurances. With the knife gripped tightly in my hand I ran around the kitchen island so there was an obstacle separating them from me.
One man had the audacity to chuckle like this was a sick game. “Feisty, isn’t she?”
“If you think you’re going to take me, think again.” I kept my defensive posture with my knife held at the ready.
The leader pulled out a pistol and aimed it right at my head. “Drop the knife.”
“No.” They wouldn’t shoot me. Bones wanted me alive. He was a sick bastard but he wasn’t into necrophilia. I was useless to him dead, and if he went through all this trouble just to find me there was no possibility he wanted me harmed—unless he did it himself. “Shoot me and see what happens.” I tightened my grip on the knife and stood at the ready. I’d stab the blades through each of their eyes if they came too close.
When the man didn’t shoot, I knew I called his bluff. “Put down the knife and come with us or we’ll make you come with us. And believe me, there will be a lot of twisting and groping going on.”
My nostrils flared and unspeakable rage rushed through me. I’d become used to the privilege of freedom and the respect of the men around me. Crow became a lover instead of a kidnapper, and he never did anything I refused. But now I was hurled back in time when I was regarded as a slave, forced to do unspeakable things just because Bones got hard when he looked at me. No more than livestock, I was an object without a right or opinion. Forced into submission, I had to do what I was told.
No more of that bullshit. “Walk out the door or I’ll cut your dick off.”
The man with the gun chuckled. “Stupid and feisty. Bad combination.” He rushed me and aimed the handle of the gun against my skull.
I lashed out with the knife and aimed for any piece of flesh I could find. I sliced through his shirt and hit the skin underneath. Instantly, the blood pooled at the wound and soaked into his clothes. I could hear him hiss under his breath, the burn of the cut distracting him enough that the gun fell short.
The other two men came next when my first attacker stepped back and pressed his hand to his stomach to stop the bleeding. One grabbed me by the arm while the other approached me from the other side.
“Drug her,” the first one commanded.
Fuck. No. I twisted out of his grasp and thrust the knife into his gut.
The man caught the blade with his hand and sliced his hand open. But he kept the pressure on and protecting himself from a deadly wound. He threw the knife on the tile where it clanked against the hard floor. “Fucking bitch. Put her under.” He wrapped one arm around my neck and kicked my knees from underneath me.
“No!” I threw my body forward to roll away but the grip was too tight. He forced me to the ground and onto my knee, his arm still hooked around my neck painfully.
The second attacker shoved the needle into my neck and inserted the serum directly into my blood stream. I could feel the vein thicken with the extra liquid. My heart was beating quick like a drum but it immediately slowed down once the drug took its effect. My eyes became heavy and my train of thought disappeared. Only one word, one name, came into my mind. “Crow…”
***
Loud and constant, the powerful sound of the engines ripped me from sleep. My face was pressed to the black tile of the plane, and when I opened my eyes I saw the aisle of seats around me. The men were sitting in a pod of chairs facing each other. With black leather jackets and beady little eyes, they talked quietly among themselves.
While I laid on the floor like a pile of garbage.
I didn’t stir because I didn’t want unnecessary attention. When they realized I was awake they would either drug me again or use me for their own amusement. All I could do was focus on the shaking of the floor beneath me and the constant hum of the aircraft engines.
They must be returning me to Italy. We were probably halfway over the Atlantic at the very moment. As I listened to the constant hum of the propellers I hoped geese would fly into them so we would crash in the middle of the ocean. That was a much better alternative to being returned to the psychopath, Bones.