to lock eyes with an absolutely terrified Sage, bound and gagged in the back. Her eyelids peel back and she starts to sob at the sight of me. It’s not relief at having me with her. Nope, she’s freaking out that I’m in danger now too.
If I wasn’t sure before that I was doing the right thing, I am now.
“Get her loaded, the Dravens are clearing the courtyard and if we’re not out in the next thirty seconds, we’re dead.”
I duck my head at Olivia’s voice. Fuck, I hope she doesn’t get an eyeful of me right now, and then the men holding my arms get me trussed up and thrown in the back with Sage. One of them slides in after me and then we’re off, the truck taking off too freaking quickly,and we all bump and jostle each other as we attempt to stay upright without arms to balance or hold on with.
There’s another shout and then the truck swerves on the road, hitting a bump that almost sends us into a ditch, but the driver manages to correct and keep us all alive. I look back out of the opening to see Kieran sprinting behind us, a gun in his hand already, but there’s no clear shot for him to take, not without risking hitting one of the captives or causing the truck to roll.
The last I see of him is with the phone pressed to his ear.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I work out very quickly that we’re not dealing with the lower level grunts in this vehicle.
There’s a Dampener sitting on the other row who is rendering everyone they’ve captured gift-less and there’s definitely a Shield on board because we weave through traffic and red lights without a single hitch or horn blaring at us, and after my forced captivity on the Draven campus, I have no idea of where we are or where we’re heading. Sage keeps her head ducked but I can see her discreetly checking out the view and keeping tabs on where we are, so I’m hopeful we’ll be able to find our way back once we figure out how to escape this mess we’re in. I’m very aware that neither of us are Bonded and there’s only the GPS chip in me to help us be located.
It could be worse.
There aren’t a lot of ways it could be worse but neither of us are badly injured or dead, no one is attempting to torture or rape us yet, and there is some way for us to be located, so I focus on that.
The guy who tied my arms back is sitting between Sage and I, his mask still secured over his face as if he’s worried one of us is about to emit noxious gas and knock him out or something. Dammit, where is Zoey when we need the bitch?
There’s three other students in the truck, all of them bound and gagged, and two more of the Resistance. No one speaks, the sounds of the engine and the road outside too loud to make out much in the open back. When the view starts to quickly change from buildings and parking lots into open pastures and sparsely wooded areas, I start to get nervous. I was hoping they had a shielded building in town to keep us in for a few days. That’s their usual MO, waiting until the heat is lifted a little before transporting their cargo of humans.
A field means they’re planning on testing and taking out.
Sage will survive and be transported. If I don’t access my gift, there’s a good chance they’ll attempt to kill me which will only trigger my gift to protect me and then, again, we’re all fucked.
In or out, I have to decide now.
The truck suddenly veers off of the road again without slowing down and my body slams into the guy next to me, knocking the air out of my lungs. The guy grunts and shoves me away as though it’s my fault the driver is clearly fucking insane and I have no free hands to catch myself with. One of the guys on the other row of seats goes flying and ends up sprawled on the ground in front of us all, blood pouring from a wound on his head.
My stomach curls and I have to remind myself that head wounds bleed like a motherfucker and he’s probably not hurt that badly, but it’s hard not to puke over the sight of it anyway. No