allowed the man into the room. The only scenario she could think was he had been lured out of the room, was hurt, or worse. She wouldn’t allow herself to think of the latter.
“What’s your name?” she asked, remembering somewhere about getting personal with kidnappers to remind them you were human.
His bloodshot eyes narrowed. “Ain’t none your business, bitch. Now grab your welp or I’ll do it. I promise you won’t like how I handle him.” He pointed the gun toward Jaxson.
Palmer cried out, rushing to put her body in-between the gun and Jaxson. “Don’t please.”
“Then you best get a move on it. I don’t much mind where I take care of the both of you, but mama said to bring you to her first. She said we could kill you after we play,” he said with glee.
The look in his eyes said he was looking forward to whatever he had planned. Whoever his mama was, she was clearly a sick woman and her son was every bit the same. “Keys will kill you.”
He laughed. “Your Keys is a dead man.”
If a heart could stop but still beat, hers just did at his words. “No.”
“You grabbing him or am I?” He lifted the Glock.
Palmer set her jaw. Even if, God forbid something had happened to Keys, there was no way the other men she’d heard him talking to had also been hurt. She had to believe that. She had to take strength in the knowledge that she and Jaxson weren’t alone.
“Can I grab his bag?” she asked, pointing toward the diaper bag with all his things.
The man walked over, grabbing it with a jerk. He didn’t take care as he rifled through it, pulling out item after item. Once he deemed there were no weapons or whatever he’d been searching for, he tossed things back inside before shoving it toward her. “Let’s go.”
She noticed the curtains blowing from the open window, allowing a little bit of light to come in from where the sun was barely beginning to rise. She looked at the window and her son, wondering how the heck she was going to climb out of it carrying him. No way was she going to ask the psycho to help her. The thought of him touching her was bad enough, but she’d do almost anything to keep him from laying a finger on her precious child. Slinging the backpack over her shoulders, she lifted Jaxson up, making little hush noises in hopes he stay asleep.
“Move it,” he barked.
Palmer flinched as he shoved the hard metal into her back. In her mind she ran through all the scenarios of what she could do, yet nothing was workable when it came down to the reality of what could happen. She stepped on the table by the window, keeping one hand on Jaxson. Lord, his twenty pounds was never so noticeable as it was in that moment as she teetered on the ledge with one leg out the window and one inside.
“Bout damn time. I thought you decided to fuck her first,” another gruff voice said before hauling her out the window.
Her cry startled Jaxson, his mama solidifying her resolve to survive at any cost. With both arms wrapped around him, making sure it was she who took the brunt of the fall as she saw the ground coming up far too fast, she calculated her next move. Whoever the other man on the outside of the window was, he didn’t try to stop or help them. His cruel laugh letting her know she wouldn’t enjoy whatever they planned to do to her, once they got them where they were going.
With that realization, a thought hit her, or rather something she remembered reading somewhere about not leaving the point of attack. Goodness, she realized her entire life came down to what she’d seen or read and now it appeared she was experiencing those things at once. However, she knew the thing about the chances of survival going down if she and Jaxson were taken away from where they started, went down exponentially unless the captors were seeking money. From what the other man said, they had no plans to get money for her. Thank god her grandfather had made her take a class in self-defense in college. She didn’t kid herself into thinking she could take the two men out. But she sure as heck could make it a lot more difficult than going along with them like a lamb to