Funny, she thought. It never occurred to me to practice throwing Power behind my back. I always had to look at whatever I was hitting. Joke’s on me. Ha ha.
Hard fingers tangled in her hair. New pain flared as Austin yanked her head back and whispered in her ear, “You had to take everything, didn’t you? It wasn’t enough to serve me with divorce papers. You had to take the whole goddamn thing. Everything I worked for all these years. All the investments. Did you think I was just going to let it go and walk away, you stupid cunt?”
He knew how much she hated that word. It must have given him a lot of satisfaction to finally call her that.
She coughed, “You know, I kinda did.”
Her scalp was on fire. Everything was on fire. She tried to twist around so she could see him. If she could lay eyes on him, she could hit him, but his knees drilled into her back and kept her pinned in place.
“Maybe I will let it go and walk away,” he whispered. “But first I want that file back. You know the one.”
Oh yeah. No doubt about it. He was so dirty.
She tried to laugh, but her bruised rib cage wouldn’t let her. As she closed her fingers around a handful of gravel, she gasped out a laugh. “You really think I didn’t make a copy? Several copies?”
“We’re going to clear out your email,” he growled, yanking cruelly at her hair. “You’re going to give me back the original and any copies you made, and then I’m going to let you go. It’s as simple as that. All you have to do is cooperate, and this will all be over with.”
All except for Josiah and his investigation.
Ha ha.
“And if I don’t?” Just as she couldn’t hit him with her magic, she couldn’t throw the damn gravel in his face while he had her pinned on her stomach. The angle was wrong.
“If you don’t, I’m going to hurt you a lot more than I have already. Believe it or not, I don’t want to do this.” He grabbed her wrist and shook it. “Drop what’s in your fucking hand or I’ll tear out your fucking hair.”
She opened her hand and let the rocks drop to the ground.
When she was done, he twisted her arm behind her back, and his weight lifted from the base of her spine.
She had no time to feel relief. The world tilted and agony screamed when he used her twisted arm to haul her upright. Staggering, she fought to get her balance and turn so she could face him, but he kept her arm twisted behind her back and hooked an arm around her neck, bending her backward and keeping her off-balance. Keeping her under control.
“We’re going to walk to my car.” His breath touched her cheek, and she caught a whiff of alcohol and garlic. Apparently he had enjoyed a nice meal before he came out to the house to kick the shit out of her. “Then we’ll drive to wherever you’re staying. You’re going to give me everything, and we’ll wipe your email account and your computer, and I’ll leave. We’ll be done, and we’ll never have to see each other again. You understand?”
“Got it,” she croaked.
He frog-marched her through the backyard to the side street that bordered the property. A grinding red agony flared with every step. He had cracked a few of her ribs. As they went, she tried to look around, squinting through a stinging wetness in one eye.
Half the neighboring houses were dark. It was Saturday night, and many people would have gone out. He was abducting her, and there wasn’t anybody around to witness it.
Austin had tucked his BMW unobtrusively in the shadow of a large maple, around the corner from the house. When she saw the shadowed car, something happened to her blurred vision.
The outline of the car faded. She distinctly saw red plastic gasoline containers and coils of rope in the trunk.
Gasoline and rope.
What a shock. He had no intention of letting her go after destroying all the copies of the bank statement and wiping her email.
Well, fair enough. She had no intention of meekly climbing into his car.
It wasn’t hard to pretend to stumble. She went down, biting back a groan as her throat and her twisted arm took the full weight of her body where Austin restrained her.