mile a minute. She'd read somewhere once that talking to your captor and having them get to know you could make them connect, thus less likely to hurt you. Glancing at the man in the passenger seat, his jaw clenched and face hardened to steel, she didn't think that theory had a snowball's chance. Rizzoli had killed Noah's whole family. Had tried to burn Aubrey alive when she'd been just a baby. Still, it was worth a shot.
Shot. God.
At a red light, she went for broke. "Where are you from? I hinted an east coast accent. I'm originally from California."
His fist cracked across her cheek, knocking her head into the window with an additional blow. Pain and heat spread over her face where the punch landed, and in the side of her head where she connected with the window. Blood filled her mouth, metallic and warm. Black dots hovered in her peripheral.
"The light's green, bitch. Shut up and drive."
Choking back a sob, she eased her foot onto the pedal. The gallery wasn't far from Prince William Sound. She had mere minutes to come up with a plan.
Soreno wasn't wearing a seatbelt. If she floored the gas and could accelerate fast enough, he might fly through the windshield if she ran the truck into a light pole. But that was a crapshoot. He could get a shot off before reaching a decent speed. Plus, she couldn't run very far or fast in these heels and no coat.
"Turn left. Go all the way to the end."
They were at the fisherman's port. There was nothing down this way. Her heart tripped in her chest wondering if he planned to take her somewhere by boat. Her head was throbbing and her cheek smarting with an impending bruise. Dizziness threatened to swamp her. The shudders wracking her body morphed into convulsions. Her hands slipped from the wheel twice before she somehow righted them.
"Park here."
Her gaze darted around, but they were miles past the docks and in an isolated corner of the bluff. The only thing in sight was an old crab shack that had been closed for a decade. Not even a street light. On two sides of the building was the ocean, the other an endless stretch of uninhabitable woods and rock. Just??othing.
He grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her out of the truck, taking strands out by the root. She bit her tongue to avoid crying out. With her hair wrapped around his fist, he leaned into the driver's side, put the truck in neutral, and watched it roll down the embankment into the ocean. It stalled for minutes before sinking into the inky black water.
He pressed the gun to her ear. "Inside."
They trudged up a hill to the shack, her heels getting trapped in the snow several times before they made it to the door. Her feet were frozen solid, needles of agony digging into her flesh. Her face hurt and her eye must be swelling shut because she could only see out of one.
With a shove between her shoulder blades, she stumbled into the shack. The floor was little more than wood planks, rotting through, and the walls didn't fare much better. Through the slats, the wind off the mountains sliced, offering little protection from the elements. Along the back wall was a soiled mattress and, in the center of the room, a pine table. A single chair was nailed to the floor beside it. Filet knives lined the table with precision.
The place smelled like rotten fish guts and year old refuse. She wretched, dry heaving until her belly cramped. Because everything had been unsettled with Noah, she hadn't the stomach to eat before the exhibit. Grateful for that now, she sucked in a deep breath to calm herself as Soreno strode to the table and flicked on a battery-powered lantern.
"The chair. Now."
Her mild relief of the chair over the soiled mattress was short-lived when she glanced at the knives again. Raped or tortured. Was there a lesser of two evils there? Her teeth chattered with enough volition to make a cracking sound over the ocean swells.
The chair was freezing, sending even more chills through her body. He used zip ties to secure her wrists to the chair arms and her ankles to the legs. Then, he straightened to full height and raked a gaze over her, making her shudder. The violation from his gaze alone left a slime-coated film over her skin.
Using the barrel of the gun, he