Ryker (Hope City #6) - Kris Michaels Page 0,67

was family.

His family.

Chapter 17

Brie snapped her eyes open. The thunderous sounds of many heavy footsteps moved past the room they held her in. She closed her eyes again and listened closely. There was a knock on a door down the hall. A few words and a startled yell. Gunfire popped with horrendous clarity. At least ten or fifteen shots. Shouted words echoed loudly and the sound of soles slapping down the hallway again at a faster pace terrified her.

The door to her room opened and the light flipped on, causing her to blink against the brightness. The man from before, the one who’d spoken to her, entered. He approached with a gun in his hand. She shrank back when she saw it.

“This is not for you. Not yet, anyway. I’m going to release your legs and you will walk with me. Try anything stupid and I’ll kill you.” He reached down and unclipped her cuffs from the bar and then released her ankles from it, too. “Get up.”

She rolled to her knees and groaned. The damage the asphalt had done to them speared bolts of pain through her legs. She tried to push herself up, but her legs wouldn't hold her.

“I said get up!” The man jerked her into a standing position and her legs crumpled beneath her. She scrambled to get them to obey. She moved forward when he pushed her, swaying like a drunkard, but she kept putting one foot in front of the other.

She leaned into his hold, needing it to keep her upright as blood returned to her legs. The needles of sensation tattooed pain throughout her lower body, but she kept walking. He stopped her at the door and held her as he dumped a pillow from its case. The material went over her head. “You were unconscious when he brought you here. I do not want you to be able to lead them back here.”

She trembled at the words. It sounded as if he was going to free her… He tugged at her again, and she moved, taking small baby steps until he yanked her. She tried to keep up.

“Stairs.”

Her foot scraped along the top ledge and she slid, stumbling down the steps, only kept upright by the force of his grip on her arm. Finally, they reached level ground. It had to be a massive space. Things, like their movement, sounded different, almost like it echoed.

“Get in.” She could hear a door open and felt a hand on her head push her down. She shimmied into the car and drew her feet up just as the door slammed shut behind her. She could hear the man walk around the vehicle. He talked to someone and then opened the passenger door. So, someone else was driving.

She pushed her feet to the floorboard and hit… a divider. It rattled. Like a cage. “Stay down and don’t move.” Her liberator—or captor—yelled at her. She folded her legs back up and tried to breathe through the mounting fear and almost-crippling anxiety.

The trip didn’t take long. She tried to remember the turns, but there were so many stops and starts. The driver used his blinker to turn corners and to change lanes. Very precise because, yeah, who wanted to be pulled over with a bound woman in the back seat?

Gravel. The vehicle was off the blacktop. It moved forward slowly, and then the brakes squealed slightly as they stopped. She heard the driver put the vehicle into park. The door at her feet opened, and she shuffled like an inchworm backward. That’s when the pillowcase moved and she could see the floor of the car. She paused for an instant when she recognized the metal cage in the middle of the car. It was a police car or a security vehicle. She wiggled back again and awkwardly found her footing. She dragged her chest against the seat, which moved the pillowcase again. The paint was a dark red. A rush of relief filled her. The patrol cars of HCPD were black and white.

The same vicious hold yanked her upright, twisted her around, and then pushed her forward. She walked on the gravel and felt as the ground got… spongy. She took a deep breath through the cotton of the pillowcase. The harbor. They were at the harbor. God, were they going to kill her and dump her in the harbor? All they’d have to do is push her overboard. With the ball gag in her mouth and the