I felt Carrie wrap her hand in mine and squeeze tight. I could feel the tremor in her body. She wouldn’t make it five seconds with these men. I didn’t relish being held captive either, but I knew I could handle it. Knight would come for me. I wasn’t naive anymore. I knew what I risked by going with them. I knew what they might do to me. But I also had my kids to fight for, and I would rather fight and risk it all than go with them and lose the chance to see my kids again. Knight had trained me, not a lot, but he had trained me in self-defense. I had a good chance of getting out of here.
I took a deep breath and nodded slightly. “Okay, just promise me that you won’t hurt Carrie. Stick her in the closet and lock the door or something.”
“Kate-”
“No,” I cut her off. “If you want to live, you’ll do this,” I hissed.
Tears tracked down her face and I could see the guilt in her eyes, but I didn’t have time to think about that right now. The only thing I could think about was survival. They were here for me, not her.
“Fine,” the first man said, jerking his head for the second man to take Carrie. “But if anyone comes after us, we’ll be coming back for her. And she won’t be leaving alive.”
Carrie whimpered as the man grabbed her and shoved her into the closet. I could hear her cries and her pleas, but I blocked them out. Now I just had to get out of this. The first man grabbed my arm and jerked me toward him. I slammed my foot down on his and then rammed my elbow back into his stomach. I grabbed for his gun just as the second man rushed for me. With as much strength as I could, I wrenched the man’s arm toward the other man and fought to get my finger on the trigger of his gun.
My heart pounded wildly as the second man ran for me. He was just a foot away when I finally got my finger on the trigger and pulled. The man crashed into us and I pulled the trigger again and again, anything to make it stop. We all crashed to the ground. I could feel blood pouring over me, but I couldn’t move the guy from on top of me. The man beneath me was shifting and swearing. I had to get off him and find some way to subdue him before he could get me.
My phone started ringing, the ringtone I had set specially for Hudson. He was calling and when I didn’t answer, he would haul ass to get to me. Suddenly, there was a press of cold steel against my throat and I stopped struggling. There was nowhere for me to go. I couldn’t escape him in the position I was in.
“You need to let me go. That’s my husband and when I don’t answer, he’s going to come here and he’s going to kill you,” I spat.
“I’m not afraid of him.”
“You should be. You have no idea who he is.”
“You have no idea who I am,” he sneered.
“Yes, I do,” I said, trying to buy myself some time. “I’m the woman that got your gun away from you and killed your partner. If I can do that, imagine what my husband can do.”
“We won’t be here to find out,” he growled, shoving me up from where I laid. The man on top of me rolled off of me and over to his back. His lifeless eyes stared up at the ceiling. The knife slid against my neck, making me wince when he came just a little too close to my jugular. “Get up.”
I very carefully placed my hand between my throat and his hand, trying to keep him from slicing my neck open. “Alright, I’m getting up. Just don’t slice my neck open.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that right now. Someone wants you alive, but he didn’t say anything about making sure you got to him in one piece. So don’t fuck with me.”
I gave a slight nod and stepped over the dead man on the ground. I had to think of some way to slow him down. I needed to give Hudson more time. “Aren’t you going to clean up the body?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Someone will find him and…and link him to you. He fell on top of us. There’s going to be evidence from you on his body; hair or skin cells. They’ll know that you were involved.”
“Not in time to save you,” he chuckled in my ear. “By the time they find out that I was involved, I’ll have delivered you and gotten my payday.”
My head was swirling as I tried to figure out something, anything I could do to leave a message for Hudson. I was panicking and that wouldn’t get me anywhere. But I could sign. The cameras would pick it up. I only knew how to sign letters, but hopefully it would be enough. I wracked my brain for the right questions to ask.
“Where are you taking me? Who wants to see me?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“At least tell me what this is all about. I think I have a right to know why you’re dragging me away from
