“Thank god, you opened your eyes buddy. It’s been over 24 hours. You had us worried there.” Worried? Why, what happened? Liam tried to sit up, but a hand pressed him back down. “Easy, you took a nasty beating in that car wreck.” Car wreck? Like a movie, memories came flashing back in quick time. His sister had a seizure. He and Cora left to get to her, then a car swerved into their lane and hit them. The airbag had never gone off and he slammed into the steering wheel. Why hadn’t the airbag gone off? Cora. Where was Cora?
“Cora,” Liam croaked trying to sit back up again.
“Easy, Sunshine,” Doc said holding a hand on Liam’s chest. “You need to rest.”
“Fuck rest. Where’s Cora?” Liam glared at Doc. If he didn’t start getting answers and quick, he was going starting beating answers out of them.
The guys looked at each other uncomfortably. “How about you get a shower first? We’ll talk after.” Hound finally said.
“Hound, we’ve been friends a long time. You’ve always had my back, and I’ve always had yours, but if you don’t tell me what the fuck is happening right now consider our friendship over.” Liam’s tone was deadly. He still felt weak, but he would beat answers out of every one of them if he had to.
“Cora was kidnapped when your car crashed. Alejandro has her. We looked over the wreck and it appears that your airbags were tampered with. I don’t know yet, but I will.” Hound told him point blank. Liam felt the air rush out of his lungs. Cora had been kidnapped? His airbags had been disarmed. He failed her. Just like he failed his sister. Alejandro was doing who knew what to her because he hadn’t protected her. “There’s more.”
Liam took a few deep breaths. All sorts of scenarios played in his head of what Hound was going to tell him. “Tell me.”
“It’s better if I show you.”
~
Cora came to slowly. She was lying on the ground. There wasn’t a part of her body that didn’t hurt. Especially her jaw. She vaguely remembered someone hitting her in the face in the car. She had no idea how long she had been out or where she was. The ground felt cold and damp. And was uneven. Like rock. Rock? Where was she? She remembered they were heading to Liam’s sister, then they were hit by a car. The vehicle had swerved at them at the last second, so Liam hadn’t had time to react. Most of the impact had been on his side. She hoped he was okay. Cora started to lift herself up on her elbow and look around. Her head started swimming at the abrupt movement, and Cora had to close her eyes to get her equilibrium back.
Once she felt better, Cora cracked her eyes opened and looked around. She couldn’t see much. It was dark with only a few torches in the room. It was a round room with only one tunnel that led out. She heard water, like waves crashing against rock. That was good to know. It meant she was on the coast. If she could escape, she could make it along the shore and find help. Cora was concerned when she looked around and didn’t see Liam. Where could he be? Were they holding him somewhere else? Trying to keep them separated? She hated the thought they would have left him behind to die on the side of the road. Cora sat all the way up and was pushing to her feet when she heard voices coming down from the end of the tunnel. Cora looked around panicked but didn’t see a place she could hide. The only thing she could think to do was play possum. Cora laid back down facing the tunnel and kept her eyes cracked to watch for whoever came. Four men entered the room. The leader wore a white three-piece suit. Alejandro. She remembered hearing his voice after the crash. He had somehow faked leaving the States and waited for someone to leave Aaron’s property. Liam had told her something hadn’t felt right, and he had been right. They had all been a fool. Every instinct in Cora told her to run and hide, but knew they would capture her again in a second. She had to relax. Cora tried to calm her breathing, so it appeared as if she was still sleeping. The men circled around back of Cora. She could hear them talking but couldn’t understand what was being said. Cora’s body tensed, and her eyes cracked open more looking left and right, trying to see where they were standing.
A pair of expensive looking shoes stopped in front of her. She didn’t dare look up. He just froze. “You can stop pretending to be asleep, mi querido. I know you’re awake.” Alejandro told her.
Cora debated pretending not to understand and keep lying there, but one of his goons kicked her forcefully in the ribs. “He said up, puta.”
Cora winced at the swift kick in her ribs. She slowly sat up and turned and looked at her kidnappers. Alejandro’s hair was slicked back from his forehead and was thinning and appeared bald in the middle. He had a thick
