“Shut up!” The man holding her jerked her toward him and shook her so hard her head snapped back painfully. There was no decision. No debate, and no doubt when he yanked her in close. She acted.
Brie pulled the trigger.
Twice.
She didn’t hear her weapon fire, but she felt the buck of the gun in her hand. Her arm freed instantly, and she stumbled but scrambled from the man at her feet and ran. She sprinted toward the back door of the restaurant, to people and to safety. She heard the steps behind her and felt a massive weight force her forward and off-balance. Her hand flew from her purse and the entire thing went flying as she tried to stop her crash to the asphalt. She braced for it. The pavement jarred her knees. She twisted to avoid hitting her head, but it was hopeless. A smack of stabbing pain plummeted her into oblivion.
Chapter 16
Brie regained consciousness in stages. The pain registered first. Her face hurt like a bitch and her neck was so damn sore. She tried to lift her hand to her head. A tug brought her fully awake. Someone had tied her hands together with wide leather cuffs and attached the cuffs to a bar that spread her legs at her ankles. She laid on her side on a carpeted floor.
They had shoved a hard ball of some sort between her teeth. The wide stretch of her jaw hurt, or perhaps it was the way the strap pulled tight, keeping the ball in her mouth. She blinked to clear her vision. There was a sliver of light creeping under the door across from her. She heard a door slam and yelling. What language was that? She strained to hear more. The voices were indistinct, but one thing was clear—the man doing most of the yelling was mad. She panted through the feeling of nausea and tried desperately to remember…
She groaned and closed her eyes. She’d shot someone. Oh, God. Had she killed him? Tears formed and creeped over her nose, dripping to the carpet. Laying on her side, she couldn’t wipe them away, but it didn’t matter. The people who’d killed those two men in the alley had her. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down. When Ryker discovered she wasn’t home, he’d come looking for her. Wait. Roger! Roger would see her truck was still there. He’d see the dead bodies, he’d sound the alarm, but when? What time was it now? How long before she could expect help, and would anyone know where to find her? The tears rolled faster.
A streak of clarity split her terror-filled thoughts. She’d witnessed that man kill Blondie and heard him kill the other man. She’d seen his face. Reality clipped her on the chin with the power of a right hook.
She wasn’t getting out of this.
The men’s voices got louder. The light under the door modulated as the men, now directly outside the door, argued. The door slammed open. The sudden light blinded her. She blinked wildly to regain her vision. The two men shouted at each other and gestured to her. They switched to English when the tall one noticed she was conscious.
“Fucking bitch.” He yelled at her, spittle flying from his mouth as he raged. “You’re very lucky you didn’t kill him, otherwise I’d flay the skin off you, inch by inch.”
Oh, God. The man she’d shot. She tried to push away from the man as he advanced. “We are going to find her, and when we do, we are going to kill you both!”
Another man jogged to them. “The doctor, he’s here.” The man screaming at her turned and ran from the room. The one who remained stared at her and then went back to the door and shut it but turned on the light in the room.
A bed, dresser, and nightstands were the reason for the shadows she’d seen before they turned the light on. He sat down on the end of the bed and dropped his elbows to his knees, still staring at her. His sculptured features were a bit too narrow to be handsome, but he wasn’t what she expected. His clothes were nice. He wore slacks, leather slip-on shoes, was cleanly shaved, and his hair was swept back from his forehead, held with gel. She spent as much time examining him as he did her. Finally, he spoke. “It seems I am now in the center of a very messy situation. The men who have taken you have made critical errors. I don't plan on paying the price these errors will cost. You are my ticket away from their impending demise.” He chuckled when her eyebrows drew tight in confusion. “A simple snatch-and-grab. Stupid. They’ve been doing too much of their product. They had it in their mind that they could get Terrell to give up that whore by holding you for ransom. You blew that out of the water when you shot Peña. I can’t blame you, but I wish you had better aim. Now I must kill both of them. That will be… difficult as they have loyal followers. Your captain will have a choice to make. I wonder what he’ll do.”
Brie shook her head. She knew whatever they were trying to pressure Ryker into was horrendous and Ryker would break the law he’d spent his life upholding. Besides, she’d witnessed them kill one man, and probably another. Tears dripped off the bridge of her nose. Those men had wanted to use her to make Ryker break the law. He’d face an impossible decision. She closed her eyes and shook her head again. He wouldn’t—no, couldn’t—give in to criminals.
“Yes, that is exactly what I thought,
