But Annie and another girl who worked on our floor were walking by, and I still hadn’t closed my car door, so I went with Raven’s comeback.

Blade snorted as the girls moved past my car, rounding my trunk, and I reached for my door.

“I’ll take that as an affirmative, and I’ll start making the arrangements.”

I shut the door and replied, “Roger that. I’m going to the gym.” So they shouldn’t expect me for two more hours.

“Hey. Can you grab something from The Chopped Leaf on the way home?”

I heard Carol yell in the background, “And those chocolate-flavored Pringles.”

“Ew. No.” He immediately shut her down.

I laughed into the phone. “I’ll see what I can do. See you two at home.”

I was reaching for my seatbelt when Blade hung up, and that’s when it happened. There was no warning. No sudden tingling to hint at something amiss. I hadn’t been watching my perimeter as I usually would. I was distracted, talking to Blade on the phone, and I cursed myself as two of my car doors opened at once: the passenger front and the one behind.

My training kicked in, like a switch being flipped on.

I didn’t wait to see who it was.

I bailed. Or I would’ve.

I had my door open even before they sat down, but they had someone outside my door. As I pushed it open to run, he shoved it back, and then I heard a gun cocking.

“Don’t, Riley.”

I stilled, knowing that voice.

He found me.

But no. My split-second panic flared to something else. Curiosity?

The guy next to me hadn’t spoken. The voice was the guy behind me, and I’d heard that voice on the other end of numerous phone calls.

I looked. “Tanner?”

Brooke Bennett’s brother stared back at me through the rearview mirror. His face was like a concrete slab, total lockdown.

“We won’t hurt you,” he said. “We just want to ask you a few questions.”

The guy with the gun growled, “So drive.”

Some of my fear diminished, but a firm knot remained stuck in my throat, along with my training, which was telling me: “Run, bitch. Run fast.”

The guy who’d been outside my door was heading to a car parked in the next row, and this was my only window.

My seatbelt had already snapped back since I hadn’t clicked it in place.

One second. That’s all I had. I had to make the decision NOW! So, I did.

I ran.

I went with the door as I shoved it open, and my feet hit the paved lot hard.

Oompf.

Something twisted, but I didn’t stop.

Adrenaline raced through me, and I was three steps away before I heard them in pursuit.

Tanner barked out, “Grab her. Don’t hurt her.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

They were already on me. I saw the shadow as one grabbed my arm. I swung with a roundhouse at the same time I jumped in the air.

Tanner and the other guy were barreling after me.

I couldn’t take on three guys, and seeing more co-workers coming down the stairs, I started screaming.

One of them grabbed me and yanked me back against his chest as Tanner bit out, “Shut her up!”

A hand covered my mouth.

I bit down as I kicked in the air. A roar came from behind me as my foot smacked against something, hard. I threw my body sideways, and the guy dropped me from the sudden movement.

“Godda—”

A shadow moved in from the side, and fast.

Everyone seemed to pause, and time slowed as Tanner fell back a step, and then the shadow was there.

An arm wrapped around my waist and lifted me as if I weighed nothing. I looked slender, but my body was all muscle. I knew how much I weighed, and that feat was impressive.

Then I stopped thinking as another arm wrapped around my neck, applying pressure. He was putting me out.

I couldn’t fight. He immobilized me and then…

Darkness.

? ? ?

I came to in the back of a car and immediately felt my pockets. They were empty. My phone was gone.

Looking around, this was the back of a luxury car…no, SUV.

One guard sat next to me and another across from me. I knew what they were by how perfectly they were positioned: upright, shoulders back, one hand on their thighs next to their gun holsters, and the other checking in with their earpieces.

The other occupant sat diagonal to me, slouched down, his feet spread wide and his phone in front of him.

When I looked over, Tanner smirked. “Heya, ballbuster. I see you got more spunk than you did when you were a preteen.”

He looked older, but he still had the shaggy blond hair Brooke’s pictures had showed at school. And that same smirk too.

“Fuck off,” I growled.

Looking around, I saw only forest moving by at a fast pace, probably over a hundred kilometers. There was an SUV in front of us, and looking back, I saw another trailing. Shit. No. There was a third behind that one. Four in all.

“All this for me?” I asked, though as I spoke, I knew the answer.

Tanner Bennett was in this vehicle. The convoy was for him, not me.

What time was it and where we were going? I needed those answers. I could formulate my escape plan then—They found me!

I hadn’t taken that in.