The crammed bodies clear a path for the brothers and I follow blindly as the smoke from Marcus’ joint is blown back, unintentionally smacking me right in the face. I choke on the smell. It’s fucking nasty. I’ve never been one for playing around with shit like that, but I can understand the blissful high.
Levi pushes out through the back door and Roman quickly follows. I step in behind Marcus and just as he disappears out into the dark alleyway beside the club, a big hand comes down over my mouth. I try to scream as the last of Marcus disappears around the corner but the hand blocks my airway.
A hard body presses into my back and just as I see Marcus storm back through the door with Roman and Levi right on his heels, I’m dragged deep into the tightly packed crowd, completely concealed from sight.
I claw at the person behind me, desperate to be freed as I hear gunshots sounding around me. People scream and bodies start racing around the club in complete chaos. Where the fuck are they?
I kick out, desperately fighting for relief as the hand presses down harder. My lungs scream for air and just as I hear one final gunshot, everything goes black.
28
My body jostles and slams against something hard and my eyes spring open. I gasp for breath, my lungs aching as the realization dawns that I’m in someone’s trunk. I slam my hand against the hard surface above me while kicking at the back of the seat. “LET ME OUT,” I scream, my eyes filling with tears as panic overwhelms me.
What the fuck is happening? Didn’t the brothers get to me in time?
FUCK.
Hard bumps in the road send me flying around the trunk, slamming into the roof and hitting my head against the side. There’s barely anywhere for me to move. I’m more cramped here than I was inside that ridiculous club.
Shit, I never thought there would come a time that I’d actually be desperate to have the DeAngelis brothers looking for me, but I’ve never wanted them more. I’m so fucking screwed. Who is this guy? I didn’t get to see his face or even know what he wants with me. Is this one of Giovanni’s men? Did they follow us to the club? Or is it just one of their many enemies who saw an opportunity and took it?
No, no, no, no, no, no. This can’t be happening.
The road is bumpy and it’s clear from the sound of the tires hitting potholes and the way my body flies across the trunk when he rounds corners that he’s driving at insane speeds, but he’d want to. If the brothers got even a glimpse of him as he was leaving with me, then he’s already a dead man.
I scream and pull at exposed wires, kick out the taillights, and beg to be freed until my throat aches, but his only response is to turn up his music, drowning out my cries. I try to peer through the small hole from the taillights and stick my hands through the small hole like I’ve seen in movies, but there’s no point when we’re the only car on the road.
No one is coming for me. I’m back to square one and something tells me that I won’t be as lucky this time around.
I endure the reckless driving and violent jolts for another thirty minutes before the car comes to a screeching halt on what feels like a dirt road. Dust flies up around the car and I shrink away from my peephole as the guy cuts the engine and gets out of the car.
The door slams and jostles the whole car, but nothing fucks with my head more than the sound of his boots crunching on the dirt road. He comes closer and closer and my heart races with terror. There’s nothing I can do. I can’t move to adjust myself in a better position to try and fend him off and I sure as fuck don’t have a knife hiding up my ass to slit his throat with. But I felt how effortlessly he dragged me through the club. This guy is strong. He’s relentless. And he sure as fuck doesn’t give two shits about me.
He stops at the back of the car and my stomach sinks, listening to his hand squeezing the lever for the trunk. It pops open and a dull light floods in, but before I can get a good look at his face or even scream, he reaches in and grabs me.
The man yanks me right out of the trunk and throws me five feet away. My body crashes into the ground with a hard, painful thud as the sheer layer of sweat coating my skin instantly mixes with the dirt. Keeping his eyes on me, he slams the trunk and begins stalking me, loving my fear as I scramble back, desperate to flee into the thick woods round us.