Chapter 2

• The first thing that dawned on Amari, was that her head was pounding like she’d whacked it against something hard. The second was her eyes were open and she couldn’t see jack all. The last thing that registered was she was being carried over someone’s shoulder, if the ache in her guts were any indication, she’d been in this position for a while now.
• She could taste blood. It was her own.
• With a dry tongue, she tried to lick over her lips and felt the swelling. Her mouth was busted up. Why was her mouth that way? She tried to move her hands to see if she’d decked someone—her wrists were bound together behind her back. She sucked in a breath and prepared to find out what the hell was going on, when her stomach heaved, rebelling against that idea. She blinked again and tried to reach her cat, to see if she had any idea what was going on. She was there, just barely. Trying to stay lax for a minute more, so whoever was carrying her wouldn’t realize she was awake, she fought through the fog to remember what happened. She’d been driving. Made no stops. Hadn’t gotten out of the van—
• “She’s waking up.” She felt the words rumble through the body carrying her.
• “Shit. Already?”
• There were two of them. She didn’t recognize either voice. With the blood rushing to her head, she was barely able to think at all. They stopped moving.
• “Right here.” A large hand slapped her on the ass.
• Before she could struggle, she felt a sting and the only thing that came to mind was she’d just been tranq’d in the ass. Clenching her teeth, she tried to fight the effects. If she could just get her cat in on it, some adrenalin might help counteract it.
• A rocking motion brought her out of the thick haze in her head. What was going on? She was sitting in a vehicle. Sideways on a seat, she thought. Her head felt like it was pulsing with each beat of her heart. They’d knocked her out again.
• “She’s awake.” A male voice said.
• “Don’t dart her again, too many will stop her heart.” That was a different voice than before, she thought, the fog in her brain was heavy, so she could be wrong.
• The words ‘stop her heart’ registered very clearly though. Her next thought was to kick and scream, but her cat moved closer to the surface to settle her down. She was poised, as if she were in hunting mode. Amari took a deep breath and breathed it out again. Calm and watchful would get her further than freaking out. Okay, she could do this. Closing her eyes, she started to take stock of the situation.
• There was something over her head, and from the smell of it, she wasn’t the first recipient to wear it. Her feet weren’t bound, that was a good start. Wiggling her toes, she realized her boots were gone. So much for the knife in her boot. Her wrists were still bound, but her hands were in front of her body this time. She could work with that. Rolling her head to the side, she tensed. There was something around her neck. Cold, thick, she dropped her head forward, it felt like hard leather. The bastards had collared her. Amari really had issues with restrictions, physical or otherwise. Now she understood her cat’s stance, shifting was out of the question. Calm, just stay fucking calm, figure this out. She took short breaths and blew them out.
• “How’s her shoulder?”
• She stiffened. Her shoulder? Relaxing her arms, she tried to ignore the way the binds were cutting into her wrists. Her one shoulder was stinging. There was something on it.
• “No fresh blood through the bandage,” one of them said.
• “You’re lucky she didn’t get more than a few bumps and cuts,” a voice growled from her left. It had to be the driver. “What the hell possessed you to shoot her through the window while she was driving?”
• Amari opened her eyes wide. Through the window? She tried to focus to think. Shit, she had been driving with the window open so she wouldn’t get tired. Wait—if they’d tran’q her while she was driving, she crashed the van.
• “Why the hell did you make us walk all the way back to the jeep?” Someone said from the same seat as her.
• She was in a jeep, but couldn’t feel the air brushing over her, so it was closed in, which meant she couldn’t just flip herself out and take off.
• “They’ll come looking for her.” The driver said, “tracks leading from the crash site are a huge beacon.”
• She had cashed the van. All her stuff was left there—focus, figure out their weaknesses. She closed her eyes again and tried to relax her whole body, hoping they would keep talking.
• “What are you bitching about, I carried her.” From the direction of his voice, he was sitting in the passenger seat. He’d slapped her ass. She’d be communicating with that one later.
• “So, what’s the plan?” That one was sitting across from her asked.
• “We’ll go to the lookout and wait it out for a few days, let them chase their tails around in the bush.” The driver said. “Then we’ll head down and make us some nice money.”
• Amari dug deep to stay relaxed, but her mind was processing possible ways they could make ‘some nice money’—with her. None of the reasons were good.
• “Female, if our intel is right, Alpha family, we should get double the fee for this one.”
• Her restraint broke, she kicked out with her foot in the direction the voice came from. When she connected with a body, she did it again with twice the anger.
• “Son of a...”
• “Grab her legs.”
• Amari tried to kick again, but strong hands pinned her legs down. “Are you going to be okay?” He sounded amused.
• “I think she broke my fucking nose.” His voice was a lot more nasal than it had been a few seconds ago.
• Amari clenched her jaw and relaxed in the hold on her legs. There was no sense in expending more energy until she was out of this vehicle. She felt a small measure better knowing she’d landed the kicks on his face. When she got loose—and she would somehow, he was getting a lot more than a kick in the face.
• “She probably came to and panicked.” The hands loosen on her calves, “she’ll be too dopey to do it again.”
• Wanna bet? She clamped down on her anger so she could listen and learn more. Intel. Someone had sold her out. A thought hit her, if they had the information on her this long since they discovered the leak in their system, how many other women were at risk from the Alliance databases? Shit. She needed to get out of here.
• The girls on the team could be next. She went to bite her lip and then winced when her teeth brushed over her swollen split lip. Gia would be fine, she had Deacon to watch over her. Calla and Deva didn’t have a mate to ride shotgun all the time. Taking a deep breath, she tried to keep calm. They’d be more inclined to wait for their partners from the incursion team though. Clenching her jaw, she cursed herself. It was her own fault; she was hell-bent on proving her balls were just as big as any male out there and now—now she was going to have to listen to all the I told you so’s.
• Turning her head, she rested it against the seat. This wasn’t over. There would be no sales taking place. She just had to wait and listen and find that opening. She could play the docile frightened female. Until her hands were free, then these men better run fast and far. Shifting in the seat, she winced when her shoulder objected. How bad was it? She needed them to take this hood off her head, so she could see. Moving her hands to the side, until she found a position that didn’t make her shoulder throb, she rested them against her belt. A slow smile moved her swollen mouth. They’d left her belt on. Now, she just needed the opportunity to turn it so she could reach the back of it, then she owed them a large order of payback, with a side order of revenge.