Chapter 5

• Amari didn’t move while he walked toward her. Her cat was still, waiting with her, reminding her once more to stay calm and quiet, they needed them to believe she was harmless and write her off as a cooperative hostage. If that was even a thing.
• “I’m going to take the hood off,” his tone was quiet, “just behave and it can stay off.”
• She stiffened and waited.
• The first breath of fresh air felt so good she almost smiled. Blinking, she let her eyes adjust to the light again. It was barely daylight, so that was a plus, they hadn’t traveled too long.
• “That’s it,” he spoke from beside her, “I’ll get you a drink and see what we can do about finding you a more comfortable position in a bit.”
• If it weren’t for her situation, she might give this one a pass, she thought for a second, but he was still part of it, so that wasn’t going to happen. Lifting her chin, she watched him walk away. He was a big son of bitch, but she’d taken down bigger in her life. She didn’t know how long he would have his back to her, so she took the opportunity to look around. They were on some plateau surrounded by trees. She was on the mountain she’d been admiring as she drove.
• They’d erected some tents, that weren’t new if the faded material was any indication. A smaller man was securing tarps over them. She looked behind her to see she was tied to a young tree. There were only traces of snow on the ground, so that was a plus because she was sitting on the wet ground and at least it wasn’t numbing cold snow.
• When he started walking back toward her with a bottle of water, she kept her chin down and looked him over from under her lashes. He had a big scar across half his face and despite his gentle voice, his expression was not. He was a killer and there was no mistaking that void expression in the back of his eyes. That eliminated the possibility that she could play on his soft side.
• When he squatted down beside her and uncapped the water bottle, he glanced over his shoulder, “told you stopping her was a better plan than taking the shot while she was driving,” he turned back to her, “this is going to be a challenge with your mouth all messed up.”
• Amari flicked her gaze to his briefly, how bad was her face? She was still numb all over from the drugs and the cold. Tipping her head back until it rested against the tree, she opened her mouth as far as she could. Her neck muscles were tight, no doubt from the impact when she crashed the van.
• “That’s a girl.” He leaned closer and poured some of the water into her mouth.
• She tried to rinse it around her dry mouth and ended up drooling half of it out because of the swelling. Swallowing it, she winced and then tipped her head back again. This time she swallowed it and repeated her action without making eye contact with him once more. They needed to believe she was scared into compliance and too afraid to do anything about her situation.
• When half the bottle was gone, she nodded her head slightly to tell him she’d had enough. The last thing that she needed was to drink too much and have to go to the bathroom. That, with three males watching, wasn’t happening. She’d go in her pants where she sat before she went in front of them.
• He capped the water and set it beside her. “You were a hard one to track.” He smirked at her and then stood up.
• Was that supposed to make her feel better? How had they tracked her? She never took the same route twice, and never made a predictable move. The phones, she was told were now secure and the vehicle tracking was only known by a few—so, how had they tracked her? She needed to get out of there and get a hold of Zain and Jesse and let them know they knew about the new tracking methods. So many were at risk.
• When he reached the tents, he shook his head and looked at the smaller man. “Why don’t you go shift and fix your face.” He sounded amused. Turning to the other big guy, he motioned to one of the tents. “You don’t need to stand guard. We’ll hear anyone approaching. Grab a blanket and get it on her. We don’t need her half-frozen.”
• The one that had carried her, nodded and moved to the other tent. The big one with the scar was in charge when the driver was gone. Good to know. Now, to figure out which one of the three jerks was the easiest to con. She tried to reach the back of her belt and couldn’t. Reaching to the side, she bent her arms in an uncomfortable way, if she could turn the belt to the side, she would be able to get the knife out of the hidden slit she’d put in her belt. The case was sewn to the backside of her belt and that little knife had saved her ass more times than she could count.
• She was able to touch the leather, but the belt loops on her jeans prevented her from turning it. Of course, she wore real denim and not that elastic stretchy shit the new ones were made with. Scowling at the ground, she decided she might have to rethink that for the future—not that she had plans to be abducted again.
• Amari watched them set up more of the camp. The little one went into the trees, probably going to shift to fix his face. If she could get him to come close to her again, she’d have to give him something more permanent to worry about. The big one with the scar carried a small gas can over to the dug-up firepit area and poured a bit on the wood. Not how’d she’d light a fire—but okay. The smell would be a great indicator of where they were located though.
• Zain would have sounded the alarm by now. How many check-ins had she missed? Three, four? She couldn’t be sure. Someone would be tracking her whereabouts by now. With any luck, Calum was close enough to lend a hand or Blair. She hadn’t seen him in action yet, but she’d heard the stories and could only hope to see him in action sometime.
• The one that had carried her came out of a tent, dragging a blanket along the wet ground behind him. When he reached her, he grabbed her shoulder and jerked her forward, almost choking her when the rope on the collar hit the end. He draped the blanket over her in a half-ass way, then walked away.
• She tried to sit back and stop it from sliding off again. It fell off her injured shoulder but still covered her other side. Amari sent him a look that marked him with a silent promise. First, he’d carried her like a sack, then smacked her ass, and now this. Oh yeah, she was going to have to balance the scales before they parted ways. Big snowflakes started to fall, just what she didn’t need right now.
• The small jerk came out of the trees and stopped, motioning to his face, “all pretty again?”
• Scarface snorted, then went back to what he was doing. “Go see if she needs another drink.”
• Amari dropped her head, trying to come up with something to bring him closer to her. Calm, her cat reminded her. No worry there—she was so bloody calm right now; he might mistake her as dead. She would have smirked if it weren’t for her mouth. Perfect idea.