AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was in too much of a state to laugh, but her trembling lips quivered into a weak smile, and she let Aleks guide her into her room without any more fighting. I told Aleks to stay with her, but it was already clear he wasn’t about to leave her side.
Back downstairs, Nat and Mila wanted in on the action but I put my foot down. “Katie’s right. As much of a dumbass as this guy is, it doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous.”
“Or prepared,” Max said. “We were wrong to take him lightly. Jenna’s obviously scared of something, or she wouldn’t have gone along with his harebrained scheme.”
Mila tried to get us to wait for backup, but neither one of us would hear it. We already had a bunch of guns and ammo inmy car from the failed attempt to surprise the Portland leader, so there was nothing left to do but head out.
“We’ve got this,” Max said, sliding into the passenger seat with a look of grim determination. He had known about Jenna and me the longest, and since we were so close, he also knew how important she was to me.
“Damn straight we do,” I said, getting in and gunning it toward Jenna’s location before my seatbelt was fully fastened.
Nothing could keep me from getting my wife back, and God help anyone who tried.
Chapter 36 - Jenna
“You screwed it up!” Hardy shrieked. “You sounded scared out of your wits and didn’t sell the plan at all.”
I dropped the phone out of my trembling hand, and he snapped it up, looking like he might slam me in the head with it. It was impossible not to be scared when both he and his wife were waving their guns in my face.
“It was a stupid plan in the first place,” Mrs. Hardy said. I wholeheartedly agreed but kept my face downcast and neutral.
“He’ll come,” I said. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
Frustration boiled in her eyes, turning her face beet red. She slapped me hard and stormed out of the room. With a sigh, Hardy followed her, slamming me back into my dingy little prison. There was no point in calling after them and trying to get them to believe I hadn’t foiled their plan on purpose. Mrs. Hardy was right about it being ridiculous, and one that Lev wouldn’t have fallen for in a million years.
I’d had to listen to them argue about it, with Mrs. Hardy wanting to pretend some random hill person had snatched me and was demanding a ransom. They were horrible people through and through, but it was clear they’d never kidnapped anyone before.
Just because they were new at it didn’t mean they weren’t all in. They continued to argue, and it was impossible not to hear every bitter word as they sniped back and forth with each other. Mrs. Hardy was even worse than him, and probably the one who decided bringing me up here to use as bait was a good idea. Now that it was going south, she thought it would be easiest to just kill me and dump me somewhere, then forget the whole thing.
Talk about stupid. As if Lev wouldn’t hunt them to the ends of the earth. I had to smile despite my terror when Hardy argued that very point.
“He’d never let us rest. You think we could continue to live in San Francisco? This whole thing is to get me closer to our goal. How am I going to run for mayor when we’re hiding out in Mexico?”
I wanted to call out that he’d have to go further than that, but was sick of getting hit. My head still ached to the point it made my stomach roll with nausea, and now my face stung from her hearty slap. They started speaking in lower voices, so I scooted over to the door, pressing my ear to the ancient, dusty boards.
“We have to end him, too,” he said.
There was a knothole lower down, and I tried to see through it. My only view was of their feet. He was pacing; she sat at a chair by a rickety folding table. It was somewhat comforting to know where they were, but hearing was more important, so I pressed my ear back to the door, concerned about their sudden need for secrecy.
I’d known from the beginning that their main goal was to take Lev out of the equation, and I was only the bait, but with Lev on the way, it was starting to sink in how little time I had left. If he was coming from San Francisco, it would only be a few hours, and with my racing heart, churning stomach, and zip-tied hands, it was difficult to come up with a plan to stop them before he arrived.
“There’s no way he can get a crew together before our friends arrive,” the councilman said. “They’ll be here long before he can get here. We'll be prepared even if he decides not to come alone.”
“It’d be better if we didn’t have to shoot him, though,” Mrs. Hardy said in the same tone she might talk about preferring chocolate cake at her garden party. “It’ll be easier to stick to making it look like a trail accident.”
Easier for them to go back to their lives. Hatred welled up in me, so strong I felt dizzy, even sitting on the floor. It was the only thing keeping the fear from overwhelming me. Who were these friends that were coming to help overpower Lev? I should have stalled somehow, faked an illness to give Lev more time. He wasn’t supposed to pick me up until after dinner, but if I could have waited until he was meant to be in Monterey, then he might have been able to get here quicker.
But the ‘friends’ were already on the way. That might have only given them more time to set up. If it were only Hardy and his wife, I could have gone berserk and overpowered them, even if it meant possibly taking a bullet. But now there was going to be backup, and I had no idea who or how many.
Locked in the room with my hands tied, I wasn’t sure what I could do to help, or how I could find a way to warn Lev once he arrived. The fear and anger that had been sustaining me started draining away, along with my energy.
It was possible I might never see Lev alive again if their ambush worked. I scuttled away from the door as bile rose in my throat. I really didn’t want to puke in this tiny room, and if they heard me, it would probably annoy them enough to warrant another smack.
Breathing slowly through my nose, I managed to calm down enough not to heave, but a deep sense of despair rushed in soon after. The clock was ticking to Lev’s possible demise. Would I even get a chance to shout that I was sorry?
Because I was sorry, deeply so, and the realization didn’t shock me. Over the course of our time together, my feelings for Lev had become stronger than I let myself believe. Every sweet thing he did for me came rushing back, every smile that lit up his handsome face, even every furrow of his brow when he was pretending to be annoyed with me.
The stubble that grew on his strong jaw and the way it felt when it brushed against my cheek—or the inside of my thighs. Except for the part near his chin that had a small white scar. I’d kissed that scar, and the one on his shoulder that he promised to tell me about on our first anniversary. No matter what scenarios I dreamed up, he promised the reality was a crazier story. We’d laughed ourselves silly so many times, and he’d been an anchor when schoolwork made me feel like I was drifting out to sea.
