Page 74 of Keeping Penny

The two men looked at each other in surprise—then laughed. “Pussy. Get the fuck out of the trunk or we’ll really give this bat a workout.”

Irrationally, Pyro hated that they were swearing around Bowie, though that should’ve been the least of his concerns at the moment. He shifted in the trunk until he was sitting up. The movement made his leg and knee throb, and he felt nausea rising up within him. He forced it back, trying to ignore the pain. He’d once flown a mission with a bullet in his shoulder. A lucky shot that came through the side window of the chopper when they were picking up a team of Navy SEALs. The pain had been almost as bad as what he was feeling right now. He hadn’t had a choice but to fly then, just as he didn’t have a choice but to do as ordered now.

However, he couldn’t get out of the trunk while holding Bowie. The last thing he wanted to do was let her go. He hoped like hell the men laughing at him didn’t take the opportunity to snatch her away.

“I need you to stand up, Bowie,” he told her gently.

He was awed all over again when she nodded and climbed off his lap. He didn’t let go of her, keeping her hand in an iron grip. She squeezed his hand back just as hard, obviously not wanting to lose touch with the one thing she was sure of right now.

He couldn’t imagine how scary this was for her. She had no idea where they were, he’d been hurt, and they’d just been kidnapped.

Pyro managed to lift his useless leg over the side of the trunk before standing on his good leg, but the nausea he’d been holding back returned with a vengeance at the movement, and he quickly turned his head and puked up what was left of the lunch he’d had hours earlier.

The men who’d kidnapped them laughed even harder.

“What’s going to happen to us?” he asked weakly, as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

“We’re taking you inside, and you’ll have a big dinner and the best room available. You’ll get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow, you’ll be taking a little trip.”

They were fucking with him, and it just pissed Pyro off even more.

“More like you’ll be going to the basement, where you’ll stay until the couriers come to get you in the morning,” Bat Guy snickered.

“Where are we going?” Pyro asked, stalling for as much time as he could get. He needed to get his equilibrium back, gather his strength just to get into the large house that sat before them. It was actually a nice-looking place, a two-story home that looked like any other vacation house on the beach. And they were on a beach. He didn’t know which one, but could see lights across the water. They hadn’t been in the trunk that long, so he didn’t think they were too far outside the Norfolk area. Which would make it easier for his friends to find them.

“The hospital,” the first man said, with an evil glint in his eye. “Gotta get that leg looked at.”

“Thank God! I think it’s broken,” Pyro said, playing along with the asshole. “Can my daughter stay with me? She’s scared.”

Bowie took his cue and pressed herself against his side—his good side—and buried her head in his shirt. He figured she was only half acting, because she was most certainly afraid.

“Yeah, yeah. She’ll go to a hospital too. Our buddies will pick you up. But you won’t be traveling together.”

That didn’t sound good. The countdown clock was ticking, and it was obscenely loud in Pyro’s head. He had to get them out of his fucked-up situation.

Doubt did its best to creep into his head, but Pyro refused to let it take hold.

“Why not?” he whined, trying to sound extra pathetic. He hunched his shoulders, attempting to make himself look smaller. Like less of a threat. So far it seemed to be working. The men looked downright relaxed. Probably because they knew he obviously wasn’t about to run off, not with his broken leg.

“You need a specialist,” the guy with the bat said, smirking. “Our friends will take you both to the specific doctors you need to see.”

“Why not go now?”

Pyro knew why—because they weren’t going to the fucking hospital. At some point they’d probably be drugged, taken to an airstrip, and flown straight to people for whom money was no object. People who wanted to do awful, unspeakable things to a beautiful, helpless little girl and exert their power over a grown man.

He desperately wanted those details so he could pass them along to Tex, and the man could shut down the entire trafficking operation.

But first things first…he needed to get Bowie the hell away from here.

Without trying to seem obvious, Pyro did his best to get the lay of the land. There were trees all around the house so he couldn’t see much of the area, but he could smell the ocean and see those lights across the way. The late afternoon was quiet, except for the sound of music coming from his left. It sounded far off, but if there was music, that meant there were people.

And people meant a phone.

“Because,” the first man barked. “Enough talk. Move,” he ordered, stepping toward them threateningly.

Pyro put his arm around Bowie and hugged her closer, more for her protection than anything else, and did his best to do as the man asked.

The first step was agony. Pressure on his leg sent shooting pains throughout his body and took his breath away.