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It was clearly a threat. But I wasn’t sure whether he was talking about her place as a wife or her place as whatever the fuck she did for him.
CHAPTER 12
SCAR
DID HE MOAN WHEN I STABBED HIM?
“Get in, principessa,” Caleb bit out.
“Oh, look at that. I’ve moved up from Romano bitch,” I responded tightly. Tonight had not gone anything like it was supposed to. The plan was to hide out in a corner, chug champagne, chow down on a free meal, and then Uber my way home. All while not making contact with a certain Irishman and his brothers. Oh, and hopefully, piss off my cousin enough that she begged daddy dearest to uninvite me to the wedding.
But no.
Instead, I was being pushed into the back of a bulletproof SUV with three psychos who thought they owned me now. Caleb should’ve gone with my cousin as his wife because I wouldn’t be sticking around for long. A sour taste lingered in my mouth at the thought of them together. As much as I didn’t want him, I didn’t want her to have him, either.
That slam to the head in the bathroom had obviously done some damage because why the fuck would I care about that?
Black fabric hit me in the face, interrupting my internal meltdown.
“Put that over your head. You don’t get to see where we’re taking you. And don’t fuckin’ cry, either. I hate women’s tears,” Caleb said, glaring at me through the rearview mirror as Kenji opened the passenger door and slid in.
How ironic.
Until his comment, I hadn’t considered that a normal reaction to essentially being kidnapped would be tears. Because truthfully, my initial instinct was to wrap the blindfold in my hands around Kenji’s throat and use the moment of surprise as an opportunity to grab his Glock and put a forty-five-caliber hole in Caleb’s head. But that would jeopardize my freedom. The element of surprise only gave someone a few extra seconds. I could probably take out my new husband in that time, but it would still leave me with two pissed-off men in an underground parking garage.
Might as well put the bullet in my own brain.
Survival hinged on knowing when to act on instinct and when to sit back and observe. So I tightened the black fabric behind my head, cutting off my sight.
The hair along my arms stood on end when the back passenger door opened. Even through the covering, Niko’s cologne tickled my nose with its masculine scent. The desire to curl into his hulking form pissed me off.
“Is your blindfold on?” Caleb barked out as the vehicle roared to life.
“You tell me, Callahan. You’re the one who can fucking see.”
Kenji cackled, and there was even a slight rumble of amusement from Nikolay, but nothing but silence from the asshole Irishman. He was probably trying to set me on fire with the power of his pissed-off thoughts.
“See, this is why I have a car with a trunk and a loud sound system when I pick up marks,” Nikolay added casually, like we were talking about the fucking weather, not hostage transportation.
I flipped them off, biting back a remark about how my marks usually drove themselves to where they’d unknowingly be killed. Why work harder when I could work smarter?
Interesting that they decided to keep my hands free. What was stopping me from yanking the cloth off?
Apprehension bloomed in my mind, my senses seeming to heighten. I kept my breathing even and the worry out of my voice, pretending I hadn’t noticed the shift in the air.
“What about my shit? I’m going to need my things, my clothes—”
Tires screeched as the vehicle shot forward before making a sharp right. The erratic movement sent me slamming into a hard chest. What felt like steel bands wrapped around me.
“What the fuck, Callahan? Do you even know how to fucking drive?” I yelled out, trying to wriggle free from Nikolay’s grasp. When his grip didn’t loosen, my stomach dropped to my feet. “You can let me go now, Nikolay,” I said tightly, hyperaware of the rustling sound coming from Kenji’s seat and the way Niko had pinned my arms to my side.
“Sorry, love, but he can’t do that. I need you still for this next part,” Kenji said, now close enough to touch.
There was a pinprick sensation at the upper part of my arm. He’d dosed me with something, and it was fucking potent based on how quickly my muscles relaxed. Moving my body was like trying to swim through syrup. Unconsciousness threatened to pull me under. On pure instinct, I managed to grab the blade sheathed on my thigh, despite Nikolay’s tight hold.
Right before the world turned black, I drove my blade into the fleshy part of his massive thigh. I’d only had enough energy to barely puncture the surface of his skin, but it still brought a smile to my face.
The last thing I remembered before darkness called me home was the vibrations of his chest as he let out a deep groan. It sounded more like he was getting a blowjob than a stabbing.
