“Don’t touch me.”
His hand tightened around my neck centimeter by centimeter. There was nothing loving in the strength of his grip and the look on his face. I gasped for air. The edges of my vision blurred. Saliva pooled in my mouth.
Oh shit, this was it. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me. I’d spent thirteen months fearing the Trinchers and what my life would be like if I were trapped with Kon, but they weren’t the real threat. The real threat had been lying in wait for my entire life, hiding among the suit-clad men who hung around Gian and Dominick.
“I’ll do whatever I want.”
Panic bubbling in the throat, I lifted my knee, hitting him in the balls. He grunted and bent over, cupping himself.
I couldn’t move for a beat. Pressure built, preventing me from sucking in a breath. Like a statue, I stood there frozen in some weird time warp, unable to comprehend what I’d done.
Holy shit. Nico is going to kill me.
That thought snapped me into motion. I sprinted to the door, running blindly down the hallway. I stabbed the elevator button three times in quick succession, then gave up and darted to the exit stairwell, my footfalls echoing off the concrete walls. Three flights of stairs later, I stopped in the lobby of his building to catch my breath, my hands resting on the top of my thighs.
“Pull yourself together,” I repeated over and over, giving my muscles and brain a pep talk.
Seconds later, I heard the rush of footsteps behind me. Before I could reach the gun strapped to my thigh, someone pulled a dark hood over my head and forced me to the ground, pinning my arms and legs to the floor. Rough fibers scratched at my face and flickers of light peeked through the woven squares of fabric, giving me a fuzzy glimpse of two shadowed figures.
I screamed, squirming and thrashing without much success. The fabric clung tighter and tighter to my face until I couldn’t tell whether I was suffocating or having a panic attack, but I did know I was growing weaker and weaker by the second.
“Wrap the duct tape around her legs and arms!” a man shouted.
“I’m one step ahead of you,” a woman replied. The ripping noise of tape pierced through my increasingly hazy thoughts.
“Leave me alone!” I squeaked out, arching my back and swiveling from side to side. “Let me go! Please.”
“I can’t stand listening to this bitch,” the woman taping my arms responded, her voice weirdly hollow.
A solid object knocked against the side of my skull. Blinding white pain exploded inside of my head and then…nothing.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
Konstantin
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“What the fuck?” I rolled onto my side and squinted at the alarm clock, blinking a few times before bringing the glowing blue numbers into focus. It was three in the morning, and I had drifted off to sleep a measly hour earlier.
I tossed and turned, unable to quiet the voices warning me something wasn’t right. Even after drinking two glasses of vodka they refused to be silenced. Their cunning voices mocked me for allowing Carmela to face her family and Nico by herself. Something wasn’t right.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Open the door, Trincher, or I’ll kick it in. It’s your choice. I’m only giving you thirty seconds to decide!” someone bellowed in the hallway outside my apartment. My neighbor was going to report me to the co-op if this shit continued.
I stuffed my legs into my jeans, pulled a shirt over my head, and trekked down the hall to the front door. I glanced out the peephole.
Dammit.
“Gian, can’t this wait until morning? It’s the middle of the night if you haven’t noticed, and as much as I love middle of the night visits, I can guarantee my neighbors don’t feel the same.”
“I don’t give a damn about your neighbors.” He punched the door. “My sister’s missing. I have a feeling you know where to find her or that she’s in there with you.”
An icy, sick dread tilted my stomach. I fucking knew better than to let Carmela take care of this shit alone. If I could kick my own ass right now, I would. I deserved it. I should’ve faced off with Nico, Dominick, and Gian and stood my ground.
I shoved a gun into the waistband of my jeans and flung open the door. I needed to pick Gian’s brain for information and then end this conversation as fast as possible and find Carmela myself. I didn’t trust Gian’s people. I’d seen their less than stellar work firsthand at the hospital, and I refused to entrust Carmela’s life to a bunch of incompetent assholes.
“She’s not here.”
Gian stood right outside my door with a gun aimed at me, surrounded by two guys and one woman I didn’t recognize. His dark hair stuck up and his eyes, so like Carmela’s, looked wild and haunted.