Love's Taming(89)

She tried to kick out at him, but within seconds he flashed his knife at her.

“I can slit you like the dog bitches we got,” he said, his eyes glittering.

Her eyes widened in fear and she stilled her legs. The desire to defend herself combatted with her desire to stay alive. Looking into his malice-filled eyes her breath caught in her throat and her bravado left. Fear wrapped its icy cold tentacles around her as he drug her the rest of the way out, the knife held closely to her chest.

“Not so tough are you bitch?” he said as his free hand drifted across her breast again. Pulling her to a standing position, he gave a sharp push between her shoulder blades, moving her away from the van.

She forced herself to take her eyes away from his face and glance around. The van was parked next to several identical vans in a clearing with thick woods all around. The tall trees created the perfect screen from prying eyes. Near the vans was an old barn and to her right was a small cabin. The sound of dogs barking could be heard much louder now that she was outside. Wooden and wire crates were stacked behind the barn toward the woods and the smell of feces was strong. She felt the bile rising again and forced herself to try to breathe deeply, but with her mouth taped shut each breath through her nose just brought the stench closer.

Men were moving around the compound, seemingly attending to unknown tasks, but eyeing her with undisguised interest. They don’t seem scared that I’m seeing them. Because they know I won’t leave here alive. That thought nearly brought her to her knees as she stumbled.

Her arm was roughly grabbed from behind. “Fuck bitch, get moving,” Marco ordered as he shoved her along the path toward the cabin.

Annie’s legs moved automatically as her mind raced with thoughts of escaping, staying alive, and wondering what was going to happen. The door to the cabin swung open as they arrived and she was given no choice but to keep walking.

“Oh, Jesus fuck. Annie, Jesus no!” came the expletive from the man standing at the entrance to the cabin.

Carl.

Her eyes sought out his as her mind raced to understand his presence in this place. He was forced to step to the side as Marco shoved her forward once more, propelling her through the cabin door.

Her eyes blinked as she entered the room, Marco’s knife still pressed to her side. As her eyes became accustomed to the dimness of the front room, she saw a desk piled with papers, a laptop, and several cell phones. A man was sitting at the desk talking on one of the phones.

He turned toward her as she neared, his cold eyes scanning her from head to toe before coming back to land on her chest for a moment, then sliding back up to her face. “Gotta go. We have a guest,” he said with no warmth. “Yeah. She’s much prettier than the other vet we were using.” A deep chest chuckle came from him as he clicked off the call.

A hard-back chair was placed in the center of the room directly in front of the desk. Marco moved her around to the front and with a hand to her shoulder pushed her down into the chair. Annie wasn’t sure her legs would have held her up anyway, but the pain in her shoulders reached an agonizing level.

The man sitting behind the desk stared intently at her before speaking. “Cut her.”

Annie’s eyes widened in fear but before she could react, she felt the ties on her hands being cut, and for the first time in a couple of hours she could move her hands from behind her back. The numbness in her arms was replaced with tingling as she gripped her hands and rubbed them together.

She brought her eyes back to the man at the desk again just in time to see him jerk his head to Marco. Not interpreting the head jerk, she was once again caught off guard when Marco’s hand grabbed the end of the piece of tape over her mouth and ripped it off.

The pain was intense and her hands involuntarily flung up to hold her stinging lips. “Aughhh!” she yelled, unable to contain the utterance.

Carl moved toward her and covered her mouth with his hand. Pressing tightly against her lips, he mumbled, “The pressure will take out the sting.”

She looked up into his face, still not understanding his presence. Did they get him too? Her eyes darted about, but the cabin’s interior gave no answers.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Xavier Thomas. You, my dear Doctor Donavan, have caused a great deal of trouble for my organization.”

Annie sat, trying to still the shaking she felt all over.

“We have had a nice business here until your cop boyfriend infiltrated to take us down. And then, my innocent Doctor, you have continued to make things difficult by your curiosity.”

Carl spoke tentatively, “Xavier, you shouldn’t have done this. You’ve kidnapped a cop’s girlfriend. Jesus, you’ll have them crawling all over the place.”