Outlaw's Promise(76)

I couldn’t even shake my head. I just stared at him, panting in fear.

“Volos was a god. Of, among other things, cattle.” He put his face close to mine. “Do you understand? That’s what you are, now. That’s what all of you are. Cattle. Don’t get the idea I wanted you back because you’re special. I wanted you back because I bought you and you’re mine. You’re livestock and if you don’t do as I say, I’ll hurt you. Understand?”

He released my cheeks so abruptly that I didn’t realize what he wanted. I just stared at him.

He grabbed my face and rammed the back of my head into the door pillar. I saw stars. While my face was still crumpling in agony, he pulled me forward again. “Understand?” he repeated.

“Yes!”

He released me and turned to face front.

And for the rest of the journey I sat there too scared to cry.





49





Carrick





They say your life flashes before your eyes.

Most of mine, I’d relived enough times in my nightmares that I didn’t want to see it again. My mum, changing into a different person. My dad hitting her head against the floor. Pulling the trigger and killing the FBI agent.

Maybe I deserved this. I certainly didn’t deserve much better. What kind of happy ending had I expected, as a one-percenter?

But right at the end of that shitty life, crammed into the final seconds before the movie ended, there was something new, something that changed everything. A smart, sexy, lovable woman who saw things in ways no one else could, who saw things in me that I couldn’t, who had hair the color of copper and pale, soft skin that made me crazy. And maybe a guy like me didn’t deserve her. But that wasn’t what this was about.

She was going to die, too. In a month or a year, when they had no more use for her. And her life until then would be a fucking horror movie.

Maybe I deserved this. But she didn’t.

And her only chance, her only hope in the world, was me.

Behind me, I heard the trigger creak as the guy started to squeeze it.

I knew that, logically, there was no way I could win. I was handcuffed and they had me down on my knees with a gun to my head. There were two of them. I wasn’t sure whether they were actual FBI too or whether they were just mercenaries Volos had hired, but either way they’d been trained and I hadn’t. Logically, I was going to die.#p#分页标题#e#

But I was way beyond logic. I was into pure, angry, Irish bloody-mindedness.

I stood up.

It was the last thing the guy was expecting. Maybe he thought I’d beg or cry or piss myself, but he’d never known anyone to just plain not cooperate. He had the barrel of his gun pressed so hard against the back of my head that it got dragged along with me, tilting back and back towards the sky. By the time he remembered to pull the trigger the rest of the way, I was almost on my feet.

The gun went off. The whole back of my scalp erupted into blistering pain, like someone had thrown a pan of boiling water at my head, and I smelled blood and smoke. But I could still move, so I turned around. The guy was standing there gaping at me.

Now that the shock of the whole Volos revelation was wearing off, the rage was starting. I could feel it spreading and heating, an anger like I’d never known before. He’d fooled me. He’d taken my club. He’d taken my girl.

I head-butted the guy as hard as I could.

He went down straight down in a heap. The other one was trying to get his gun up so I lurched forward towards him. I didn’t know what the bullet had done to the back of my head, but I was unsteady as hell. So instead of trying anything fancy, I just used myself as a battering ram. He hit the ground first and, a second later, my whole weight slammed down on top of him.

I lay there for a second, my head throbbing. I couldn’t believe I was still alive. Given how much my head hurt, I wasn’t sure how long I’d be alive for. But if I was going to help Annabelle, I had to get out of there. Already, the first guy was starting to get up.

I levered myself to my feet. The sun was going down. My bike was up at the top of the hill and, even if I could get to it, I couldn’t ride with my hands cuffed behind me. I had to get away first and somehow get the cuffs off.

Both guys were on their feet, now, and searching the ground for their guns. I turned towards the lake...and ran.





50





Carrick





I’ve never been a good runner.

Aedan, the brother who got into boxing, used to tumble out of bed and hit the streets for five miles before breakfast. But I’m too big, too ungainly. I’m used to smashing through things, not running from them. And with my hands cuffed behind my back it was even harder.