Chapter Fifteen

Isabelle

“Let me go,” I screeched, struggling against the restraints that held me tight. I was on the floor of a van. We were traveling fast over a smooth road judging from the way I was bouncing up and down.

“Did you really think you could leave me, Isabelle?” Scott sneered, kneeling so close to me I could smell the alcohol on his breath, and it made me sick. “Did you think I'd just let you walk away from our life? After everything I've done for you? Everything I've given you? You think you can just walk away like that? I own you, you ungrateful little slut.”

I spat, covering Scott's face with my saliva. A dark look crossed his face—one I knew all too well. He pulled his hand back and smacked me across the face. Hard. My head rocked back from the force of the blow, and for a second, I feared I might black out. I was definitely seeing stars and felt dizzy after taking the shot across the face.

“You can hold me hostage, keep me tied up here for all eternity,” I said, gritting my teeth and wincing at the pain in my face, “but you can't make me love you. Ever.”

“No, I can't make you love me, but I can make sure you never love another man,” he said.

A malevolent grin touched his face as he reached for something at his feet. A plastic bag that he wrapped around my head, pulling it tight. For a moment, I thought this was it. I couldn't breathe, I was fighting hard against it, but I couldn't get my hands free to help myself. The bag was tight around my face, and I wasn't able to draw a breath. My lungs were burning and waves of dizziness washed over me. I was going to die. He was going to suffocate me right there in the van.

Though muffled, I heard yelling. It sounded as if it was a million miles away, but I knew it was one of the other men who'd taken me. Scott loosened his grip on the bag and fresh air filtered in. Grateful, I sucked in big breaths, trying to fill my lungs. My head was still swimming, and I felt like I was on the verge of passing out.

“We didn't agree to being involved with murder,” the man said.

“Stop being such a pussy,” Scott said. “I'm not going to kill her. Not yet, anyway.”

There was more yelling. I couldn't make out the words as my world still threatened to go dark, but just as I felt my consciousness slipping away, the bag was yanked free from my head. Not by Scott, but by one of the other men.

“Looks like you almost killed her to me,” the man said.

Scott glared at him, pure contempt in his eyes. It was a look I'd seen countless times when he was about ready to snap. I expected the full brunt of his brutality and prepared myself for more torture—but it wasn't me his anger was directed at this time.

Scott got to his feet in the moving van, shoving the other man hard enough that he fell against the door with a loud thud. I expected him to fall right through it and onto the highway outside, but the door held.

The driver yelled back, “What the hell is going on back there?”

But before either man could answer, Scott pulled out a gun. He aimed it at the other man's head.

“No one is going to stop me from taking care of my business the way I need to,” Scott said, holding onto a strap for balance as the van sped on its course. The windows were blacked out and I had no sense of where we were or even time. How long had I been out?

“You work for me, remember?” Scott was still barking at the guy. “I'm the boss, not you. I decide who lives or dies, not you fucking amateurs. This is my show, so your ass better fall into line.”

“We agreed to kidnapping your girl and getting her back to you, that's it,” the man said. “Nothing else.”

“And what the fuck did you think that would look like, Neil? Huh?”

Neil. I remembered Neil. Or at least hearing about him. He was one of Scott’s employees. An up and comer with the company, according to Scott. Not that I knew what Neil actually did for the business. Hell, I could hardly explain what Scott did. He kept it all hush-hush. Said it didn't concern me, and I should keep my nose out of it. He’d told me repeatedly that his work wasn't a woman's business, he made the money and that's all that mattered. I just needed to shut up, look pretty, and do whatever he said when he told me to do it.

Apparently, he had the same sort of relationship with his employees. Probably with quite a bit less smacking around, though.

“I didn't think it would look like this,” he said.

“Because you're fucking amateurs,” Scott said. “I was stupid to think you could help me with this.”

“Maybe you should have done it alone,” Neil said, being braver than I would’ve been with a gun pointed at my face. Neil had slumped onto a packing box of some kind.

“Yeah, maybe so,” Scott said, pulling back the hammer on the gun. “Maybe so.”

I closed my eyes, bracing myself for a shot. But it never came. When I opened my eyes again, Scott laughed.

“I'm not an amateur,” he said, grinning like a madman. “You don't shoot a gun like this in an enclosed space.”

Neil got lucky, I thought. It's his lucky day.

Of course, I didn't think I'd be that lucky for much longer.