Arianna

She watched the three men disappear behind the truck and sat back with a sigh. There was no turning back now.

Arianna slouched lower in the seat, keeping as low a profile as she could, while still managing to keep an eye on her surroundings. There was no movement that she could see, but that could change in the blink of an eye.

The minutes began to tick by, and her brain wandered.

Ajax wants me to come to the country with him. To wherever it was that he called home.

It hit her then. She knew who Ajax was as a person. She knew he was a good man, although he had lived through some things that had scarred him emotionally. He hadn’t said it, but she had seen him hesitate several times when it came to talking about his feelings for her. He cared, she didn’t doubt that. But something told her it had been a while since he had allowed himself to be vulnerable like that.

But what she realized now was that she had no idea about his actual life. Their time had been occupied with trying to rescue Benjamin, which was extremely important to her. She needed to see that carried out. But that had left them with precious little time to actually talk with each other. Most of their time together had been…less than verbal.

Arianna was alone, but she blushed at the memory of the past few days. The night before, as they arrived back at their hotel, Ajax had shown her just how much he liked her outfit. Twice. A smile played across her face as she recalled the way his hands had run across her body, making her feel sexy and beautiful.

But do you care enough about him to move away from the only life you’ve ever known, to some random country town? Where is Origin even?

Ajax hadn’t told her much other than the name, which meant little to her. She hadn’t even looked it up on a map. Pulling out her phone, she tried now, but this deep underground she had no signal.

“Dammit,” she cursed softly, before swiftly covering her mouth. She looked around to see if anyone had overheard her outburst.

There was still no sign of anyone. That on its own was enough to set her mind to work, dreaming up any number of scenarios where someone snuck up on her, ambushing her in the truck and taking her prisoner again. It was amazing how easily her mind allowed those fears to take root when Ajax wasn’t around. His simple presence managed to deter so many of the fears she had.

She liked having Ajax nearby. Even if they weren’t talking, she felt comfortable in his presence, the big shifter who hid his intelligence behind his musclebound exterior. The peaceful aura he exuded had seemed to reach out automatically to encompass her and bring its soothing influence whenever she could brush up against him or lose herself in his arms.

But that brought her back to the original question. She cared about the big doofus. There was no doubt in her mind that he was special to her in a way that defied explanation. There was caring for someone, and then there was moving across the country to spend the rest of her life with someone. That was a big leap. Arianna thought she was ready to make it, but she wasn’t sure.

Nobody is ever sure about these things. That’s why it’s called a leap of faith.

“And I certainly have faith in him,” she said thoughtfully to herself.

You owe him an answer, one way or anoth—

Her spine stiffened as someone appeared from behind the idle cargo truck. It wasn’t Ajax or one of the other shifters.

Her first instinct was to duck out of sight, but she suppressed it, knowing that he might catch her motion. So instead she waited until he glanced away from the truck before she ducked as far down as possible while still keeping him visible through the steering wheel.

“Please go away, please go away,” she whispered over and over again, hoping he would get the hint.

The man didn’t seem to agree with her memo, as he instead moved to the front of the big truck, pulling open the door and seeming to rummage through the front.

Arianna began to relax as she realized he must just be looking for something.

How is he not aware that the others are inside yet? Something weird is going on here.

No security cameras, no security alarms? That was…odd. Why were they so confident about themselves? She hoped Ajax found out.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Her heart began to thud as the man closed the door to the truck. Instead of heading back to where he had come from, however, his eyes seemed to spot the truck she was hiding in. Arianna could tell immediately from his body language that he knew it didn’t belong.

The keys jangled softly in the ignition as she fumbled for them with her fingers, eyes focused forward as the man looked around the rest of the cavern before beginning a slow walk toward her.

Just turn around. Turn around and go back inside. Please.

Despite all her mental begging and pleading, the man continued to come closer. The nearer he drew to the truck, the more his body language seemed to indicate that he knew it wasn’t supposed to be there. Then, perhaps fifteen feet away, he stopped, looking back up the ramp that they had come from. Arianna sighed softly, hoping that meant he was done checking it out.

The man turned to go, and she slid up slightly in the seat as her back began to cramp from being hunched over. At the same time, the man glanced back at the truck.

Arianna froze as their eyes made contact. There was no doubt about it now; she had been seen.

“Fuck!” she cursed, sitting upright and pumping the brake as she turned the keys.

The man shouted at her, though she couldn’t make it out through the glass. The engine roared to life as he came running toward her, hands waving frantically. His fingers closed on the door handle, but it was securely locked. That had been the first thing she had done after Ajax left: triple-check each door was closed and locked.

Fingers closed around the transmission and she dropped it into gear, her foot slamming the gas down. The truck rocketed forward, already turning as she spun the wheel, aiming for the ramp. A loud thump behind her drew Arianna’s eyes to the rearview mirror.

The security guard, or whatever he was, had thrown himself into the bed of the pickup. Arianna screamed and wailed on the horn with one hand, sending Ajax a long and loud warning signal as the truck flew up the entry ramp.

The glass behind her cracked as a boot slammed into it. She watched as the man stood up to try again. When he raised his foot she punched the brake with both feet. The truck screeched to a halt and Arianna slammed into the steering wheel. She had forgotten her seatbelt.

Water ran to her eyes and she tasted the telltale metallic tang of blood in her mouth. A moment later more began to pour from her nose. She didn’t have time to concentrate on that though, because the man was already climbing to his feet from where he had been thrown thirty feet clear by the sudden stop.

She waved him out of the way as the truck picked up speed once again. At the last second he leapt, but not in the direction she expected. Instead of diving to one side, he went straight up!

Her front windshield crunched as he landed on it, but he must have hit it off-balance, because he rolled up and over the cab at an angle. It resulted in him being deposited in a heap on the concrete instead of rolling into the bed like she figured he had hoped.

“Just leave me alone!” she shouted as he got back up.

She was at the top of the ramp now, but traffic was at a standstill, and a massive tractor trailer was blocking the entire road from her.

In her rearview the man stood still. He wasn’t running after her, which was a relief.

Until the headlights of another pickup appeared at the bottom of the ramp.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” she cried in escalating panic. Glancing around, she spied a way out of her predicament. It wasn’t pretty, and it could go badly, but if she didn’t try it, there was no way out for her. Arianna wasn’t going to let them catch her. Not a second time. She was going to prove to Ajax that she wasn’t a liability. That she could hold her own.

With a growl that would have made him proud, she wrenched the wheel to the side and kept her other hand on the horn as the truck hopped up on the sidewalk. Pedestrians scattered rapidly, opening a lane for her to escape. Behind her the people moved back together for several seconds, until a white pickup came flying recklessly around the same corner, not caring at all for any innocent lives. Where people had hurriedly moved out of her way, many were forced to jump and leap for safety from her pursuers.

Ahead of her the intersection was rapidly approaching. Arianna knew she wouldn’t have much time once she got there, but her luck held out. The light turned yellow just as she got there, and she was able to fly into an empty intersection. Tires screeched as she wheeled to the left, beating the oncoming traffic into a section of road that was empty of cars that had been waiting for their green light.

The needle on the speedometer continued to creep higher as she went as fast as she was comfortable with. Arianna was no race car- or stunt-driver. She had no experience with this sort of thing. It was shocking that her body hadn’t already locked up on her, refusing to cooperate.

With a burst of speed she managed to take the advanced green turn signal and the smell of burnt rubber hit her nose as she squealed through the tight turn, immediately having to drift into the far right lane and then back again to avoid slower-moving cars.

“Sorry!” she shouted as horns sounded, even though none of them could hear her.

Arianna risked a glance behind her. She was gaining ground on them!

The intersection ahead was at a dead stop, and she felt her heart plummet at the sight. The cars in front of her weren’t moving at all. Realizing she still hadn’t done up her seatbelt, Arianna did it now, preparing for the gutsiest move she’d ever made in her life.

Please let this work. Please let this work. Please don’t kill anyone.

She kept heading for the stopped traffic in front of her until the very last second. Then she turned the wheel to the left and flew into the oncoming traffic lane.

Lights flared and horns honked as she careened through the few cars coming in her direction. The traffic at the intersection ahead was going perpendicular to her direction thankfully, so she only had to deal with those cars who had been turning right. Word of her coming seemed to reach those passing through the intersection and they came to a halt, allowing her to fly through the traffic and take a right, back into the proper lane.

One car didn’t get the memo. Its front end bumped into her rear and sent her into a slightly controlled drift, but it wasn’t enough to send her into a crash.

“Too close,” she muttered as the truck wobbled back into a straight line once again.

The road in front of her was clearing up, and she strung together four green lights in a row. Behind her the white truck was doggedly keeping up, but it wasn’t gaining either. Arianna felt her spirits begin to go up as she saw the sign for the freeway. It was only a handful of miles up the road. If she could make it there, she could hopefully lose them!

A yellowish-red sign on the side of the road caught her attention, but she couldn’t make out what it said before it flew by her. Behind her she saw the white truck suddenly fall well behind.

Odd, I wonder wh—

The front of her truck dipped low without warning and then flew back up into the air as she hit the hidden pothole. The front right tire blew out on impact as it hit the second side hard enough to crumple the axle. The truck skewed to the right, the rear end sliding out until she was going down the road sideways, where she hit the next pothole. This time the front left wheel hit it.

Arianna screamed as the truck abruptly flipped over and began to roll down the road. Glass shattered and peppered her arms as she flung them in front of her face, trying to protect her eyes. The steering wheel crunched into her legs and the roof collapsed in toward her as the truck landed on its roof and began to slow to a halt, upside down. The sound of metal screeching on pavement set her ears ringing well after the truck stopped.

“Ow,” she said aloud, forcing the spinning inside her head to slow down while she took stock of her injuries.

Wiggling her toes and fingers, followed by arms and legs as best she could, told her that nothing was critically broken. Blood was pouring down her arms, but none of the cuts looked overly deep. There were just lots of them. Quantity over quality I guess, she thought with a shrug.

Her head was beginning to go numb hanging upside down. That needed to be her first priority. The seatbelt wasn’t coming undone as she tugged on it, pressing the button frantically.

Angrily she took hold of it and pulled as hard as she could at the buckle. Her shoulders slammed down into the roof of the cab as the buckle separated with ease. Arianna didn’t have time to consider what had just happened as the surprise of falling took over.

She heard the sound of tires approaching, and all of a sudden she remembered what she’d been trying to avoid. Her arms became more embedded with glass as she pulled herself through the shattered windshield, hoping to get out before the men in the white truck reached her.

Looking around as she exited, Arianna heard the sound of a door closing on the other side of her truck. Risking a peek, she hunched back over when she saw the color white.

Shit. Not good.

What did she do now? She couldn’t run away; they would catch her with the truck. But she couldn’t fight them, since they would overpower her. Angrily she crouched down behind the engine, thinking frantically, trying to come up with a plan.

Come on. You can’t just give up. Ajax needs to have you safe if he’s going to do his end of things.

Booted feet strode across the glass.

“She’s not in there,” a voice spoke.

“Fan out, find her,” a second voice said with a commanding presence even she could sense. “She can’t have gone far.”

There was something about that voice…

Footsteps came around the front of the overturned truck. Arianna knew it was too late to flee, which only left one option open to her. She had to fight. Steeling herself, she pictured perhaps stunning the first attacker and making a break for their truck. If she could do that, then she could hightail it out of there and lose them before anything else happened.

A shadow appeared and she tensed her legs.

“What the—”

Arianna lunged straight up, driving her fist for the man’s face.

Bone struck bone. A look passed across his face, and she had a feeling it mirrored hers. The sheer utter surprise that passed through her as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed to the ground froze her in place. Had she just done that? How had she managed to knock a man much larger than her unconscious with one blow?

“There you are,” a mocking voice said, stepping around the truck from the far side.

Arianna didn’t recognize the man with the long blond hair, but his voice suddenly became identifiable.

“You!” she shouted, stalking toward him, likely infused with a false sense of her own skill after beating her first opponent.

It was the man who had captured her and Ajax at the shipyard.

“I remember you,” she snarled, bunching her hands up into fists.

“Good, I happen to remember you as well,” he said with a leer. “I remember something else, as well.”

Arianna frowned. “What’s that?”

“To not talk more than I need to,” he said with a roll of his eyes. His hand blurred to his waist and pain blossomed in her stomach.

Eyes wide, Arianna looked down to see a dart sticking from her stomach.

“Fuck you!” she spat, pulling the dart out and throwing it aside. She could feel her limbs begin to slow as the tranquilizer took hold, but he was in reach.

The man frowned, looking at the gun, then at her. With a sigh he pointed it at her again.