“Ah, my head.” I try to lift my hands to rub it, but they are tied together behind me. Opening my eyes in the darkness, I can make out two men in the front seat. The radio is blaring, so I don’t think they’ve heard me wake up. The leather of the seat is warm beneath my cheek. I draw my legs up only to find that they are bound together by rope like my hands. What the hell? Who did I piss off? My mind races to come up with someone.

The darkly tinted windows prevent me from seeing outside to figure out where I am. The way the vehicle is jostling around, I think we are off-road. The only light I see is coming from the dashboard and the blue hue of a cell phone that the man in the front seat is scrolling through.

I’m totally blank. The only person I ever piss off is John. The leather creaks as I attempt to sit and the passenger with the phone spins around with a gun pointed against my forehead.

“Stay the fuck down,” he snarls.

“Where are you taking me?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

“I think you have the wrong person.” That’s it, they must have been after Glenn.

He chuckles. “Nope. You, Jake Remington, have a bounty on your head.”

“Who would pay money for me? I’m a nobody, a hardworking man that keeps to himself.”

“Obviously you have friends in low places, or I wouldn’t be half a million dollars richer for taking your sorry ass to my boss.”

“Who’s your boss?”

“I’m done talking to you.” He rears back, and I feel the cold metal of the gun on the side of my head.

“Damn my head hurts.” My hands and feet are free this time, but I open my eyes to darkness again. My body is stiff, and my head hurts as I get off the bare concrete floor and feel my way around. There is a glimmer of light shining through a high rectangular-shaped window near the ceiling of the room. From what I can tell, I’m in a basement. It’s hot and has a moldy smell permeating the room. My hands trail the empty walls as I keep feeling around; there is a metal door with a sliding latch on it and bars. A makeshift prison. I yank hard at the door, but it won’t budge.

“Hello!” I yell. “Is anyone out there?” I start to panic in the small, dark confines. Running my hands down the pockets of my jeans, my phone is gone. I push the button on the side of my watch to give me a smidge of light. It doesn’t help much because the walls look as black as night.

I take both hands and rattle the bars as hard as I can until my hands ache from squeezing them so tightly. The basement is so hot, sweat is beading down my face, and my T-shirt is damp. “Let me out of here!” I pound with my fists this time.

A thin beam of light comes from under a door above me, allowing me to make out a set of stairs confirming my thoughts about it being a basement. When the door opens, I see the silhouette of a man the size of a gorilla. The floor creaks, and I hear the tug of a chain and light fills the room.

“Get on your knees.” It’s the same voice from the car.

I slide to my knees and place my hands behind my head. “What do you want from me?”

“I don’t want anything other than for you to quit making so much damn noise. You’re making my fucking head throb,” he growls as he comes further down the stairs.

“Your head throbs? Mine hurts because you keep hitting me,” I bark back and rub the lump on the side of my head.

“If you don’t shut up, I’ll hit you again.” He shows me his gun as it clangs up against the metal bars of my prison.

“Bossman said to drug him to keep him quiet.” An even larger hulk of a man comes down the stairs holding a vial and a needle.

“I don’t understand what’s going on. Who is your bossman?”

“Someone that hates your brother and needs something from that pretty little wife of his.”

“John? This is about John? Man, whatever he’s done in the past, he’s a changed man. And, Brooklyn is living a quiet life now. What could someone want from her?”

“Given a minute, I’d take her sexy body, but bossman wants that clever brain of hers.” He laughs.

I can feel my blood start to boil and my protectiveness for her takes over. “Stay away from them, and whatever information you want from me, I won’t tell you anything,” I seethe. I don’t know anything, but even if I did, I’d never tell them.

He pulls a key out of his black pants and unlocks the latch, pointing his gun at me again. He opens the door and steps inside with his bulky friend. I take a step back.

“Good thing all you have to do is shut up and not get on my nerves.”

I’m the pawn. They’re going to use me to get what they want from Brooklyn. I’m not going to let them drug me without a fight. I casually glance down and then come up swinging. I get one punch in and brace my hand over his that is holding the gun. A shot fires, ricocheting on the concrete walls. It bounces off, nearly missing me and hitting my captor in the thigh. He crumbles to the floor with his gun still grasped in his hand, hitting his partner as he stumbles backward, knocking him off balance. It gives me the split second I need to move by them and run up the stairs.

My feet barely tap each stair as I run and open the door they came through. It opens up into a narrow kitchen. Quickly shutting it, I lock the door behind me and grab a knife left sitting on the counter beside a half-eaten sandwich. I make a quick sweep of the small house, looking for a phone, but only find a flashlight. I open the front door that empties onto white gravel. Swinging the light out, all I can see is land and the dark SUV.

I hear the locked door shake, followed by pounding and the grumble of a voice. I run to the SUV, hoping like hell it’s unlocked. I don’t need the keys to start it. I’ve hot-wired many cars before.

“Shit!” It’s locked. I look around for anything I can use to break the window. As I scan the area, I realize I was wrong about it being a basement that I was held in. It’s a container home with a bunker almost completely buried under the ground. Only three feet are above the earth with the thin window showing. The land around the house is barren other than the gravel. There is a steel perimeter fence around the property with a gated entrance.

The front door comes barreling open followed by the sound of a gun being shot. I turn off the flashlight and head for the fence. As I start to climb the eight-foot wall, my foot gets caught in one of the rungs. I yank my foot hard, but it won’t come out. I hang tight with one hand and reach down and unlace my boot. I’m able to slip my foot out and keep climbing. Once I’m over the fence, I take off running in the darkness, having no idea where I am.

All I know is that I’m in an open field with nowhere to hide. Car lights flash from behind me, allowing me to see a line of trees out in the distance. If I can make it there, I might be able to find a place to hide. I pick up my stride and feel something dig into my socked foot, but I keep running, never slowing my pace. The SUV roars behind me just as I make it into the trees. Dust flies up as he slams on the brakes and then gunfire starts. The bullet hits the tree next to me, sending bark flying and scraping the side of my face.

I take off, going further into the wooded area until the shots ringing out are far enough behind me. I stop to catch my breath and to listen to the sounds around me. I can hear the sound of a river rushing over a waterfall. The moon is peeking out enough to light my way, and I start to walk in the direction of the flowing water. A flood of warmth beneath my foot has me stopping in my tracks. I look down to see that blood has soaked through my sock and I’m leaving a trail of bloody footprints behind me. I need to make it to the water, so they can’t follow me. I take off in a run, despite the pain now searing through my foot.

I’m slowed down by having to climb down several big, slippery rocks. My fingers dig into the crevices, holding on for dear life. Once I clear them, I get into the water, and I take off running again and come to a jarring halt on the edge of the waterfall. I have to use my arms for balance to keep from falling downward.

I start to take off in the other direction and hear a baritone voice. A beam of light shines in my eyes. “Don’t make me kill you,” the hulk of a man says, pointing his gun at me.

I raise my hands in the air and take a step backward.

He leans his head to the side, cracking his neck. “You aren’t worth anything to me dead.”

I turn my head to the side, looking down behind me.

“Don’t even think about it. You’ll never survive the fall,” he says as he sloshes closer in the water.

My mind flashes to Zoe and my unborn baby. I have to make it home to them to keep them safe. If I die, they might take them for whatever leverage it is that they need, but I refuse to be held captive. John lived like that for two years and barely survived. I won’t do it, and I won’t be used to get whatever they need from Brooklyn.

The cock of his gun echoes in my ear as I make the split decision to jump. I fall as if in slow motion. I can see the water below me lined with jagged rocks and whitewater out in front of me. Zoe’s beautiful face flashes in front of me again. She pushes a blonde strand of hair out of her face, showing her silver-blue eyes. She’s talking, but no sound is passing her lips. I can make out the words I love you as I crash into the water.

I’m pulled so far under and weighted down by clothes that I gasp for breath the second I come out of the water, only to be pulled under again. My left side crashes into to a rock, and I’m pushed into the white rapids from the impact. I gasp for air every time I can get my head above water. I draw my feet up and ride with the flow taking me further downstream. Once I’m able to get my feet on the ground, I stand and make my way to the muddy shoreline. I delve my hands into the mud and cover my face and white T-shirt. I take off in a run again for what seems like miles of rocky land. When I come to another ledge, I’m looking out over the Pacific Ocean.

“I’m on a fucking island.” There has to be a bridge somewhere for them to have their car. Even if I found it, I’m sure that is the first place they’ll be guarding. “Damn it.” What would John do? I run my hand through my wet hair and wince when I touch the lump on my head.

I sit on the rocky ledge to look at my throbbing foot. Pulling my soaked sock off, I see a jagged cut about two inches long in my heel. Blood and water are pouring out of it. I hold pressure until it subsides. Then I make a makeshift bandage by tying my sock around it, hoping to keep it from bleeding again.

I stand back up and dig the flashlight out of my wet jeans. I click the button, but it doesn’t come on. I slap it with my hand a few times, but it still doesn’t work. I need to find shelter until the sun starts to come up, then I will have a better idea of how to get off this island and call for help. The only thing I see is one lone tree standing on the edge of the mountainous ledge.

I hobble my way over to it, careful not to put my heel on the ground so my wound doesn’t reopen. I climb the monstrous tree, snapping small twigs on my way up. The canopy is so big that I won’t be seen from any distance.

I wedge myself in between two branches and make myself as comfortable as possible with the thick bark grinding into my back.

I slow my breath and racing heart only for my mind to settle on my family again. What the hell could they possibly want from Brooklyn? I know she is still doing some research for cures, but she’s been good about keeping it all quiet. She doesn’t even have her lab registered anywhere. Who could be after her? Miles is dead, and all his men landed in jail. Maybe it has something to do with Matthew. He’s retired, but still has plenty of power and I’m sure enemies.

Right now I need to focus on getting out of here and getting back to my family. The safety I’ve felt for the last four years is now gone. The fear for Zoe and the baby is real. How did John survive all those years not knowing if he’d ever get back to them?

I rest my head back on the tree and gaze out into the moonlit ocean until my eyes grow too heavy to keep them open.