Goddamn, the back of my head hurts. I lie still as I feel something moving. Oh wait, that’s me, I’m moving. What the fuck happened?
The text.
The attack.
I keep my breathing even, like I used to when I was a kid and hoped my dad wouldn’t realise I was awake. My head is pounding, and my face feels sore, that bitch better not have broken my nose with his gun. How goddamn rude. Ignoring the pain, something I learned years ago, I focus on where we are. There’s a hard but soft seat beneath me, and I’m leaning against something cold and vibrating. There’s a purr beneath me, and the sound of horns surrounding us.
We are in a car.
I crack open one eye, noting I’m propped against the window in the backseat. I daren’t turn my head, but I can feel someone next to me, someone big. I can also see two men in the front—one driving and one in the passenger seat. The radio is on low, an upbeat pop song pounding through the speakers to match the pounding of my head.
Okay, three guys.
I’ve taken more than that, and I don’t mean sexually…though that’s true now, I guess. Three big guys, packing no doubt, but I have the advantage. They want me alive, I want them dead.
My hand is trapped awkwardly between my body and the car door, so shifting slightly, I pull it free. I freeze when I feel the guy in front glance over to check on me. Only when he turns back do I move again, slowly, so as not to draw attention. I run my hand down my thigh—shit, they took my weapons.
I’m betting all of them, the handsy bastards. Diesel is going to be pissed. It doesn’t even cross my mind that Garrett was in on this. If he wanted me dead, he would have killed me. No, someone got to him, I just hope he’s okay.
Okay, no weapons. Think, Roxy. Fuck, my head hurts. This is the worst hangover ever, and I didn’t even get the buzz of the alcohol and bad regrets to make it worth my while. Moving my legs slightly to get into a more comfortable position, I freeze. I have my heels. My fucking heels.
The bitches are sharp…I wonder…
We’re slowing down, and I know we must be running out of time. God knows how long I’ve been out for. It’s now or never. The worst that will happen is I end up getting knocked out again…right?
I shift again until I can reach down and grab a heel, then I pull it off and hold still, taking a deep breath. Now or never, Rox.
Flopping my head to the side, I open my eyes and lock them onto the guy opposite me who’s staring out the window. He turns his head, undoubtedly feeling my movement, so I burst into action. I hear a yell, but I ignore it, praying they need me alive more than they want to shoot me.
I stab using the heel, my hand gripping the shoe. I drive it into his chest and neck, and as he turns his head to look at me with wide eyes, I drive it into his eye. It sticks from the socket as he screams. The car whips from side to side.
“Grab her,” I hear them yelling from the front.
Reaching across the guy who’s trying to pull the heel free, I grab his gun and knife and unclick his seat belt. I kick open his door and push him out. He screams as he hits the pavement, and I blow him a kiss before spinning to see the two men in the front.
The one in the passenger seat swears as he tries to get a needle ready while reaching back for me. Fuck that. I fumble with the gun and accidentally pull the trigger, gazing with wide eyes as the man in the front seat screams as it hits his leg.
“Oops, sorry,” I offer, as I grab his head and, using the knife, slice it across his throat. I don’t give myself time to think on what I’m doing. I’m in survival mode, it’s me or them. In this life I now live, blood was bound to cover my hands. You either get dirty or you die.
Only the driver is left now. He swears as he pulls his gun, done with me, one hand on the wheel. Looking out the front window, I see we’re on a dual carriageway, and it’s busy, which helps, because we have to go slow. Probably thirty miles per hour. Shit, this is going to hurt.
Grabbing the gun, I point it at his head and fire. He slumps forward, the ringing loud in my ears from the shot going off in such close proximity. Groaning, I slide between the seats and clutch the wheel, leaning over his body to try and swerve us around the other cars, but I can’t get the angle right. We catch the end of a van, and it spins us. Screaming, I hold on as we spin and spin, my stomach revolting, and then we stop.
It’s all quiet for a moment as I fall into the backseat until it’s not. A car hits us from the side and plows us into the middle barrier. We hit it and flip. It happens in mere seconds, but it feels like a lifetime as I roll around in the car. I manage to grab the seat, and when we finally land on the roof, I drop onto it with a crunch.
Groaning, I look down at my body. Holy fucking shit.
I’m okay! Fucking hell, that was goddamn lucky. The back door is warped and won’t open, so I kick at it, bracing myself on the roof and giving it all my strength. After the fourth kick, it opens, and I crawl out onto the broken glass of the road, cutting my hands and arms. Staggering to my feet, I lean against the car. This side of the road isn’t that busy, and the people who are passing are gawking at me. One even stops. But I can’t hear anything.
My ears are ringing, my body is in agony, and my head is pounding so hard, I have to turn and vomit. Fuck, I’m worse than I thought. Stumbling forward, away from the car in case it explodes or some shit, I walk into the lanes, but my body is done. I can’t help but fall to my knees. Whether it be shock or injury, I don’t know, but it refuses to listen, and my vision is swimming.
Move, Roxy, move!
But I can’t.
Panic winds through me, pushing back some of the numbness that’s threatening to swallow me whole, but it’s not enough. A noise catches my attention through the haze, and I turn my head. Two black cars have stopped near our wrecked one. Men pour from it, heading straight to me.
There are more than I’ll ever be able to handle, but that doesn’t mean I’m going down without a fight. I stumble to my feet, my fingers numb as I grab a piece of broken glass, the closest thing I have to a weapon. “Bring it, assholes!” I don’t know if I scream it out loud or in my head, but they do.
They come right for me.
I try to stab with the glass, but it’s slow, my body too goddamn sluggish. They knock my arm away, and my fingers spasm, making me drop the glass. I kick, I punch, but it’s like my movements are listless, too slow to make contact, and there are too goddamn many of them.
This is going to hurt a lot. I know it. So I brace for it, waiting for the pain, but it’s a quick one, barely a pinch, and when I turn my head, I see the needle they are pulling away. The bastards cheated.
At least they didn’t hit me in the face again.
Chapter Forty-Four
RYDER
“We should look at the numbers and compare them—” I zone out of the meeting, wondering what Roxy is up to. I promised her one hour, but it’s been an hour and a half. I’ll have to find a way to make it up to her. I almost smirk, thinking of all the ways I could, each of them involving her naked and coming beneath my tongue.
My phone vibrates for the hundredth time, so I turn my chair and discreetly check it. This meeting is important, and if it goes well, we’re expanding into other cities, both legitimately and otherwise.