Oh God!She shook her head. Her thoughts were becoming muddled. Her blood sugar dipping too low. When was the last time she ate? What about liquids? Had she finished the juice box she’d taken with her for the ride into town? She couldn’t remember.
Her heart pounded in her chest. Too fast.
Shit!She needed her emergency Glucagon. She had a dose. In her purse. In the SUV. Back at the bar. She groaned and felt a warm puff of air against the tip of her nose. Hang on. Wait for Jamie. She could do this. Not like she had anywhere to go. Nowhere to—
The sweep of headlights caught her attention, and the room illuminated for the briefest moment. She saw the door. A window. Table legs. Then everything went black again. Had she imagined it? Nope. Car doors slammed.
Silence, followed by muffled voices, followed by the creak of the porch reached her straining ears.Crap!Was that Mrs. Wagner?
The door slammed open. “John,” Marla snapped. “Get that light in here.”
Her heart still racing, Summer closed her eyes, hoping to appear unconscious as she registered the sound of shuffling feet, the scrape of a chair, and the soft clunk of something being set down on the table.
“You two, wait outside.” The door banged shut in the wake of Marla’s command.
“Oh God, they killed her!” John whimpered.
“She’s not dead,” Marla hissed. “Wake her up, Garret.”
Rough hands grabbed her by the coat, and lifting her upper body off the floor, the Silver Buckle’s foreman shook her hard. Her teeth rattled, but she kept up the rouse until a fist drove into her stomach, forcing her eyes open and expelling the precious little air she had in her lungs on a loud cry.
“Cut her loose and sit her down,” Marla said, dragging a table chair into the middle of the floor.
Stars glittered in the peripheries of her vision as a sharp-looking blade disappeared behind her back, and seconds later, the plastic ties binding her wrists and ankles gave way. She moaned as she straightened her legs, blood rushing to her extremities at the sudden movement.
She couldn’t stand. No way her limbs would support her. Didn’t matter. Garret hauled her to her feet, dragging her uncooperative body to the chair and flinging her into the seat. She cried out again as her back slammed against the hard wood.
“Where’s the flash drive?” Marla demanded.
“I already told you,” Summer panted. “I left it on—”
Her head jerked to the side from the force of Marla’s slap. “Don’t lie to me. I already questioned the staff. No one saw the memory stick in your room.”
“I’m not lying—”
The second smack stung more than the first. Her cold cheek warming where Marla had struck her. “Where is it?”
“I don’t know!” Tears blurred her vision. “Maybe Duff took it?”
“We searched his room,” John said, his voice shaking. “The playroom too. We didn’t find it. Please, Summer! We need you to cooperate. It’s a matter of life or death for our family. You love the children, don’t you? I know you don’t want to see them hurt. Please, just tell us where the drive is, and once we have it back, we’ll let you go.”
“Idon’thave it,” she screamed. Her words a slur and the room a blur. Whether she led them to the memory stick or not, the Wagners had no intention of letting her go. How could they? They’d gone too far. Kidnapping. Assault. Whatever illegal shit they’d done to get themselves into this situation.
No. They wouldn’t be letting her go. Quite the opposite. They had no intention ofeverletting her go.
Not without a fight.
Little did they know—they had one coming.
CHAPTERFORTY-TWO
In the backof the lead F-250, Jamie’s good knee bounced up and down, a nervous twitch bugging the fuck out of him, but one he couldn’t seem to put a stop to.
“Approaching marker one,” Chase said from behind the wheel as he sped past the moonlit field bordering the edge of the property owned by the Silver Buckle Ranch.
“Roger that,” Grant said, his voice coming through the speaker as the second truck’s headlights dropped back and then disappeared out of sight. “Switching to comms link.”
Jamie snagged the earbud dangling from around his neck and jammed it into his ear as they lost the phone signal.
