Page 28 of A Captive Situation

I started shaking, because I don’t know. A bodily reaction? Something else I could control?

I might be verging on some hysterical thinking again.

Jake got up, holstering his gun as he came to me. “Get up.” He touched my arm.

I didn’t. I kept shaking, hugging my legs to my chest as hard as I could. I did that instead.

Jake bit out a curse, kneeling in front of me. “The game just changed. I need you to come with me.”

I shook my head. Nope. I was just fine where I was. If I stayed here, maybe no one would try shooting at me for a third time. I changed my mind about Jake too. I was good. I didn’t need any of whateverthatwas between us.

“I’m good here.”

“No,” he clipped out, now cold again.

Twice.

We’d been shot at twice.

I glared at him. “Who are you?”

I almost died today. Two times.

I kept shaking.

Jake cursed again, standing up. He moved, and he moved fast, so fast I didn’t have time to react. He scooped me up and had me in his truck before I could fight him.

“Wha—no!” I tried kicking at him.

He dodged my feet, and I heard aclick clickas something plastic wrapped around my wrists.

Horrified, I looked down. He’d zip-tied my wrists, and as I was processing that, he bent down at my feet.

Zip-zip.

“What? What are you doing?” I tried kicking him. I couldn’t becausethey were also zip-tied. “Whatareyoudoing?” I had officially lost it. “You’re not a cop. You can’t arrest me. Or detain me. This is illega—arghmph.”

I belted out a scream, but it was muffled as he wrapped a shirt around me, stuffing it into my mouth. He tightened it again so I couldn’t spit it out.

“Yeah, sweetheart. That’s the point.” He straightened up, checked me over and pushed me so I was lying down. I was struggling by now, squirming around, trying to kick him.

Nothing. All to no avail because as I was doing that, he wrapped seat belts around me, basically hog-tying me in place.

I couldn’t move one bit.

He shut the door, disappearing.

A few minutes later, he returned, opened the back, and something was tossed into it.

Something heavy.

My eyes bulged out, and I tried screaming again.

I only needed one guess to figure out what that was. A dead body.

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

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