Page 9 of To Trap a Soul

“Oh, shut your facehole, Gregory,” he tossed back as he sauntered down the pathway. “Ya don’t get ta play righteous when yer out ’ere stealing women.”

The heat in Lindi’s chest, neck, and face sapped away at their words.

They’ve done this before.Oh god, she was what they were after all along!

Her breaths turned rapid when they stopped paying her any notice, her eyes darting one way and then the other... before she bolted. Gregory must have thought she was completely surrendering since he turned his stupid back on her.

I refuse to be taken!She sprinted with her bound wrists pressed against her chest, pressing down on her ample breasts so she could run freely.

A high-pitched, banshee shriek flung out of her as she was tackled to the ground by the man who had checked on the horse packs.

“Let me go!” She kicked, she screamed, and when he placed his forearm anywhere near her face, she bit him so hard she tasted copper.

Then, her long, dark hair was grabbed so he could yank her to her feet. She came face to face with the man, and his cold eyes promised pain.

“Ya fuckin’ bitch!” Just as he raised his hand to hit her, the slap of Gregory’s palm against his forearm echoed through the night.

“Don’t, Sal,” he warned, towering over the smaller man.

“She bit me!” Sal barked.

Although he said nothing, the grind of leather under his meaty hand and the darkening look on Gregory’s face said everything it needed to: he didn’t care. Lindi shouldn’t have been so relieved that he was acting as her saviour, considering he was also her captor.

“Please! Just leave me alone,” she begged when she was thrown over Sal’s shoulder, then he hoisted her onto the backend of a horse.

Her ankles were tied, as if they wanted to make sure she wouldn’t slip off and have the freedom to run away should she attempt it again.

All three ignored her and carried on in heavy silence.

It made her father’s roar all the louder when he came running between their crops of barley with a sickle in his hand. He was coming from the direction of the storage shed, as if he’d slipped out the window in order to sneak off and grab some kind of weapon.

“Papa!” she cried out.

The horse spooked and shied to the side, and she wiggled to get down from it to go to him. One of the other horses knocked into hers, causing it to spin in a circle, its hooves clatteringerratically, and she barely caught the men drawing their swords to ward Nico back.

Her blood ran cold.

“Stop! Go inside!” she yelled as the horse turned and turned, but she was forced to close her eyes right before the saddlebag of the third horse whacked her in the face.

By the time she opened them again, she was facing away from the farm, and everything had gone quiet.

Too quiet.

Not even a cricket dared to chirp in the heavy night.

“What’s happening?” she asked, gasping for air against her worry, her anxiety of this night.

She didn’t like the silence that greeted her. Where was the sound of a kerfuffle? A fight? An argument? There were no more roars from her father or grunts from these brutes. Not even the clang of his sickle against a metal sword.

No sounds of... life.

As much as she appreciated her father trying to rescue her, he was one man facing off against three armed and possibly deadly men. She wanted to be saved. She wanted it more than anything, but Nico needed to think about her mother. Without Lindi, Allira would need him more than ever, especially with her heart so weak. She couldn’t farm by herself; she was feeble and frail while she was getting better.

So long as these men didn’t kill Lindi – with Gregory’s desire to keep her unharmed, she dearly hoped that was the case – perhaps they could be reunited. She could hope and pray for that day to keep her moving forward without them.

She craned her head to the side when the horse she was on finally came back around, and her heart nearly came up her throat.

Throwing her body around until she managed to buck herself off the creature, she screamed, “NO! No no no!”

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