Accidental Knight: A Marriage Mistake Romance(101)

The road ends, but he doesn’t stop driving.

He rolls over the edge of the parking lot, and then tears up the gravel pathway leading to the big pavilion where I’d attended Fourth of July celebrations every summer.

My shoulder went numb a long time ago, but the rough terrain bounces the car, creating fresh stabbing pain as he shoves me into the dash.

We drive around the pavilion, onto the grass, and keep going.

Miles later, we top a hill and start down the other side.

I’ve only been out here once before, but I vaguely recognize it as the storage facility a mile behind North Earhart’s main building. He drives alongside a chain link fence, then turns, speeding along a shorter distance before entering an open gate.

Then I get a good look at where we are.

There are trucks, storage buildings, shipping containers, and large round tanks holding crude oil.

My mind plays havoc, trying to remember to breathe.

They never tell you panic becomes a state of being.

All I can think is this is why I needed a bodyguard. In the form of a husband who was meant to be a farce. Who got too real. Who lied to me.

And now he’s gone.

I’m totally screwed. Drake will never find me here.

My captor maneuvers around too many things to count before screeching to a stop near a metal storage building. Right next to a familiar black SUV. Avery Briar’s.

My insides lock up when it finally dawns on me. Oh, no.

“You’re...you’re Avery’s son, aren’t you?”

The man Drake warned me about.

The killer with a trail of missing women behind him.

The monster.

The pain no longer matters, I can’t go down like this. For a second, I think of Gramps, and I know he’d tell me to fight.

Fight like hell.

I kick and twist against his wretched hold as he drags me over the center console and out the driver’s door. Once I’m free from the car, there’s more space.

I throw myself into it, kicking and hitting and scratching anything my fingernails can touch.

He gets hold of my other arm and flings me around. I’m dizzy when I see the dragon tattoo on the side of his neck. I’m momentarily stunned, it shouldn’t be possible. “When...when did you get out of jail?”

“I was never in jail, you stupid bitch.” Holding both of my arms behind my back, he picks me up by them.

Electric pain tears through my bones, so sharp and sudden my lungs lock up.

My toes drag on the ground, but I can’t move them. His hold has me paralyzed.

Or maybe, it’s the thought that Drake lied to me again. That’s the same tattoo. What the hell?

He knew that was Avery’s son in jail and never told me. Never told me the little psycho was out, either.

Maybe that’s why I lose what little leverage I’ve got. If I can’t even fight my way through these lies, these stories, how do I stand any chance against a seasoned killer?

A door smacks open and he carries me through it.

“Take her over there, Adam,” a voice grinds out.

It’s dark, so I can’t see him, but I recognize Avery Briar by the sound.

“That didn’t take long,” he says.

“She met me at the end of the driveway like she was waiting for it. I love when they come to daddy.”

Even through my pain, my nose wrinkles at how disgusting, how wrong, how evil he sounds. I’m trying not to vomit when another voice splits the room in two.

“Annabelle? Oh my dear God, Annabelle, no!”

“Mom?” I shout.

“Let her go, you despicable beast!” Mom roars, a violence in her tone that shocks me. “You have us. You have your hostages. Let my daughter go!”

The demon son carries me around a big truck, where a desk lamp glows in its ash grey neck from on top of a big toolbox. My parents are there, sitting in two plastic chairs. There’s a third next to them, empty and waiting.

Then it’s all just a blur.

Mother, still shouting at the top of her lungs for them to let me go, and all the horrible things she’ll do to them if they don’t.

It’s honestly a little touching to hear her fight for me like this. She never has before. But we’ve never been in anything like this.

Dad has a dirty rag tied around his mouth that he’s trying to shout through.

I fight against the numbness filling my body, try to kick, or hit him again with the back of my head, but it’s useless.

Adam tosses me in the chair, then binds my wrists behind the back of it. My parents both have their hands tied. A little while later, I notice their ankles are strapped to the chair legs with plastic zip ties, too.

“What happened?” I ask, when there’s a small break in the torture.

“These reckless, deviant fools kidnapped us,” she says, not caring whether or not they hear her. “I told them not to bring you here. They must be deaf. Because I said it already a hundred times – let her go!” She screams the last part so hard it pierces my ears.

I start kicking then, but Briar steps up and grabs one leg, and his son the other. An impact shoots up my leg as my knee connects with the son’s shin, and then there’s just a dull ache.

“Ah, fuck! You shitty whore.” He grabs my upper thigh, digging his fingers deep into my flesh and lets out an ugly growl. “Do you really wanna do this here? I’ll fucking finish you right in front of Mommy and Daddy before the big fireworks.”