Page 87 of Protecting Josie
“This her?” he barked.
“Yes,” Gen said.
“She’s small,” the man observed.
“I’m sure a lot of men will love that. You could probably lie about her age and charge people more.”
“True,” he said with a nod. “All right. Here’s your money.” He held out an envelope toward Gen, but Millie stepped forward and took it before her daughter could.
She flipped through the cash, then frowned. “It’s only five hundred. You said a thousand.”
The man shrugged. “That’s what I’ve got. Take it or leave it.”
Millie scowled but put the envelope intoher back pocket. “As long as I never have to see her again and she suffers, it’s fine.”
“She’s not going to club med, that’s for sure,” the man said with a laugh that sent shivers down Josie’s spine. He reached down and wrapped his huge hand around her upper arm and pulled her to her feet, almost wrenching her arm out of its socket in the process.
“She talk?” the man asked as he hauled Josie toward the door.
“Not much,” Gen said with a shrug.
“Good. Got no use for bitches blabbering on and on. ‘Please don’t hurt me,’” he said in a high-pitched tone, mimicking what a woman might sound like. “‘That hurts, stop.’” His eyes rolled. “It’s hard for the customers to concentrate when they do that shit.”
Josie felt sick. She trusted Nate and his friends, but they needed to hurry up and get here if they were going to prevent her from being taken away.
She tried to slow the man down as he neared the front door, but he was holding her so tightly, practically carrying her. Her efforts were useless. She wanted to yell at Millie and Gen. Tell them that they wouldn’t get away with this. That they couldn’tsellpeople! That it was Ayden who’d insisted on renting that boat, and he was showing off, getting close to the border just to scare her. But her vocal cords felt broken. Frozen.
The man pulled open the door and yanked her out onto the small front porch. He took two steps—then stopped suddenly.
Before Josie could figure out why, he’d pulled out a revolver and jammed the muzzle into the side of her head.
“Step away from the car,” he said in an absolutely chilling tone. “Or I’ll blow her brains out right here.”
Looking up, Josie spotted the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen—Nate.
If she’d thought she was glad to see someone when she’d first lain eyes on him after he’d been dragged into that cell, she was wrong.Nothingmade relief swim through her veins more than knowing he hadn’t left her after searching Millie’s house. That he was there. He’d save her. She had no doubt.
“I mean it,” the man holding her growled, pushing the gun harder against her head.
With her hands cuffed in front of her, Josie couldn’t do much more than try to lean away from the weapon. Not that it worked; the man was holding her too tightly.
“Oh shit,” Gen muttered from behind her.
“Go get in my car. It’s parked out back,” Millie told her daughter.
Josie heard them, but all her attention was on Nate.
“Let her go,” he said, coming out from behind the vehicle in the driveway. To Josie’s dismay, she saw he wasn’t holding any kind of weapon.
“Not a chance in hell,” the bad guy said. “Fuck—where’s the other one?”
“Her name is Bree. And she’s already far away from here, you sick fuck,” Smiley said, approaching Nate with a deadly look on his face.
“You’re outnumbered, asshole,” Preacher added, as he appeared at the side of the house, as if out of thin air.
Seeing the other members of Nate’s SEAL team made Josie feel more confident, though this situation was anything but under control. She was more scared right this moment than she’d been at any point during their escape from Iran, which was messed up. Boat ride from hell, getting hoisted up into that helicopter, crashing, wandering through the desert mountains. Maybe because the man who held her had absolutely nothing to lose. If he allowed himself to be subdued, he was going to prison, probably for a very long time.
He was shuffling Josie off the porch, toward his car. But Nate and the others weren’t giving up any ground. In fact, they were coming closer.
