Page 76 of Take Me Back
Any plans I had of taking out Vander and getting the hell out of here with Kat are just as fucked as this rescue attempt.
Vander stalks over to me and swings, the butt of the pistol catching me on the cheekbone, whipping my head sideways.
“No!” Kat screams. Her anguished tone guts me as she crawls across the sand, tears spilling down her bruised face.
Vander brings the barrel to my head and she freezes.
I failed.
I fucking failed.
“Forget her. She’s not yours anymore.”
“The fuck she isn’t. Always and forever.” I say it for Kat, but it doesn’t soothe the despair in her tear-filled eyes.
I failed her.
In a hoarse whisper, she repeats it back to me. “Always and forever.”
“Fucking precious. But you’re both wrong.”
Vander swings the pistol again, and then I feel nothing at all.
Chapter 35
Kat
“No!” I scream in a hoarse voice as Dane’s body falls forward, landing facedown in the sand. I’m silenced by the back of Vander’s hand.
A man in a black shirt and pressed khaki pants stalks toward us.
All I can focus on are the knife-like pleats in his khakis as my brain reels, unable to process everything that just happened. My face throbs, but all I want is to crawl to where Dane lies unconscious in the sand.
Never before in my life have I ever wanted to live more than I do right now.
Vander snaps out his orders. “Take her to the boat. We’re leaving.”
“What about him, sir?”
“Jan and Borne stay with him. Arrange for another pickup, right the fuck now. Get him to the port for the handoff yourselves. No more fuckups by the locals.”
“Yes, sir.”
Anton rises to his feet. “Ain’t my fault—”
Vander points the gun at him, and with one shot to the head, Anton goes down.
I squeeze my eyes closed, wishing I could unsee what I just saw. All of it. I want to rewind. This can’t be real.
The man in the black polo shirt reaches for me, and I pull away. It doesn’t matter, though; he jerks me to my feet by the bindings on my wrists. My arms feel like they’re being torn from the sockets.
“Try not to break her. Buyers pay less for damaged goods.”
Two other men close in on Dane. They each grab an arm and drag him through the sand, still facedown.
Vander stops beside me. “Get a good look, Kat, because that’s the last time you’re ever going to see your husband. The man I’m going to deliver him to will torture him for days before he finally ends him.” A ghastly smile stretches over his face.
I stumble as the man takes me toward the boat and away from Dane. “Why? Why would you do this?”
