Page 39 of Legacy
“Oh, don't worry, Legacy,” Tristan continued as another blow landed on my neck, stalling me. “I'll give her back when I've had my fill...”
Above the hand clamped over her mouth, Kate's eyes widened. “When she's paid the debt.” He chuckled. “Not sure if you will still want her then, but…” he shrugged and addressed his next words over my head. “Make sure he doesn't follow us.”
It happened in an instant. A hand gripped the base of my skull and forced my head forward, smashing my forehead into the corner of my best friend's gravestone. Blood gushed into my eyes, blinding me.
“Legacy!” I heard Kate screaming, and I knew she was struggling, but I didn't have a chance to say anything to comfort her as my head made contact again and the world went away in a blaze of white.
Chapter Seventeen
Kate
I didn't ask how they managed to get the white panel van into the cemetery when the gates were locked, but they didn't give me a chance to ask anything. The moment I was thrown inside and the door slid shut behind me, I began to shake. Not from fear alone, but from anger. What they had just done to Legacy, the way they had left him with his face a mask of blood and his eyes shut, had chilled me to the bone.
All I wanted to know was that he was okay.
But there was no one to ask because I was alone in the back of a goddamn van. There was no point in screaming either, because I doubted anyone would be able to hear me as the van hurtled down an unseen road. I wasn't trained in kidnap situations, but common sense told me I had to stay calm and concentrate on what was going on around me.
I groaned quietly. There was nothing going on around me but metal walls and a door that I knew without trying would be locked. I was trapped in a steel can.
Still, an internal, sensible voice seemed to say, you should try at least.
I wanted to scream. Even if the door opened, what good would it do? We were moving fast. No doubt on the motorway. What was I going to do, even if it did open? Throw myself into oncoming traffic?
Tentatively, I reached for the handle.
From the front of the van, Tristan's laugh echoed around me, making me scuttle backwards.
“The door opens from the outside, Katie-Kate.”
I hated the way he said my name, and I bit back the urge to scream at him that my name was Kate, not Katie.
Screaming would do no good; I had to keep my emotions under control if I was going to get out of this.
“I think she's lonely back there, boss,” the driver leered. It was the same man who had smashed Legacy's skull in. I gritted my teeth, my hands closing into fists around the material of my dress. There could be no denying what he was implying.
Maybe throwing myself into seventy-mile an hour traffic was better than what was going to happen.
Maybe.
“You might be right, you know, Q,” Tristan laughed. “I don't want you to be lonely now, do I, Katie-Kate?”
I drifted off, my mind wandering away from reality as he started to climb over the seats and towards me. It was the only way I was going to get through this. If I took myself elsewhere. Somewhere nice. He could do whatever he wanted to my body as long as I could escape into a world of better times in my head.
But I made a mental note of the driver's name. Q. It wasn't much to go on, but it was something.
Q.
Q would die when I got out of this. If Legacy and the Sons didn't do it, I would do it myself.
Tristan as well.
“Now, now, Kate, don't close your eyes. You’ll miss the best part.” Whiskey laced breath washed over me and my eyes snapped open before I could help myself, bringing me screaming back into reality. Tristan was close. His body arched over me, his hands on the roof so his crotch was just a little higher than my face. I turned away.
“Oh, no you don't.” Cruelly, he yanked my face forward, his grip on my chin bone crushing. I fought back the urge to cry out, but I couldn't help the tears that pricked at my eyes.
“You will keep your eyes open and on me. Is that understood?”
I didn't say a word. It didn't matter whether I agreed or not.
