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All the lights suddenly went out. She stumbled in the dark, coming up hard against the back wall of the hangar.

Several of the men cried out in surprise, but back-up lights illuminated the large front door, casting weak light into the rest of the hangar.

In the split second the place was completely dark, Gio disappeared, leaving the duffle bag behind.

Dave stepped up to where Gio had been standing and turned in a tight circle. “I still have the girl! She dies if you don’t get back here!”

“Dave, the girls!” one of the men yelled. Someone noticed she and Bec weren’t sitting near Barb and James any longer. Mila saw her mom was still in the same spot next to James, but was staring at the partially open door to the office.

Good! Hopefully she’d follow instructions.

“Everyone except Billy, hold your position,” Dave yelled. “Billy, find those women.”

“I’ve got the smaller one!” someone yelled. Mila crouched down to see one of the men with his arms around a struggling Bec. Her first instinct was to rush to her friend's aid. Pushing that aside, she kept her focus on the truck. There wasn’t anyone in the driver seat, and Brad was cowering low in the passenger seat.

Grabbing a prybar laying on the floor with some other items, Mila rushed to the truck. She wrenched open the driver door and jumped in.

“What the fu—” Brad didn’t get a chance to finish his startled statement. Mila hit him as hard as she could with the prybar. She didn’t have a lot of room to swing, but it was enough to make Brad howl in pain.

She kept hitting him as he begged her to stop at the same time as he fumbled with the door. The moment he fell out of the truck, she turned her attention back to the task Bec had given her.

The keys were in the ignition and the thing started right up. The man standing with the gun mounted in the back didn’t get a chance to do anything before she slammed the vehicle in drive and jammed the gas pedal to the floor. The truck shot forward, right at the back wall. The building was made mostly from sheetmetal and the truck tore right through the wall, accompanied by the screech of metal.

What she didn’t know was that there was a narrow ditch right behind the hangar. The truck dived into it. The abrupt stop slammed her forward. Her poor abused face hit the steering wheel and pain exploded across her forehead.

If she survived tonight, her face was going to look like she went ten rounds with a combine harvester!

The door of the truck was pulled open and the man who’d been in the back grabbed her and pulled her out. She tried to grab the prybar, but it had skittered into the passenger foot well.

“You dumb bitch!” the guy cursed as he dragged her from the truck and back to the hangar. She stumbled and had a hard time staying on her feet. If the man hadn’t had a gun, she would've sat down and refused to move.

“She drove the truck into a ditch!” the guy yelled as he roughly pulled her to the front of the hangar where Dave was still standing near the bag. Except now Dave was holding a gun to Bec’s head. When Mila got close, he lowered the gun and shoved Bec to her knees. Other than being dirty, Bec didn’t look hurt at all, only pissed.

Their plan hadn’t worked, but at least the men didn’t have that massive gun anymore. That had to be helpful, right?

Brad rushed up to them. “She hit me!”

He had a small scrape on his neck that wasn’t even bleeding and a few bruises while she was standing with narrowing vision in one of her eyes. If she had more room to swing that crowbar she could’ve done more damage! For a moment, she thought Dave would turn on her, but then he laughed in Brad’s face.

To everyone’s shock, he slapped Brad, sending the taller man to the ground. “Stop being a little bitch. We’re going to war.”

Mila couldn’t help it, she laughed. “That ground looks good on you,” she taunted Brad, then winced when pain radiated through her jaw.

Her comment made Dave laugh before he shoved her down next to Brad. “Watch her. If she gets away again, I’ll cut off your balls and hang them from my truck hitch.”

She kept her gaze on Brad as Dave walked away. She expected Brad to hurt her, but he totally ignored her and reached out for the duffle bag. Of course he was drawn to the money.

Bec moved to kneel next to her. “I’m sorry that didn’t work.”

“You couldn’t have known there would be a ditch,” Mila whispered. “It was a long shot anyway.”

As they whispered, Brad opened the bag. They watched his eyes go wide with surprise before he screamed and scuttled backwards.

A shiny emerald green snake slithered out of the duffle. The creature coiled on the ground next to the bag and seemed to be looking around. When the snake’s gaze settled on her and Bec, she could've sworn the creature looked relieved.

It uncoiled and slithered to them. Bec sucked in a sharp breath. “What kind of snake is that? Do you think it’s dangerous?”

Mila had no idea! It wasn’t like any snake she’d ever seen before.