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“What do you mean it’s not possible?”

The relief and ease I had been feeling only seconds ago vanishes. My heart rate is spiking all over again as I sit up in the seat and realize what’s happening.

This man is intentionally driving me somewhere I don’t want to go. He has nefarious intentions and could very well be kidnapping me. He could be associated with the mob. He has the look, even a couple tattoos on his arms of symbols I don’t recognize.

What if I didn’t escape the warehouse as unseen as I’d thought I had? Could this be one of Il Diavolo’s men or someone from the Tuco camp?

I don’t want to wait to find out.

My gaze lands on the door as we wait out the red light. The driver seems to draw the same conclusion I have. As I quickly unfasten my seatbelt and then reach for the door handle to jump out, he locks the doors with a menacing click.

The street light blinks to green and he hits the gas. The car slips into motion again, going faster than it had earlier.

No more steady, casual pace to put me at ease. The jig is up. We’re both on the same page now.

“Let me out of this car right now!” I demand.

“That will not be happening. I have orders.”

“I don’t give a fuck what your orders are, let me out!”

I fumble with my phone, quickly hitting the emergency button on the side. He realizes what I’m doing and his arm stretches into the back seat to snatch it from me.

“Don’t touch my phone!” I scream at him.

His long, thick fingers grapple for it as I push him off. He tries again, twisting toward the back, only half steering from the front with his other arm. The car veers sharply to the lane on our left. Luckily, there’s no other car next to us, otherwise we would’ve knocked right into them.

“HELP!” I scream into my phone. “I’M BEING KIDNAPPED! HELP!”

The man slams hard on the brakes and jostles me forward in my seat. I collide with the seat in front of me as his fingers lock around my forearm and he wrenches me toward him.

The fight turns nasty. I swipe at his face with my nails, gouging at his cheek. He immediately retaliates with an open-palmed wallop that knocks me sideways to the floor of the taxicab.

I’m reeling for a couple seconds to come. My cheek stings and I blink away the dots in front of my eyes.

Phone no longer in my hand and car at a standstill in the middle of the road, I need to get the fuck out of here.

But he’s unbuckled his seatbelt and gotten out. He steps toward the rear door and forces it open to reach for me. He’s livid, his teeth clenched as he leans into the backseat and wraps his hands around my throat.

I go into survival mode, kicking and slapping against him. He tightens his hold, pushing me onto my back, hovering over me as he glares into my face and squeezes.

My breath’s cut off, the pressure bearing down. The panic is immediate, making me flail even harder against him.

I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe and this man only chokes me harder.

The world starts to blacken at the edges. It’s like I’m being dragged under dark waters, and no matter how hard I resist, it only wrenches me further down.

The panicked voice inside my head screams all sorts of things at me. Things like maybe this is how I’ll die. In the backseat of some taxicab, murdered because I dared to eavesdrop on the mob. They’ll dump my body and nobody will ever know what truly happened to me.

Jayla will be devastated. Mom and Dad will never recover.

My big scoop will be buried and never see the light of day.

I’ll never get to make up with Rafael…

But then another part of me screams to hold on. Just hang on a little bit longer. I pressed the emergency SOS button. The authorities had to have been notified. They had to be tracking my location and coming to the scene… right?

RIGHT?!