Page 6 of Being Bold (Tactical Operations & Protection (TOP) Security #1)

Approximately One Hour Earlier

Selene

Selene woke up slowly, her brain sloughing through a veil of grogginess.

Her ears alerted her to voices, but she couldn’t make out the words.

An irritating itchiness radiated from a spot on her neck.

Still, confusion settled over her senses like a fog.

It weighed her eyelids down, making them difficult to lift.

Where am I?

While she struggled, something jostled her body enough to shake her fully awake.

Her head rolled into a hard object, and she opened her eyes to find she was in the backseat of a vehicle.

Tan leather separated her from Mr. Dao, who sat diagonally to her in the front passenger seat. The man he’d called Felix drove.

Where are they taking me?

She glanced out the window, where she’d knocked her head.

Moonlight bounced off snow, lighting the world around them almost as bright as if it were daytime.

It stretched for as far as she could see.

A mix of fir, spruce, and pine trees surrounded either side of the road.

If you could call the path the SUV traveled that.

Her bottom left the seat as they hit a bump.

She couldn’t see any buildings or any lights in the distance.

Wherever they were, it seemed rather . . . isolated.

If she had to get out of the car in this, at least she had on her heavy coat and snow boots. A frown twisted her mouth as she listened to the wind battering the window. Her different attire meant they’d dressed her after they’d . . . knocked me out!

Selene’s mind stuttered on the thought, then she registered that her left arm was handcuffed to the door.

The drugs in her system had been keeping panic at bay, but as her situation became clear, her chest constricted.

She fought the urge to tug against the cuffs, knowing that wouldn’t do her any good.

When her breathing wanted to hitch, she swallowed hard to keep quiet.

They still hadn’t noticed she’d woken up.

“We’re almost there.”

Almost where? Her mind screamed.

“Excellent, Felix.” Mr. Dao turned in her direction after the statement, the seat leather crackling with his movement. When their eyes met, he said, “Well, look who woke up.” His smile chilled her blood into an icicle. “That makes things easier.”

What have I gotten caught up in? And where the hell is Yumi?

Selene worked to quiet the voice inside her head that screamed in panic. She cleared her throat and asked as calmly as possible, “Where’s Yumi?”

His eyes clouded, but he only said, “She’ll be following you soon enough.”

Whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

“Following me where?” She clenched her hands into fists when they wanted to shake. Her mind had already jumped to too many horrifying conclusions, but she refused to believe them.

“Isn’t that an interesting question?” His teeth flashed in a grin like it was normal to have this conversation when she was handcuffed. “The great beyond? Heaven? If that’s what you believe, or maybe back here to earth, if you put your trust in rebirth.”

Halfway through his musing, she’d reared back in her seat, a violent combination of shock, disgust, and terror suffusing her limbs. She could feel herself vibrating from the force of it.

This can’t be real.

Surely, she was having a nightmare because the CEO of Saber Tech was talking about killing her.

He shrugged with the nonchalance of a man without a care in the world. “I don’t put stock in any of it. We get one life to live, so I intend to live it to the fullest.” His eyes gleamed with a sinister light. That or it was just the reflections from the dash. “No matter the consequences.”

Mr. Dao turned back in his seat, and silence filled the cabin. Outside, the crunch of snow under the car’s wheels grew louder as they headed up an incline.

She barely recognized her voice, strangled with fear as she asked, “Where are you taking me?”

Dao’s hand clutched the dashboard as the tires slid before grabbing purchase. He gave Felix a sharp look, then answered without looking at her, “We’re in the national forest.” His head swiveled in her direction, and he added, “Plenty of trails here for a hiker to lose her way on.”

So that’s why they’d dressed her in snow gear. His plan was to drop her in the wilderness and hope she succumbed to the elements.

Her stomach jumped at the possibility she’d live through this.

Until her brain weighed in. She had zero survival skills and had never been outside in this weather longer than it took to ski down a hill in the snow.

Without any gear or something to navigate with, they were right. She’d die in the forest.

Mr. Dao spoke, breaking her out of her thoughts. “I’ve been doing this a long time.”

Feeling extra morose, she barked, “Doing what , exactly?”

“What’s that phrase Americans like to use, ‘covering my tracks’?” She detected actual glee in his voice. When he turned around with a quiet chuckle, any hope of appealing to his character shriveled in the cold air. They were going to kill her. And for what?

“Why are you doing this?” Selene challenged. If she was going to die, she deserved to know why.

“Oh look, we’ve arrived!” he exclaimed, ignoring her question.

The vehicle crunched to a stop in the middle of nowhere. If there were hiking trails nearby, she didn’t see any signs for them.

“We’ll have to walk from here,” Felix announced.

A sliver of hope that she might get away fluttered to life in her chest. As much as she didn’t want to step outside into the frosty night air, she wanted to escape from Mr. Dao more.

She had every intention of bolting as far from them as she could as soon as they uncuffed her because she’d rather take her chances with the forest.

Felix opened her door, dragging her out by her attached arm. The temperature felt colder than it had earlier in the day. It stole her breath with a cutting gasp, sneaking in through her open parka, and chilling her to the bone.

“Uncuff her.”

At Mr. Dao’s command, her body flooded with adrenaline, warming her up. She was ready when Felix released the cuff from around the door handle. With a jerk of her wrist, she took off like a track star.

She made it maybe ten feet before she got stuck in waist-deep snow. The ground was like powder. With every step she’d taken, she’d sunk a little more. Behind her, she could hear Mr. Dao’s roaring laughter.

Before she could climb out, a hand gripped her shoulder and held her in place.

“Stupid woman.” That was the first time Felix had spoken directly to her.

Praying he’d be more sympathetic than her crazy boss, she turned in her hole and begged, “Please, let me go. I’ll leave. I’ll go back to California.”

The beast of a man huffed. His coal-colored eyes held no remorse.

“I don’t know anything!” Tears flooded her eyes, and her breath sobbed out. “There’s no need to do this, please.”

Mr. Dao appeared through her blurry vision. “Put these on her and make her get moving.” He dropped a set of snowshoes into the powder next to her. They didn’t sink. Blowing into his cupped palms, he said, “It’s too cold to stay here long.”

Felix grabbed her underarms and lifted her out of the ground like she weighed no more than a doll. His strength scared her, but not as much as the gun he pulled from inside his trench coat.

Pointing it at her, he commanded, “Put them on.”

With shaky fingers that had turned red in the cold, Selene struggled to snap the snowshoes around her boots. When she could stand, Mr. Dao shoved two hiking poles at her.

“May you have a good journey,” he said in Mandarin, his tone ripe with false sincerity.

“Go to hell,” she told him in the same language.

The sociopath grinned at her. She’d never hit anyone in her life, but she had the sudden urge to beat him to a pulp.

Before she had a chance to act on it, Felix shoved his gun in her back. “Move.”

Selene stared at her feet and took a deep breath. She’d only used snowshoes one time in her life. Her dad had cajoled her into trying something new on a skiing trip to Mammoth Mountain in California. She’d never gotten the hang of it.

Picking up her right foot, she trudged forward as fast as she could. The gun at her back was a good motivator.

By the time they’d gone a hundred feet, she sweated with the effort of constantly kicking snow off the shoe deck.

Her leg muscles burned worse than any workout she’d ever done.

Her breaths formed puffy clouds in the freezing air, while Felix and Mr. Dao didn’t seem to have the same issue.

She wanted to stab them with the ends of her poles, but the sight of Felix’s weapon stayed her hand.

“That’s far enough.”

At Mr. Dao’s announcement, her inner voice simultaneously said, “Thank God” and “Oh shit.” Would they leave her now? Or, and she hated to acknowledge the thought . . . would they shoot her?

I don’t want to die!

“Give her the sedative.”

What? At that moment, what they intended to do to her became very clear. If they knocked her out again, she’d surely die from exposure.

Her unconscious body would be buried in the snow as she slowly froze to death.

It would look like an accident. The precipitation would literally cover their tracks. When, or if , someone found her in the spring, she’d be just another statistic, one of the hundreds of people who underestimated their abilities and perished in the wilderness every year.

I don’t think so!

As Felix reached for her arm, Selene slung her pole and knocked the syringe from his hand. The brute grunted, falling to his knees when his center of gravity shifted. While she had the advantage, she kicked up her legs and ran, not looking back.

The only problem?

In her desperate attempt to flee, she’d forgotten about the gun.

Amidst Mr. Dao’s maniacal laughter, a shot whistled by her ear. It sounded as loud as a freight train in the quiet night.

Shit, shit, shit!