Page 6 of Bound in Promise

God, she’s so fucking stupid.

“If I have to do another countdown, Marissa, I’ll just take it from your corpse.”

“How am I supposed to meet him?”

“You’re not. Thought that was obvious.” I tap the Glock against her chin to help make my point. “Give me the phone, Marissa. The fuck I’ll let you warn him I’m coming.”

More tears fall from her eyes, but she finally slumps in my hold, her head bowing as she finally gives up.

At least I have somewhere to start searching.

Hang on, wife. I’m coming for you.

3

VICTORIA

Thursday, September 26, 6:30 AM

I have to seize this opportunity—I’m not sure if I’ll get another chance. I’ve never been this amped up on adrenaline and it feels like every nerve in my body is lit up. I’m vibrating in anticipation and fear.

It’s hard to tell whether the jitters are from excitement or exhaustion. It’s hard to sleep when you’re handcuffed to the bed and can see the gun on your captor’s nightstand.

Liam wanted to get on the road early for some reason, and we needed to get gas before we left town. Stupidly—but luckily for me—he decided to leave me in the car while he went inside to pay the clerk in cash. Did he really not think I’d try to get away from him the second I had a chance?

And I knew this was it when I saw someone pull up to the pump one row over from ours. Before he could even step out of his car, I slide myself into the front seat through the unlocked door.

I have no choice but to hope with everything I have that this man will assist me.

“Sir, please help me,” I beg through the roaring of my pulse in my ears. The driver is middle-aged, with glasses and light brown hair. His brows are pinched together at my invasion of his space. “I’ve been kidnapped and I need to use your phone.”

“What?” he gasps, shock twisting the wrinkles in his face.

“He’s my ex-boyfriend. Please, I need…” A sob rips from my throat and I try to hold back my tears, locking my jaw to stop its trembling. “I need to call 911.”

He fumbles for his phone in the center console, seeming almost as unsettled as me, and hands it over. “Here you go.”

I know I need to call the authorities, someone who can get to me quickly, but that isn’t the first call I want to make. My first thought is Dante. I want to know he’s coming to get me, but I don’t know his phone number from memory. I know Ellie’s, though. I can call her once I’m safe, see if she can find Dante…

My thumb shakes as it hovers over the keypad on the screen and I clutch the phone in my lap, unable to believe I’ve found a lifeline so quickly and easily.

A gunshot cracks through the air, followed by the tinkle of breaking glass.

Something warm hits the side of my face and I jolt in terror.

“Get the fuck out of the car, Vee.”

Liam.

My lips part, and slowly I turn my head to the side, struggling to process what I see in the driver’s seat.

The man who so kindly handed over his cell phone is slumped across the steering wheel, a red hole in the side of his forehead. Blood drips from the wound, and his hazel-green eyes are frozen wide in shock, staring past me.

A blood-curdling scream crawls its way up my throat, my mouth opens, but no sound escapes.

My scream is stuck, trapped, and won’t leave.

The sun is just starting to rise, and an innocent man at the gas station—probably on his way to work—is dead.