Page 21 of Mountain Daddy (Broken Boss Daddies #1)

LILLY

I spin around.

Fuck.

I didn’t hear the footsteps.

My heart slams against my ribs. I’m surrounded.

Three guys.

Broad shoulders.

Dark clothes.

Mean eyes.

“Get her,” one of them growls. The accent hits me like ice water. Russian.

I step back in panic, eyes locking to the bakery door. If I could lock myself in, buy myself time, call the cops…

Ten feet away.

It’s too far.

I bolt toward it anyway.

The first one lunges for me, his fingers brushing my arm. I jerk back, twist myself free and scream as loud as I can.

“SOMEO-”

A meaty hand clamps over my mouth from behind. My stomach lurches as I'm lifted off my feet.

“Don't fight,” the man hisses in my ear. “Makes it worse.”

Like hell.

I bite down on his palm, hard enough to taste blood. He howls, releases me for half a second. That's all I need. I drive my elbow back, smack into his face, before stumbling away.

But there's three of them, and only one of me.

The second man grabs my hair, yanks me backward. Pain explodes across my scalp, tears spring to my eyes.

My phone, I remember. It’s still in my hand.

Chleo.

Oh my god.

He’s safe. He has to be.

Rosa will look after him.

I kick backward, connect with a kneecap. The man lets me go with a swear, doubles over to clutch his knee in pain.

“Enough,” the third one snarls, pulling a gun from his pocket, flashing it just enough to make me freeze.

Think, Lilly. Think .

My thumb slides across the screen, my phone behind my back as I face three furious men. I know Nikolai's number by heart now. I've typed it a dozen times, erased it a dozen more.

Never called.

Too afraid.

Now it might be the only thing that saves me.

The world goes white and black with panic. There’s a gun pointed at me. Can't breathe. Can't think. But my finger hits the call button just as two pairs of hands reach for my arms.

I don't even know if it rings. I just know it has to.

“Put her in the van,” one says in broken English. “Boss wants her intact.”

“She broke my fucking nose,” another snarls. “That little?—”

“Shut up and move.”

I slide my phone up the sleeve of my shirt. They grab my arms. Twist. Wrench.

I scream again as they drag me along. Find my loudest voice and let it tear from my throat. “HELP! ANYONE! HELP!” I drag my feet into the ground, try to stop myself from being dragged along.

Someone might hear. Someone might help.

“Shut her up!”

A hand clamps over my mouth again. I twist my head, sink my teeth into the flesh between thumb and forefinger. The man shrieks, slaps me hard enough that stars explode behind my eyes.

“Bitch!”

The phone is still up my sleeve. Is Nikolai there? Can he hear what's happening?

They drag harder. Grip harder.

Until I’m at the white van parked at the curb. The sliding door opens to empty interiors.

No seats.

No windows.

Just metal walls and floor.

They shove me into the van. Let go of my mouth just enough to let me scream again.

But it’s too late.

I hit the metal floor hard. Before I can scramble away, one of them climbs in after me, grabs my ankles. I kick out, miss, try again.

“Hold her down!”

Another man pins my shoulders. His face hovers above mine, but the tattoo on his neck is all I see. A raven above a burning building. The same as above my bakery after the vandalism.

Fuck. They’re the ones who ruined my place.

Nikolai knows these guys. He killed a couple of them just hours ago.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Nikolai's enemies have come back with a vengeance.

One of the guys comes at me now, a needle in his hand.

They’re going to drug me.

I fight and kick and try to pull away, but the man holding me down? He’s too strong.

My eyes blast open. I shake my head.

“Please, please, please,” I cry. “No. No. Don’t.”

They chuckle. The needle coming closer.

I hear one of them say. “Let’s go get her boy next. I took down the car plate number he went off in.”

NO! NOT CHLEO.

With whatever little fight I have left in me, I scream into the van. Pray Nikolai can hear. “NIKOLAI! THEY’RE GOING TO ROSA’S. THEY KNOW ABOUT CHLEO. THEY’RE GOING TO TAKE HI-”

The needle plunges into my neck before I can finish. Fire spreads through my veins. The world tilts sideways.

The last thing I hear is Nikolai's voice, distant and tinny through the phone speaker.

“Lilly? Lilly, where are you?”

Then darkness swallows me whole.