Chapter 98 Ch. 68
Zara had no idea how long they drove, but the car stopped once on a deserted road. A man came into the back of the van to tie her down properly and then they continued their journey with him still in the back.
She had tried to fight back, but there was really not much fighting she could do when he was three times her size, and armed.
Her neck hurt from the way her head leaned to the side, and her arms had gotten numb eventually since the rope kept digging into her skin painfully.
She kept trying to keep a mental note on how many turns they made and how long it took between each turn, but somewhere along the the line, she lost track.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked, turning her head a little even though she couldn’t see the guard beside her. “Where are you taking me?”
He didn’t answer and he didn’t move either, so she could not even guess if he heard her. She sat still after that, pressing her fingers lightly against the ropes, hoping she could loosen something, but she couldn’t. She tried again anyway, because she needed to feel like she could do something, even if it was small.
The car slowed after what felt like hours. She heard a gate open, the sound dragging for a while before the car rolled forward again. She tried to listen for voices or footsteps outside, but there was nothing at first. When the door finally opened and sunlight spilled into the van, a hand grabbed her arm and pulled her out.
“Please,” Zara said, trying to dig her heels into the ground. “Look, I don’t know why I’m here. If this is about ransom there’s no need for all that. My dad will give tou the money and—
Her words were cut off by the man tugging her forward and she stumbled into a hallway.
“Why am I here?” she said again. Her voice shook a little and she hated it. “Do I have like enemies and stuff? Cause I mean I think it’s kinda obvious this isn’t about a ransom now.”
No one gave her a reply.
They pushed her into a room and ensured her legs were still tied properly as well as her arms. She heard the metal door close, then a lock slide into place. Everything was quiet again after that, except her own breathing. She crouched there, trying to listen for anything that could tell her where she was.
For a long time, she couldn’t hear a single thing. There were no voices or footsteps nearby so she couldn’t even deduxe anuthing and jt was driving her crazy.
She let out a soft breath and rested her head against the wall.
After a long while, she eventually started beating some voices and they were speaking in a language she didn’t know, but she recognized the harsh rhythm. It was definitely Russian.
They went back and forth for a while, then someone else joined them, and this time the words were in English.
“We are not sure if she’s the one,” a man said. “We’ll have to test.”
“He’s right. It could be her or the woman they took from the morgue?” another voice asked.
Zara’s stomach twisted. She stayed still, pressing her back tighter against the wall. She heard footsteps after that, then the door opened.
A woman walked in. Zara squinted because the light behind her made it hard to see at first, but when she got closer, Zara noticed she was pretty. Her face was heart shaped, her hair tied back neatly, and her white coat moved slightly as she stepped forward.
“Sit up,” the woman said. She reached for Zara’s arm.
“What are you doing?” Zara asked, moving away from her as much as she could.
“Just need some blood,” the woman smiled said that were the most normal thing to ask.
“Don’t touch me. Why are you taking my blood?”
“You don’t need to worry,” the woman said, opening a small case she carried. “It will be quick.”
She knew then that this thing has something to do with what Ethan’s u for needed her for. And maybe she was taken because of Ethan.
Or could it be Ethan’s dad behind all of it? He has threatened he would come back flr her, but with what Dylan has said in the bathroom, he wasn’t going to do jt at a school race.
Another man stepped inside the room and stood near the wall, watching them. Zara looked at him for a moment and then turned back to the woman.
“You had better be careful,” she said, lifting her chin even though her hands were tied. “Because when Lorenzo finds you, he’s going to fucking kill you.”
She watched the man instead of the woman, because she needed to see if the name meant anything to them. Whether they worked for
Or against Ethan’s dad. For a second, something moved across his face. It wasn’t fear, but it wasn’t nothing either. His jaw tightened and his eyes almost narrowed bwcauswy he recognized the name and didn’t expect those words from jee.
Zara held onto that tiny reaction, because it was the first real thing she had gotten since she was taken.
It could mean that they knew Lorenzo wanted her, but they didn’t think she had an alliance with him.
“What is your relationship with Lorenzo Moreau?” the man asked, stepping forward.
“Some Middle aged man I’m screwing,” Zara said sarcastically, pulling her arm away from the woman again. Her heart was hammering but she kept her voice steady. “Stop asking me useless questions. Yoh answer mine.”
The woman lowered the syringe slowly and looked at the man. He didn’t say anything at first, and she could tell there was something unspoken between them, something she didn’t understand.
Zara pushed herself back against the wall when the woman stepped toward her again. She tried to pull her arms free from the ropes, twisting her wrists until the skin burned, but nothing loosened. Her chest rose and fell fast, and she could feel her heartbeat in her ears.
“Hold still,” the woman said, leaning in with the syringe.
“Don’t touch me,” Zara said, jerking her shoulder to the side. She dragged her legs along the floor, trying to push away from her, but the woman only reached for her again.
Zara snapped out of fear. She didn’t even understand anything Ethan had ever explained, but she knew one thing for sure— her blood couldn’t get into the wrong hands.
She lunged forward and bit the woman’s hand. The taste of blood hit her tongue at once. She gagged and spat it out, shaking her head and wiping her mouth on her shoulder.
“What is wrong with you?” the woman said, pulling her hand back. She wiped the blood with a cloth in tight, annoyed movements, then looked at Zara with a cold stare.
Zara stared right back. She wished the woman’s arm would twist, wished she would hear a crack, wished something—anything—would stop her from being able to draw blood.
“How do yoh even have teeth that sharp when you’re not…” the woman trailed off after the man at the corner cleared his throat. Zara knew that she was going to say “vampire”.
“I’ll do that again and this time I’ll rip your flesh off if yoh don’t get the fuck away from me,” Zara spat at her. The woman slapped her across the face. Zara’s head jerked to the side and her eyes stung, but she didn’t look away. She swallowed hard and kept wishing she could just snap the woman’s hands off.
Damn the fucking ropes.
The woman stepped forward again with the needle.
“Hold still,” she said, lifting Zara’s arm by the rope.
A sharp crack echoed through the room. The woman froze. Her right arm twisted at a strange angle, the bone pushing against skin. Another crack followed and her other arm bent the wrong way.
She screamed and dropped the case.
The man rushed to her, grabbing her by the shoulders as she cried out, her breath coming in short gasps. He kept glancing at Zara like she had done it herself, like she was some kind of threat he couldn’t understand. Zara stared at them with wide eyes, her own fear crawling up her throat, but she forced herself to sit up straight. She could not let them know she was afraid, scared ans remorseful about what happened.
“Don’t come closer,” Zara said. She lifted her chin a little even though her hands were shaking.. “If you do, I’ll do worse to you. And trust me, broken arms would be something you’ll wish for.”