Not that she’d been able to really watch anything. Her thoughts were too tied up in how Roman was. On the dazed and pained look on his face as he’d fallen to the pavement and imagining how furious he’d be when he woke up.
You mean if he wakes up.
No. She couldn’t think about that possibility. He would wake up. Roman was made of tough stuff. If nothing else, he’d come to and find her just to give her hell for insisting on talking to Jennette.
Jennette.
“Hmmph,” she scoffed to the room at large.
The guard sitting in the chair just inside her door cocked an eyebrow at her like she was nuts.
Bonnie didn’t care. Jennette had set them up. Had all but confessed as much when she’d begged and pleaded with the guys who’d thrown her in the van behind Bonnie, screaming that she’d made a deal with someone named Rossi. What that deal entailed, Bonnie had no clue. What she did know was that Jennette hadn’t been hauled into the hotel with Bonnie, so if she was still breathing at this point, it would be a miracle.
Served the bitch right.
She uncrossed her ankles then crossed them the other way. Fuck but it was cold in here. The first thing the jerks who’d nabbed her had done was scan her for tracking devices, leaving her sans one jacket. The headset had been jerked out of her ear and tossed out the window, too.
“You should sleep,” her guard said. He wasn’t a big guy—at least not compared to Roman—but Bonnie wasn’t about to fuck with him either. Pure evil shone behind his black eyes, the effect made more prominent by the sharp edges of his cheeks, nose and jaw.
Bonnie shook her head and slunked a little lower against the headboard. “Like that’s gonna happen.” She rolled her head to meet his stare. “You seriously think I’m gonna strip and get all cozy under the covers while some crazy dude who snatched me off the street watches?” She scoffed again and focused on the television. “Fat fucking chance.”
In her periphery, the guard shrugged. “Up to you.”
Up to you.
What kind of bullshit answer was that, anyway? She cocked her head and looked at him again. “Where the hell’s my brother and my dad? I know you’ve got ’em, so I wanna see ’em.”
The man gave her the same creepy smirk he’d aimed at her after her last four tirades. “In case it’s escaped your attention, Miss Drummond. You’re not in a position to demand anything. You’re comfortable. You have food. Protection. You should consider yourself lucky.”
Lucky.
If she could find something with a sharp point or a cutting edge on it, she’d show him lucky.
Asshole.
She focused on her breathing.
One slow, long inhale.
One long exhale.
Everything would be okay. Roman would find her. Even without the tracking device. He was crafty. Tenacious.
Assuming he was okay.
God, would he hate her after this?
Well, I hate you now, her conscience said. Why the hell didn’t you listen to him?
A good question. A solid one actually. Roman had been dealing with bad guys the vast majority of his life. He’d tried to tell her not to fall for it, but nooooo. She just had to get up in the middle of his giving a shit and have her say.
Bad. Freaking. Idea.
She huffed out a sharp breath. What the hell. She’d made it this long giving the jerk by the door all kinds of grief. One more round wouldn’t hurt. “Hey. Mean dude.”
Her guard met her stare, but kept his silence.
“Where’s your boss? Rossi or whatever his name is.”
Her guard’s eyes narrowed to menacing slits and his voice dropped to an eerie pitch. “You would be wise to forget that name. Jennette should have as well.” He paused all of one heartbeat. “She’ll pay for sharing it.”
Not good.
Not good at all.
Still, Bonnie kept her face impassive the same way she would facing down a bar fight about to erupt. “Whatever. I don’t care what his name is, but I wanna talk to him. Now.”
Surprise flared on his face. “Is that so?”
“Yes. And I want him to bring my family with him. If he’s gonna keep me against my will, the least he can do is show his pansy ass and give me some damned answers.”
The man’s mouth twitched, but he pulled his phone from his pant pocket. “You’ve got a lot of fire, Miss Drummond. You’d better hope you don’t end up burned.”
He typed something on his screen, then seemed to do a good two or three minutes’ worth of texting someone before tucking the phone back in his pocket.
“Well?” Bonnie said.
“Don’t push your luck. Maybe you could be smart instead and use your spare time to pray.”
Yep. Definitely an asshole. If Roman did manage to find her, she was gonna ask if he’d be up for letting her get a few punches in before he gutted the dude.
She sighed and waited.
And worried.
And yeah, she threw a few prayers in, too. Not that she figured God was in much of a mind to help her at this point. He’d given her a homerun lottery introducing her to Roman and Cassie and everyone else in their family, and look what she’d done with it.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
The six o’clock morning news came on.
Then the seven o’clock edition.
Not a single word about the incident yesterday afternoon was reported. Actually, nothing of interest was reported—which was really saying something for New Orleans on a Sunday morning. Usually, someone somewhere got up to no good over the weekend.
But today it was all fluff. An agricultural story. A tour of a local art gallery. A freaking cooking segment.
Suddenly, the guard stood. He moved his chair a good three feet from the door then braced his feet hip width apart and clasped his hands loosely in front of him.
“What’s going on?” Bonnie stood as well, her joints and muscles aching from the fight she’d given her captors the day before and the lack of movement all night.
The guard ignored her, his blank stare locked onto the thick red curtains drawn over the windows.
A click sounded on the room’s lock a second before it opened. Another of the men who’d taken her walked through first, holding the door ajar. Two more stood on either side of the jam in the hallway, each of them mirroring the same alert, yet impassive posture as the asshole who’d watched her all night.
A second later, Kevin stumbled through the door as though someone had pushed him. “All right! All right!” he barked back at them, clearly not registering Bonnie’s presence. Not a big shock though, considering what his face looked like. It was more black, blue and green than it was white, and a few scabbed over cuts marked one cheekbone and the side of his mouth.