"So, when are we taking him out?"

"Not sure. When do you think you'll be ready?"

"When it comes to taking down that asshole I'm always ready."

"Alright," I said. "We'll make the plans."

Chapter Seventeen.

Pearl I started training again.

I ran every day after Crow went to work. The path around the vineyards was over a mile, so I ran around that a few times before I used Crow's weight room in the basement. I wasn't trying to drop a few pounds or gain muscle. I was just trying to get back into shape.

I needed to be strong when I went toe-to-toe with Bones. He probably wouldn't have the opportunity to harm me since Crow and Cane were on the lookout. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

Crow came home at his usual time, and he was quiet and brooding. Ever since that awkward night neither one of us had been the same. We talked it out, but in the end it didn't change anything.

It was tense as hell.

He rapped his knuckles against my door before he stepped inside. "Lars tells me you've been a working machine lately."

"Yeah. Just been exercising." A book was open in my hands. Reading was the only thing strong enough to distract me from my agony. I tried to forget the way Crow cruelly rejected me but I couldn't. Despite the way he hurt me my heart still beat for him. I still felt the exact same way as I did before.

And that only made me feel pathetic.

"Any reason?" he asked.

"Just preparing for our mission. Wanted to get back into shape."

He came further into the room, his suit fitting him perfectly. His sculpted shoulders looked powerful, and his thin hips led to muscled thighs. He was still a wet dream. "You think you're ready for that?"

"I know I am." There were two things I wanted desperately. The first was to get away from Crow. And the second was to get my vengeance on Bones. Even if I died in the process it would be worth it. I had to do something. Running back to America to leave other women to their fate wasn't an option for me.

He sat on the couch beside me but kept his hands to himself. He hadn't made a move toward me since that terrible night. He asked me to sleep with him a few times but I always refused. "Cane is ready too."

"Then let's do it."

He turned his mystic green eyes on me, their power radiating like orbs. "You're certain you can handle this?"

I didn't blink as I held his gaze. "Absolutely." I'd been through trauma after trauma. There were very few things that scared me anymore. My spine was a rod of steel and my heart was calloused and cold. The last blow that killed me was Crow's rejection. Now there was nothing left that could cause any damage.

"Okay. I'll take it over with Cane and we'll figure out a plan."

"Alright." The sooner, the better. I wasn't sure what I would do when I got back to America. There was no job waiting for me. There wasn't even an apartment waiting for me. I'd have to be smart and figure it out. But choosing to stay out of fear was unacceptable. I'd find my way-that was certain.

Instead of leaving Crow stayed right beside me. He leaned forward and rested his arms on his thighs. His fingers interlocked together and he stared at the floor beneath his shiny shoes.

I waited for him to walk out and leave me in peace. Being in his presence any longer than necessary was torture. I was happy just a week ago and now I was miserable. He took something away from me, something I never thought I would have again. Somehow, I resented him for it.

"I miss you." He stared at his hands and rubbed his thumbs together.

I heard what he said but didn't react. The words were meaningless to me. At one point I thought he loved me, that he couldn't live without me. All those nights we spent together were beautiful. He took care of me when I could barely walk. But I'd misinterpreted all of that.

He slowly turned his head my way, expecting me to echo the words back at him.

Now he knew what rejection felt like.

His eyes filled with disappointment, the kind he couldn't hide. He tightened his fingers together, the veins in his forearms protruding through the skin. He turned back to his hands when he couldn't bare my coldness any longer. "I thought we agreed we would enjoy our time together before you left."

Change of plans. "I don't feel the same way anymore, Crow."

He clenched his jaw slightly. "Meaning?"

"I don't want to sleep with you. I don't want to fuck you. All I want is to hurt Bones for hurting us. And then I want to leave and start over. Coming to this place has shown me what the real world is like. It's taught me how to observe people, how to stiffen my spine, and how to survive. Now that I have those skills I'm ready to return to my old world."

He sat up straight and pulled his hands apart. "I don't see why we can't enjoy each other."

I didn't want his hands on me. I didn't want him inside me. It would just make me think of the day he broke my heart. After everything I'd been through I didn't think it was possible to love someone, to trust someone. He pulled me into a false sense of security, making me think we were dark together but whole. "Because we can't."

"I'm sorry I hurt you but-"

"It's okay, Crow. You don't need to apologize for the way you feel. But now I want other things. I can't let you touch me because I won't enjoy it. All I'll think about was the last time we were together. We're just friends. Accomplices. And that's all we'll ever be."

He took a quiet breath, the frustration obvious. "For what its worth, I do miss you. I can't sleep without you. I can't focus at work without you. Everything has been turned upside down and I can't even think straight. I miss us. I miss what we have. It hasn't been easy for me."

It was hard to feel any pity. He wanted me around for entertainment. He wanted me around because we had amazing sex together. But that was it and nothing more.

That's all I meant to him.

"You'll get through it. The longing will pass and you'll forget about me-like all the others." There wasn't a hint of venom in my voice. I told him the truth and the whole truth.

He turned his head my way, the despair in his eyes.

I was numb and couldn't feel a thing. There was no sympathy in my heart or anything else. All I felt was desperation for escape. I wanted to get as far away as possible so I could get over him.

I wanted to forget about him.

I wanted to forget all of this.

I slept soundly in my bed when the sound of shattering glass woke me up.

I bolted upright in bed the second the shards scattered across the hardwood floor. My nightmares had returned but I somehow knew this was real. The sound was unmistakable. It was far too loud to be fake.

A flashlight hit me in the face and blinded me. My first instinct was to scream and that's exactly what I did. I screamed at the top of my lungs and hoped Crow would hear me.

"Shut her up!" A man grabbed me and threw me on the ground. The alarm to the house went off, so loud it was going to make me deaf. They tied a handkerchief around my mouth to quiet my screams. One punched me in the face and then the stomach, momentarily paralyzing me.

Crow, come on.

One man grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me to a stance. He kept my hands pinned behind my back as she shoved me to the broken window.

I twisted my body to evade his grasp but his hold was too strong. My stomach screamed in pain and my mouth started to bleed.

He shoved me through the window and I let out a muffled scream as I flew through the air, expecting to hit the grass at the bottom. My body landed on a stack of mattresses and I bounced in place, recovering from the realization that I wasn't broken on the ground.

The men followed me and grabbed me again. One positioned me on a motorbike and sat behind me so I couldn't escape his grasp. He turned on the engine then sped out of the yard, moving through a row of vines to return to the main road.

The wind blew through my hair and I tried to turn in the seat to see if Crow was following me. Just wen I turned the man punched me in the back so I would face forward. I slumped toward the handlebars as the pain shot through my body.

They continued driving through the pastures without turning on their headlights. It was pitch black and I couldn't see where we were going. When I saw the guy next to me I realized he wore night vision goggles. They could see the road in front of them but Crow couldn't detect their headlights.

This wasn't looking good.

Fifteen minutes later they reached a road. They pulled onto the turf and slowed down as they reached a midnight black town car parked off to the side. They killed the engines to the bikes and I was yanked off.

Now that my feet were on the ground, I tried to escape. I kicked the guy closet to me in the balls before I broke the other guy's nose. There was nowhere for me to fun so I had to incapacitate my captors if I had any chance of getting away.

"Hands above your head where I can see them." A woman's voice sounded from behind me. It was distinctly feminine but rang with authority. She cocked the gun and it the sound echoed in the nighttime air.

I turned around and saw the gun pointed right at my face. The barrel was aimed directly at my nose. With a single touch of the trigger my face would be gone.

The woman was my height with dark brown hair. She had blue eyes that looked kind despite her no-bullshit appearance. She stood in a pencil skirt and jacket, not fitting the criminal bill. "Enough of that. Let's go." She nodded to the car.

I expected Bones to be inside the vehicle, not a woman. None of this was adding up. The men didn't look like the kind of backup Bones would employee, and he certainly wouldn't have a woman working for him. "Who the hell are you?"

"None of your damn business. Get in the goddamn car." She stepped closer to me and pressed the gun to my temple.

She needed me alive. I knew that much. Bones probably put out a bounty for my head and she was the first one to track my whereabouts. "I'm not worth anything to you if I'm dead."

A smile that looked more like a sneer formed on her lips. "You're absolutely right." She moved the gun to the center of my palm and held her forefinger over the trigger. "I'm sure you could survive a few shots."

I didn't give into the fear. Showing weakness, even for a moment, would undoubtedly lead to my demise. "I hope you do shoot me. I'd rather bleed out and die than go back to that psychopath."

This time she smiled. "I understand his infatuation. You're a toy that just won't break." She grabbed my and spun me around with lightning speed. She pressed the gun to my right shoulder blade. "Hands behind your back."

I didn't move.

She kicked in the back of the knee.

I bit my lip and fell to the knees in the middle of the road. My body automatically reacted to the hit and I couldn't stop myself from falling. My bones ached when they hit the concrete.

She tied a string of rope around my wrists then yanked me to my feet. "Get your ass in the car." She opened the back door and continued to hold the gun to my shoulder.

"Do you understand what you're doing? You're returning me to a madman who will beat me and rape me. As a woman, you're okay with that?" I had to believe that the world didn't solely function around money. There had to be some good people-even just one.

Her expression was as cold as ever. "Are you done whining?"

"Not whining. Just hoping for some good in this world."

"Bones has a ten million dollar award for your return. I don't give a damn if he's going to rip off each limb one by one and feed it to a gang of dogs. I don't give a damn if you're a man or a woman. All I care about is that cash. Now shut up." She slammed the gun into the back of my head.

My body winced at the collision and I felt the air leave my lungs. The metal was heavy and brutal against my scalp. My legs felt weak and I fell into the seat near the window.

She shot me a glare before she slammed the door shut.

I leaned my back against the seat and felt the migraine start to emerge. My hands were pressed against my back so I had to arch my spine in the seat to be slightly comfortable.

The woman got into the backseat beside me, her hand still on her gun. "Go." She ordered the driver with a quick flick of her wrist.

The car pulled onto the road as the man mounted their motorcycles. When their engines roared to life they took off in the opposite direction.

I looked out the window and tried to figure out where we were and where we were going. The woman and the driver were the only two people in the car. Two against one weren't good odds, but it was better than four against one.

The woman eyed me in my seat, watching me suffer before she turned her gaze out the window. "We're taking you to his headquarter. We'll drop you off and be on the way."

"And far away is that?"

"Thirty minutes," she answered. "I suggest you get some rest."

The idea of returning to the man who got off to torturing me sent chills down my spine. Now that I had a taste of freedom I never wanted to go back. I hoped Crow would track me down and come to my rescue but I knew that was impossible. The men drove straight through the hills and now I was in a different vehicle in the middle of nowhere.

He would never find me.

We entered a major city twenty minutes later. Few cars were on the street because of the late hour and most of the stores were closed. But the streetlights were on and a few bums sat on the sidewalks.

We were almost there.

I eyed the gun sitting on her thigh and cast a glance at the driver. He didn't seem like a military man, just a chauffeur. I could probably take him down if I had to. The woman was my only concern.

Without moving my head I eyed her body in the hope of finding another gun on her belt. If she there were one, I could snatch it and put a bullet right in her head. But I didn't see one.

But I did notice a wallet. It was slowly falling out of her pocket when we hit bumps in the road. It was black and made of leather, looking like it belonged to man. She probably had cash and an ID inside. If I could take her out and get away, I'd have money to travel.

But how did I get it?

The rope around my wrists had softened from the sweat against my back. It leaked through my t-shirt and absorbed into the rope, making it more brittle. I never put on my safety belt when I entered the car, and the buckle lay beside my right arm. It wasn't sharp but it did have an edge.