“You don’t think her request was the only one on the table, do you?” Fran said, and Peri went cold, sitting up when the two men pinning her to the tile floor shoved off her. “Why should we risk anything when Opti will give us Silas in exchange for her?”
Excuse me? “They’re going to scrub me!” Peri said, her hands behind her back and a bag over her head. “I’m not corrupt! They’re going to wipe me back to ignorance, and I’ll never find out what happened!”
“Get her out of here.”
Peri heard the door open as the excitement from the crowd grew loud. She was yanked to her feet, and the entire room seemed to shake with noise. She thought of Howard with the black feeling of betrayal, but he hadn’t known. If he had, her intuition would have pinged on him and she never would have come in. They’d used him.
“She came to us for help,” Taf said bitterly. “I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
“Let me handle this, Taffeta. You’ve not earned the right for your voice to be heard,” Fran said. “Go plan something.”
“This is wrong and you know it,” Taf protested. “Howard? Howard!” she called, but it was too late, and Peri stumbled, disoriented, when they shoved her into motion. The numbing hum between her ears was getting worse, even as her feet treaded on hard floors and the sound of the people downstairs became loud.
“Get her out of here,” Fran repeated, her confidence irritating. “And don’t take that hood off until she’s been drugged at least twenty minutes.”
Peri tensed, stifling a gasp when she was picked up in a fireman’s carry, the steps jarring as they wove through several hallways, the sound of the piano and people going faint. This wasn’t the end of it. Not by a long shot. But as the elevator began to descend, Peri wondered how she’d ever get out of this.
She was adrift and needed an anchor.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Knees to her chest, Peri leaned against the side of the panel van to stay upright as they took a corner. She hated panel vans. That she’d been shackled, drugged, and thrown into the back of one was not changing her opinion. At least the bag was off her head. They’d left the audio binder in, though, and the monochromatic hum was set too high, giving her a mild headache. She was reasonably confident they were heading to the airport she’d noticed earlier. And they knew what they were doing, too, seeing as the drug they’d hit her with an hour ago was a mild muscle relaxant and a depressant all in one.
An attention-getting ping came from the front of the van, and Peri shifted to a kneel, leaning to watch the two men scramble to see whose phone it was.
“Oh God. It’s Dragon Lady,” the driver said. “You answer it.”
“It’s your phone,” the other said, ducking when the driver smacked him. “What the hell!”
“Answer my phone. I’m driving.”
“Hit me again, and I’ll pound you,” the second threatened even as he reached for it.
There was a rough spot in the wall where a screw protruded, but it wasn’t enough to fray the plastic they’d bound her hands with, and Peri scooted to a new spot.
“Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. Five minutes. Yes, ma’am, I’m writing it down.”
Peri froze when the phone beeped. “What a control freak,” the man said. “She wanted to remind us that they’re still at hangar three.”
“Shut up!” the driver said. “She’s not supposed to know where we’re going.”
“Like she can’t tell we’re at the airport?” the other said. “The jets kind of give it away.”
Yes, the jets did kind of give it away, and Peri struggled for balance when they took a turn onto what was probably a service road.
“Holy shit!” someone exclaimed, and Peri tensed when the van swerved again and the other man began shrieking, “Turn! Turn! She’s coming right for us!”
The tires hop-skipped. Peri gasped, rolling to the front of the van. Her head hit the back of the seat as tires screeched, and they stopped in three seconds flat.
For a moment, the om of sound between her ears was the only noise. Peri’s heart pounded and she heard a groan. The van was tilted forward. Adrenaline made a spot of clarity in her drugged state, and she felt as if she’d been sleeping. She could smell propellant, and she panicked before she realized the airbags had deployed.
“O-o-o-ow …,” a man groaned, and Peri tried to move, cataloging new hurts. “She ran us right off the road. Jeff, you all right?”
“Yeah,” came a softer voice. “I think I’m going to puke. Is the woman okay?”
No, the woman isn’t okay, she thought when the driver leaned to check.
“Back off!” she shouted as he reached for her, and he jerked away in surprise.
“She’s alive,” the guy said, settling back in his seat.