Isn't It Bromantic (Bromance Book Club #4) by Lyssa Kay Adams

            “You’ll see soon enough.”

            Sweat ran down her face. Could the dispatcher hear his answers or only her questions? “Why not just kill me when you had the chance? Why are you torturing me like this?”

            “Because we need you alive for a while.”

            Elena made her voice wobbly and scared, which wasn’t a stretch. She was terrified. “I need you to do something for me.”

            The man laughed. “Right.”

            “Will you at least tell my husband where my body is? Please. Do you know who my husband is? He’s a very gentle man, and this will destroy him. His name is Vlad Konnikov. Do you know him? He’s a hockey player, but he’s not like most hockey players. He is sweet and kind, and it will destroy him if you kill me and leave him with no answers.”

            She glanced down at the phone. The dispatcher was still there. Still listening.

            But in the front seat, so was someone else. His voice grew cold. “What are you doing?”

            “I’m begging you to have mercy on my husband.”

            He suddenly jerked the wheel as he whipped his head around to look over his shoulder. “You bitch! Do you have a phone?”

            “No—”

            He jerked the wheel again, and this time she crashed onto the floor. The phone flew under the front seat, out of her reach.

            All she had left was to scream. “My name is Elena Konnikova! I have been kidnapped! I am in my husband’s car. A Cadillac Escalade, license plate NBT-413.”

            Another lesson from her father. Always know your license plate number.

            The car rocked to the right as the man whipped off the road. Her face whacked against the floorboard of the back seat, sending spots before her eyes and blood into her mouth.

            “Fuck!” The man beat his hands on the steering wheel. “You fucking bitch!”

            Beneath his seat, the phone was facedown. She had no idea if the dispatcher heard her scream for help. The man suddenly threw open his door and got out of the car. Elena scrambled to sit up, but she was trapped between the seats. He stormed around to the passenger side, the side where her feet were. Good. She could struggle better that way. She could kick and make it impossible for him to pull her out of the car.

            Elena drew her knees up.

            He wrenched open the door and leaned in.

            She kicked with all her strength.

            Her feet connected with his face. There was a disgusting crunch as blood spurted from his nose. He stumbled backward, and Elena hoisted herself to a sitting position. He lunged for her again and managed to grab one of her ankles.

            Elena screamed and kicked again as she twisted toward the front. She wrapped her bound arms around the console between the front seats and used the leverage to haul her body up. Her leg slipped from his grasp, and this time he fell.

            Elena threw herself forward, scrambling into the front seat. The car was still running.

            She looked over her shoulder as he lunged toward the open door. She bent and used both her hands to put the car into drive. Then, without looking, she jammed her foot on the gas pedal.

            The SUV lurched, and Elena looked back just in time to see him fall again. With a jerk of the wheel, Elena hit the gas again and whipped out into traffic.

            And right into the path of an oncoming car.

            There was a scream. A crash. The crunch of metal on metal.

            And the world went black again.





CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN





Vlad was going to be sick. He stumbled just in time to the bathroom and heaved into the toilet.

            Colton came running. “Everyone’s here, man. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to find her.”

            “It’s my fault. I should have stayed here. I shouldn’t have let her go.”

            Malcolm, Mack, Noah, and fucking Cheese Man crowded around the bathroom door. “It’s not your fault,” Mack said. “You couldn’t have known.”