Special Forces: The Spy. Cindy Dees

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       Chapter 3

      Piper regained consciousness slowly. Her head throbbed painfully, and it didn’t help matters that every time the van hit a bump in the road, the metal floor bounced underneath her temple, whacking her head again.

      Her lips were dry, and her bladder was full, which meant she’d been out for a while. A couple hours, possibly. Dang it! They could’ve changed directions a dozen times without her knowing. She had no way of knowing where she was now!

      A sense of disorientation swirled around her. As if she was completely disconnected from the real world. It was scary as hell, and she had to force herself to lie perfectly still until her breathing settled back down and the panic attack passed.

      Questions peppered her mind almost too fast to catalog. Where was she? Who were these guys? What did they want with her? How much danger was she in? Where were they taking her? Would she have a shot at escaping them? Did they plan to kill her? Was this even real?

      Cautiously, she cracked her eyes open and saw black pants and black combat boots. It hadn’t been a terrible dream. She really had been kidnapped. The weight of panic landed on her chest again, and she struggled to control her breathing.

      She could just lie here pretending to be unconscious...but just then the van hit a big bump and slammed her head hard into the floor.

       Ow.

      She probably had a concussion already from the blow that had knocked her out. No need to exacerbate the stupid thing. Piper pushed against the floor with both hands, sitting up groggily. At least none of the men stopped her from doing so.

      The ski masks had come off, replaced by baseball caps pulled down low and dark sunglasses. Drat. She still wouldn’t be able to identify her kidnappers in a lineup. She felt the weight of their stares upon her and did her best not to freak out and start screaming hysterically.

      Whatever this was, whoever they were, she had to keep her wits about her, watch, wait and seize the opportunity to escape when it presented itself. And surely one would. She had to believe she would have a chance to get away, eventually.

       Be calm. Breathe. Relax.

      She did her level best to settle into the state of loose readiness that Major Torsten stressed over and over was absolutely necessary to peak performance.

      At least they hadn’t tied her up. It was a small victory, but she knew from her POW training that those were all a hostage could hope to achieve.

      Choking fear bubbled up in her throat unbidden, and she stomped it down hard. She had no time for that. This was a battle of wits and wills, and she needed all of hers. In the meantime, maybe she could figure out who these guys were, why they’d grabbed her and where they were going.

      Pitching her voice to be polite and diffident, she asked, “Who are you?” A little rapport with her kidnappers could never hurt.

      They stared back at her in stony silence. One of the men was seated beside her, between her and the driver. Which ruled out her making a dive for the steering wheel and maybe putting the van in a ditch.

      “Why did you kidnap me?” she added.

      Still nothing.

      She debated starting up a one-sided conversation with these men to provoke them to talk, but ultimately decided she would be better served acting scared to death and letting them lead the conversation wherever they wanted to.

      She craned her head to peer out the front window and saw a ribbon of interstate highway stretching away in front of the van. The sun seemed to be overhead, so she had no means of working out what direction they were going. But it confirmed she’d been unconscious for a while.

      She realized her elbow was lightly rubbing the arm of one of the bad guys. Based on his build, she thought it might be Goldeneyes. Subtly, she shifted away from him. If she wasn’t mistaken, she heard him exhale СКАЧАТЬ