“What? What do you mean Jason’s hurt? What happened?”
“I-I don’t know.” While Jason drove, her thoughts had been on Colton and his horrifying death. She had no idea how long they’d been on the road. “We were driving home and this car just...it came out of nowhere. Jason’s door took a direct hit. He’s bleeding from a head wound, and he’s unconscious.”
Keep it together, Sophie. Jason needs you.
“But he’s alive, right? You checked his pulse?”
“Yes.” She nodded with a sniffle. “It’s weak, but it’s there.”
“Okay, good. Listen to me. I want you to look around the car. Do you see an emergency button? The kind that calls for help?”
Son of a...why didn’t she think of that?
Because you’re in shock and scared out of your wits.
Sophie looked on the steering wheel and up near the dome lights. Her heart fell when she didn’t find what she was looking for.
“I don’t see one.” Her voice cracked, but she cleared her throat and kept it together.
She was an emergency room doctor, for crying out loud. She thrived in high-pressure situations.
But this was Jason. The man who’d saved her life...twice. And though it might seem crazy or irrational to some, Sophie realized in that exact moment, he was also the man she was born to love.
“Listen, Soph. I’m already in my truck and on my way to you. I’m going to hang up so you can call 911. I’ll be there as fast as I can, okay?”
“Okay. Thanks, Jake.”
“I’ll see you soon, honey. Hang in there.”
Ending the call, Sophie turned to the right when she caught movement from the corner of her eye. She screamed when a man opened her door and began yanking her out of the car.
Agonizing pain shot from her wrist into her shoulder, instantly making her feel as though she were going to pass out.
“Stop!” She tried fighting, but her right arm was useless, and the phone was still in her left hand.
In a split-second decision, Sophie slid Jason’s phone into her pocket without the man noticing. Feeling as though she’d just given up her lifeline, she swung her fist around with the hardest left hook she had.
Her knuckles hit her attacker’s jaw with precise aim. The man stumbled back, losing his grip on her injured arm.
She started to run. Hard and fast, she headed up the embankment toward the road in hopes a car would drive by and see her.
She made it halfway up the hill when the man slammed into her back, knocking her to the ground.
On reflex, Sophie put both hands out to break her fall. She cried out when her broken wrist rebelled with a sharp, searing pain.
“Ah!” She sucked in a breath. Yanking her hand back, she immediately took the pressure off of her right arm while kicking and screaming as hard and loud as she could.
Please hear me, Jason. Please wake up and shoot this son of a bitch!
Muttering a curse, the man flipped her over onto her back and put a gun against her forehead. The cold metal bit in to her skin, and the memory of Abdul Qasim threating to kill her in Djibouti flashed through her head.
“Goddamnit, Sophie. Stop!”
He knows my name?
Dread twisted in her gut as her terrified mind raced to figure out who this guy was and what the hell was going on.
It was dark, and he had a black hoodie pulled down over his eyes, making it impossible to see his face.