“You do that. And keep your goddamn hands off her.”
With a grumble, Marcus dug his fingers into her arm once more. Pushing her through the door, Avery turned her head to the right when she heard another man’s voice.
Though they were several feet away, Avery caught a glimpse of two additional men entering the building from a second entrance further down. One was tall—really tall. And he had dark hair, dark glasses, and a jaw that looked as if it were made of stone.
The man walking next to him was dressed in a dark blue suit, white button-up, and red tie. Looking as though he were attending a business meeting, rather than being in a rundown warehouse in the middle of nowhere, the man turned in her direction, his dark eyes meeting hers in a split-second exchange.
He looks familiar.
Avery was still trying to place where she’d seen the man before when a look of rage blanketed his face. Spinning on his expensive heels, the man turned his back to her before talking to the giant next to him.
“That your boss?” She shot Marcus a look.
Marcus swung his head behind them. Eyes wide, he cursed beneath his breath and shoved her forward, picking up speed as they went.
Guess she had her answer.
Unlocking the door to the room he’d taken her from, the jerk pushed her back inside.
“Avery!” Jessica stood and ran to her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She gave the young girl a small smile. Turning back around, she sent Marcus a smirk. “Your boss looked pretty mad. Sure hope you don’t get into trouble.”
Avery wasn’t sure where the sudden cockiness had come from, but the smartass comment was something she quickly regretted.
Moving lightning fast, Marcus punched her in the jaw with the force of a two-by-four. Her head snapped to the side, and with her hands still tied behind her back, Avery was unable to break her fall.
Landing with a thud on the building’s dirt floor, she heard Jessica’s sharp cry of denial just before the door slammed shut. As cloud of darkness swallowed her whole, a tear fell from her eye to the dirt below as she pictured Garrett’s handsome face.
Chapter 13
“Avery!” Garrett’s eyes flew open. He shot to his feet…and then promptly fell back on his ass.
“She’s not here.”
Garrett turned his throbbing head toward the unfamiliar voice. A man was sitting against the opposite wall, his knees up, hands hanging loosely between them.
Clean-cut in a pair of khakis and a Hawaiian shirt, he appeared to be in his mid-to late forties. But what struck Garrett the most was the way the man was staring straight ahead, almost as if he was in a trance.
“Where is she?”
“They took her. Her and my daughter.”
A flash of a memory struck, and Garrett realized who the man was.
They’d been in line. The HTs were leading them into an old warehouse of some sort. One had taken Avery away from him. She’d been screaming. So had this man’s daughter.
“Where did they take them?” He grimaced at the gnawing headache filling his skull.
“No idea. One minute she was beside me, and the next that bastard was ripping her from my arms.”
Ah, Christ.
Nausea churned in his gut to the point he thought he would puke.
“Dude, are you okay?”
Garrett’s head snapped up to another voice. Younger but still male.