Oxblood by AnnaLisa Grant

Author:AnnaLisa Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Teen & Tween
Published: 2016-08-04T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The only sound I could hear when I regained consciousness was the pounding in my head.

I tried to remember what had just happened. Ian on the floor, unconscious. Someone standing over him, looking past me . . .

Someone must have been behind me. Someone who then hit me over the head.

I tried to reach up to check the damage, but my hands were bound together. Eyes burning from the light, I glanced down.

Duct tape. My wrists were bound with silver duct tape. My ankles were also bound, and I was slumped in a corner at the back of Ian’s team’s headquarters. Next to me, hanging by his wrists with his feet just grazing the floor, was a bruised, battered, and shirtless Ian. His shirt was torn and crumpled on the floor.

He looked at me, his eyes intense. “Victoria,” he whispered.

The men who’d attacked us didn’t appear to be in the room, but Ian was doing his best not to be heard.

“Victoria, are you okay?” he asked.

“I think so,” I said. “My head really hurts though. How long were we out?”

“A few hours from what I can tell.”

Ian’s wrists were bound with rope, and the rope had been lassoed on a hook hanging from the ceiling. His wrists were rubbed raw. His sides were red and bruised, and there was a cut above his eye.

Whoever had ambushed us had worked Ian over.

The room was relatively empty. Were it not for the big-screen televisions hanging on the wall and the equipment on Claudia’s desk, you would never know the place had been inhabited so recently.

There were no bags on desktops, no coffee cups, no coats tossed in the corner. Ian hadn’t been able to get in touch with the team, but had they managed to get out before Thug One and Thug Two arrived?

Our backpacks lay against the wall behind Ian, unopened. I prayed that our laptops and Gil’s journal were still tucked inside.

I rolled to my stomach then pushed myself onto my knees. Ian gave me a stern look.

“There’s a hidden panel in the closet of the back room—”

“I’m not leaving you, Ian,” I declared.

“I’ll be fine,” he argued.

“Oh yeah, because you’re so comfortable hanging there? We’re in this shitty situation because of me, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let those assholes come back and use you for a punching bag and then do only God knows what with me.”

“It’s not your fault, Victoria,” Ian said.

“I had a gun. I could have shot the guy standing over you, but I froze.” I looked down, ashamed. I also couldn’t stomach Ian’s abused body. It broke my heart to see him like that, especially since I knew I was to blame.

“Look at me, Victoria,” he said. He wouldn’t speak again until my eyes met his. “Things happen. We both entered an unknown situation. You’ll recall I was the one lying unconscious on the floor when you walked in.” Even in his battered state, Ian had an uncanny ability to make me feel better.

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