He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 312

t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly

Chapter 312

op struggling, he growled, or I’ll kill you right here.”

Let go of me, you steroid–fed filing cabinet!

He didn’t answer that. He didn’t even seem to register it as words worth responding to, which honestly stung almost as much as the situation itself.

They pulled us sideways, away from the worst of the gunfire, through a narrow side passage cut into the base of the wall- the kind of unremarkable service door nobody would notice unless they already knew it was there. Behind us, the fighting kept going, gunshots layering over each other in a rhythm that

made my stomach twist with every single crack.

DeLuca was still out there. So was Fritzo. So was Archer, somewhere in all of it..

I couldn’t do anything about any of them. I could barely do anything about myself, dragged sideways through a hallway that swallowed the noise of the battle behind us bit by bit, deeper into the base, toward whatever Volkov had actually meant when he said he wanted us kept.

They dropped us into a room dim enough that it took my eyes a second to adjust, and by the time they did, I already knew I wasn’t going to like what I

found.

Two heavy chairs, bolted into the floor. My mother’s unconscious body was arranged into one of them, wrists and ankles locked into shackles that looked older than the rest of the base, rusted at the edges but clearly still functional. I got the second chair, the metal cold against my skin as they secured me in, and then, without another word, they left.

“Let me go!” I yelled after them anyway, because apparently my brain hadn’t caught up to the fact that the door had already shut. “You can’t just

egal! Extremely illegal! I know for a fact kidnapping is illegal in at least several countries!”

Nobody came back to argue the point. Meanwhile I didn’t know if I was making proper sense.

this is

Silence settled over the room after that, thick and completely uncomfortable, the kind that presses against your ears instead of just filling the space. Somewhere on the other side of these walls, people were fighting for their lives. I didn’t know who was winning. I didn’t know if anyone I actually cared

about was still breathing.

I hated this silence more than I’d hated almost anything else tonight, and tonight had set an extremely high bar.

“Mom. I twisted toward her as far as the shackles allowed, which wasn’t far at all. ‘Mom, wake up. Please.”

Nothing.

“Mom, come on-

I strained against the restraints, trying to close even a few inches of the distance between our chairs, and the chair didn’t budge an inch. Bolted solid. Of course it was. Nothing about tonight was going to make this easy.

Evidually I gave up trying to reach her and just sat there, breathing hard, trying to think through what came next, because staying here wasn’t an option. Whateer Volkov actually wanted from us and 1 refused, point blank, to let myself dwell on the specific horrifying shape of what that might mean, the thing fed said about family, about blood, about my mother, none of it ended well if I just sat here waiting for it to happen.

shoved the thought away before i could fully farm. Not now. Not ever, ideally, hut especially not now

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15:02 Fri, Sep 4 M

Chapter 312

That was when I noticed it.

The shackle on my left wrist sat looser than the right, just barely, a small gap between metal and skin that hadn’t been there a second ago, or maybe had be there the whole time and I was only now paying attention. I twisted my hand experimentally, feeling the give in it, and something close to hope

flickered to life in my chest.

If I could work this one free, maybe I could reach the other. Maybe I could actually do something other than sit here and wait to find out what kept meant.

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