Taming Alaska (So Not Prince Charming Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

between the seats.
    As I dig for them, the driver-side window shatters into my hair and lap, and then the door opens. I’m yanked out of the car by my hair, kicking and yelling and scratching. Ice-cold terror flows through my veins. I claw at his masked face that reeks of marijuana. From the way he’s screaming, my fingernails tore through the knit mask and dug into his flesh.
    Mom reaches for me. “Let go of my daughter.”
    Another man with startling blue eyes wearing coveralls like the man holding me breaks her window and hauls her out of the car.
    The man clutching me drops me on my butt then hits me so hard I see stars. Mom is screaming at them to leave me alone. She fights so desperately that her captor wallops her in the head, and she goes still.
    “Mom,” I say through a veil of tears. “Mary madre de jesús ,” I pray. “ No dejes quese muera .” I scream, even though the fight has drained from my heart at the sight of her limp body.
    The two men tie us up with rope and throw us into the back of the truck. They drive about a quarter mile down the road, spewing dirt and gravel that cloud around us. I cough on the dust while scooting close to mi madre to listen for a heartbeat. It’s faint, but she’s alive.
    I work on my bindings to loosen them. They’re partially undone on my hands, but I leave my feet bound. The masked men pull in front of a small shack and unload us, kicking Mom off the truck. Her head smashes into a rock with a sickening thud. The man with eyes the color of mud drags her toward the shack, a trail of blood lingering in the sand.
    I can’t hold myself together. Wracking sobs steal my breath away.
    They deposit us onto the dirt floor inside the shack where two small windows let light into the dingy interior.
    “Take off their shoes so they can’t get far,” one of them says.
    Mom is wearing her sneakers with daisies stamped on them while I have on my purple Vans. The man with blue eyes pulls off my shoes and stuffs them in his coverall pockets. A few strands of lemon-yellow hair peek out from his mask.
    After they go outside, closing the door behind them, Mom shakes her head, lifting it off the ground. Blood trails onto her neck from her ear. She leans over and spittle flows from her mouth.
    Fighting off heaving sobs, I finish unbinding my hands and then my feet.
    “Are you all right?” I ask, choking on my tears.
    Her head wobbles, and her eyelids droop. The painful sight of her settles into my heart like cold stones.
    “I’m fine,” she rasps.
    I tighten my lips, holding back more tears as I work on her bindings. They’re much tighter than mine. My hands tremble as I fiddle with the knots.
    “I can’t loosen your bindings,” I whisper, fighting the knotted rope.
    “Look at me, Cindy,” she says in a low shaky voice. “You need to run and get help. They’ll be back any second, and one of us needs to escape before they return.”
    Tears run tracks down my grimy face. “I can’t leave you.”
    “Do this for both of us. Go now.” She nods at the back window.
    With tears blurring my eyes, I hug her and say, “I’ll get the car and come back for you.”
    “No. Go to the car and call the police. You may not have a signal until you get to the main road or a town. Hurry.”
    I nod, though the thought of leaving her crushes my chest. I get up and climb out the back window, scraping and cutting my knee in the process. Their backs are toward me, so while they talk in the front by the door, I tiptoe past them, stumbling a few times in my bare feet. I sneak behind the truck before running as fast as I can to the Mercedes. The sharp rocks and hot sand bite my feet, but I ignore the pain.
    I reach over halfway to the car when I hear one of them shout, “She got away,” and the truck roars to life.
    As the truck barrels toward me, the Mercedes comes into sight. I’ll never make it. While I sprint to the car, the truck fishtails. I jump into the car and search for the keys