Teaser for By A Thread

Prologue



An explosion burst through her ears just as she turned to look at the door of the makeshift FBI field office. She didn’t even have time to shield her eyes. The force of the explosion knocked her out of her rolling chair and onto her back, where she lay stunned. After a few minutes, she glanced around the room, attempting to see what was going on in the office where just a short time ago she sat down at her computer for only the second time ever. The entire front of the office was gone. Searching frantically around the office, she couldn’t see the four agents who had been seated at their computers minutes ago. Three of the missing agents were from ATF. The other was a seasoned FBI agent assigned to clean up the mess created by the ATF in Montana. Three masked figures in dark clothes moved through the opening created by the blast. She rolled to her stomach and through the haze attempted to take inventory of her body parts. She put her hands under her shoulders, pushing herself up, and tried to stand. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Suddenly, strong hands grasped her biceps, lifting her with ease.
“Whoa there, honey,” the broadest figure of the three yelled at her. The man had lifted her to her feet and was holding her firmly with her back pressed against his soft belly. She started to separate herself from him, to move toward the back door of the office. “Hey Jack, you ever seen a cop this hot before?” The man jabbed his gun into her back. “Where you going, sweet thing?”
Stella froze; she hadn’t heard the man, but she felt his gun. The man gripped her arm tightly and easily swung her around to face him. She was still taking stock of her body parts. Obviously she couldn’t hear. He slid his gloved palm down her face, his chest heaving up and down from exertion.
“Oooooweeee, you sure are a pretty thing,” he said while ripping the buttons off her button-down shirt, exposing her bra. “Hey Jack, come look at this.” Stella shifted away from the man’s hands.
The other two masked figures paid no attention to the man pawing at Stella, but she couldn’t really make out what the other men were doing. She was trying to put together what was happening and why anyone would bother bombing their makeshift field office. There was no money, and nothing to steal other than paperwork.
“Cat got your tongue, baby?” The man grabbed her chin hard, forcing Stella to look at him. She grimaced.
“She probably can’t hear, you idiot,” barked the man rummaging through the piles of blown-apart desks. “We don’t have time for you to play with her. Come on.”
The big man pushed Stella hard enough that she fell flat on her back, knocking the wind out of her. “It won’t take long, will it honey?” He got down on one knee and started unbuttoning Stella’s pants. Still in shock, Stella fought back, kicking him in the face with the heel of her boot. Rolling on her stomach, she started crawling, only to be pulled roughly back to the man. Flipping her over like she weighed no more than twenty pounds, he ripped the button off her pants.
A figure loomed behind him, the third man. “Dude, you’re kidding, right?”
“Just give me a few minutes.” The man was breathing heavy from fighting with Stella.
“No.” The third man pulled out his gun and shot her in the chest.
Her eyes locked on the third man, her mind reeling. She’d know those eyes anywhere. Her thoughts didn’t fully form as her world went white. Pain shot through her chest and then her head. Then everything went black.