Liberation Read Online Free PDF

the main road, she tapped into years of self-defense training.  She didn’t look back, she didn’t scream, she simply ran.  A van squealed to a stop as she approached an intersection and two different men jumped out. 
    Darting into the street, she changed direction and kept running.  She knew she couldn’t enter a shop or stop a passing car.  Anyone who tried to help would be in mortal danger. 
    There was no doubt that this was about money.  She was valuable.  Innocent bystanders would be nothing more than witnesses to dispose of and no match for the kind of men in pursuit of their payday. 
    A mile, two miles, and Marci began to hope for escape.  Suddenly, a woman stepped from between two buildings and punched her in the face.  She hit the concrete hard. 
    When the woman bent to seize her, she mule-kicked her in the sternum and watched her hit the side of a building, her head bouncing off the stone. 
    Struggling to stand despite the pain ricocheting through her body, she attempted to run again.  The van rocked to a squealing stop along the curb and the three men rushed from the open doors. 
    Reaching into her bag, she took out a can of mace and a small knife.  She would never be able to outrun them.  They would take her but she planned to hurt them as much as possible to buy time and weaken their advantage.  They surrounded her and she found herself backed into a narrow niche beside a shop. 
    The cuts she delivered weren’t fatal but they would always carry the evidence that their target fought back.  The man with red hair tried to grab her and she sprayed mace in his eyes. 
    Her victory was short-lived as the remaining attackers wrestled her into the van.  As her kidnappers prepared to speed away from the scene, one of them bound her arms and legs with tape.  Another piece was pressed roughly over her mouth. 
    The woman she’d kicked jumped inside last.  Instantly, she knelt to punch Marci in the face repeatedly, despite the screaming coming from her male partners in the front. 
    She listened to the various accents through the ringing of her ears and memorized their faces through the eye that wasn’t swollen shut. 
    They drove for several minutes before the redhead’s vision cleared.  The man who’d killed her bodyguards straddled her torso.  The skin of his face was enflamed and his blue eyes watered. 
    “Bitch!  Did you think you were going to get away?  I always get what I want.”  He ran his hands over her breasts and when she tried to get out from under him, he punched her in the temple.  “I can’t kill you but I can make this bad for you.  Lie still.  Let me see what’s so special about the little heiress.” 
    It was the sort of attack she’d never expected and wasn’t prepared to deal with.  At fourteen, she’d never so much as kissed a boy.  No one had ever touched her intimately. 
    She started screaming behind the tape and everyone started talking at once. 
    The man in the passenger seat brought his gun around.  “You’re damaging merchandise worth billions , you fucking amateur!”  His accent was thick but the message was clear.
    Suddenly, there was a crash and the van stopped moving.  The redhead was thrown free of her as the back door was pulled wide and several men in black tactical gear stood on the street. 
    Gunshots from the side windows killed the two kidnappers in front.  The woman and the redhead launched themselves from the van, shooting and slashing at Marci’s would-be rescuers. 
    Disoriented and nauseous, she rolled herself against the wall and worked at the bindings on her wrist.  When the tape ripped free, she pulled it off her ankles and mouth. 
    Crawling to the open doors, she saw that the redhead’s back was to her.  He held a hostage, an older woman likely passing on the street who he grabbed when it was clear he was not going to walk away. 
    His female accomplice was on the ground, shot in the center of her forehead, a long