Free Beautiful Criminal by Shady Grace

sobbing, she exhaled a shaky breath. “My friend lives on the other side of that mountain.” She pointed with her chin toward the front window. “She lives alone, and she’s the one caring for him. Please don’t hurt her. She’s a good woman and that pilot wouldn’t be alive if not for her.”
    The guy in front of her looked relieved. He didn’t have a mean face like the others, and when his blue gaze locked with hers, Mary felt strange under his intense scrutiny. “You’re gonna have to come with us.”
    Mary shrieked and struggled against her restraints. “But I told you what you wanted to know!”
    The leader of the crew, dressed in head-to-toe black leather, stepped forward. A jagged scar over his brow and down his cheek made him look evil, like a villain from a movie. He obviously knew well the meaning of pain, and she imagined he enjoyed making others suffer.
    “You’re our pawn, my dear Mary,” he said. “If you’re lying to us, you’re going to wish you were dead.”
    One of the men untied her and yanked her roughly out of the chair. After years of physical abuse from Tom, she knew better than to fight back. She was too small.
    “I will take her,” the nice guy said. He pulled her from the other man’s grip and held her close to his side. “It’ll be over soon, don’t worry,” he whispered for her ears only.
    More tears slid down her cheeks. She’d given up her friend because she was afraid. She was ashamed of herself…of her weakness. Tom would laugh if he saw her like this. Maybe he’d let these men take her away.
    Tom never truly loved her. He’d proven it every time his fist smashed into her face.
    Mary was rushed out of her home and stuffed inside the same black chopper she and Tom had seen yesterday. If only she’d known then what today would bring, she never would’ve offered to go back to the plane. What if Mima was hurt, or already dead? She shuddered to think what might have happened to her best friend.
    The helicopter blades whirled in the air as the pilot started the machine. The guy holding Mary secured her with a belt on the bench seat in the back as the other men piled in, holding their rifles like in those war movies. Never in her most psychotic dreams would she have ever imagined this happening to her.
    What did that pilot do to make these horrible men come after him?
    Twenty minutes later they crested the mountain peak and descended the foothill toward Mima’s cabin. From this distance Mary noticed smoke curling up from the direction they were headed. She closed her eyes, praying her dear friend wasn’t home. Something in her gut told her they’d all end up dead, even if these men got what they wanted.
    “We need to land close to the cabin, but out of sight. Where is the best place?”
    Mary pointed to a small clearing about a quarter mile away from the cabin.
    The pilot set the chopper down in the clearing amidst a sea of endless bush. Mary at least felt some small bit of hope now that she was in her element. There might be a chance to break away and make a run for it. Her chances of surviving alone out here were better than at the hands of these criminals.
    “We should leave a man with the chopper,” the nice guy said to the leader.
    The other shrugged it off. “We need all the man power with us. Have you forgotten who we’re dealing with?”
    Mary remained silent as they trudged through the deep snow. If these men needed all of their manpower to fight the pilot, then he must be a horrible man. She never should’ve left Mima alone with him.
    Maybe it was already too late.
    She couldn’t bear the thought of her best friend being dead.
    Every once in a while she watched Terry through the corner of her eye. He wasn’t like the others who were cruel to her. He had helped her along gently and even rubbed her shoulder. He was handsome too, even though she shouldn’t be thinking about his appearance. She imagined if they were in another place or time, he’d be one