Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 431

Emmy fought to breathe in the tiny, suffocating space, her muffled cries barely making it past the gag.

Suddenly the lid flew open. Black Mamba leaned over her, flicking out a knife and stabbing it into the wood just centimeters from her face. The blade hummed with tension, so close she could feel the cold metal vibrating by her cheek.

“Make another sound and you can forget about that pretty face,” he snapped.

Emmy froze, her breath caught in her chest. She stared at the quivering knife, fear rooting her silent. The lid slammed shut again, plunging her back into darkness.

Time blurred together. At some point, the boat lurched so violently she thought it might tip, then everything went quiet. Rough hands suddenly grabbed the trunk, hauling it across uneven ground. They dropped it hard, jarring her bones. Hours seemed to crawl by before someone wrenched the lid open again.

Voices jabbered around her in a language she didn’t recognize. Without warning, a pair of rough hands yanked her out of the trunk. Someone else grabbed a fistful of her hair, forcing her to look up. Pain shot through her scalp, making her eyes water, but what made her blood run cold were the stares—men’s eyes, greedy and bold, looking at her like she was just another piece of cargo.

Panic slammed through her. Where was she? And why did everyone here have a gun?

A horrible realization flickered through her mind, chilling her to the core.

The man holding her hair ripped the gag from her mouth. Emmy gasped, gulping air like she’d just surfaced from underwater.

A man lounged in a battered wicker chair, watching her with a lazy grin. He laughed and said something to a tall, thin woman by his side.

Black Mamba turned with that same flat, emotionless voice. “Emmy, if you want to stay alive for more than a few days in this camp, transfer every penny in your bank account. Now.”

Emmy’s heart plummeted. She swallowed, trying to steady herself, searching for her voice.

“Where am I? What do you want from me?” she managed, her voice shaking.

The man in the wicker chair just grinned wider, eyes wild. Suddenly he lifted his gun and fired at the floor inches from her feet. The shot rang out, a bullet burning a black hole in the boards.

Emmy flinched so hard her ears rang and her mind went blank.

Before she could move, the still-smoking barrel pressed against her head.

His voice was harsh, his accent thick. “No transfer? I blow your brains out.”

Her heart thundered, so loud she thought it might tear through her chest.

Tim, who’d been silent until now, shoved forward, sweating and desperate.

He entered her account number, eyes cold as ice.

“What’s the password?” he demanded.

The gun pressed harder against her head.

Emmy’s scalp tingled with terror, but she forced herself to breathe and slowly recited the password—a mess of upper and lowercase letters and numbers, twenty characters long.

She’d hoped Tim might fumble it, maybe lock the account after a few tries. Now, all she could do was gamble on their patience.

The man finished typing, hit enter.

A bright red message flashed: Incorrect password.

“Damn it!” the man in the wicker chair exploded, jumping to his feet and slamming the gun against her forehead. Pain bloomed instantly, leaving her skin burning.

His anger was raw, his words broken. “You think you can mess with me? I’ll kill you right now!”