Martin?
I don’t even get a breath in before something rough slams over my head.A sack.Rope.The scent of gasoline and sweat hits my nose.My scream chokes in the fabric.
The world pitches sideways.
My feet leave the floor.
I kick, claw, twist.Someone laughs.Not Royal.This one is wet, low, eager.I am tossed over a shoulder like a sack of feed.
“Shouldn’t walk alone,” a man I can only imagine as Martin from my vision mutters, voice way too close to my ear.“Your daddy taught you better.”
He carries me out the back, into gravel.My heart slams the inside of my chest.Royal is coming, I know he is.I force my fingers out of the ropes enough to claw skin.If I die, he will smell Martin on me.
A door creaks open.Metal.Industrial.
A warehouse.
I’m thrown to the floor.Pain cracks through my hip.The hood stays on.Boots shuffle.Voices mutter.
Then the hood rips off.
My eyes adjust.A single hanging bulb buzzes overhead.And tied to a support beam, bruised and furious, is Joey.
Royal’s girlfriend.
Or ex.
Or something in between.
Her blonde hair is matted dark.Her lip is split.But her blue eyes sharpen when she sees me.
“Oh fantastic,” she says, sarcasm cutting through the pain.“They brought the preacher’s spawn to keep me company.What did you do, sweetheart, whine too loud at the clubhouse?”
I stare.
She glares.
We both grasp we are in deep shit.
The man kneels beside me, his face hidden by shadows.His breath is sour with whiskey.
“Reverend always said you were special,” he murmurs.“But said the Leaper wanted pure blood.”
“Joey ain’t pure either,” I spit, sounding insulted.“They call her Joey Donut, for fucks’ sake.”
“Yeah, we’re both fucking whores.Let us go,” she wails.
He turns toward her, but I still can’t see his face.“I’m just supposed to get ya scared enough.Soft enough.Ready.The Leaper will decide.”
I spit at him.It hits his cheek.
He backhands me so hard my vision sparks white.
“Touch me again,” I snarl.“And Royal will carve your face off.”
The man’s teeth flash hot in the dark, cracked tooth shining.“Royal ain’t here.”
“He will be.”
