She didn’t see the black van until it rolled to a slow stop beside her.The hairs on the back of her neck prickled.Mara quickened her pace, the lightness in her chest dissolving into unease.She glanced over and her blood went cold.
Two men stepped out.Both wore leather cuts and on them was a familiar insignia.Blood Vultures.She didn’t know these men.Maybe her father hired new blood.
“Afternoon, sweetheart,” one of them drawled.“Been looking for you.”
Mara spun and bolted.Her boots hit the pavement hard, heart slamming against her ribs.She didn’t even think, she just ran.Mara didn’t make it far.
Someone snatched her arm, yanking her back hard enough to make her gasp.The other man stepped in front of her, grinning.
“Your old man’s been real eager to get you home,” he sneered.“Guess you should’ve known better than to hide in Devil’s Crown territory.”
“Let me go!”Mara twisted, nails digging into his arm, but he only laughed.
“Aw, she bites.”
A rag came down over her mouth.The scent of something chemical and sharp filled her nose.She struggled, eyes wide with terror.“No, don’t!”
The scent burned her lungs.Her vision blurred, the sunlight fracturing into spinning shards.
She tried to scream, but the sound caught in her throat.The last thing she saw was the Vultures’ smirking faces, and the sky above, slipping out of reach.
Then everything went black.
****
Viper’s phone rangonce, twice, then a third time.He frowned, pulling it from his cut pocket, expecting Mara’s name to flash on the screen.Instead, it was Benny from the shop.
“Yeah?”Viper answered.He’d been tuning a bike in the garage next to the clubhouse.Music thumped from a nearby portable radio.
“Viper, you gotta get here now!”Benny said, sounding panicked.
“Slow down.What’s going on?”Viper demanded.
“It’s Mara,” Benny choked out.“I was just running after her to tell her to cancel my sandwich order when a black van pulled up.Two guys, with the Vultures’ patch—”
Viper’s wrench hit the floor with a sharp clang.
“Say that again,” Viper said.
“They grabbed her, man!”Benny answered.“They took her right off the damn street!I tried to get to her, but they were gone before I hit the corner!”
For a heartbeat, Viper couldn’t breathe.The noise of the garage around him fell away, every sound fading until there was only the pulse hammering in his ears.Mara taken by them.His vision tunneled.
“Benny,” he said finally.Viper kept his voice steady despite the blood roaring in his head.“Where?”
“Corner of Dyer and Main,” Benny said, nearly crying.“She was walking to the sandwich shop.”
“Stay put,” Viper ordered.“You see anything else, you call me.Don’t move from that damn spot.”
He hung up before Benny could respond.His hand clenched around the phone until the screen cracked.Then he was already moving.
He stormed out of the garage and entered the clubhouse.The other brothers looked up, startled by the violence in his movement.
“King!”Viper barked.
The president emerged from the office, a question already forming on his lips.
“What happened?”King asked him instead.
