There are a few bumps on the drive, and Shelby is still kicking up a fuss until one guy has enough.
“Inject her, for fuck’s sake,” he groans. Shelby is cursing and moving, but slowly the van goes silent as her fight dies off.
They wouldn’t kill her, right?It has to be a sedative. Either way, I don’t want to find out firsthand. One of us has to stay aware and have an understanding of what we’re dealing with. Listening to others’ conversations and gathering informationhas always been a skill of mine. I might not be strong enough to put up a fight, but I have to do something. If Shelby and I have a chance in hell of getting out of this, I need to stay quiet and be strong.
My heartbeat thumps so loudly in my ears that I’m convinced my heart is going to explode, and it only gets worse as the man to my left leans down to speak to me. Even with the hood on, I can scent him. He’s clearly an Alpha.
“You’ve been such a good girl. Stay that way and I won’t have to inject you too,” he warns threateningly. I swallow thickly, but I don’t move a single muscle. “I fucking love when they’re meek little things,” he comments, and I feel the wetness of tears trailing down my face.
I control my sobs, holding them inside. I can’t let them hear me cry or let them see how fucking scared I am.What did they inject Shelby with? Is she going to be okay? Is Axel?
Everything has been moving at warp speed, and I try my hardest to calm myself so I can recall the last moment I saw him, trying to remember where he was shot. I try so fucking hard to concentrate, but I can’t. All I can focus on is my current situation. The man on the right places his palm on my thigh, making my entire body tense automatically.
“Aw, come on, don’t be like that, darlin’. We can have so much fun like I wanted to before,” his voice sounds vaguely familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it.
I remain silent, not daring to speak, cry, or beg.
There’s only one thing that makes sense with the wording he just used. They’re Wraiths.
We’re going to die… or worse.
“If anyone is going to get to sample the goods, it’s me, you fuckin’ prick,” the man on my left spits to the other.
“Your mama never teach you to share, Reg?” I try to place the name, but I can’t. Definitely not a Dead Palms member, but I already knew that.
“I can share just fuckin’ fine. But you always rough 'em up too much before it’s my turn. I like it when their face is still pretty.”
I swallow back the bile that rises in my throat.
I think I’d rather die than let them do what they’re insinuating to me. No… IknowI’d rather die. Memories I don’t remember being real flash behind my eyes, and I quickly shut them down, locking them away in a tiny box that I stash in the dark corner of my brain. I don’t want to remember anything about our time with the Wraiths, I just want to go home.
Instead, I focus on my breathing and looking for any way out of this. Cash will come looking for us eventually and find Axel on the ground. Others would have heard the gunshots. An enemy came onto our compound, shot a member, and kidnapped two family members of the club. I take some solace in knowing there are people who care, who will want me home safely.
The only question is if they do find me, what will be left?
I could considerone gunshot on this compound being a fluke, one of my drunk brothers being a dumbass, and shooting a beer bottle. But the multiple cracks that pop off in the distance have my hackles rising and my body lurching into action.
I’m not carrying, considering I’m in the body shop packing up all our shit. I’m quick, locking Winnie up in the office as I grab the weapons I have stored in the bottom drawer. Two pistols, two tactical knives, and a can of tear gas.
I’m moving as quickly as my feet will take me as I make my way through the square. Tires screech wildly and dust whips behind the vehicle as it hightails fast as fuck out of the compound. It’s far away, but I raise my weapon and attempt totake out a tire. They’re driving so erratically and fast that I don’t stand a chance.
Other club members are now filing outside, strapped and ready for a fight when I see Axel on the ground—alone—clutching his arm with a smear of blood on his forehead.
I’m standing above him in a heartbeat, glaring down at him.
“Where is she?”
“They fuckin’ took her. We’ve gotta go, now,” he groans. Blood trails down his arm as he applies pressure to where he got shot. “Fuck!” he screams as he stands, his footing wobbly as Doc approaches us and starts assessing his injury.
“What the fuck was that?” Doc asks in his thick Irish brogue.
“Fuckin’ Wraiths. They took Lily. Fix my shit up quickly. We’ve gotta fuckin’ go,” Axel demands, panic, and urgency laced in his tone.
I’m trying not to do the same, to not let the switch that lives inside of me flip; the one I have no control over when someone touches what matters to me. I breathe heavily, a deep inhale, and a slow exhale.
I can’t let this rage take over. We have to be smart about this.
But when I look at the blond motherfucker who lost our girl, I want to kill him. If he didn’t take her out today, we would have already been out of here. She would have been safe. But I know Lily wouldn’t blame him, and if I kill him, she’d never forgive me.
