“You’re a nurse,” a man asked.
“Yes.”
“We don’t want to harm you. A colleague of ours is injured and needs some medical treatment. Help him, and we’ll set you free,” he replied.
I was scared stupid. They’d left my hands unbound, but I didn’t try to remove the hood. If I saw their faces, they definitely wouldn’t leave me alive to identify them.
“Okay,” I whispered.
“Lady, honest, nobody here will harm you,” the man soothed, and I nodded in my hood. Forgive me if I didn’t believe him!
We drove for what seemed like hours before the car stopped. I tried listening for identifying noises, but all I could hear was the crunch of boots on stone. Someone held my elbow.
“Come with me.”
“I don’t have a lot of choice,” I replied, fear making me prickly.
“Stop that humour, lady, the boss doesn’t like mouthy females,” I was told.
The boss? That meant these were criminals. I was in deep shit. Two men flanked me as they led me into what could be my final resting place. As much as I tried to keep track of the twists and turns, I got lost after six. Finally, they came to a stop.
“Wait here. Someone will come and get you. Don’t bother screaming. There’s nobody near who’ll help, and the boss is already in pain,” the guy said and then disappeared.
I tentatively lifted my hood and saw I was in a locked room. Plaster fell from the walls, and there was a damp smell. This was an abandoned building. A warehouse, I thought, which meant the guy had spoken the truth. There was nothing here that could help me identify this shithole.
I curled up in the corner and waited. Why was I here?
Harlequin
“Harlequin, a call came into nine-one-one. A nurse named Teagan just called in a kidnapping of her colleague, April Graham, from the staff car park.”
I spun and faced Diesel, feeling the blood drain from my face.
“What?”
“Your nurse, April, has been kidnapped,” Diesel replied.
“No!”
“We’ve got people already on it,” Diesel stated as I began heading for the door.
“I need to get out there.”
“Stay where you are, prospect,” Chance ordered, coming through the clubhouse doors. “There’s no point running around Spearfish like an idiot. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of the city when April’s located.”
“Prez, I can’t sit here and do fuck-all!” I growled out.
Chance stared, but I held his gaze. A lesser man would have flinched, “Thought April meant nothing.”
“I was wrong. What do we know?”
“Sunny’s hacking into the hospital feed. As soon as he’s in, we’ll have the footage,” Chance said.
I sent Chance a dark look as I paced back and forth. Jinx arrived and sat on the arm of an armchair, his gaze latched firmly on me.
“What?”
“When we find her, I’ll be your wingman,” Jinx replied quietly. I nodded sharply, unable to trust my voice right now. April’s scared face appeared in my mind, and I hated to think of what she was going through.
