I reach for my phone, just as I’m about to call Aiden, I hearfast approaching footsteps before something clocks me in the back of the head.
“Where are they?” Maria shrieks, swinging the frying pan wildly.
“Fuckin’ hell,” I grunt, ducking just in time to avoid getting hit again.
Maria’s eyes are wild with fear and desperation, it’s only when I catch her blood-stained wrist that she realises whose head she tried to cave in. “Maria, it’s me! It’s Raven!”
Relief floods her face, and she lowers the pan, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“What the hell happened here?”
“They took them,” she sobs, turning to drop the pan on the floor with a loud clang. Her side weeps with blood.
“Christ, are you ok?” I ask, rushing to her side to inspect the wound. An angry red gash mars her side, but it doesn’t look too deep. “Who took who?”
“I don’t know. Four guys ran in here with balaclavas and grabbed them. They wanted to know where Aiden was. They seemed pretty pissed that he wasn’t here.”
“That was their exact words?”
She shrugs, seemingly only noticing the gash in her side now. “They just keep asking where “he” is. Who else could they be talking about?”
“How long have they been gone?” I’m already tapping away on my phone to the lads; you’d be surprised how easy it is to hack into traffic cameras.
“Only a few minutes,” all the colour seems to drain from her face. She’s going to pass out any second now. “We need to call Aiden.”
“Already on it.” Lifting her up, I dial Aiden’s number andhope he picks up quickly. “We need to get you to the hospital.”
* * *
KATIE
“I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts, diddley dee; there they are all standing in a row.” I sing, partly to keep myself calm with this bag on my head. Partly to piss these arseholes off.
“Bum bum bum,” Ciara echoes back with a shaky laugh.
The bag smells like cigarettes and sizzled arsehole. “Big ones, small ones, some the size of your—”
Christ, that hurt. I’ve got stars dancing in my vision now.
“Shut the fuck up!”
“Yes, daddy,” Ciara mutters, making me laugh despite the pain shooting through my head.
The sound of footsteps approaches us, and I can feel Ciara tense up beside me. Something sharp presses against my throat, the smell of stale tobacco wafting to my nose. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know; I can’t see shit!”
Ciara barks a laugh, and I’m struck in the temple with what I can only gather: the handle of a very large knife.
“Corpse’s bride,” I whisper, my head spinning as darkness creeps in around the edges of my vision. I would rock that look. I wonder how Aiden will feel about me turning up at the alter in black and blue.
“What are you laughing at?” This guy has to be fromSummerhill. That nasal accent is unmistakable.
“Up da flats!” Ciara yells before everything goes black.
I rouse to the sound of distant sirens and the feeling of rough hands dragging me across a cold, hard surface. My head is pounding, but I manage to open my eyes just enough to catch a glimpse of the tallest of the arsehats above me before slipping back into unconsciousness.
“Wake up!” I hear a voice demanding.
