Page 27 of Two Tricks

“Would you be willing to help me reach out to someone? I just need them to know that I’m okay and where I am so they can come get me,” I said, daring to hope she would let me reach out to Wes.

Tilly turned and looked at me, hands on her hips like she was a mother bear and I was her cub. “You bet your ass I’ll help you. Why the hell they thought holding anyone hostage was a good idea, I will never know.”

“Do you have a cell phone I can use?” I asked, my heart fluttering with the hope I might be getting out of this place.

Tilly pulled her phone out of her back pocket and handed it over to me. I typed in Wes’s number and sent him a text with the codeword that would let him know that it was me before deleting the text and calling him.

He answered on the first ring. “Dax, what the fuck?! How could you have gone silent after sending me a message like that?”

“Fuck you, Weston,” I snapped, not liking the panic that’d been in his voice. “You have no idea what’s going on. It took me until now to get a phone so I could reach out to you. The motherfuckers have a tracking anklet on me that they rigged to shock me if I try to escape.”

I stood and walked to the window, trying to have some kind of privacy without making Tilly feel like she was being used.

“Tell me what I need to know so I can get you out of there. What is the model of the anklet?” Wes asked, turning all business.

Setting my foot on the closest chair, I looked all over the band but couldn’t see any markings to tell me anything. “There is nothing helpful on the outside of the band, but I’ll describe it best I can. It’s waterproof, two inches wide and about half an inch thick. I don’t see any plug-in ports, so I’m guessing it’s bluetooth or wirelessly programmed. They said the shock feature was added aftermarket, so there has to be someone we know who can find the people who do that. Seems like it’d be a small market to me.”

I could hear Wes typing away as I talked, grunting his answers. “What can you tell me about where you are? The signal on all your devices was cut off before I could get the final location.”

“They have lots of land, an old cattle farm of some kind. It’s a whole compound with twenty homes, a barn turned clubhouse, and a mechanic shop. If you get any aerial photos, it shouldn’t be hard to find,” I said, rattling off all that I could think of that might help him.

“Hold tight, Dax. I’m coming for you. I promise I’ll get you out of there,” Wes said. The anger in his voice made me shiver, glad he was on my side.

“I trust you, Wes—”

I was abruptly cut off when a hand wrapped around my neck, and I let out a squeak as the phone was yanked out of my hand.

“Who is this?” Void’s deep voice demanded.

I could hear Wes’s muffled response but couldn’t make out the words he said to Void.

Void let out a harsh laugh as his eyes glanced down to me, danger flickering in them. “Listen, you can give all the threats you want, but our little demon isn’t going anywhere.”

Now I could hear Weston yelling into the phone, making Void smirk as his grip on my neck tightened.

“Sounds like fun. Can’t wait to meet you if you decide to act on your threats,” Void said before he hung up and pocketed the phone.

“Just you fucking wait until he gets here,” I snarled as I tried to wriggle out of his hold. “Trust me, Weston isn’t someone to mess with.”

Void just grunted and nodded to Tilly. “I’ll get you your phone back to you as soon as we know she didn’t do anything else to it.”

“Void, you’ve always been a bastard, but this is a new low, even for you,” Tilly snapped, frowning with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Don’t ask for trouble, Tilly. This isn’t a matter you want to get involved in. Tell Mutt I said hey,” he added as he dragged me out of the house.

Once we were out on the road, I made my move, kicking out his left knee. He loosened his grip, needing both his hands so he didn’t eat dirt. Knowing I couldn’t run, I decided to just take out my frustration on him instead. I leaped onto his back and put him in a chokehold, wrapping my legs around his middle. I squeezed my arm around his neck as tight as I could as he rolled us over so he was laying on top of me, pressing me into the ground. He reached back and grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled, making me hiss in pain.

“That’s a fucking chick move, dickface,” I growled.

Rolling once more so we were both on our sides, I felt him rummaging in his pocket for something. Then when I saw his phone, I released him and shoved away so I could spring to my feet. I wasn’t going to let that bastard taser me because I got the drop on him. Lunging over him, I grabbed for his phone and knocked it out of his hands, but he grabbed my legs and flipped me back. The thud my body made slamming into the dirt would have made any wrestler proud. Any air that I had in my lungs came whooshing out, leaving me stunned for a moment. Void loomed over me with a wicked grin on his face, his icy blue eyes alight with the challenge.

“Chick move or not, it always does the trick,” Void wheezed. “Seems like our little demon is upset about something? I’ll play, let’s see what you got.”

Letting out a snarl, I rolled so I could get to my feet and faced off with Void. I tilted my neck side to side, checking to see how hard I hit, but it wasn’t the worst I’d experienced. Seeing Void’s stance made me think of the MMA poster that he had in his room. I gave him a knowing grin that seemed to make him curious—I had the upper hand now that I knew what type of fighting he was trained in.

“Let’s make this more interesting. If I win, then I get to go free,” I said, raising a challenging brow at him.

“Ah, little demon, you know I can’t do that. Ask for something else,” Void countered.