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Page 12

by Taylor Hart


  This was it. This was the ultimate in cheer bragging rights—winning state!

  “Two, three, four,” someone called. The music went silent for a beat, then powered on in an extreme blast. “Hit it!”

  The song “Hula Hoop” sounded. “Your love winds me up, like a hula hula hoop…”

  Sammy twirled with the other flyer up front, then ran backward and did a round off back tuck. The crowd applauded.

  Sammy flashed a smile at Zoey as they passed each other. She watched as half of the team formed a diagonal line and the other half started cheering as they marched into their next spots. “Go, Lions!” They clapped. “Go, Lions! It takes power!” She jumped with the other flyers onto the base’s hands, and they prepped.

  “To win!” They tossed them into the air, and all the flyers hit split moves. The lower group of cheerleaders all matched their splits and leapt across the floor. Sammy could clearly visualize how they looked, as if she were watching from above.

  Another song blared out: “Light the Fire!” The whole team broke into dancing, first in unison and then alternating up and down. “All you need is a match. Just one match.”

  Sammy danced her heart out. This was her time. This was her match!

  The song stopped and they started cheering, the yell leaders using huge cones to amplify their voices. “The Lions are the best! The Lions will roar and knock your house down!”

  The flyers prepped for a finale flip.

  Music blared again: “We Are the Champions!” The song wasn’t the original version; it’d been spliced into half rap and half techno.

  “We are—” Sammy stepped into the hands of a base.

  “The champions!”

  The bases pushed the girls high, and she and Zoey did double backflips. When they landed them, the whole team stayed frozen for five seconds.

  The crowd erupted, going wild.

  Elation burned through Sammy as the whole team did kicks and shouted to the crowd. She met Megan’s eyes and pointed at her. “Number one!”

  “Number one!” Megan shouted back. She turned to Zoey, who was already running to hug Nicholas.

  “Sammy!” At the front of the crowd, her parents shot to their feet, waving and smiling at her.

  Sammy’s heart leapt with gratitude. “Mom! Dad!”

  The team rushed off to the sidelines. Ms. Montlake was ecstatic, hugging each of them. “So great! Amazing! Terrific! You guys did it!”

  Sammy felt so good that as soon as she saw Kira, she hugged her.

  Kira didn’t even hesitate; she laughed and returned the hug. “That was amazing!”

  “Yeah, it was.”

  When they broke apart, Tiffany was staring at them.

  Sammy’s grin faltered.

  Tiffany laughed and grabbed them both. “Oh my gosh, I think we might win it!”

  Chapter 23

  Zoey

  Zoey stood next to Nicholas, dizzy from a whirlwind of emotions. They watched Sammy hugging her old friends.

  Nicholas’s arm settled around her shoulders. “Looks like she made up.”

  Zoey didn’t trust Tiffany. At all. “Maybe.” Her eyes scanned all the other cheerleaders, who were chattering excitedly.

  Sammy broke from Tiffany and Kira and rushed to Megan and Liz. “Megan! Liz!” The three of them grabbed each other in a hug.

  Despite her nervousness, Zoey smiled. If everything worked out, and Sammy hopefully had friends again and wouldn’t be prey to an online predator, she’d learned something about how to treat people, too.

  “Cap?” Nicholas asked under his breath, turning to face Zoey.

  Zoey scanned for the captain but couldn’t see him.

  “He’s doing a lap around the perimeter, and for some reason I’ve lost him out of the building,” Ralph said.

  “Where are you?” Zoey bit her lip, and an alarm bell sounded in her head.

  “I’m scanning the halls and checking the stands periodically. I cannot find our guy from the electronic trail he’s left.”

  “Do you feel that?” Nicholas said as he scanned the team.

  “What?” Zoey turned to look for Sammy, but she couldn’t find her in the sea of girls.

  “Something’s off.” Nicholas cursed. “She’s gone!”

  Chapter 24

  Sammy

  Sammy stared at her phone. I’m here!

  Hunter was here. He was here. He was here!

  You were amazing. Come meet me real quick behind the gym.

  She booked it, holding only her phone. She would just say hi real quick, and if anyone asked where she’d gone, she’d say she had to go to the bathroom. They still had roughly twenty minutes while the other teams performed. Her head spun with elation and excitement and the rush of meeting a new guy.

  Hunter. The gorgeous guy who had been inside her head the past two weeks. The only guy who really understood her. She couldn’t see him.

  I’m just outside the door.

  She burst through the back doors and squinted as the sunlight blinded her. She couldn’t see anyone. Where was he?

  “Hey!” someone called. A black car pulled up, and an unfamiliar guy with brown skin was at the steering wheel. “You Sammy?” he asked.

  She felt a twinge of warning. Something wasn’t right. “Uh.”

  The back door flung open and a big guy jumped out.

  Run! She heard in her mind. She turned to go back inside.

  It was too late. Pain exploded across the back of her head as a rough hand seized her hair. Then a hand clamped over her mouth and started dragging her backward.

  Chapter 25

  Zoey

  As Zoey and Nicholas rushed for the door, Captain Jace’s voice was in their ears. “What’s your twenty?”

  “The back of the gym!” Nicholas called out.

  “I’m heading that way,” said Captain Jace.

  Ralph appeared by the back door, yanking the door open. His eyes were glued to his phone. “I tracked Sammy to this area!”

  Nicholas was faster. He followed Ralph out, but waited for her.

  Zoey’s chest tightened. No, no, no! She rushed through the gym door and shielded her eyes against the sudden brightness outside.

  Captain Jace pulled up in the black SUV, and the window rolled down. “Get in!” He pointed to the edge of the parking lot. “There’s a car peeling out of here!”

  Chapter 26

  Sammy

  The man’s breath stank of smoke and coffee; his mouth was far too close to Sammy’s neck as his body pinned hers down. “Go faster!”

  The driver sped around a corner, and Sammy struggled to breathe with the weight crushing her. Paralyzed by fear, she tried to understand what was happening to her. She remembered what Zoey had said about her friend getting taken. She tried to push the guy off, but he was too heavy. “Get off!”

  He pulled back. “It’s okay, baby. It’s me.”

  She sat up, still paralyzed. “What are you doing? Where are you taking me?”

  He leaned in, and she smelled a stench of body odor. “Baby, it’s me. It’s Hunter.” He grabbed her shirt and planted his lips over hers.

  She gagged. “Gross.”

  Yanking away, he laughed. “Get used to it.” He rolled down the window, grabbed her phone, and threw it out. “Now that you’re here, I’m here, and Sanchez is here, we’ll be on our way across state lines.”

  Hyper fear raced through her. “Let me out.” Her voice was tight. She had to get away.

  He reached out and took her face roughly in his hand, pinching her cheeks. “I don’t know, Sanchez. Maybe we should stop back at the motel and get a sample.”

  Ice coursed through Sammy’s veins, but she reacted, pushing him away and reaching for the door handle. “Let me out!”

  “Child locks, baby!” The man up front roared with laughter. “Sweetie, this ain’t our first time doing a snatch and grab. We wouldn’t be leaving the doors unlocked.”

  Panic and fear pressed on her. �
�Let me out! Let me out!” she yelled, trying to unlock the door again anyway.

  Hunter frowned. “Don’t scream, baby, because it really pisses me off.”

  So she did exactly that—she screamed as loud as she could.

  A fist hit her hard on the nose.

  “Augh!” Blood ran down her lips. She reached for her nose, unable to believe he’d done that.

  He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her closer to him. She smelled the reek of his breath again. “Baby, let’s get one thing straight. I’m the boss now. I’m your boss, your friend, your lover, your salesman. I’m everything.” He pulled her hair harder and yelled in her face. “Do you understand that?”

  Tears poured down her face as pain throbbed in her head, in her nose, and through her body. But she had to fight again. She pushed his chest as hard as she could.

  He yanked her harder, a steel clamp vice on her hair. Then he chortled out a laugh. “She’s feistier than I thought she’d be.”

  “The privileged ones always are,” Sanchez scoffed. “They think Mommy and Daddy will find them and save them,” he grunted. “Sweetie, we’re your new family now.”

  “No!” She tried to push against the behemoth of a man, sheer dread crawling over her. What had she done? What would her mom and dad think? No! How would her parents find her, or the police? She’d told no one. There was no history of her communications with Hunter, except on Instagram, which no one would see.

  “Don’t cry, baby,” Hunter said, releasing his grip on her hair. He turned to his phone and texted someone. “The boss just checked in, wants to know how long it will take us to get to Vegas.”

  Vegas? Her mind spun a thousand miles an hour. She had to get out. She had to run. She thought about how she could escape. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

  Sanchez laughed. “Well, pee your pants, sissy poo, because we’ve heard that before.”

  Hunter didn’t even look up. “We don’t stop until Vegas, so if you have to pee, just do it.”

  She started crying then, shedding the tears of a child who was lost. One time, when she was in second grade, she and her mother had gone to this huge department store. She’d been inside one of the clothes racks, and when she’d come out she couldn’t find her mother. This was worse, because she knew that no one could find her. She wouldn’t be led to the front of the store, and the announcer wouldn’t be able to call out for her mother.

  “Your crying’s going to irritate me,” Hunter said, leaning closer to her. “You told me you hated your parents. You hated your so-called friends, remember?”

  She cried harder, unable to stop. Her mother and father would be looking for her. Why had she been such an idiot?

  “Stop crying!” Hunter shouted at her. “Or you’re going to make me hurt you again.”

  How would she get out? She had to get out? She sucked in a breath and tried to block out the pain. “Let me go!”

  “Don’t make me pull out the duct tape, cover your mouth, bind your wrists, and toss you in the trunk until Sanchez and I are ready to have some fun with you.” He sniffed her neck, then licked her face. “Dang, you taste good. I’ve been hoping you would show up. I’ve been…hoping.” He grabbed her hand and put it in his crotch. “Want to start playing now? Sanchez won’t mind.”

  Sammy’s stomach turned and she tasted bile. She pulled her hand back, but she didn’t yell.

  He laughed, his crazy eyes narrowing. “Okay, baby, we’ll do this the hard way.”

  She’d never been so helpless in her life. Whatever these sickos decided to do, there was no way she could stop them—and while she didn’t want to think about it, she knew what they meant when they used the word “pimp.”

  Sammy remembered last night, when Nicholas and Zoey had talked about God. Her mother had always told her to pray if she was scared and lost. Dear God, please help me. Dear God, please. Please! She began to cry again. She was trapped in a nightmare, and from the looks of things, might be here for the rest of her life.

  “Stop it!” he roared, focused on his phone. “Boss man wants a timetable, says we can’t play with her.”

  As hard as she tried, she could not stop the whimpering sobs that burst from her throat. She didn’t want to get punched in the face again, and she didn’t want to be taped up and thrown in the trunk.

  “Uh-oh, boss, we got a car following us,” Sanchez called out.

  Hunter turned back. “Who? No one even knows we’re here. I was careful.”

  Sammy turned and tried to look out of the back, ignoring the blood dribbling from her nose onto her hands. Zoey had told her over and over, to the point that it annoyed her, how stupid it was to text a guy online, and she’d shown how Nicholas had made them learn self-defense. A spark of hope encouraged her. Could they be coming to help her?

  It couldn’t be them. They were just kids.

  Hunter cursed. “You’re right. Someone’s onto us. Turn here!” he shouted at Sanchez.

  Sanchez took a hard right turn, and Sammy flew against Hunter.

  He shoved her away, still focused on Sanchez, and she bounced painfully against the door. “Okay,” he said, looking at his phone and pulling up a map app. “I think if you turn in to this alley, we can lose them. Quick!”

  Chapter 27

  Zoey

  “I can’t believe she left!” Zoey’s heart raced a million miles a minute as they followed the black car into the alley. She cursed.

  Nicholas cursed too, holding on to the strap to prevent him flying into her while the captain did his aggressive driving.

  “He thinks he can lose us!” Ralph grunted. He held his phone up, and a little dot showed them exactly where they were going.

  Captain Jace was at the wheel, turning so hard and fast the tires were squealing. “You just wait, scumbag. You’re about to go down!”

  “Exactly!” Nicholas smashed his fist against the front seat, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.

  Adrenaline spiked through her. Zoey had wondered how she would react if put in a situation with a predator again. Right now, as she thought of Sammy, all she wanted to do was kick some butt!

  Zoey saw red. They would get Sammy back, and Zoey would relish smashing this guy’s head against the ground. “Faster! Faster!”

  The rush brought memories of her own abduction back to the surface. Of being naked, raped, bleeding, for days. She’d pass out when the next guy would come in to rape her. At one point, she’d tried to kill herself with the needle Marcus had left on the ground after he’d shot her full of drugs.

  But she’d survived.

  She focused on the tiny scorpion near her pinky before clenching her hand into a fist. They would get her back!

  The car took several more turns, and then it was gone.

  “What’s your twenty?” she heard from Ralph’s phone, which he was using like a walkie-talkie.

  “Pinning it to you now,” Ralph said, tapping his phone.

  “Zoey, Nicholas, you okay?”

  Only then did Zoey realize it was Cyrus Black on the speaker. “Yes,” she said.

  “Ha!” Ralph called out. “He’s turned left. It must be a garage or something.”

  As they passed a run-down building, she saw a garage door roll down to the ground. Cap slammed on the brakes, and all of them bolted from the car. There was only one other entrance into the building, a windowless metal door a couple feet to the side of the garage door.

  “Now would be a good time to show up, Cyrus!” Captain Jace shouted as the group approached the door. “We’re going in.” He pulled at the handle, and the door rattled. “It’s locked.”

  “Don’t kill him!” Cyrus shouted. “Jace, don’t kill him until I can talk to him!”

  It was then that they heard a girl scream!

  Chapter 28

  Sammy

  “Shut the hell up!” Hunter yelled, holding Sammy by her hair and yanking her up the stairs of the building they’d stopped at.

  Someone pounded on the
door. “Sammy!”

  Sammy couldn’t believe it. Her heart lifted. “Zoey!” she yelled back.

  Hunter yanked harder on her hair.

  The situation was clicking into place. Zoey and Nicholas weren’t high school kids. They knew too much about this whole situation. All the things Sammy had been suspicious about from the beginning were right. Nicholas didn’t act like a high schooler—he acted like a bodyguard. She remembered the whole talk from Zoey and Nicholas about leverage and using your body to get away from a stalker.

  Hunter got to the door at the top of the stairs and kicked it down.

  “Boss?” Sanchez asked from behind them, pointing a gun down the stairs.

  Hunter let go of Sammy’s hair and instead dragged her by the wrist toward the edge of the rooftop. He looked over the edge frantically, then turned back. “Find a fire escape. We need some way out.”

  Sammy used all of her efforts and did her cheer jump, half Karate Kid leap, and kicked Hunter hard in the nose. His grip on her faltered, and she took off.

  “What the hell! Wait!”

  Sanchez grabbed at her hair. She yelped, but she couldn’t quit now. She stabbed his eyes with her fingers like Zoey had talked about.

  “Oww!” the man yelled, releasing his grip.

  She bolted, running back the way they’d come.

  “Stop!”

  She heard the gun go off, or maybe she felt the bolt of lightning pain in her shoulder first. As she fell and her head smacked against the concrete, she wondered if she would die.

  Another round of pain exploded in her ribs as Hunter kicked her. “Stupid girl! Get up!”

  Chapter 29

  Zoey

 

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