A Steel Town (A Gateway to Love #3)

by Chloe Barlow

  Claudia began to straighten up, when a small object on the floor caught her eye. Claudia picked it up, only to find it was a shiny pink button. The hanging threads and small scrap of material still connected to it indicated it had likely been yanked off in a struggle.

  Clutching the button in her left hand, Claudia looked up to see the area marked: “Employees Only,” behind her. The temptation to explore more on her own was intense, but she knew the safer bet was to get Trey so they could determine their next move as a team.

  She shifted her weight, preparing to stand up, when she heard the front door bell chime, echoing through the abandoned store. Before she could even make a move to look for the new entrant, muffled shouts and the squeak of shoes on the waxed floor echoed around her.

  A knot of fear wrapped itself around her throat. She slipped off her pumps and left her purse behind, still holding the button, as though it were a protective talisman. Remaining in a crouch, she approached the sounds slowly, edging her way along the wall, which was blessedly encased in shadows.

  Claudia heard a woman’s voice as she turned the corner. Trey suddenly came into her line of sight. He was struggling against the two huge guys holding him. One of them had a bloodied nose. Before anyone could see or hear her, Claudia ducked behind a stack of toilet paper boxes, mere yards away from her worst nightmare.

  She heard the woman’s voice again. Her authoritative tone was consistent with that of a leader, but its owner was too deeply hidden in darkness for Claudia to discern what she looked like.

  “Damn it, you two. Get him under control so you can grab the girl. We aren’t leaving without more leverage.”

  “You touch her and I’ll fucking kill you,” Trey shouted, managing to get a good elbow to the gut of the guy on his left.

  “How adorable,” she taunted. “Shut him up, Cam. But be careful not to kill him, okay? He needs to be alive for what I have planned,” she added.

  Claudia stayed glued against the wall, until she could come up with a plan. As the “girl” in question, she had no intention of being grabbed. She felt pretty confident these three were the only other people in the store. Most likely, they hadn’t predicted Trey would give them so much trouble, thus tying up both of this woman’s brute muscle.

  If she could just get a jump on her, it should give Trey enough time to overtake at least one of the guys, then she could shoot the other.

  One guy elbowed Trey hard in the kidneys and the other punched him in the gut, causing him to cry out, sending a jolt of empathetic pain through Claudia’s heart.

  “That’s better,” the woman stated, stepping out of the shadows to reveal herself. She was about thirty years old, blonde, buxom, and quite striking. In fact, she bore a striking resemblance to Jenna, and the realization made Claudia want to vomit.

  “Go find the girl, Hugo. I’m getting bored,” the strange woman continued. Claudia exhaled heavily to see Hugo head toward the other end of the store, leaving her with just Cam and the woman to deal with.

  The blonde stood over Trey, as Cam held him down by the shoulders. She reached down to snatch Trey’s burner phone.

  “You won’t be needing this anymore,” she stated, removing the battery deftly. “I can’t have that prick Stephen finding you, can I?” She lifted her head and shouted, “Hugo, what’s taking you so long?”

  “I can’t find her, Lex.”

  “Idiot,” she muttered. So this was Lexis… Lexis didn’t appear to have a weapon on her body, but there was a badass illegal Strike One handgun resting on a box closely within her reach.

  Claudia swallowed hard at the confirmation Trey was currently at the mercy of his very dangerous fixation — Lexis. Claudia wanted desperately to shoot her down, but the tall bitch was standing too close to Trey. Any shot at this close of a range could likely harm him, too, while also not disposing of Cam.

  Instead, Claudia turned the pistol in her hands so the butt end was up. She threw the button as far as she could. Cam and Lexis both turned toward the sound for a moment — just long enough for Claudia to sprint forward and land a perfect spin kick against Lexis’s back, knocking her over, as well as the box on which her Strike One rested, sending it sliding several feet from them.

  “You fucking cunt!” Lexis shrieked.

  Claudia managed to get in a good whack of her pistol, with the butt end, against the side of Lexis’s head, but it wasn’t positioned well enough to knock her out.

  Lexis grabbed for Claudia’s ponytail with one hand, backhanding her powerfully with the other. Claudia tasted the metallic sting of blood in her mouth, and realized what Lexis lacked in trained fighting skills, she made up for in sheer mania and dirty tricks.

  The element of surprise had worked well enough to allow Trey to head-butt Cam and free himself. She could hear Hugo’s heavy footfalls as he ran to them. Claudia rolled forward and kicked Lexis off her, just in time to spin her pistol around and shoot Hugo in the knee mere yards before he could reach them.

  Cam was on his knees, preparing to lunge at Trey. Claudia noticed the can of Mace on the floor near her head.

  “Trey, coming at you,” she yelled, rolling it across the floor to him. Trey grabbed the can, then spraying its contents on Cam’s unprepared face. The thug’s agonized cry in response was a lovely symphony for her ears, as was the sound of Trey punching him again. She turned back to Lexis, positioning her pistol to take her out.

  Lexis dove for Claudia, grabbing her wrist. The impact forced Claudia to discharge her weapon impotently across the room. Furious, Claudia kicked hard into Lexis’s stomach, throwing the bitch off.

  Lexis turned back, with the Strike One in her hand, which she’d apparently managed to grab at some point after Claudia had thrown her on her ass.

  They both quickly aimed straight at the other’s head. The blonde held a healthy amount of respectful hatred in her eyes. Claudia spit a mouthful of blood on the floor, and threw Lexis a cocky grin.

  Lexis’s hesitance confirmed Claudia’s suspicion she would rather not kill her just yet. If she had plans for Trey, Lexis probably had some for her as well, which meant Claudia could still take her down.

  Lexis took off the safety and Claudia moved to squeeze her trigger in response, when suddenly Trey screamed, “A.J., no!”

  Shock stilled Claudia’s finger.

  “A.J.?” she stammered out, turning toward Trey for a split second, when she felt a hard force come down on the base of her skull, and everything went black.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “Claudia…” Trey whispered through the darkness surrounding him, hoping he wouldn’t attract the wrong kind of attention.

  Trey was woozy but he could remember A.J. using a syringe to drug him. She’d been smart to do so, because Trey was pretty eager to kill them all after seeing “Cam” clock Claudia from behind. It had been a pretty impressive feat, considering Trey had just blasted him in Mace.

  He’d been so proud of how Claudia had handled the situation. Yet, it was the monsters from his past, and his own inability to stay quiet in the present, which ultimately put her in peril. This recognition left him with a blistering and acute sense of misery and failure.

  Trey had come to for long enough to register Cam had dragged him out of his Mercedes, in front of another mountain cabin. He had no idea how far it may be from his own, or from the gas station where they’d been taken. With addled senses, he’d registered Cam restraining his hands and legs in a pitch-black room, before Trey gave into the darkness again. Now, he was fully awake, with a pounding headache and a frantic need to know Claudia was alive.

  “Little one…are you there? Can you hear me?” He presumed Claudia had been in the A.J.‘s team’s car, but he held out hope she may have chosen to lock Claudia up with him.

  “Oh good, you’re up, sleepyhead,” Trey heard a familiar, but unwelcome, female voice, declare to him through the blackness.

  “Hello, A.J.” he growled, biting every syllable as it left his dry mouth.
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  Bright lights came on, blinding him for a moment. He tried to move, but realized through the fog of his addled brain that he was restrained.

  His eyes focused slowly through the thundering pain in his head. Eventually, he could discern A.J. standing over him imperiously.

  In spite of her familiar face, so much about her was foreign and strange, including her clothing. She wore black leather pants and a tight leather vest. She displayed none of the sweet innocence, which used to soften her hard edges. Even so, her light blue eyes were a surreal reminder of the young woman he had once known, and believed he loved.

  “Hello, to you, too, lover,” she cooed. The words turned his stomach, but he resisted the urge to grant her the pleasure of showing how her actions had hurt him.

  Instead Trey waited for his eyes to adjust to the light, then glanced around quickly, desperate for any sign of Claudia. She was nowhere to be found.

  “Why do you look so worried?” she asked coyly. “Oh, because I’m not your sweet ‘little one’?” A.J. cupped her cheek, working her jaw back and forth. “Though she’s not that nice, and the bruise she gave me won’t be that little. It’s okay. I’ll make it up to her soon enough.”

  “Leave Claudia out of this. You wanted me. Now you’ve got me. Kill me if you have to, just let her go.”

  A.J. laughed before moving closer to him.

  “You still don’t get it. I could’ve killed you fifty times over the years.”

  A.J. checked on the tightness of his ropes. Trey jerked back at the sight of old, deep scars across her chest and upper arms, leading to her neck. They were jagged, as if made with a dull serrated knife, and he felt bile in his mouth.

  She caught him looking at the evidence of her wounds and yanked the ropes on his hands hard enough to send shooting pain through his back and shoulders.

  “How dare you feel sorry for me, you son of a bitch? You lost that right when you left me with those bastards — the ones who gave these scars to me.” She released his tethers, providing a brief moment of relief. “I hope you took a good look. You let your dad’s fucking money save you,” she continued, standing and walking around him in a tight, threatening circle. “While you left me there to rot. Being smart only gets you so far. At some point they use you like all their other pretty little girls. Do you know what that feels like, Trey?” she sneered.

  “I tried to find you. I spent so much of my life trying to figure out who did this to you.”

  “Aren’t you such a hero? Well, let’s put that to the test, shall we? Cam, bring her out.”

  Trey’s throat clenched, torn between wanting to see Claudia and afraid at what A.J. may do to her.

  Cam quickly dragged Claudia into the room. Her hands were tied, but she was struggling against him, and it filled Trey with satisfaction to see just how much of a challenge she was for the large guy.

  “Have a seat, Agent McCoy,” A.J. stated, before Cam pushed Claudia into the chair and held her down by her shoulders.

  “Where’s the salesgirl? Did you hurt her?” Claudia demanded immediately.

  “How adorable of you to care, because you have a lot more serious things to care about, trust me,” A.J. replied, eventually releasing a sigh. “She’ll be fine. She’s blindfolded and locked up in a back room of the gas station. Her boss will find her soon enough. She never saw us and we aren’t on the cameras, so I won’t have to kill her. No matter what you may think, I’m not a monster. Not like your boyfriend here. Any other questions?” she added, stroking a finger across Claudia’s cheek, until she jerked away.

  “Yeah, how’s your head? It would be a shame if I smeared your makeup when I kicked your ass,” Claudia spat out.

  “I see why you like her, Trey, she’s quite sassy,” A.J. stated, her words dripping with sarcasm. With a more even tone, she added, “It’s good to see Trey still has good taste in women.”

  “Not always, it appears,” Claudia bit out.

  “How’d you ever make it to twenty-three years old, Agent McCoy? Because you really have no idea when to shut up.”

  A.J. quickly slapped Claudia hard across the face, eliciting a bright line of red down her bottom lip.

  “Damn it, A.J., end this now.”

  “Why? I’ve only just gotten started,” A.J. taunted, as she stood in front of Claudia, arms crossed over her chest. “You looked so surprised when Trey called me A.J. It’s short for Alexis Jane. Though as you probably guessed, no one but your failure of a caretaker, Trey here, calls me that anymore. He didn’t seem too shocked to see me. I was always pretty sure he suspected I’m Lexis.” A.J. smirked as she stared at Trey. “I guess I was right, huh, Trey?”

  Trey tried to keep his face even, but the pain Claudia tried to hide from her eyes proved to him he’d failed.

  “Just as I thought,” A.J. continued, smiling at Claudia. “And he must not have shared that little tidbit with you, little one. Looks like he’s still pulling the same crap he did with me — keeping secrets from others for their own good.” Claudia glared at her in response. “Trey, I can’t help but be amused… I mean, if you’d been honest with her from the beginning, then you two might have found me first, and you wouldn’t be in this predicament.” A.J. smirked and added, “Agent McCoy, a word of advice from one woman to another, you’re going to find you’d have been better off without him.”

  A.J. turned and stepped away from them, giving Trey a chance to whisper, “I’m so sorry, Claudia. I’ll fix this.”

  Spinning around to face them again, A.J. said, “Don’t you remember, Trey? It’s not nice to lie to a lady.” She moved to stand over Claudia, “The truth is, you aren’t going to be okay at all, you tiny brat. Okay, I’m ready Cam.”

  He stepped back, relinquishing his hold on Claudia so A.J. could grab Claudia’s arm and heave her off the chair.

  “Stop it!” Trey commanded.

  Claudia met his eyes, allowing him to see the raw determination in her gaze. She wasn’t going to give A.J. an inch, and he loved her that much more.

  “Trey, do you know there’s another name for your girl’s condition? It’s called: ‘insulin dependent diabetes.’” That A.J. knew this about Claudia sent an icy chill through him, but he tried to remain silent. “Do you understand what that means? Tell him, Claudia.” Claudia set her jaw firmly and refused to respond. In return, A.J. squeezed the sides of Claudia’s face until her lips looked like a duck’s bill, turning her head to force her to look at Trey. “Tell him!”

  “It means I need to take insulin to live,” Claudia finally spit out, letting strength and rage fill her eyes.

  “That’s technically true. But I prefer to view it as meaning — if you don’t receive insulin, then…you die,” A.J. added, with a pout, releasing Claudia’s cheeks to softly stroke the length of her face, then running her fingers through her thick, dark hair, until Claudia twisted her head away as best she could. A.J. jerked Claudia’s head back to face her. Running her hands down the length of Claudia’s side, A.J. cooed, “This dress is quite lovely, but I need to get to what’s beneath it. Cam…”

  Cam handed A.J. a knife, and Trey pulled so hard on his ropes, he almost knocked over his chair.

  Claudia fought against A.J.‘s hold, until Cam held a gun to Trey’s head, causing her to still obediently.

  “A.J., stop. You’ve got me, don’t punish her,” Trey growled.

  “But where is the fun in that, Trey?” she queried, holding Claudia’s dress in place so she could slice down its front, leaving it in black scraps around her.

  The sight of Claudia in nothing but her underwear, insulin pump still tucked in her bra, filled him with nauseating fury. A.J. handed the knife back to Cam, before stating, “You never cared enough about yourself, it won’t bother you one bit to die. Watching this one suffer a slow and painful end? Now that will break you like you let them break me. Because, guess what? Modern medicine really is amazing, but it doesn’t stand a chance against me.”

  She yanked Claudia har
d against the length of her body, forcing Trey to watch as she slid her hand down Claudia’s bare, slim waist. Settling on the part of her skin where her pump was connected, A.J. stroked it gently.

  A.J. stared into Trey’s eyes for a beat then suddenly yanked the needle from Claudia’s body, making her scream out in agony. A.J. slid the pump from Claudia’s bra and threw it hard on the floor, stepping on it firmly with the stiletto heel of her leather boot, until it broke under the force.

  “Oh no, look what I’ve done,” she crowed, tossing Claudia’s still bent over body to Cam. “How long do you think your little one has? As long as you thought I had when you let them take me?”

  Trey tugged at his restraints. “Damn it, A.J. You’ve got it all wrong… I did all I could to save you.”

  “Such a shame then, isn’t it, Trey? Because it looks like you’re always destined to let down the girls you love. Take her to her room, Cam.”

  Trey felt like he was suffocating. The rage coursing through his bloodstream was all consuming, yet also completely pointless.

  After Cam hauled Claudia away, a tall, dark-skinned man whom Trey had never seen before arrived to help Cam drag him to a simple room. It was decorated only with a twin bed, a chair, and multiple monitors on a desk.

  He’d been by himself for half an hour, desperately trying to find a way out of his glorified cell, and to Claudia. Yet, even though they’d untied his hands to allow him to retain feeling in his arms, they’d then proceeded to chain him by an ankle to a steel loop secured into the floor. Trey had pulled at it repeatedly, but it was no use.

  Every area of the cabin he’d been through so far had been rustic, and he couldn’t hear any street noise.

  Despite the apparent isolation of their location, he believed if he could just get them out before the lack of insulin incapacitated Claudia, they might be able to find help.