by Zoey Parker
I realized I was counting on Eric saving me right away, like he had before. That was why none of it seemed real, why I could think about them killing me without being horrified. I didn’t even feel like I was about to cry. Nothing registered. I was numb. Because I couldn’t completely believe it was all for real. I held on to the belief that Eric would come for me.
That’s probably not going to happen this time, I told myself. I had to get used to the idea that I was on my own. Gareth would be more careful now. He wouldn’t make it so easy. If nothing else, he seemed like the type who learned from his mistakes. It had been a mistake to make it so easy for Eric to catch up with the van after the first couple of idiots tried to get away with me. This time they hadn’t snatched me from the middle of the street. Joe and Pete were unconscious or worse, going from what the one guy said about them having headaches when they woke up. Nobody would be able to tell Eric where I was or even how long it had been since Gareth’s crew took me. It was a much more solid plan.
I had to start coming up with my own plan, then. I had to take control of my fate if Eric couldn’t help me. I ran through a list of possibilities in my head as the car bounced and bumped along, flinging me to and fro. They clearly didn’t care about me arriving unbruised.
I could pretend I didn’t like Eric, that he was holding me for the money. That I would otherwise not want to spend a minute with him. I would have to get back in touch with the old me, which sounded funny seeing as how it was the “me” from a day earlier, or maybe a day and a half. Everything had happened so fast. I’d gone from hating Eric for playing games with me to wanting him in my life for good.
Was I good enough to pull it off? I thought I was, considering how dire the situation seemed to be. I would do just about anything to get out of there with my life…without them hurting me.
But would he care, this Gareth person? Or would he see it for the tissue-thin plot it was? Just another thing I’d seen on TV that I hoped would work in real life.
It was worth a shot. I didn’t have anything else. I was sure any of them could overpower me. I wasn’t about to use my sexuality in any way—I couldn’t imagine seducing any of them, and I hadn’t met them all yet. Besides, considering that I’d been a virgin only days earlier, Gareth would see through that, too. I wasn’t experienced enough to plausibly seduce any of them.
I couldn’t help whimpering when the car came to a stop. This was it. I had to get control of myself. No way I could let them have the upper hand on me.
Please come, Eric, I thought. Otherwise, it was up to me. Please, God, help me. How many times had I prayed for help since Mom got sick? More times than I could count. Funny the things you think about when you’re trying to hold a panic attack at bay.
The doors to the car opened and slammed shut. I closed my eyes tight, bracing myself for the sound of the key in the lock. I didn’t know if I should pretend to be unconscious or what. They might not want me to know where we are. But if I was unconscious, it gave them free reign to do what they wanted with me—like when one of them would have to lift me out of the trunk, for instance. Bile rose in my throat and I opened my eyes. I would stare them down. I wouldn’t give the sadists the satisfaction of knowing they terrified me.
The trunk opened, and I was face-to-face with my new best friend.
“Oh, you’re awake,” he said with a grin.
“Yeah, and you’re still alive. Disappointing.”
He smirked. “Nice, thinking you can be a smartass like that. You think your boyfriend’s gonna come save you. Is that it?”
No better time to start than the present. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Whatever you say.” He took me by the arm and pulled me out of the trunk. I was a little unsteady, and my head throbbed like hell, but I did my best to keep my composure. I looked around. We were in back of a building, sort of nondescript. I heard traffic nearby, though, coming around all directions. We were in town somewhere. It surprised me. I thought for sure they would have taken me out to the woods or some remote place.
“Come on.” Fingers dug into my bicep until I yelped as he pulled me into the building.
“Where the hell are we?” I asked, looking around.
“None of your business.” He shoved me into a chair in a tiny room.
“Funny. I think it is my business. You kidnapped me. Remember?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t give you rights or anything. Get over yourself.” He sneered and stepped back, leaning against the doorframe leading to a hallway. The walls were plain drywall, reminding me of the way the warehouse was refurbished for the auction. There were a lot of voices coming from all around me. I wondered if this was the gang’s headquarters, or whatever they called it. My blood ran cold at the thought of being alone with dozens of men, all of whom were enemies of Eric and his club.
My friend smiled nastily. “Finally understanding what’s happening, huh?”
I narrowed my eyes. “I know what’s happening. Your boss is too much of a coward to face Eric on his own, so he wants to use me to lure him in.”
“Very smart.” It was another voice, and my friend stepped aside to reveal a man I knew had to be Gareth. He was as greasy and disgusting as I’d pictured him in my head—maybe even more so. “You understand how you fit into all this.”
“I understand how you think I fit into all of it. But you’re wrong.”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “That’s right. Beg for your life. Keep it up.”
“I’m not begging for my life. I’m trying to set you straight. Eric doesn’t give a damn about me, and I sure as hell don’t give a damn about him.”
“So that’s why he went after you yesterday? And why he had guards on you today at his house?” He laughed again, adding, “Like that mattered.”
I shuddered. “He only wanted to protect his investment. And he can go to hell as far as I’m concerned.”
Gareth’s eyebrows arched. “Oh? Why’s that?”
“Because he hasn’t given me the damn money yet. He’s holding it over my head, even though he knows I need it. He’s so pathetic, he won’t let me go. And he knows how much I need it. He’s sad.”
I could tell this made Gareth happy. “He’s just as big a punk as I always knew he was. Don’t you worry. He’ll get what’s coming to him.”
It wasn’t going the way I wanted it to. “So, really, if you just want him, I don’t need to be here. Just tell him I’m here. I’ll leave and never come back. I’ll go home. My mom’s dying. I have to be with her.”
He nodded. “I know all about your poor mother,” he said. “I make it my job to know things. I asked myself, why would she have left his house? Why would she sneak off the way she did? It didn’t take long to find out. I’m sorry to hear she’s sick, and you’ve been taking care of her.”
Something about the way he spoke made my skin crawl. He wasn’t sincere. He was screwing with me, trying to break me down. There wasn’t a human bone in his body, I realized. People didn’t matter to him. I didn’t know what did, I just knew that he had no empathy. Classic sociopath.
Instead of leaping out of the chair and clawing his eyes out, I decided to act like I believed him. “Thank you.”
“I’m gonna place a little call to your boyfriend—sorry, to Eric—to let him know you’re here. You just missed him, actually. He’s probably on his way to his house now that one of my crew shot him.”
I gasped, and Gareth looked satisfied. “Right. You don’t care about him.” He walked out, laughing to himself and shaking his head. Before he got down the hall, he said, “Tie her up.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Eric
As soon as I pulled up to the house, I knew something was wrong. There was nobody sitting out front, for one. And the front door was wide open.
I barely put the car in park before I jumped out and ran inside. “Michelle!” The house was silent. I felt sick to my stomach. “Michelle, answer me!” Her phone sat on the couch, her pur
se on the floor. She didn’t run away like last time. I moaned and took off running up the stairs, calling her name.
Nothing. I ran from room to room, screaming for her, but she wasn’t there. The house was empty.
He got her. Were Joe and Pete in on it? No way—they were loyal. How did he get through them? I went back downstairs, calling for them this time.
“Joe? Pete?” What the hell could have made them leave? I pulled out my phone. No messages. Nothing happened, no emergency that called them away. I thought for a second that he had lured them off, but it didn’t look like it. I felt sicker every second that passed in that empty house.
“Eric…!” A voice at the back door, also standing open. I ran out there. Joe and Pete were both on the grass. Their bikes sat against the fence. Joe was unconscious, bleeding from his forehead. Pete was bleeding, too, but he was trying to crawl into the house.
“What the fuck happened?” I sat him up against the back steps, then went to Joe to be sure he was breathing. He was. Just unconscious. I smacked his cheeks a few times until it looked like he was coming around.
Pete groaned and put a hand to his head. His dark hair was even darker in the spot where he bled. “They ambushed us, man. Made a noise back here. Joe went back to see what it was. They got him. I heard the noise, when they were knocking him out or whatever, and I came back. Bam! Lights out.” His eyes went wide. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” We looked at each other, both of us breathing heavy.
“Shit, Eric, I’m so sorry. I should have protected her…”
“You couldn’t do anything. They knew what they were doing. They had a plan.” I stood up, running my hands through my hair. They wouldn’t make it so easy to find her this time.
“How long was I out of the house by the time this happened?” I had to put it together.
“Maybe a couple of hours.” He shrugged, looking helpless.
“Shit, so they took her maybe ten, fifteen minutes ago. They could be anywhere now.” I knew exactly how it happened, too. Once Gareth’s guy saw me and shot at me, he knew I set him up. He sent a crew in for Michelle to get back at me. I should have been more cautious. I shouldn’t have let myself be spotted outside the clubhouse.
I punched the brick wall that made up the back of my house. Pain screamed its way from my knuckles all the way up to my shoulder.
“Hey, man, you’re bleeding.” Pete pointed to my other arm. I had forgotten all about it. I didn’t even feel it anymore. All I could think about was Michelle.
“Yeah, one of their MC shot me. They spotted me.”
“Shit. You should get that looked at.”
“I can’t right now. I have to find out where they took her.”
My phone rang, and we looked each other again. I fumbled for it. Unknown number.
“Hello?” My voice was tight. I didn’t wanna let whoever it was on the other end know how shaken I was.
“Eric Turner. You can’t leave it alone, can you?”
My stomach turned and I put my knuckles in my mouth to hold back everything I was feeling. “Where the fuck is she?”
He ignored me. “The girl you sent earlier? She’s a nice piece of ass. I should’ve known you would try to set me up like that. But I got greedy, thinking about all the money she would make for me. Even I make mistakes.”
“Damn straight, you make mistakes. Where is she?” I asked again.
“Who?”
“You know who I mean. Michelle.”
“Oh, is that her name?”
I rolled my eyes. “You know it is. She was one of the girls at the last auction. You knew I paid for her. It’s on the receipt.”
“Yeah, another mistake you made. You could at least have given a fake name, the way the others do. I mean, why would any of them want their wives and girlfriends to know they were buying a piece on the side? But you didn’t think it through. You never do. I would think seven years in the pen would give you all the time in the world to make up an actual plan. But no, you come at me like a bull.” He sighed. “So typical.”
I could have screamed. My hand tightened around the phone. I imagined it was his scrawny neck. He was trying to get in my head. “I’m gonna ask you again, crater face. Where did you take Michelle?”
“Oh, that. I wouldn’t know. My boys had a score to settle with her. She got away from them, and they don’t like that.” He laughed. “You could say they got a little obsessed with her.”
“Bullshit. You don’t like that she got away from you. That’s the problem.”
“Either way, I don’t know where she is.”
“Man, just tell me. Tell me what you want for me to get her back. Stop all this game playing.” I was losing control, pacing the yard, clenching and unclenching my fist. I never felt so helpless in my life.
He acted like I wasn’t even talking. “I never understood how you could get your hands on such hot tail,” Gareth said. “Now I get it, though. You’ve gotta pay for it.”
I laughed bitterly. “Nah, that’s your life, man. Not mine. I’ve never had a problem that way.”
“How else would you ever score a girl like her? Beautiful, smart, classy? With all that beautiful dark hair, and those pouty lips?” he asked.
“So you do know her.”
He paused, then laughed. “You got me. Always smarter than I give you credit for.”
“Damn straight,” I said. “Smarter than you think. So you better bring her back in one piece, or tell me where I can find her in one piece.”
“Or else what?”
“Or else I take the recording of you and the girl to the cops.”
Another pause. “I knew you must have recorded it.”
“What tipped you off?”
“Nothing, until that gunshot. One of my boys got you, huh? Anyway, when we heard it, she ran out and jumped on the back of a bike with one of your crew. To be honest, I didn’t know she was a plant until then. She’s a half-decent actress, that one. Had me fooled the whole time. Where did you find her?”
I ignored the question. Anybody else would have thought we were two good friends bullshitting over the phone. “I have evidence on you, then. And unless I get Michelle back, the tape goes to the police. That’s it.”
“No, see, that’s not the way this is gonna go. You’re gonna bring me the tape, and then I’m gonna let her go.”
“Fuck off. You wouldn’t let her go if I gave you what you wanted.” I looked at Pete, and he shook his head.
“You’d be surprised,” Gareth said. “She’s already giving me a headache. I wouldn’t mind getting her off my hands.”
I closed my eyes. Yeah, that sounded like her. She was hanging in. My tough girl.
“So like I said,” he continued, “you bring me the recording, and I give her back to you. Simple as that.”
I thought about it. “In perfect condition,” I said. “Don’t lay a single finger on her. I swear to God, I’ll take you all down.”
“Don’t worry about it. My boys seem to think they can take turns with her. A bunch of animals. I don’t go in for rape. Buying a woman is one thing. I’ll keep ’em off her. You’ll get her back in one piece.”
I shuddered and squeezed my eyes shut, thinking about the way they were looking at her, the things they were thinking. What they were probably saying to her. She didn’t deserve any of this, but because of me, she was in it up to her neck. I never hated myself as much as I did at that moment, when I knew it was all my fault that she was in danger.
“We have a deal?” Gareth asked.
“Where am I supposed to meet you?” I replied. It was my way of telling him I was on board.
“Here at the clubhouse. Shame you couldn’t stick around a little while longer, you would have seen the car pull up with her in it. But I heard one of my guys got a little trigger happy with you. I wish I could say I was sorry.”
“Don’t touch her,” I said.
“Not unless you bring me that recording. If you
don’t? She’s dead.”
I took a few deep breaths. “Understood.”
“And don’t think about making copies either,” he added. “You have twelve hours to get here, with the recording, or I start cutting her up personally. I would hate to see her beautiful, soft skin all marked up. Especially when she pulled down such a huge price for me the other night.” Then he laughed. “I hope she was worth it.”
“You’ll never know, will you?”
“Won’t I?” With that, he hung up the phone.
I could have puked. I tossed the phone aside, then started pacing again. “I’m gonna kill him. I swear I will.”