Chapter 26
Rue
Isquinted as someone opened the trunk and light poured in. Hands reached in and grabbed me by the shoulders. The men moving us weren’t gentle as they manhandled us onto our feet and shoved us from behind to get us moving.
I wasn’t gagged, and I didn’t want to be, so I didn't say anything. We followed along after the men until one of them flattened his hand on my shoulder and shoved me to the ground. I fell over, waiting to see what they’d do, but they didn't start kicking me like I expected.
They saved that for my brother. “Stop!” I shouted as they ganged up on him mercilessly.
There wasn’t much I could do with my hands still tied together. They’d untied our feet after dragging us out of the trunk, but even with the ability to walk, what was I supposed to do? I had no weapons, no use of my hands. “Please! Stop it!”
Eventually they got tired of the game and walked off, laughing together. A couple of the guys took seats outside the circle of light we were left sitting in. There were floodlights pointed directly at us as we sat on the concrete. Not exactly a good sign.
“Ryan? Are you okay?”
He coughed a couple times, then hocked up some spit and blood. “I’m fine.” He managed to work himself into a sitting position, scowling at the men he’d probably once considered friends. Maybe even family.
“What happened?” I asked in a low voice.
“Nothing.”
I considered letting it go, but it wasn’t like we had much else to do as we waited. This was clearly a trap The Collective had set for the MC. “Nothing,” I echoed in disbelief.
He sighed. “We were looking into Rhino and Boscoe’s deaths. Finally figured out who was responsible after they attacked us at the hardware store. Couple of the employees ID’d them.” He looked over at me. “Started looking into them and then I saw you at their clubhouse.”
“This is because of me?” I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders, a sullen look on his face. “It’s not right to ask a guy to kidnap his own sister.”
“So they jumped you? Made you help them?”
“They coulda done it without me, but it’s more fun for them this way.” He stared down at the ground. “Besides, Carrick knew I wasn’t about to let them go after you and not try to stop it. So they ensured I couldn’t help.”
“Thanks,” I said, staring at his face until he looked up at me.
He let out a heavy sigh. “You’re my sister, Rue. I fucking love you. I wasn’t about to let those assholes hurt you. Or worse.”
My heart all but melted in my chest. “I love you, Ry.”
“Knock it off,” he muttered, red creeping over his cheeks.
I didn’t point out the fact that he’d told me he loved me first and I was just responding in kind. Teenage boys didn’t care about that. “So… Do you know where we are?”
“Carrick has a couple of businesses that let him work out of their buildings. Harder to track him that way. This one’s a carwash. We’re out back.”
“Any getting out of this?” I asked him.
“Alive?”
“I mean…preferably.”
He shrugged. “Not like this. Even if we do, we’re so damn outnumbered. Though there’s probably only about ten guys here with Carrick right now. The rest…” He trailed.
“The rest what?”
“They’re taking care of your new friends.”
If contemplating our own deaths hadn’t killed the warm glow in my chest from hearing that my brother loved me, that definitely did. “How many men?”
He shrugged. “Fifteen or so?”
I watched as a kid, maybe about ten, crept up to one of the guys who was sitting at the side of the building, guarding us, whispered something, then scampered away. “How many kids?”
“Here? Right now? Maybe six. Most are out on the streets,” Ryan said, his eyes tracking the kid as he slunk off into the shadows.
“They need help.”
He looked over at me. “You’re not wrong. But Rue?”
“Yeah?”
“Not sure if you noticed, but so do we.”
“My…friends…will be here soon,” I told him.
“Those guys are already in body bags,” he muttered.
I snorted out a laugh. “Sorry,” I said when he looked at me with surprise. “What kind of training do your friends have?” I asked.
He shrugged. “No clue. They’re mostly just big fuckers who like to hit you when you don’t move fast enough.”
“But you stayed?” I asked. I tried to keep the accusation out of my words.
“By the time I realized what they really were, there was no getting away from them,” he admitted. “Even if I could, they knew who you were. Who Teddy was. They threatened to kill you both.”
“How did Teddy get away from them?” I asked.
“He figured out what these assholes were a lot quicker than me. He tried to warn me. I didn’t want to listen.” He met my gaze, then looked away. “Just like I wouldn’t listen to you.” His shoulders slumped. “Sorry I didn’t listen to you.”
“It’s okay,” I told him. “You’re here now and that’s all that matters.”
He scoffed. “Yeah, fat lot of good it’s doing us.”
“Oh,” I said, remembering, “that’s right. My friends are all former military.”
He looked over at me. “I sure as hell hope they were some kind of special forces, or some shit.”
“Some were,” I told him. I wasn’t sure what all of them had done in the military, but I had every confidence in them. “Don’t worry. They won’t leave us here.”
Those that aren’t special forces are genuinely nuts. That counts for something.
“How the hell are they even going to find out we’re here?”
“Carrick will make sure they know,” I replied. “And if he doesn’t, the guys we left behind at the clubhouse will tell them.”
“Since when do you hang with bikers?” he asked.
“Since I was looking for you, little ungrateful punk,” I answered with a grin.
He returned it.
We were sitting there, tied up, surrounded, and grinning at each other like lunatics.
My smile faded. “I’m also sort of dating one of them.”
His brows shot up. “Sort of?”
“We’re dating,” I said again, more confident this time.
“Do I need to kick the shit out of him?”
I choked on a laugh. “Why would you?”
“For touching my sister,” he said as though it was obvious.
I pursed my lips together. “I wouldn’t recommend it. OD is…” I wasn’t sure how to explain Overdrive to him.
“Head’s up,” he muttered.
The man who was approaching us had a mean face. One of those guys who wore an expression that would make you cross the street rather than go past him on the sidewalk. Poor Norman had been stuck with this asshole for who knew how long. I was glad I’d taken the dog. My dog.
Carrick looked down at us, a smug expression flitting across his place. “If those pieces of shit manage to get away from the packing plant, then they’re going to come straight here. If not… Well, it won’t matter.”
“‘Cause you’ll let us go?” Ryan asked in a neutral tone.
Carrick laughed. It was a laugh straight out of a villain’s story in a movie. “And let you try to go to the cops?” he asked. “Not happening.”
“What if we promised not to go to them?” Ryan asked.
“I don’t trust anyone to keep their word,” he replied. “And if I let you go, you’re no use to me. If I keep you here and alive, same thing. You’ll spend the whole fucking time trying to escape.” He raked a hand through his blond hair. “So you see? My only choice is to kill you.”
Ryan fell silent, not bothering to argue with him again. Carrick got bored with us not speaking and walked away to go do whatever bad guys did.
I hadn’t bothered to beg him because I knew he wasn’t going to go for anything we said. If the club didn’t come for us we’d be dead. But I knew they were coming.
I knew without a doubt these men didn’t have the same skills that OD and his brothers did. They weren’t going to win in a fight against the men who’d not only earned my trust, but my respect and admiration. I’d barely seen them fight, but I’d seen them win. Seen the way they worked together.
And I knew, deep down, that OD would move the heavens and Earth to get to me.
I really needed to woman up and tell him how I felt.
I couldn’t actually pinpoint exactly when I’d fallen for him, but there was no way that feeling in my chest right now was anything other than love.
The fact that I knew he was coming for me.
That he wouldn’t let anything happen to me. How could it be anything else?
I just wished there was a way to warn him about the trap he and the others were about to step into.
He probably already knew, but knowing him, he wouldn’t care either way.
He was still likely to charge in head first. Keeping my mouth closed and my eyes open, I watched for anything that could help me help them.