Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
“He isn’t going to be happy with what we’ve done.”
Interesting. Mae’s mind was coming back online, her body aching from being slumped over for what she assumed was a long time.
Long enough that she’d been taken somewhere.
Just great. Mae slowly opened her eyes, trying her hardest not to move more than she would have been if she was still unconscious.
Being moved to a second location was nearly the worst thing that could have happened. But at least she was still alive.
Jessie. Fuck. Mae prayed her friend had been left in the alley. Someone would find her. Someone would take care of her. As long as they hadn’t killed her…
“You knew the plan was to get into the building. To bring the team here. All we got was their secretary and that bitch from the diner.”
“The secretary who’s fucking Lawson? The one person in the world who he’ll burn everything down to get to?
We get to torture him with the knowledge that we have her, that we could be doing anything…
anything… to her before he finds her. He’ll suffer while he works to find her.
And when he does, because we’ve basically left breadcrumbs as big as boulders behind so he can, he’ll bring the whole team with him into our trap.
I might not be the boss of this operation, but I am the one with the biggest brain. So shut the fuck up and let me work.”
“I hope he sees it that way. Cause if not, I’m not standing in the way of him shooting you. There’s no way we can make it out of here alive if things don’t work out the way he wants them to.”
“We left the packages right where he wanted them. The team comes here. The packages go kaboom. They realize we took out their families before we kill them. The plan still works.”
Oh shit. How the fuck was she going to escape and get that information to the team in time?
Mae laughed and the men froze.
“Looks like our sleeping beauty was wide awake after all.”
Mae let her eyes finally open wide, taking in the disgusting and dilapidated building they were in.
Of course. She couldn’t be taken by a mob boss who would keep her in a five-star hotel somewhere because he couldn’t stand being around filth.
God, how many rats were in the building with her right now?
Cockroaches? No, it was winter. She was likely safe there…
“Christ, how fucking hard did you hit her? Hey.” Idiot one snapped his fingers in her face. “Are you still with us? Why the fuck were you laughing?”
Their masks were nowhere to be found, and Mae couldn’t help but stare. Not because they were the type of man she’d ever actually want to spend time looking at, but because she wanted to burn their features into her memory.
The first man was the better looking of the two, and the fact that his face and neck was covered in scars didn’t take away from that as much as Mae would have expected.
This was someone who had to have been gravely injured before.
Coupled with the fact that the second man looked like he was regularly injecting steroids to bulk up and that probably meant his balls had shriveled up and died somewhere in his stomach, Mae couldn’t help but laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Shriveled Balls looked like he was about to blow. Certainly not his load, because erectile dysfunction was a serious side effect of anabolic steroids. What was wrong with her brain right now? Mae couldn’t stop laughing…
“I thought…” Mae cleared her throat, the weakness making her cringe. “I thought of what I’m going to call you, since you are the worst hosts in the world and didn’t tell me your names. Shriveled Balls,” she giggled as she turned from him to his buddy. “Meet Scar Face.”
“A little too on the nose for me,” Scar Face sighed as he tapped his crooked nose. “But Shriveled Balls?”
“Yeah, cause your buddy is obviously injecting too many steroids into his body to look like that. It’s gross, by the way.” She turned to face her second captor. “I could have called you Ed, for erectile dysfunction, but that felt… What did Scar Face just say? Too on the nose?”
“You bitch!” Yup. Classic anger from all the juice. They were going to play right into her hand.
Scar Face’s hand slammed into his buddy’s chest. “Cool it, Jase. She’s right.
And not at all what I expected to find from a woman we fucking drugged and kidnapped.
I thought we’d have to deal with tears and shaking, but damn, I can definitely appreciate what Lawson sees in you.
You’re fierce, little vixen, aren’t you? ”
Oh, fuck no. No. She wasn’t going to give him tears, but she certainly wouldn’t give them anything for their fucked up spank bank either.
“Take a step closer and find out.” Mae licked her lips and prayed they’d get close enough that she could bite them.
The brutality of that wish sent a cramp through her stomach, but she was in survival mode.
What she had to do to get away didn’t matter.
She would do whatever it took to make sure she got to safety.
Shriveled Balls, who she would now have to sadly call Jase for identification purposes, stepped closer. He reached into his pocket, and the second light reflected off the shiny metal of a switch blade, Mae started questioning her plan.
The blade sliced through her shirt, exposing her previously covered skin to the cold air inside the warehouse they were in.
“Christ. Couldn’t you guys afford the heating bill here?”
Jase looked over his shoulder at Scar Face, who just shrugged. He slid the blade under Stone’s shirt, right against the skin on her chest.
“If you cut my skin, I’m going to cut your shriveled balls off and shove them down your throat and then I’m going to take your bank card out of your wallet, walk out of this place and drain your bank account of all twenty-two dollars and fifteen cents on a new shirt, since you already fucked up this one.
It was one I loved, Shrivs, so you know I’m not joking. ”
His eyes narrowed. “And what if I think cutting your flesh is worth the risk? You’re tied up, after all. And I’ve got the knife.”
Mae gagged, mostly for dramatic effect, but also a little because her senses were overwhelmed by his horrid breath and his closeness.
“First, who says ‘flesh’? That’s disgusting.
Second, I truly couldn’t care less. But on the off-chance that you do make it out of here without Stone or my brother or one of my friends killing you, they certainly will return the favor ten fold of anything you do to me when they hunt you down. ”
“I’ll take my chances,” he laughed as his hot breath polluted the air around her face.
“I swear to GOD you picked the wrong day to do this to me. I am in no mood to be manhandled, let alone shoved in a dirty van and driven into the middle of god-knows-where! This has been so stupid. I’m done.
Either tell your boss I’m here and get the show on the fucking road or knock me back out so I don’t have to look at your ugly faces anymore. ”
Mae knew her wits and her attitude were what could save her there. Because they would be expecting someone meek. Someone who crumbled at the first sign of pressure. Men like that thought all women were weak, and good for only one thing. Well, wouldn’t they be surprised when she outsmarted them?
“Don’t touch her again!” Scar Face’s fist pounded into Jase’s mouth, the man stumbling away from Mae. “You know what the plan is. If things go sideways, she needs to be ready for the auction. You think someone will pay for a mutilated woman?”
“Some men are into that. Matches their own features.” Jase spit a mouthful of blood on the concrete floor before wiping his fist across his split lip.
“But I get it. Don’t damage the merchandise.
I’ll explain what happened to Chris if he asks.
And the bitch will still bring in top dollar. Just look at those tits.”
Mae scrunched her face in repulsion. “Yeah, so it’s weird that you are talking about me, but like, I’m right here and you’re acting like I’m not.
If this is some little dick enforcer bullshit, you can just stop.
And I don’t think your boss will want me for anything like that.
I just had a fucking miscarriage. I’m a mess. ”
Her own mask slipped for just a second. As the sadness and fear crashed over the lowered wall, Mae froze.
It took every ounce of strength to zip up her emotions, but she did it.
Every self-defense class she’d taken starting at sixteen flooded into her mind.
Every trick Hawk… and Stone. No shit, don’t think about him…
every trick her brother had taught her flashed before her eyes.
Yeah. These assholes might have gotten the drop on her, and they might have moved her to a second location, and she might be tied up…
and completely alone… with most of her clothes missing in a freezing building and no one to realize she was missing…
oh fuck. No. It would make one hell of a story when she got herself out of this situation.
“Wow. That was like an entire movie just played out in your expressions, little vixen.”
Mae opened her mouth and hissed. She didn’t know what had come over her, but like hell was she going to let those morons know she was scared.
“Just put your little play thing in her cage and be done with it until Christopher is back.”
No. No way. Mae’s head swiveled around, her stomach lurching as soon as her eyes landed on the figure behind the bars.
How had she not thought to look behind her?
Well, aside from the fact that it was almost impossible to twist her head that far.
She might not be able to see, but she would know that voice anywhere.
Especially after what the person who owned it had done to her family.
Well, she just solved the mystery of why the annoying reporter who almost ruined Stone’s life had gone missing.
Laurel was being held there, too. Mae bounced in her chair, getting it to move just a few inches to the left.
That was all she needed to have a completely different view of the room.
From the looks of it, her captors hadn’t been afraid to mess up Lo’s face.
Black and blue bruises marred her rosy skin.
Her left eye was so swollen she wasn’t even trying to open it.
Or maybe she was and couldn’t. It didn’t matter.
If her face was that bad, Mae could only assume what other injuries she had that weren’t visible.
Guess they weren’t going to try and auction her off… lucky bitch.
Mae twisted her head over the other shoulder, and her heart sank through her stomach and nearly landed on the floor with a wet splat. Huddled in the opposite corner of the…. the jail cell… was Jessie. The two of them were definitely going to slow down her escape plans.
“You don’t give us orders, bitch.” Scar Face cursed at Laurel. Interesting. He’d been acting almost as if he enjoyed Mae’s sass, but he wouldn’t accept the same from the reporter.
“She’s right though, Luke. Let’s just put her in there and be done. I’m sick of babysitting duty. We’ve got other shit that’s a priority. That shipment's going to be here in an hour, and you know he’ll be pissed if we aren’t ready for it.”
Luke. Damn it. Goodbye nicknames.
“Fine.” His hands came down roughly against her wrists, forcing Mae to stand as he shoved her towards the cell. Mae couldn’t figure out what the hell kind of facility they were being held in. And where the hell that building actually was? She couldn’t hear anything beyond the room they were in.
Luke shoved her through the open door, slamming the metal closed behind her.
“Put your hands through and I’ll take off the cuffs,” he grumbled.
“Wow. Five star accommodations and service with a smile. How lovely.”
“I could make you suck me off first. While you're down on your knees I could force you to beg, little vixen. So be fucking careful with that sass. Because I really fucking like it, and you wouldn’t survive me.”
Nausea rolled through her body at Luke’s threat, but Mae forced herself to smile as she turned around and slid her hands through the space in between the rusted bars. As soon as the cuffs opened, she pushed away, baring her teeth at the two men.
“Either one of you try to put your disgusting, dinky little dicks anywhere near my mouth and I’ll bite them right off. Try me. I dare you.”
“Christ. We thought the boss had a good time with blondie, but damn. He’s going to eat you alive.”
“Not if I eat him first.”
Never back down. Never let them have the last word.
Both men laughed at that. They didn’t believe she stood a chance against their ringleader. And Mae loved that. Because once someone underestimated her, she’d have an advantage.
And as much as she wanted to check on Jessie, and yes, Laurel too, she couldn’t waste the precious time. Who knew how long she’d have until the men came back? First things first. Mae needed to inventory what she had.
Okay. One bed. Mae pressed down on the mattress.
Memory foam. No fucking springs to be fashioned into a weapon.
One thin sheet that she might be able to do something with…
a steel toilet in the corner that looked like it came right from a prison.
The sink was the same, solid construction.
Nothing she could break off and clobber someone in the head with.
“What are you doing?” Laurel hissed.
“Trying to figure out a plan to get us out of here.”
“Us?”
“I’m absolutely not leaving Jessie behind. And you think I’m leaving your broken and busted ass here? I hate you for what you did to my friends… to my family… but that doesn’t mean I’m going to leave you here to finish whatever sick fucking plans those assholes have.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me until we are out of here. And you’re not completely off the hook. I need information. And I know that’s the one thing you happen to be good at getting.”