Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
CHLOE
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk, pretty lady?” the man with the thick accent asked.
I panted for air as blood trickled down my chin. “Over my dead fucking body.”
He snapped his fingers. “Again.”
My eyes widened. “No, no, no. West!!!”
One of the men wrapped their hand around my neck, cutting off my ability to cry out for him.
And when a fist connected with my jaw, I yelped in pain.
They shoved me over onto my side, allowing the blood from my lip to drip onto the floor.
As I tried catching my breath, someone gripped my hair tightly.
Before pulling me upright once more.
“Are you sure?” the man asked.
I caught my breath before I responded. “I’d rather die than tell you anything.”
The man grinned. “Even if we go after your family? Maybe bring them here for a little one-on-one?”
I scoffed. “Joke’s on you. I don’t have any family.”
He leaned back in his chair, spreading his legs wide. “So, Lexi and Natasha mean nothing to you? I’m sure that’ll break their hearts to know.”
I snarled. “They’re both safe in a place where you’ll never find them. I hope all of you burn in hell. West! West, please!”
Someone cracked the back of their hand against my temple out of nowhere and it swirled my vision.
My head fell against the wall, and I closed my eyes as another blow to the outside of my thigh crashed down.
I curled up in pain, sobbing into my knees while my ribs cried out for mercy.
I hadn’t even healed fully from the last beating I had taken.
My God, they’re actually going to kill me.
“Maybe if you don’t care about their life, you’ll care about your own,” the man hissed.
I picked my head up and sighed. “Now, that threat is pointless. I don’t know what kind of information you want, but I don’t have any. I have no life worth living. I have no point except to be used by others. You kill me? You’ll just be doing me—and this world—a favor at this point.”
I hated how truthful the words felt. All my life, I’d been used for other people’s amusement.
Other people’s needs. Other people’s whims. I mean, I loved Lexi with all my soul, but I knew the reason why she kept me so close was to help out with Natty.
And don’t get me wrong, I loved my niece.
I loved hanging out with her and spending time with her.
But I couldn't remember the last time that I wasn’t the one to drag Lexi out of the house for a girl’s night.
Hell, I couldn't remember the last time anyone had done anything with me without me having to initiate it first.
“Where is the clubhouse?” the man asked as he rolled his chair closer.
I sighed. “Everywhere and nowhere.”
He bent down to get into my face and his breath was damn near a weapon of mass destruction on its own. “You’ve got one more chance to tell me where the fuck it is before we put a bullet in your little fucktoy out there.”
I rolled my eyes. “You really overestimate what I know about that club. You want to know how long I’ve known that man out there?
Two weeks. I’ve known about this club for two weeks.
I don’t know where shit is, or what shit is.
Hell, I’m not sure I could even tell you what their emblem looks like on their leather cuts.
I. Don’t. Know. Shit. I was just stolen away and taken there without any regard for what I wanted with my own life.
All you did was steal away someone who’s already been stolen. ”
And that time, I braced for the impact of the man’s hand across my face.
“Pathetic little bitch,” he growled as he stood up. “You’re weak and pathetic. Nothing but a toy for others. I should’ve known you were useless.”
He snapped his fingers, and someone wrapped their hand around my throat. I yelped out in pain before he closed off my ability to speak and my eyes widened. Jesus Christ, they were really going to kill me. This man was going to strangle me to death before tossing my body into a ditch somewhere.
I’m so sorry, West. I tried my best.
“Hey. You,” the accented man said, “go check on the asshole in there. See if he’s ready to talk,” someone commanded.
I gagged in pain as the man’s hand from around my neck released me. I heaved for air and leaned off to the side, trying not to throw up on myself as my nausea stirred. And as the man marched out of the room, the sound of a gunshot quickly followed.
Before I heard something hard drop to the ground.
“West! Nooooo!” I shrieked.
I knew he was dead. I just knew that man had shot and killed him. My sobs filled the room as tears streaked the open wounds against my cheekbones. I cried out for him. I begged him to still be alive. And as gunfire continued to rain down, thuds kept sounding against the concrete floor.
Before someone softly gripped my chin.
“Chloe, look at me.”
West’s voice hit my ears and my eyes snapped up to him. “You’re—you’re alive. West!”
He placed his finger to his lips. “I’m out of ammo. We have to get out of here. Now.”
I shook my head. “How did you get out of—”
“Bend forward and let me get you out of these first.”
I did as he asked, and soon my hands were free.
I rubbed my wrists as he offered me his hand, but it took me a second before I knew I could get up.
I slid my palm against his and he pulled me upright, holding me close as I teetered.
The world tilted around me before I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I found myself gazing up into my savior’s face.
“West, you’re hurt,” I whimpered softly.
He ran his thumb just below a gash on my cheek. “I’m going to kill every single person that laid a hand on you. Everyone who’s ever hurt you. Who’s ever taken advantage of you. I’m so sorry that I got you into this.”
Tears dripped down my face. “Let’s just get out of here. I want to go back to the clubhouse.”
I studied his black, swollen eye and his busted nose. It was swollen, and cock-eyed. Most certainly broken. My hand slid down his torso and he flinched at my touch, which told me he had damage to his ribs just like I did. And as I watched blood drip from his lower lip, I sank against his body.
Before he kissed the top of my head.
“We need to go. Come with me,” he murmured.
He took my hand and started out of the room, and I did my best to keep up with him.
They had battered my right thigh and it hurt to walk on it, but I also didn’t have a choice.
If we were going to get out of this place alive, we had to move, and quickly.
But, when we walked into the room where we had both been in the first place, I saw the ground littered with bodies.
A picture I knew I’d never get out of my head.
“West?” I asked.
“We don't have time,” he said as he tugged me closer to the door.
“West, we don’t have a way to get away.”
He paused. “We need to find those van keys. Look in their pockets.”
I blinked. “You want me to search a dead man’s pockets?”
He furrowed his brow. “You got any better ideas?”
My gaze dropped to the body at my feet. “I’ll start here.”
Sliding my hand into the man’s pocket made me want to puke.
I’d never seen a dead body before, much less seven of them, and the smell of their metallic blood made my stomach churn.
I swallowed the bile down, refusing to give into the weakness that flooded my body every time I panicked.
I couldn’t keep living my life like that.
I had to grow a backbone. I had to be strong.
Especially if this was the life I’d lead with West, should he have me.
“Not over here. You got anything?” he asked.
I shook my head as I moved to another body. “I’m working on it, but so far, no.”
We searched every single body and came up empty-handed.
“Fucking hell,” West growled.
I shook my head. “Maybe they store the keys on top of the tires of the van.”
He paused. “You stay here. I’m going outside to check.”
“Oh, hell no. If you’re leaving, I’m leaving. We do this together or not at all.”
He whipped around and glared at me. “Now is not the time to fight for control. Stay here. If they’ve got watchmen out there—”
“Those guys would’ve come in the second they heard gunfire. There’s no one else here but us.”
His eye twitched. “Stay behind me, all right?”
I nodded. “Done.”
We crept toward the door as his words filled my ears. “I was so worried when they dragged you into that room. I thought they were going t—”
I placed my hand on his back. “I’m right here. I’m still breathing. I’m fine, okay?”
He sighed as his hand fell to the knob of the door they had dragged us through. “I’m so sorry for all of this.”
I rubbed his back. “Even if they did kill me, so long as you make it back—”
He spun around and cupped my cheeks. “You have to make it back. There’s no other option.”
My eyes danced between his. “Why? Why is there no other option?”
His gaze filled with sorrow. “Because I can’t bear to lose you, that’s why. I can’t go through that pain again, all right?”
Again? What does he mean by that?
“Come on, we’re wasting time,” he said as he took my hand.
Just as quickly as the moment had popped up, it dissipated.
He grabbed my hand and eased the door open before we dashed out into the sunlight.
Thunder rumbled off in the distance. Dark clouds threatened to head in our direction.
And as lightning flashed across the daytime sky, we couldn’t find the black van that had temporarily been our prison.
“What the fuck?” West hissed.
“Let’s check around back. Maybe they’ve got it out of sight,” I said.
With our hands intertwined and our fingers laced, we moved as quickly as we could. We stumbled around to the back of the abandoned building we had been tossed into, but the second we got there we saw nothing but patchy, brown grass.
“It has to be here. I didn’t hear it drive off,” he said breathlessly.
My eyes scanned the abandoned buildings around us. “Where are we?”
West raked his free hand through his hair. “Probably one of the old business districts that got abandoned. There are multitudes of them in California.”
“Question.”
“Yeah?”
I drew in a deep, solid breath for the first time since leaving the clubhouse. “What are the chances that someone drove away with the van to bring more people back here?”
And as my question settled between us, West started sprinting. “We have to get back inside.”
I tripped over myself behind him. “Wait, what?”
He tugged me back toward the front of the building. “If you’re right—if more people are coming—then we have to act like we’re still tied up. It’ll be the only way to get the jump on them.”
“But we have no idea if that’s the truth. The van could be down one of the alleyways!”
He ripped the door back open. “Keep quiet and follow my lead. Can you do that?”
And that was when an engine revved off in the distance. “Yes, I can do that.”
Worry filled his gaze. “Good. Now, let’s get inside and act like we’re still tied up. You get back into your room and I’ll—”
“I don’t want to be alone. West, please don’t—”
He pulled me back into the darkened warehouse as the engine crept closer. “You’re so much stronger than you realize, Chloe.”
I swallowed hard. “I’m really not.”
The door closed effortlessly as West cupped my cheeks once more. “You’ve got this, one hundred percent. Get back into your room and act like you’re tied up, because they might know that I’m loose with a gun, but they don’t know you’re loose.”
“Wh-wh-wh-what—what are you doing t—”
But he shoved me toward the room. “Go and stop asking fucking questions, you stubborn woman!”
And as fear unlike anything I had ever experienced gripped my heart, I rushed back into the room.
I looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon and found some broken shards of glass.
I picked up the biggest one and held it tightly in my dominant hand.
I tried jabbing it in the air a few times, making sure I had the best grip possible on it.
Then, I went back to my corner and sat down with my hands behind my back.
Hoping and praying that the engine creeping closer to us would simply pass us by.