Chapter Eighteen
I slowly wake back up, as I force myself to swim up from the depths of my mind.
Groaning quietly at the ache in my head, I lift my hand to gently feel the area that hurts the most to assess the damage.
I’m startled to find my arms don’t respond.
My eyes snap open in response, my groggy mind momentarily thinking they had been chopped off or something.
I glance behind me to see my wrists handcuffed to some sort of industrial piping, well at least they’re still attached to me I guess, silver lining and all that shit.
“Good morning, sleepy head!” A sarcastic female voice startles me.
“Shit.” I curse.
I glance around my surroundings trying to find the source of the voice, my eyes land on four battered, bruised and bleeding people handcuffed to the pipes on the opposite wall.
I take a moment to look them over, the girl who spoke to me has deep red hair, cut into a short style which compliments her pixie like features.
Her light blue eyes spark with defiance and fight.
I instantly like her. Two of the remaining three are identical twins both of them have dark brown hair, although one keeps it ever so slightly longer than the other, they both have dark brown eyes and fit muscular bodies.
The final one has hair so blond it’s almost white and piercing green eyes, built slimmer than the others but still defined if the muscles in his arms are anything to go by.
All of them are wearing black combat trousers, black boots and black t-shirts.
They all look worse for wear but none of them appear to be severely wounded.
“Sorry I’m late to the party.” I chuckle sardonically, and pixie girl joins in. “I’m Sage and I’m assuming you’re Jett’s team?” I question before adding, “how long was I out?”
“Around twenty minutes,” the red headed pixie replies, “and yeah that’s us. I’m Erin the twins are Damon and Dash and the guy with the blond hair is Jett. Nate and Kyle, our other members weren’t captured with us, they were staking out a different location.”
I see worry cloud her eyes before she can hide it and I wonder if she has a Soulmate Bond too or perhaps just a relationship like the one I’m trying with my guys.
“I haven’t seen you before.” Erin narrows her eyes at me. She says it like she knows all of the team’s and it makes me wonder if they belong to the elusive training academy that Thomas mentioned before.
“What team do you belong to?”
“Well technically I don’t officially belong to any team yet, it’s a long story. I came with Levi and the guys.” I reply.
“Makes sense.” one of the twin’s mutters quietly.
“Where are the rest of them?” Jett questions.
“We got rammed by trucks on the way to the safe house you guys were using, there was a gun fight and Brent’s men grabbed me, they’re all fine.” I say, checking the bonds once again. They’re far away but alive.
“Why did they just take you?” The other twin asks loudly, in direct contrast to his brother’s quietness.
The door to the dank room crashes open, banging against the wall, interrupting my answer.
“Sage,” Brent says warmly, “I’m so happy you could make it.”
“It’s not like I had a fucking choice.” I growl, venom lacing my tone.
Anger tightens his eyes, but he manages to rein it back in before he shows his cards.
“That’s no way to talk to your boyfriend, Sage.” He growls back, his voice tight with anger, so not that great at reigning his anger in then, I mentally scoff.
I see Jett’s team widen their eyes as the implication of Brent’s words sink in.
“I’m not your fucking girlfriend, you crazy asshole.”
Quick as a snake his hand strikes out, smacking me across the face.
The force of the hit causes my lip to split open and my nose to start dripping with blood.
My head whips to the side as my hair falls forward, obscuring my face.
I hear Jett’s team shout out, I take a deep breath to find my calm and I turn back to face him.
I grin up at him savagely enjoying the slight widening of his eyes as he takes in my blood covered face.
I know blood has dripped from my nose and is now covering my teeth as I smile unwaveringly at him.
He takes a small step backwards before composing himself and giving me a swift kick to my ribs, forcing me to curl over onto myself, as much as is possible with my hands restrained behind me.
Fortunately, nothing breaks but motherfucker does it fucking hurt. Before I can recover, Brent grabs a fist full of my dark hair and yanks me upright, my arms are pulled uncomfortably behind me, the bones protesting as they grind together from the unnatural angle he’s pulled me into.
He leans down close to my face. “You will obey me Sage! You will respect me or I will beat the defiance out of you and fucking enjoy it!” He bellows at me, spittle flying everywhere.
“Dude, say it don’t spray it, you deluded dickhole.” I smirk up at him.
He punches me hard in the stomach releasing my hair and I once again curl in on myself. I hear him storm out of the room, the steel door crashing shut behind him. There’s a beat of silence before Erin breaks it.
“Sweetie, you have shitty taste in men.” Erin comments, causing a shocked laugh to escape me.
“No shit.” I chuckle spitting the blood that has gathered in my mouth onto the cement floor. Lovely.
“Why the fuck would you antagonise him like that!?” The loud twin rumbles.
“Because it unsettles him, it makes him emotional and makes him lose his shit. Someone who is that emotional doesn’t think clearly and makes mistakes,” I smirk at their impressed looks, then shrug my grin widening, “and it was fun to piss him off.”
Jett chuckles shaking his head. “She’s almost as crazy as you, Erin.”
“Damn right she is, I think we’re going to get on fan-fucking-tastically.” Erin grins just as wide as me, a level of understanding passes between us. I really like Erin.
Jett, Damien and Dash’s heads swivel between us before Jett shakes his head sighing.
“Women, I’ll never understand them.” He says grinning.
“Me neither.” The quiet twin grumbles.
“Watch it you two, or after all this is over, you’ll be the last ones I visit.” She smirks as they quickly backtrack.
Her words confirm that they must be in a relationship similar to mine.
“After this me and you need to get to know each other better.” I grin at her.
“I had a feeling you might say that.” She chuckles.
“Okay,” the loud twin elongates the word, “now that the female bonding is over with maybe we should get on with trying to get out of here?” He says sarcastically and I’m shocked when his quiet twin smacks him on the back of the head.
The action is so like my guys that my heart throbs painfully in my chest, Erin smiles gently in sympathy as if knowing what I’m thinking.
“Are they on any kind of schedule?” I ask
“Not that we’ve noticed, they took us out individually at some point to try and get information about your whereabouts, which obviously they didn’t get, other than that we’ve barely seen them.” Jett explains.
“Ok well now I’m here, I want to see if their schedule changes at all. I want to try and get as much information as possible before we escape.” I say.
“How exactly are you planning for us to escape, Sage?” Erin asks sceptically, “they took all our weapons and lock picking sets.”
“They didn’t take my hair grip though; I always keep one clipped to my sleeve. If I can twist it exactly right, I should be able to unlock my cuffs, these are the same kind that Cain taught me how to do it on.”
They all share curious looks but let it drop for the moment.
“Ok I agree, I don’t want my team to stay here any longer than truly necessary but you’re right we need more information.” Jett agrees.
“Are you all well enough to fight?” I ask them, “I highly doubt we are going to be able to just walk out.”
“Yeah we should be ok, battered and bruised but none of us have any broken bones.” Erin answers me.
“Once we are out of here, how’re we going to get hold of the agency to let them know where we are and to send back up?” The quiet twin asks.
This is ridiculous, I can’t keep calling him quiet twin but before I can ask Erin interrupts.
“That’s Damon.” She tells me, and I grin my thanks.
“Once we are out of the room one of us can search for a cell phone or anything that we can send a message out on. They’re bound to have them.” Jett suggests, and we nod in agreement.
It isn’t long before Brent decides to make another appearance looking more pissed than I have ever seen him and I internally curse. I straighten my spine and stare defiantly into his rage filled eyes.
“Who are they?” He screams at me, once again yanking me up by my hair. This time he pulls so swiftly and hard that my shoulder dislocates, and I swallow back a scream of pain.
“Who?” I question, proud when my voice comes out steadily.
He shakes me roughly, jostling my shoulder. He places his other hand around my throat squeezing tightly. I struggle to bring enough air into my lungs.
“Leave her the fuck alone!” Erin screams.
“Those men you were found with!” He screams at me completely ignoring Erin, “I was told how close you seemed to be, how devoted they were to you, do you have any fucking idea what that makes me look like!?” He rages on, his hand tightening even more around my throat.
“Having my girlfriend whore herself out!”
I know he’s still yelling but his voice seems as if it’s at the end of a tunnel, the edge of my vision starts to grey, and I start to panic that he might actually kill me.
At the very last second, he releases the hold he has on my throat, and I gulp air down greedily as my vision finally blacks completely and I pass out.