Chapter 16
“Babe, where the fuck are you?” Wes growls as soon as I put my phone to my ear after digging through my bag to find it. It’s a week since Christmas, and things have been good. I’ve been busy trying to plan a wedding, and Wes has been busy keeping me cool about it.
“I had to stop at the store to get chips and stuff for the party.”
“We’re not having a party,” he says, and I know that if I were in front of him, he would be shaking his head with a smile on his face.
“There are more than ten people coming over to watch football. I think that’s called a party,” I explain, rolling my eyes while tossing some avocados in my basket.
“I got beer,” he says like that’s all anyone needs, and he may be right with his boys; as long as they have beer, they’re cool.
And that was fine before he had a woman, but not now.
So I’ll be making wings, seven layer dip, fresh salsa, and some puff pastries I’m sure the guys will complain are too girly, but will scarf down.
I’m even getting two apple pies. No, I didn’t make them from scratch, but they’re Wes’ favorite, so that’s all that matters.
“Did you hear me?” he asks, bringing me back to the conversation.
“I know you got beer, honey,” I tell him, walking up to check out, and I do know he got beer, because last night, when I got home from work, there were five cases of beer on the back porch where he had put them, because it was cold enough out that he didn’t have to put them in the fridge in the house. “I’m still getting snacks.”
“You don’t need to go all out.”
“I like going all out.”
“Pain in the ass,” he mutters.
“You love this ass.” I smile.
“Fuck yeah, I do,” he growls, causing a shiver to slide down my spine as I put the groceries on the conveyer belt.
“I’ll be home soon,” I tell him softly while swiping my card through the credit card machine.
“See you then, baby,” he says, and I smile at the cashier, pick up my bags, and head toward the doors.
“Love you,” I say, hanging up and shoving my phone into my purse, then shuffle the shopping bag from one hand to the other so I can open the door to my car.
Once the doors open, I lean over the driver’s seat and set my purse and the bags down, then scream out when I’m pulled backwards.
A hand covers my mouth and I kick my legs hard as I’m dragged into a van and the door slams shut.
My knees hit the metal floor and I feel a sharp blade against my throat.
“Got you, bitch,” is breathed near my ear, and the stench of cigarettes and leather hits my nose. “You scream, and I’m slicing your throat. Nod if you understand me.”
I nod frantically, and my mouth is uncovered and I’m pushed over until my cheek hits the floor. My hands are pulled together and my wrists are tied behind my back with what feel like plastic ties.
“I’m going to fuck you just like this, at my mercy, nowhere to go, no one to hear you cry,” the guy behind me says, pressing his hard-on against my ass, making me gag. I feel tears roll over the bridge of my nose onto the floor before a sharp blow to the side of my head, then nothing but black.
I open my eyes then slam them shut, not wanting to believe what I’m seeing is real.
My heartbeat thumps rapidly, and my breathing begins to increase, so much so that I know if I don’t calm down, I will pass out again.
I take a moment, gathering courage, and when I open my eyes again, it takes a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.
I look around, seeing I’m in a small room.
The walls are pitched, which makes me believe I’m in an attic.
The sound of dogs barking is so loud it’s almost deafening.
My eyes land on a small figure that is huddled in the corner. Her long brown hair is down, and her face is smudged with dirt, along with her clothes. I scoot closer to her and she begins to cower away.
“I won’t hurt you,” I whisper, going to her side, but not too close. “What’s your name?”
“El…Ellie. Wh-what’s yours?” she whispers in a hoarse tone after a long moment.
“July,” I whisper back. “Do you know where we are?” I ask while looking around the space, trying to see if there are any windows.
“No,” she whimpers, and I can hear the fear in her voice from that one single word.
“How did they get you?” I ask.
Her eyes close and she lowers her head as her body begins to shake, and I don’t think she’s going to answer, but then she says so low that I almost miss it, “My mom sold me to these guys.”
“What?” I hiss, completely caught off-guard.
“I know,” she whimpers, dropping my hand and wrapping her arms around her legs, resting her forehead on her bent knees. “She has my daughter. I need to get my daughter,” she cries, and her body begins to shake with silent tears.
I wrap my arms around her and whisper, “It will be okay,” even though I have no idea how I will make it okay. Not for her…not with this.
“You don’t understand. There was another girl here before me.
They took her out, and when they brought her back, she was strung out on some kind of drug.
She didn’t even remember her own name,” she tells me, and memories of what Wes told me about these guys flash through my head, making me vow that I will get us out of here before they can hurt us.
“Did you hear anything? See anything?” I ask.
“No, I was unconscious when they brought me here. When I woke up, Claire was with me. She said she was kidnapped from outside her house. Not long after I woke up, they came and got her.”
“What did they look like?”
“I don’t…I don’t know. They were big; one of them had a tattoo on his forehead of a spider,” she says, and a chill slides over me, knowing that was the same person who threatened Kayan at her apartment.
“We need to look around and see if we can find anything to use as a weapon to protect ourselves when they come back. My fiancé will be expecting me home soon, and when I don’t show, he’ll come looking for me,” I tell her, trying to comfort her and myself.
I just have no idea how long I was out, or how long it took for them to bring me here. I hate this. I can’t imagine what Wes is going to do when he realizes I’m not on my way home.
“Come on,” I whisper, and we begin crawling around on the floor, trying to be careful, because there seem to be some parts that are weak in the floor, like the structure is old.
The floor is covered in a thick layer of dust, and my hand runs over a puddle of thick liquid, and when I lift my hand close to my face, my stomach turns as I see it’s actually blood.
Someone was hurt here, hurt bad. It’s not a little blood; it’s a lot of it.
“Oh, God,” I whimper in fear as the weight of the situation crashes over me.
“I found something,” Ellie says from across the room, and I wipe my hand on my jeans and go towards her. When I make it to her side, I see she has a two-by-four with a thick rusty nail sticking out of one side.
“This is good,” I say, giving her a hug. At least we won’t be going down without a fight. “Let’s see if we can find anything else, and then we’ll come up with a plan.”
Wes
“Where’s July?” Mic asks, and I look from the TV to my phone and feel myself frown. I spoke with her fifteen minutes ago; she should be home by now. I put the phone to my ear and her phone rings and goes to voicemail.
“This is July. Leave a message…or not. Who leaves messages nowadays anyway?” She laughs, and a bad feeling settles in the bottom of my gut. I click off the phone then redial, and it rings then goes to voicemail again.
“What’s up?” Harlen asks as I step out onto the front porch, where he’s having a cigarette.
“Something’s off,” I tell him, waiting to see if her car comes around the corner. The store that we always go to is about ten minutes from the house, if that, and she was checking out when I hung up. “July’s not picking up her phone.”
“Maybe she can’t reach it,” he says, and I nod, but I know that’s not the case. Something’s definitely off.
“I’m giving her three more minutes, but then I’m taking off to look for her,” I tell him, putting my phone back to my ear and trying her again.
“I’ll ride with you,” he agrees, going into the house, coming back moments later with his jacket and handing me mine.
“What’s up?” Mic asks stepping out onto the front porch.”
“Gonna ride out with Wes to check on July. You stay here and have her call if she gets back,” Harlen tells him, and I pull on my jacket then try her number one more time.
“Fuck,” I clip and head towards my bike, swinging my leg over my seat, and Harlen does the same with his. The rumble of our pipes fills the air as we pull out of our driveway. I ride ahead of Harlen onto Main, heading right to the store, where I know July was last.
The moment we get there, I see her car in the parking lot off to the side of the door, where no one would see it.
My stomach drops and my adrenaline kicks in as I pull into the space next to it and look inside.
Her purse and the groceries she had just bought are sitting inside on the passenger seat.
I open the back door, knowing not to touch the front in case someone needs to dust for prints, and reach in to grab her bag, pulling out her cell to see if she had gotten a call from anyone else, and there are no messages or anything in her call log.
When I lift my head, I see Harlen is on the phone, so I head into the store to see if anyone had seen anything, which no one has, and they don’t even have cameras, so that’s out.
When I get back outside, Jax, Talon, Sage, and July’s uncle Nico are waiting near her car, with Harlen, Mic, Everett and two officers I don’t know.
“Z’s at the house with Kayan,” Mic says when he notices me looking at him.
“They got any cameras?” Nico asks, and I shake my head while walking closer to them, instead of going to the building and punching the shit out of it to relieve some of the rage I have pumping through me.