Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
WREN
My phone vibrated in my back pocket. I shifted the pile of padding to my opposite arm and pulled it out to glance at the screen. It lit up with a message from Elenna.
We're missing jerseys from Javey and Orion. Can you check laundry plz?
I managed to type a quick response, and shoved the phone back in my pocket before I dropped everything.
I turned around and headed back down the corridor towards the laundry.
Strange, I wasn't the one who grabbed the last load out of the dryer. I was surprised Elenna or Finley wouldn’t have missed anything. They were usually careful.
"No one's perfect," I said to myself.
I turned around, pushed the laundry door open with my back and dropped the padding onto a folding table. Really, it was a trestle that predated my grandparents. The surface was scratched and dented, but the table itself was stable enough. Mostly.
I peered into one dryer. It was empty. The other was still drying a load. I put it on pause and opened the door.
If nothing else, I could tell Elenna where the missing jerseys were. After a quick search, I decided they weren't in there. I restarted the dryer and looked into the industrial washing machines. Both of those were empty. Not even a missing sock stuck to the side.
I pulled out my phone to text Elenna that they weren't here.
The device was snatched out of my hand.
"What the—" I whirled around.
My heart stopped dead.
I recognised the two men who stood in the laundry doorway. Roach and Otis. Formerly minions of Sawyer Mancini. Two of the men who kidnapped Sinclair and me last year.
"How did you get in here?" I asked.
Security in the arena was supposed to be crazy tight. No one should have been allowed to walk through the front doors unless they were staff. Or…held tickets.
Still, they shouldn't have been able to get into this part of the arena. Granted, we were in Melbourne. Their security might not be as tight as in Dusk Bay.
Fuck. Of course they'd waited until we were somewhere like this to make a move.
"If you did anything to Elenna—" How had they sent a message that looked like it came from her phone?
The technology existed, it was used by telephone scammers all the time, but to hijack her phone?
It felt to me like a violation. Better her phone than her, but Aidan would kill them both for this. If he got to them before Tiger did.
"Your friend is fine." Roach leaned against the door like we were having a casual conversation. "She's the brunette, right?"
I wasn't going to dignify his question with an answer. Instead, I ran through the items I'd seen in the laundry, trying to figure out if I could use anything as a weapon and if it was close enough to grab.
Back in Dusk Bay, Finley kept hockey sticks here and there for times like this. That would be helpful if I was bigger and only facing one asshole. With two of them… I ruled out everything I could think of. One by one.
The only plan I had left was to play nice and hope like hell I walked away from this in one piece.
"It's been great to catch up with you guys, but if you'll excuse me, I have work to do." I swivelled my upper body and reached for the pile of padding.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Otis had a gun in his grip, aimed at my hands.
Since I was very much attached to my hands, I stepped back and raised them. "What do you want?"
If I was lucky, they'd cut to the chase and get the hell out of here. Then I could do the same. Right now, all I wanted was to be with my three guys, their arms around me, holding me until I stopped shaking. I hadn't realised I'd started, but I realised it now. My whole body was trembling.
"We don't want to hurt you," Roach said.
That was good to know. Or it would be if I believed it. I was one hundred percent sure if their boss told them to maim or kill me, they'd do it without a second thought or lingering regret.
I stayed silent, waiting for them to continue.
"We're going to need you to come with us," Otis said. "Do as you're told and you'll walk away when this is over."
"Why don't you let me walk away right now?" I said.
Fuck, I shouldn't provoke them, but the words were out before I could stop them. I mean, it was a reasonable request. Right?
Bray always told me my big mouth would get me in trouble some day. Just before he told me my big mouth was perfect for his big cock. He couldn’t help himself.
"You know the answer to that as well as we do," Roach said. "We have a job to do, nothing more. If we turn up without you, we're dead."
Honestly, them being dead worked for me. Was that mean or wrong? No, the motherfuckers were holding a gun on me. Again. They could go to hell and burn there for all eternity as far as I was concerned. The sooner the better.
"You could tell them I ran away from you," I suggested. "If we put our heads together, we can come up with a plausible scenario. Maybe you couldn't get into the arena in the first place. I'm sure Nicholas would buy that.”
I snapped my fingers. “I know, he can come and see for himself. In fact, this is my invitation to him to do just that." As if he'd be that stupid. Shame, we could set up a nice little trap just for him.
"Maybe you can shut the fuck up and move," Otis snapped. He was always the cranky one of the pair. He dropped my phone on the ground and stomped on the screen with the heel of his heavy boot.
The last time, when he and Roach abducted Sinclair and me, they used our phones to reply to texts from the guys, pretending we were fine.
Apparently that wasn't happening this time. They weren't pretending. They wanted the guys to know they had me.
"How about I deliver a message?" I suggested. "That's the point, isn't it? Drugging me with that muffin—that was you, wasn't it?"
"I've always wanted to be a baker," Roach said. "The muffin tasted good, didn't it?" He actually looked hopeful. Even proud. Dickhead.
"It was amazing," I gushed. "If it wasn't laced with hallucinogen, it would have been incredible. I think you should give up being a goon and go back to school to learn to be a baker." Right now would be perfect.
"You think so?" Roach straightened up.
Otis shot him a dark look. "Not the time, idiot. We have a job to do, remember?"
Roach slumped back against the door. "Right."
I sighed to myself. At least the seeds of dissent were planted in his brain. Maybe that would lead to something, like him deciding to be on my side. Yeah, okay, it was a long shot, but a girl could hope.
I rallied myself again. "The shooting thing, that was a warning too, right? I eyed the gun in Otis' hand. "Was that you? That was some impressive shooting."
He twitched. Looked slightly disappointed. "Not me."
His cranky mask snapped back into place. "Shut up and start walking." He stepped back out of the doorway and gestured with the gun, indicating for me to move in front of them.
I stayed in place. I reminded myself I should not be poking the hornets’ nest, but I knew if they took me out of here, my chances of surviving were considerably reduced. There was nothing to stop them from getting annoyed and killing me, regardless of what they were ordered to do.
"Nicholas didn't give you the chance to try?" I asked. "That's a shame. You look like a guy who could shoot through bulletproof glass."
"Otis wanted the job, but Nicholas gave it to—"
Otis elbowed Roach in the ribs. "Shut the fuck up. If you keep blabbing like that, I'll shoot you myself."
Roach raised his hands. "Chill out, bro. I'm on your side, okay? I just thought it wasn't fair. Fargo hasn't worked for the boss for as long as we—" He caught Otis' glare and closed his mouth with a snap of his teeth.
"I don't think either of you want to be here doing this," I said. "I tell you what, put the gun away, turn around and leave and I won't say anything about this to anyone."
Not least until I reached my guys. Then I'd tell them everything. They’d hug me, then chase after these two and tear them apart. That was firmly in the 'not my problem' basket.
Roach actually looked like he was considering the offer.
Otis, on the other hand, raised the gun and pointed it at my chest. "Enough talk. If I have to tell the boss your death was an accident, that's what I'll do. It’s easier for everyone if you do as you're fucking told."
He might be right, but desperation and panic were warring with each other for the right to uncoil in my stomach and spread throughout my entire body.
I shook my head. "I'm not going with you. You'll have to kill me instead."
I never thought much about how I'd die, but it hadn’t crossed my mind it would be in a laundry room, in a hockey arena in Melbourne.
To be fair, I couldn't have guessed that, up until recently. It's not exactly a bucket list item. I put it firmly on my fuck it list instead. I didn't want to die here.
In retrospect, I should have told Aidan I was coming along for my safety and stayed as close to the guys as possible. But no, I had to go and try to be useful. If it was any consolation, Javey and Orion probably had their jerseys with them.
All of that flashed through my mind before I grabbed up the backup goalie’s padding I’d placed on the table and raised it up in front of me, a barrier between me and them.
The first bullet slammed into the centre of one of the knee pads. It passed through that and into the one behind it and the one behind that.
It stopped short of exiting and striking the centre of my chest.
The second shot did almost the same thing. This time, instead of stopping, it struck just below my collarbone. Searing pain lanced through me.
Without the padding it would have gone a lot deeper, but it still hurt like a motherfucker.
I braced myself, but the third and fourth shot didn't hit the padding at all.
I heard the gunshots, but felt no strike. Nothing.
My mind couldn't put the two things together. Unless I was dead. That was why I didn't feel an impact. That wouldn't explain the pain though. My mind was a fog of agony and confusion.
"Wren!"
That was Bray's voice. He sounded frantic. More worried than I'd ever heard him.
I didn't think this was a hallucination, but his tone made me wonder. Since when did Bray talk to me like that?
Tentatively, I lowered the padding, just enough to peer over the top.
Tiger stood with a gun in his hand, pointed toward the two bodies that lay on the floor between him and Bray.
Lex was right behind them.
Blood was already pooling around Roach and Otis's heads, spreading across the worn linoleum.
"I'm okay," I said in a small voice. "Just a little… Shot."
Fuck, I was shot. The pain was incredible. Blood was starting to soak into my shirt and hoodie. I could feel it, damp, the smell tangy.
Suddenly faint, I dropped the padding to the floor and let the guys grab me before I landed in a heap beside it.