Chapter 15
ELENA
Breakfast at the clubhouse should’ve settled my nerves, but all it did was make me more aware of how unsettled I felt. Reeve noticed me pushing my food around instead of eating it. He slid his hand over my thigh beneath the table, squeezing lightly.
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
He didn’t look convinced. “If you weren’t going to the spa with Stella and Courtney, I’d fuck the nerves out of you.”
“You already tried that when we woke up.” I leaned my head against his shoulder. “But I would’ve been up to trying again if I didn’t have girl time planned this morning.”
The old ladies of the club’s prez and VP thought taking me to the spa would be a good way to keep my mind off the meeting with Jareth.
It was only going to be the three of us because the other four women I’d grown close to were all pregnant, and the person who specialized in prenatal massages was already fully booked for today.
The offer was too sweet to pass up, but the idea of spending the next few hours in bed with Reeve instead made me wish I had turned them down.
“We’ll make up for it tonight.” He squeezed my thigh again and gave a meaningful look at the mostly untouched stack of pancakes in front of me.
I ate a few more bites before Stella came into the kitchen. “Okay, girl time begins now.”
Courtney was right behind her. “We'd better leave now, before Arlen notices I’m gone and gives his daddy a hard time.”
Their three-month-old son was breastfeeding, so our little outing was perfectly timed for when he was napping. Assuming Blaze was able to get him to go down. The club’s VP was scary to everybody but his wife and baby boy.
Reeve sighed, rubbing a hand over his face like he was debating locking me in his room instead. I stood and smoothed my shirt, giving him a reassuring look. “I’ll be fine.”
“You better be,” he muttered, pulling me in for one more hard kiss before releasing me to Stella, who immediately hooked her arm through mine.
“Relax,” she said as she steered me out of the clubhouse and over to an SUV. “We’re going to massage your stress away and maybe get you looking less like you spent the night doing very athletic things.”
When my cheeks flamed, Courtney snickered. “You’re glowing. Own it.”
They teased me all the way to the spa, but it didn’t make me feel uncomfortable.
It was all in good fun and felt like they were treating me like I belonged.
By the time we reached the spa, most of my tension had eased.
But the hot tea Reeve had insisted I drink hit me while we were waiting for our names to be called.
“I’ll be back in a second,” I murmured, pointing toward the sign for the restrooms.
“Don’t take long,” Courtney warned. “We’re about to get pampered.”
I smiled and ducked into the restroom. After using the first stall, I washed my hands and splashed cool water on my face, trying to breathe through the nerves still lingering from this morning.
When I looked up, my reflection stared back at me. My cheeks looked washed out, like the nerves I’d tried to ignore were finally catching up with me. And there were dark smudges under my eyes.
The door opened behind me with the softest click. I glanced up, expecting a woman. But a man stepped inside.
“Uh, this is the women’s restroom,” I pointed out, turning slightly.
His lips curved into a creepy smile. “I know.”
My stomach dropped. Before I managed a single step back, the door opened again, and another man slipped inside, blocking the exit entirely.
“Excuse me,” I tried, my pulse spiking. “You can’t be in here.”
The first man’s expression sharpened. “We won’t be long.”
I barely had time to inhale before a hand clamped over my mouth. A second set of arms locked around mine, pinning them to my sides. I bucked instinctively, but they were too strong.
There was a stinging sensation in my neck. I started to feel dizzy, and my voice was too muffled for anyone to hear when I cried, “Stop, please.”
“Easy now,” one of them murmured, his breath hot against my ear. “There’s no use fighting. We’ve already got you.”
The room tilted, and my legs gave out as whatever drug they’d injected me with hit.
My vision went hazy around the edges, and I knew I was losing my chance to get away.
Panic coursed through my system. I fought even harder, trying to kick and scream, but it did me no good.
The men just tightened their hold on me.
This couldn’t be happening. Not here. Not in a spa filled with my friends, out in the waiting room, and a prospect sitting on his motorcycle in the parking lot.
The last thing I felt was my body being lifted off the floor. And then nothing at all.
The next thing I felt was cold. It sank into my bones and made my skull throb. I groaned as I came back to consciousness with no idea how long I’d been out.
My eyelids fluttered, my vision swimming in and out of focus. Everything was dark and fuzzy at the edges. My head pounded with each flicker of my lashes.
When I finally jerked fully awake, pain stabbed behind my eyes so hard I thought I might throw up. I tried to push up from the floor but couldn’t.
My head was so foggy that it took a moment to realize something thick and rough was digging into my wrists because my hands were bound behind me. I couldn’t separate my legs, either. My ankles were tied together, forcing my knees at an awkward angle.
A whimper escaped before I could swallow it.
The floor beneath me was cold and unforgiving under my cheek. Concrete with no carpet. The air smelled damp, and from what little I could see, there wasn’t any furniture.
It finally dawned on me that this wasn’t the spa.
My tongue felt thick, and my mouth was dry from whatever drugs those guys had used to knock me out.
“H-hello?” The word rasped out, barely a whisper.
There was no answer.
I forced my arms to move, testing the restraints. They bit into my skin, tightening when I pulled too hard. Panic turned my breathing into quick, shallow bursts.
As a tear slid down my cheek, I told myself that Reeve would come. Somehow, he’d figure out where I was. He’d get here in time. He had to.
Two sets of footsteps sounded somewhere beyond the closed door to my right. They were unhurried. Then male voices drifted toward me.
“Is she awake yet?” one asked.
“Nah, haven’t heard anything. Won’t be long though. We were careful with the dosage.”
The first man snorted. “Jareth should’ve kept a better leash on his pet. The Hounds snatched her right out from under him.”
“We’ve got her now,” the second replied. “He marked her, didn’t he? Wanted everyone to know she was his.”
My stomach churned during a beat of silence.
“We’ll carve that mark right off her,” the man continued. “Can’t claim what you can’t keep.”
A shaky breath ripped from my lungs before I could swallow it.
“And send it where it’ll hurt the most,” the first guy added.
The laughter that followed was cruel. These men didn’t see me as a person. I was only a pawn in whatever game they were playing with Jareth. It didn’t matter to them that he’d betrayed me, only that they could use me against him.
I squeezed my eyes shut and forced air into my lungs. Hopefully, Reeve would find me before they started cutting into my leg. And if he didn’t, I’d just have to figure out how to stay alive long enough for him to rescue me. Because I needed the chance to tell him I loved him.