5. Kiera
KIERA
I held tight onto Spencer’s back, keeping my head pressed between her shoulder blades as the cityscape around us morphed into sprawling, rural fields. It was impossible to keep my mind from drifting back to the night they’d found me, the first time I’d ever ridden on the back of this bike.
Though this time, I wasn’t the one who needed saving.
Within minutes, we were miles from the bar we’d followed this guy from. In fact, we were miles from anywhere it seemed. Just acres and acres of fields dotted every few minutes by a small farm house.
It was a wonder he didn’t notice the three bikes tailing him. My captors had cut the lights as soon as we left city limits, but the fact that we were the only ones out here should have made us way more conspicuous.
Probably preoccupied with his passenger.
Just the thought of what might be happening in that car made my blood boil with rage.
My mind didn’t have long to imagine it before his car pulled abruptly to the side of the road. For a minute, I thought he might have lost control of the car in some force majeure.
But God was rarely that merciful.
The bikes quickly followed suit, pulling into the brush fifty feet back.
“What is he…?” I found myself asking before Spencer placed a hand on my thigh, silently signalling for quiet. She, Dom, and Leo all kept their eyes glued ahead, visors lifted for a better view.
I lifted my own visor as I squinted through his rearview window, trying to make out the dark shadow shifting around in the car as he killed the engine. But seeing him became a lot easier as he threw open the driver’s door and stood from the car.
This couldn’t be the drop point, right?
No, it was far too isolated for that.
Instead, he opened the back door of the car and lumbered in beside the girl. My stomach lurched as the door slammed behind him.
Oh my god. Is he trying to…?
Kidnapping the poor girl wasn’t enough — this fucker had to have a taste before he delivered the merchandise.
As I watched his shadow descend over her, all I could think of was Dom’s order before we hopped onto the bikes. The Oracle wanted information, not intervention.
And based on everything I’d heard about the mysterious organization, I was about to make a very powerful enemy.
But before I could swing my leg over the back of the Suzuki, my savior was up. All of them were, flicking on their headlights as Leo barked at me over her shoulder. “Stay put.”
Before I knew it, Dom was on the car, smashing in the rear passenger window with an elbow and throwing the door open. “Not today, asshole.”
Leo ducked in quickly after, grabbing the fucker by his ankles and dragging him out, letting gravity slam his head against the car’s frame as she tossed him to the ground. His pale, scrawny ass glowed under the bikes’ headlights, piss-soaked pants tangled around his ankles as he screamed in fear.
It was a good thing he brought us somewhere no one would hear him. Though his motive in choosing this location made me sick to my stomach.
Spencer kept him pinned to the ground with a boot dug into the center of his shoulder blades, and I didn’t realize that I was off the bike, drifting closer, until I smelled the piss pooling beneath him.
But my saviors didn’t tell me to back away. They were too focused on our new mission: making this asshole regret the day he was born.
Bone crunched as Leo’s boot kicked straight into teeth, followed by a brutal stomp from Dom to his rib cage. Spencer hopped in quickly, slamming her heel between his legs until he shrieked for mercy.
But mercy wasn’t coming.
Between screams, blood spluttered from his lips, painting the road red. And I couldn’t help but want more. More of that sound, more of his fear, more of his suffering. I could hear the chanting of the Gauntlet arena thrumming through my veins with each kick.
But eventually, all good things came to an end. And as Spencer landed a heavy kick to the back of his head, the man’s eyes fluttered shut, marking the end of his penance.
For now.
With the threat neutralized, the trio sprung into action like they’d done this a hundred times before.
They probably had.
Leo ran for the back seat, tilting the girl’s head back and hovering her ear by her mouth. “She’s still breathing.” The doctor worked quickly, checking her pulse while she tried to get the girl talking. “Alright darlin’, can you hear me? Do you know where we are?”
“Uhnnhh….” The girl’s eyes fluttered open for a moment, trying to focus on Leo before falling shut again. She was hardly on the same planet as the rest of us, but she was alive, and from the state of her dress, it seemed like that monster hadn’t managed to lay a hand on her.
While Leo made sure the girl wasn’t overdosing on whatever he’d slipped her, Spencer was pulling thick, black zip ties from her back pocket and cuffing the monster’s hands and feet.
Dom had already grabbed the keys from his pocket and was using them to unlock the boot. She slammed her fist down to pop open the trunk, but to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t empty.
A pair of warm brown eyes stared back at her, cowering in the corner of the compartment. But before she could process the big black shadow, it burst forward, barrelling right past her as it charged into the night.
“Fuck!” She stumbled back, “Was that a fucking dog?”
I whipped my head around to see a lanky Rottweiler stumbling over its own feet. The poor thing couldn’t have been older than nine months, but it was practically skin and bones with a couple of nasty cuts across its body.
My pulse spiked as the dog stopped and sized us up. But instead of running back to attack us, the baby booked it as fast as it could down the road, disappearing into the brush that lined the road.
“What the fuck?” Spencer trotted over, trying to get a look at its retreating form.
Leo sprung out of the back of the car, giving Dom a once over. “Did it bite you?”
“No. Too scared to even try.” Dom shook her head.
Spencer kept her eyes glued to the horizon. “Why would he keep a dog in the…?”
“Protection?” Dom grumbled. “Or he just didn’t want animal control breaking his windows to rescue a dog while he was at the bar.”
But as I watched the puppy scamper away into the distance, I couldn’t help the ache in my heart. “We should go save it.”
“What?” Spencer finally pulled her eyes away from the horizon, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.
“It was scared! It’s just a baby.” I frowned, scanning the horizon for any signs of the dog.
But Dom’s scoff ripped me right back down to earth. “We’re a little fucking busy, Kiera.” She gestured to the open trunk, to the beaten rapist, to the unconscious girl in the backseat before brushing past me to lift the body.
The guy had to weigh upwards of two hundred pounds, but she grabbed him by the zip ties and flung him into the trunk like he weighed nothing. Then, slamming the trunk shut, she locked the door and headed for the driver’s seat. “I’ll meet you there.”
I furrowed my brow, eyes shifting between Dom’s broad back and her motorcycle, still tucked away in the brush. “But your bike…”
“I’ll come back and get it later.”
Still, the blood on the ground made my stomach turn. The odds that someone came down this desolate road at this time of night were low. But the mess my captors had left wasn’t inconspicuous, and if they connected it to Dom’s bike, we’d all be in a world of pain.
Before I could think better of it, I trotted forward, setting a hand over the driver’s door to stop Dom from swinging it open. “Let me drive.”
Her icy blue gaze flicked from my hand blocking her path up to my eyes. Even my saviors shifted nervously at the rage that pulsed behind her expression. “Have you lost your mind?”