Chapter 82 #2
In that single second, it was like all the pieces snapped into place with chilling clarity.
As the police commissioner took Gabe’s place at the stand, droning on about the missing girls in the county, I realized just how plausible it was that my captors had a hand in the abductions and that I was just their latest victim.
After our little pizza date, Spencer had access to all of my bank account log-ins and info. Leo had been digging for info about my family and relationships for weeks, encouraging me to take distance from Gabe and my mother. And Dom… Dom had enough money and power to bankroll the entire operation.
Based on my snooping at the county recorder’s office, there were no real records about this house or its owners, which would make it a total deadzone if it came to a police search. And without any real means of transportation for myself, these bikers controlled everything I did and saw.
Is that why they ran when the police showed up to the SaleMart parking lot? Were they fucking looking for me?
But if this was a cage and not a shelter, then why did they let me keep my phone? Why bother taking me on field trips and letting me think I was free?
Because a docile captive is easier to keep trapped than a scared one.
I’d proven it myself. When I had the chance to run at the DA’s office, I stayed, convinced that the answers I sought about this house were more pressing than the need to escape these maniacs.
Keeping me comfortable meant that this place always felt preferable to sleeping on the streets or crawling back to Gabe.
And the one time I had tried to escape, Dom shut it down swiftly, hauling me up the stairs and locking me away in the bedroom.
For the first few days I was here, they had me convinced that locking me up was in my best interest. And only as the truth smacked me square in the face did I realize that they’d been carefully calibrating how long they could make my leash before I bolted.
My head swam as I ran through every interaction, every little scrap of evidence I’d collected over the past few weeks. I had no idea what to make of any of it, but my panic was surging with each passing second.
What if Gabe was right? What if they weren’t at Red Poison by accident that night? Was me volunteering to hop on Spencer’s bike just a convenient cover for something they’d already planned to do?
No matter which way my thoughts ran, I couldn’t stop seeing the pile of missing posters I’d discovered in Dom’s desk. What could they be besides trophies? And what were the odds that my face was filed somewhere among them?
And of course, the glock perched on top.
My spiral was broken as the front door slammed open and my angels appeared in the living room doorway. It wasn’t until Spencer’s eyes went wide that I realized what a wreck our chase had made of the living room. Or what a compromising position we were still frozen in.
Dom and I parted quickly, but my stomach turned with how comfortable I’d grown in her grasp.
Flicking her eyes over the press conference wrapping up on the television, Leo shook her head. “Well, that explains it.”
“Explains what?” Dom’s voice took on a venomous edge that made me angle away from her on the couch.
“New orders from The Oracle.” Spencer frowned. “The mission is pushing up to tonight. They want Kiera fully initiated by the end of the night.”
“Tonight?” Dom shot up from her seat, hands clenched violently at her side.
I had no idea what initiation entailed, but I knew that I wanted nothing to do with it. Not until I understood exactly who my captors were and why they were holding me.
Leo grimaced, nodding back to the TV. “They said it can’t wait after…”
The timing was too convenient, and given the connections I’d just made, I wasn’t convinced it wasn’t a front for finishing the job they’d started.
This press conference confirmed that Gabe is pulling out every stop to find me. And with tech like that, it was only a matter of time before the cops came sniffing around Lucky Strike.
Are they trying to clear me out of here before someone can find me? Pass me off to their contact at The Oracle to handle me like the rest of the missing girls?
As their gazes shifted to me, panic surged in my chest. If Gabe was right, I was colluding with human traffickers, and if my captors were right, there was something happening in my family that was much darker than I ever would have guessed.
It was nearly impossible to know the truth, but two things I knew for certain. First, everyone was hiding something from me. And second, tonight was my one and only chance to run.
So I needed to decide now: was I better off trusting the devil I knew, or taking refuge with the demons I didn’t?
Thank you for reading Road to Ruin, book 1 of the Valemont Violence series!