Chapter 11

EARLIER IN THE DAY

SCARLET

Today’s my long day at the hospital. I won’t get to leave until seven in the evening. My feet are screaming at me, and I can’t stop yawning. The charge nurse approaches with a piece of paper. “Scarlet?”

“Yes, ma’am?”

“Your grandmother called. There’s an emergency at home. She needs you.”

I take the note and head to my locker and get my phone. It’s a rule that we have to leave our phones in our lockers, no distractions and all that. There are multiple messages and missed calls from Mrs. Abashin. I dial her number, she doesn’t answer, and then I try to reach my grandmother. “Shit.”

Tony walks up behind me. “Hey? I can give you a ride. I know your boyfriend usually drops you and picks you up.”

“Um.” I hit redial and still no answer. I try to call Thane, and I don’t get any answer, not even his voicemail. “That’s weird.”

“What’s weird?”

“My boyfriend’s voicemail didn’t come on.”

“Huh. That is weird. Text him.” My texts to him seem to go through with no answer, and I stare at my phone. “The texts are gone.”

“Yeah. The last update did that to my phone as well. It sucks. I keep a lot of info in my texts.”

I tap out a text to Thane, telling him I’m going to my grandmother’s and follow Tony outside. He’s walking so fast, and I’m having trouble keeping up. Why were my texts missing? They were there the last time I looked. Is someone messing with me? I pull out my phone as I’m rushing. Damn it, Thane. Call me. I get to a beat-up blue sedan and climb into the passenger side seat. I give Tony the directions to my grandmother’s place, and we head there. It takes about twenty minutes, and we pull up in front of my house. The lights are off in both my house and Mrs. Abashin’s. I don’t wait for him to exit his car, and I’m running up to the house. I get to the door and put my key in the lock to open it, then flip on the light switch. “Nobody’s here.”

Tony steps into the room. “Where is she?”

“Not sure.” I glance around the living room and nothing seems out of place. I turn around as I feel a prick on my neck. Darkness begins at the edges of my sight and closes in. Sounds muffle as I try to keep conscious. My baby? I can’t lift my arms to shield my belly as I’m carried out of my home by a man I thought was my friend. Thane’s face flashes before me as the darkness takes me under.

I peak through my eyelids. It’s dark and quiet. Where am I? I try to move but my arms are tied. I’m lying on the ground. The floor is cold. Oh God. What did he do?

A noise a few feet from me startles me. A whimper. Someone cries. I can’t see, there is no light. “Hello?”

A quiet woman’s voice answers “Who are you? Where are we?”

“I don’t know. I’m Scarlet.”

“I’m Renee. I’m scared. What’s happening?”

“I don’t know. How long have you been here?”

“I’m not sure. You’ve been here for a couple of hours, I think. A man dumped you on the floor and left. I pretended to be asleep, but the light from outside of the truck shined in.”

Bile boils up in my throat. “Truck?”

She breathes heavily. “A semi-trailer, I think.” She moans. “What’s happening?”

“All of this is bad.”

A slamming sound jerks the floor and my heart leaps into my throat. Someone has come to save us.

Renee sobs. “They’re moving the truck.”

Fear spikes my brain. “What?”

She cries out. “They’re moving the truck.”

“Where the fuck are they taking us?”

“No idea.” Her sobs become louder.

“Stop Renee. No one can hear you. Save your strength.”

“We’re going to die.”

I choose not to tell her that if that was the plan, we’d already be dead. There’s something else they want from us and my stomach rolls. Please, Thane. Find me.

My shoulders ache, pain resonating all over my body from the hard floor. I’ve needed to pee for hours, and we keep moving. Renee sobbed herself to sleep in the far corner of the truck. My ears have adjusted to the truck, and I can sense how far she is from me. If it wouldn’t kill me to do it, I’d move over to her, but I can’t stand the pain.

My body jerks as the truck brakes hard, toppling me over to the floor again. “Fuck!”

Renee lurches out of her sleep, screaming.

“Shh. Renee. Shh.”

She whimpers. “Oh, God. It’s not a nightmare.”

Oh, but this is. I shift myself against the wall to sit up again. My body aches from laying on the floor. I can’t stand it. I scramble back to the corner of the truck as the door jerks and squeaks as it opens. A sole street light casts just enough light to see a figure pulling up the sliding door. He flashes his light into the truck and the light hurts my eyes. A second man moves to the opening, and the two start speaking in Spanish. I should have learned it in high school like my friends.

They continue talking to each other, fitting in moments of laughter. This is a joke to them. Our lives are a joke. What the fuck? I take a deep breath. Keep your head, Scarlet.

Neither of the men is Tony. I don’t know them. They’re big men, not as big as Thane, but big. There’s no way I could get away. A vehicle pulls up to the back of the truck. I can see the lights. A door opens, and more Spanish words are exchanged between the man holding the door and the man at the vehicle. Could this man be here to stop them?

I see an image on the other man’s shoulder as he walks to the truck. That’s a body on his shoulder. Oh, God. It’s another woman. No. I jerk myself, adrenaline pumping through my body. I can’t feel the agony of my arms anymore. He tosses the woman onto the floor as the men laugh again. An arm reaches up and pulls down the door, dropping the truck into darkness once again.

I lean against the truck wall. Anger, pain, and fear bubble up inside me with nowhere to go. I can’t stand not knowing what’s going to happen to me. What’s going to happen to my baby? I know in my heart my wolf will find me. I scooch down the wall to the floor. Rest. Just rest.

I drift in and out along the edge of a dream about Thane and my baby. My son, with his father’s eyes and my red hair, laughs as his daddy bounces him on his knee. I hear Thane’s voice and reach for him. The more I reach, the farther he slips away. I cry out. “Thane.”

“Hey! Hey!” My eyes struggle to open as Renee is calling for me to wake up. “Scarlet!”

My gritty eyes finally open. With tied hands, I can’t rub the sleep out of them. “How long have I been out?”

Renee answers. “Not sure. You were screaming in your sleep.”

Makes total sense, I’m living in a nightmare.

THANE

We pull up to the apartment building that houses the scum that took my girl. I get out of my SUV with Marco strolling next to me and acknowledge one of Marco’s men standing next to his SUV. He raises his head. “Nothing. His neighbors haven’t seen him since this morning. His car is in the garage.”

Fingers natters on my phone. “I should have GPS on his phone any minute.”

I crack my neck, earning an eye roll from my brother while Marco scoffs.

Fingers speaks through the speaker. “I’ve found the cousin. He’s at a truck stop outside Baltimore.”

I growl. “Fuck, that’s three hours from here.” I don’t wait for anyone to speak before I get back into my SUV. Wystan gets into his, and we all head back to the interstate.

Marco asks. “Can your hacker share the man’s phone GPS so my men in Florida can come from the South?”

I relay the suggestion to Fingers who texts the information to Marco.

Marco smirks. “I won’t ask how he knew my phone number.”

I shrug as I gun the engine in my SUV. “He’s the best.”

Marco gets off his phone as I pull onto the interstate. “Our men are leaving Miami and heading North on I-95. They’ll track the truck from the South.”

My jaw aches from the pressure of gritting my teeth. “They’ll have to stop and sleep, right?”

“You’d think so. Hopefully, they’ll stay near the highway, and we’ll be able to catch up with them.”

They’ve got a three-hour head start. She’s been with them for too long already. My head aches as I think about what could be happening to Red.