Chapter 14
Brynn
The second I heard the fighting happening, I knew we were in trouble. I heard several pairs of boots falling on the floor and I knew Diesel was drastically outnumbered. My hands searched around in the closet for anything I could defend myself with. Anything I could use to gain the upper hand if they got to me.
Because I knew they would. Diesel was strong, but he wasn’t that strong.
I moved around on the small closet floor, my hands rumbling over all sorts of things. Shoes. Socks. Dirty fucking underwear. Yikes. So gross. I reached up and felt around in the clothes hanging from the hangers, but the only thing even remotely close to a weapon was the hanger itself. I pulled shirts from them, trying to find a nice heavy wooden one or a wire one I could untwist and stab into someone’s stomach.
But all he had were the cheap plastic dollar-store ones.
Fucking hell, Diesel. Really?
The sound of crashing glass made me jump and I looked through the slats of the closet. I saw someone coming into Diesel’s bedroom through the window he had pressed me against earlier. I shuffled to the back of the closet, scooting off to the side so I had the slightest bit of wall to cover me up. I held my breath, trying not to cry as I listened to Diesel fight off what seemed like three or four different men.
I dug into my pockets to see if my cell phone was there, until I looked through the slats of the closet and saw it on the floor.
Of course, it would be on the damn floor.
I heard footsteps approaching me and I fell as quiet as I could. Every muscle in my body tightened as a war raged outside Diesel’s bedroom door. I curled my legs against me, making myself as small as I could within the shadows of the closet. The only defense I had was camouflage. The only thing I had at my disposal was not being seen. Because if they saw me--whoever they were--I had no way to fight them off.
I saw their shadows. It darkened the already-dark bedroom. It cast a heinous darkness upon the closet through the small slats. My entire body shook as I bit down onto my lower lip. Every time I heard Diesel grunt or groan, I wanted to rush to him. To help him in any way I could. I knew he was hurt. I knew he was aching. And I wanted to help him. To get to him. To save him in any way I could.
But I was trapped by the predator standing outside of the closet.
When the shadow shifted, I thought I was okay. I figured whoever it was had turned their sights onto Diesel. Until the closet door ripped open and a body stepped in. I looked up and saw a face staring straight down at me, and I did the only thing I knew to do.
“Diesel!”
The man grinned at me before he reached down and wrenched at my arm. I struggled to get away from his grasp, but he slammed the butt of his gun against my head. My body fell limp as he dragged me out behind him, like a fucking caveman with the woman he had claimed as his own for the night. The room spun as my legs stumbled underneath me, but I somehow found the strength to call out for him again.
“Diesel! Help me! Please!”
I looked over briefly and saw Diesel on the ground. Men stood around him, kicking him and spitting on him. I tried to scramble to him, but the man had a grip on my arm so tight it brought tears to my eyes. I knocked up against Diesel’s dresser and felt the sharp corner penetrate my skin. Blood trickled down the back of my arm.
“Brynn?”
Diesel’s voice caught my attention before the man shoved me towards the window. I sure as hell wasn’t going out that thing with him. It was a fucking two-story drop! I planted my hands and knees into the wall and pushed back into him, forcing him to use all of his strength to get me to move.
“No! Stop it, you son of a bitch!” I exclaimed.
“Brynn!”
I whipped my head around at the sound of his voice. He was closer. No longer impeded by a wall or a structure. But the distraction gave the man behind me what he needed, and soon my body was falling out the window with his. I reached up for the window, my body plummeting to the ground as the man kept a tight hold on me.
We hit the grass in the back of Diesel’s apartment complex and I felt my ankles burning. The man continued to tug me towards a car and I lost all sense of what was happening. I was scared. My body ached. My heart thundered in my chest and my body felt heavy and lighter-than-air at the same time. The apartment grew farther away, and I watched as Diesel’s face appeared in the window.
“Diesel!”
Then, someone appeared behind him.
I tried to call out to him, but the man stuffed me into the back of a car. The door slammed and I scrambled to my knees, pushing myself towards the door on the other side. I reached for the handle and jiggled it, trying to open it as best as I could. I rose up onto my elbows and fiddled with the lock, pressing down onto its feature to get the damn door to open up for me.
But it wasn’t budging. I couldn’t unlock the door.
I was trapped.
I heard the driver’s side door open up before the man got in. He cranked the car up and sped away from the apartment complex, the tires of the car squealing. I laid there for a second to catch my breath and gather myself. Because in the grand scheme of things, this wasn’t the worst situation to be in. My arms weren’t bound and neither were my legs. There were no bars or cage separating me from the man driving. All I had to do was find a way to incapacitate him, then I could toss him out and ride the car back into town.
I gathered myself, walked myself through my own plan, then threw it into motion.
I bolted upright and wrapped my arm around the man’s neck. He began to choke and weave, the car tires careening us in all sorts of directions. His nails raked along my forearm and I tried to ignore the pain. Tried to ignore the searing, burning sensation that came with him tearing my flesh open. I switched arms when the pain became too much and he continued to choke. What I wouldn’t give to press his own damn gun to the side of his head. I saw his hand trying to reach out for something and I figured that was what he was going for. His gun.
But the second I saw his gun still holstered on his hip, I began to worry.
My eyes looked around the car as it weaved and bobbed out of the complex. The man was almost out. All I had to do was keep up my strength long enough to get him to pass out. My mind wafted back to Diesel. To the man that had appeared behind him. Was Diesel dead? Had those men killed him? The idea made me sick to my stomach. But allowing my mind to wander loosened my grip around the man’s neck just enough for him to breathe and catch his strength.
And soon, I felt a needle being jammed into my arm.
“What the fuck!?” I exclaimed.
I ripped back from the man before my head started feeling fuzzy.
“Sit the fuck down, bitch,” the man said.
My body wavered. My head spun. The world felt like it was tilting on its axis and my limbs felt heavy. I slumped against the backseat of the car, trying to fight the drug as best as I could. What had he shot me up with? Was it poison? Was I about to die? My body fell to the disgusting seats of the car as crumbs stuck to my face. I heard the man laughing to himself. Like he was proud of his work.
“Rex mentioned how feisty you were,” the man said.
Tears rushed my eyes as I finally put all of the pieces together. Diesel was right. The Black Saddles had been after me, and we’d left ourselves vulnerable. We spent too much time wrapped up in reliving the past and licking old wounds closed that we hadn’t thought about protecting ourselves.
Tears dribbled onto the seat as my eyes grew heavy.
I tried to stay conscious. I tried to stay alert. My hand reached out for the door to try and pull myself up to see where we were going. Anything to give me any inclination as to what would happen next. I breathed heavily with exertion. The drug was spiraling me into a darkened abyss I knew I wouldn’t be able to fight. If I could just… pull… myself…
“Fucking hell, Rex was right. You really do know how to put up a fight.”
I felt another piercing needle blow straight into my side. Right between my ribs as I moaned out in pain. Tears flooded my vision as more of the sedative rushed through my veins and I tumbled to the seat. I knocked my cheek on the handle of the door on my way down, my cheek slumped as drool and tears poured down my skin.
“There. That’ll do you a bit of good,” the man said.
Darkness took over my vision and my fear grew. I was helpless. Defenseless. And now? I was without Diesel as well. All of the things my father taught me to use to defend myself in situations like the one I’d found myself in were worthless if I couldn’t move. My breathing became numb and my body went ice cold. The car careened to a stop and I tumbled off the seat, falling to the floorboards. My spine cracked against the seat and I groaned. It was the only thing I could do. Make pathetic sounds in a feeble attempt to get someone to hear me.
But the darkness was closing in, and no amount of fight I had within me would rush that drug through my system any quicker.
“Diesel,” I said breathlessly. “Help.”
Then, darkness swallowed me whole.