The brute squad tossed her through the darkness. She had the sense that there was some light, but it was bright outside, and her head was still aching, so she couldn’t make out much until she was tossed into a dark room. She landed on something soft, with enough give to bounce a little. She pushed herself to her feet as fast as she could, but the door was already slamming shut before she got her feet under herself. She let out a little shriek and slammed her fists on the door anyway. She heard the slap-snick of a bolt pushing home, but she couldn’t stop herself from kicking the door and trying the handle anyway.
But her head was aching, and Jesus Christ she was painfully tired, and all she wanted was to get some damn sleep that wasn’t drugged. She let herself wilt, finding that the tears that had been threatening on and off for hours were no longer interested in waiting. They streamed down her face, but at least she kept herself from sobbing. Her throat ached and felt like it was tearing, but dammit, she didn’t sob. She wouldn’t give them that.
There was some light in the room; a narrow window had been painted over, but the black paint had been scratched here and there. As her eyes adjusted, she was able to get some idea of her surroundings. She’d been tossed on a bed; there was another one on the other side of the room. On the second bed, curled up in the smallest package a human being could make themselves, was another figure.
“Hey,” Lola said, lowering her voice and making her tone as quiet and soft as she could. “Hey. Are you okay?”
The person didn’t say anything, but there was a slow shifting as the figure lifted their head.
“Who are you?” the person—a woman— asked after a moment. Lola took one step in her direction, and when the woman didn’t cry out or flinch away, she took another.
“My name is Lola Sykes,” she said. “Do you know where we are?”
The woman cleared her throat. “Not really. I got grabbed—I don’t know, I think it was yesterday. I think it’s just been one night. One of them hit me, and things got blurry.” She shifted more, and as Lola’s eyes adjusted to the low light in the room, she could make out the woman’s features. She was dark-skinned, with a broad nose and tightly curled hair. She had a familiar look to her, and it took Lola a moment to make the connection.
“Oh, God,” Lola said. “You’re Laurel. Laurel Jenner. Are you okay? Did any of them hurt you? I mean—”
The woman shook her head. “No, not like you mean. Just the hit to the head, when I was fighting them. After that, they threw me in here, and I haven’t been let out except to pee. How do you know my name?”
“I’m with Gunner,” Lola said. She sat down on the end of Laurel’s narrow bed and put out her hands. After a moment’s hesitation, the other woman touched her fingertips to Laurel’s. “He’s been looking for you and Grace since yesterday, and all night. He’s going to find us. He’ll get us out of here.”
“What do you mean Grace? What happened to Grace?” The woman’s rising panic twisted Lola’s stomach, and she found the words rushing out, one after another.
“Someone grabbed her too. We’d thought you’d be together. You haven’t seen her? They didn’t say anything?”
Laurel shook her head. “No. No, I haven’t — oh God. Is she okay?”
“I think so. The man who grabbed her — he’s the one who brought me here, wherever here is — said that she was okay, but he made it sound like her breathing—” Lola forced herself to take a breath. Laurel’s grip on her fingers was painfully tight, and she wouldn’t help either one of them by sending them into a panic. She made herself remember Laurel’s medicine cabinet, and how similar it was to her own. Who knew how the woman was feeling right now, even if she had been in a calm and neutral situation. Some meds didn’t have to be taken far off schedule for the missing dose to start screwing with your head. “I told him what she needed. What inhaler she needed. He seemed to care. I think he’s going to help.”
“You’re from the school,” Laurel said. “I know you from there.”
“Yes.”
“How could you have let this happen?”
The words were like a slap, but Lola couldn’t pretend she didn’t deserve them.
“I didn’t want to,” she said simply. “Gunner came to get her, saying you’d called him to, and someone snatched her out of the room while I was letting Gunner in. I still don’t have any idea how they got into the school. We’ve been running since then, using Gunner’s contacts to try and figure out where you two were. He thought the Red Vipers were behind it, and this was some kind of ploy or leverage against him.”
Laurel shook her head, but it didn’t seem like she was trying to negate what Lola was saying.
“If that’s the case, no one’s said anything,” she said. “But they’ve given me food, and taken me to the bathroom when I’ve said I needed to go. They’re not hurting me. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s like you said. They don’t want me dead. At least, not yet.”
“And you don’t have any idea where we are?”
“Not a clue. Someone hit my car yesterday when I was in traffic. I called Gunner to tell him to please get Grace because I was going to be late. Someone grabbed me out of my car, and when I tried to fight, I got hit in the head. I was in and out for a long time. I was in at least a couple of different places, I think. But beyond that? I have no idea.”
“Okay,” Lola said. “Gunner will come for us. We’ll get out of this.”
The other woman laughed, her voice cold. “Girl, it’s a good thought, but let’s figure out our own deliverance, okay? Just in case that boy is running late like usual.”
Lola couldn’t put her finger on why exactly, but it was one of the more comforting things she’d heard in the past twenty-four hours.
***
For a few minutes, Lola listened to Laurel’s slow breathing, but there didn’t seem to be any more conversation to be had at the moment. Lola couldn’t think of anything in particular to say, and just chattering to fill the air sounded annoying even to her. The best thing to do, she decided, was to get some rest. She was painfully tired. Being unconscious in a car was not the same as sleeping, and her entire body ached for a little bit of sleep. She laid down on the narrow pallet, and closed her eyes, letting herself drift. She didn’t feel safe enough to sleep, but she let her brain power down for a little bit, hoping to feel more alive in a few hours. More resolve to fight would also be nice.
So, when the door all but burst open, she was startled, her heart leaping up into her throat and making her stomach clench. The heavy door slammed against the wall, bouncing back, and before she was even upright, she braced herself for a blow to the head or the body.
It didn’t come, though. There was light pouring into the room, and she found herself flinching away from it, but no one tried to hit her. She saw a big, bulky man filling the door frame, skin a medium brown, his head covered in small, narrow braids.
“The girlfriend and the sister,” the man said, looking back and forth between the two women. Lola glanced over at Laurel; she was quietly pleased to see Laurel watching the big man with a steely look.
“Chains,” Laurel said. “Should’ve known. Lola,” she said, glancing across the room, “Gunner’s guess at the Red Vipers was right. This piece of walking shit is their second-in-command.”
The man—Chains—spat on the floor. “Don’t say that shithead’s name here,” he snarled. “Gunner Grisham is responsible for the death of one of our brothers, and he’s going to pay for it.”
“Wait, what?” Lola shook her head. “Gunner didn’t kill anyone. What are you talking about?”
The man eyed her, but he answered her. “Last night. One of our brothers was found dead. Fucking decapitated. Left in the gravel pit like common fucking trash. That’s not how our brothers deserve to be treated.”
“No, hold on,” she said. “I was with him when that boy — Billy, right? — was found. Gunner had nothing to do with it. I was with him all day yesterday, and Billy was dead when we got to the pit.” It was amazing that she could say her name without vomiting. She didn’t let herself think of him there, of what he had looked like, of that eerie space between his head and his body. That wasn’t going to do her any good at all.
“There’s something bigger going on here,” she said. “Someone grabbed Laurel and gave her to you, right? Same as they did me. And they’re sending you after the Satan’s Breed. Someone’s trying to start a war between your two clubs, and if you’re not smart, right now, it’s going to happen. And more of your brothers will die.”
It seemed like an incredibly cogent argument to her, but the big man was just shaking his head. “Piece of ass will say anything to protect herself and her man. Don’t bother. I know he’s on his way to us now, and don’t worry. We have ways of dealing with him, and we’ll make sure that you get all the pieces. What do you like best, little girl? His dick or his fingers? Maybe his tongue? Come on, what kind of souvenir do you want?”
There was an explosion of laughter behind Chains, and she realized that there were several men standing behind him. How many? Three, four? Could she run at him, get past him, and get out?
Even if she did, where would she go? She’d barely seen anything outside when she’d been dragged from the car, and the areas outside the city weren’t distinctive enough for her to really know where she was. She didn’t have her cell phone, so she couldn’t call for help or try the GPS. She had to play this out. She had to hope Gunner was really coming, and that he knew what he was heading into.