The salon had been open an hour when my 11:00 appointment sauntered in, a sexy Clark Kent-looking type with a smirk on his face as he looked at me. Like he had a secret.

Wait. He was familiar.

“Can I help you?” I tilted my head.

“Dan,” he replied and extended his hand.

“Hi Dan,” I said and shook his hand.

He smiled and tilted his head, mirroring me. Waiting. For what?

“Dan Sotheby,” he offered further explanation.

Oh. That was why he looked familiar. I’d seen his picture.

It’d just said “Dan. N (for new client). Haircut” in the book in Pippa’s handwriting.

“Oh,” I replied. “Hey.”

He didn’t want a haircut. He didn’t need one. His hair looked perfectly styled. He wanted to go for a coffee and decided to be bold in blocking off a bit of my time. In a rare light Friday, I didn’t have another appointment booked until 12:30, so I decided to take an early lunch.

He was great-looking. He looked at me like he was undressing me with his eyes. He was tall. Taller than Rider, even. Built like a personal trainer. And sexy. In a perfectly tailored suit, to boot. And, I just wasn’t feeling it. I was still feeling the effects of the heartbreak the night before.

Me and Daniel were at a table in the window of the coffee shop, four doors from my salon. He was talking about his job or something, I don’t even know, when I saw Rider get out of his orange old school Dodge Charger two spots over from the parking spot directly in view of where we were sitting.

I saw Rider’s eyes as he spotted me. I pretended not to see him. I laughed at what Daniel said, because his voice had humor in it, not even knowing if he said something all that laugh-worthy. I must’ve had good timing, though, because Daniel laughed too, and then his hand came out and his finger twirled a lock of my hair.  I lifted my coffee and took a healthy sip and it was just a little too healthy for the temperature, so I coughed and let out a gasp.

Daniel’s face filled with concern. “Do you need water? Water!” he hollered to the barista who dashed over with a bottle of Fiji water. I cracked it open and took a sip, soothing the burn. He rubbed my back while I tried to recover.

He’d expressed a suitable amount of concern and chivalry, but my heart was not there. My heart was on the road, run over; biker road kill.

Rider didn’t even look my way when he came back out of the bank he’d gone into. But his face was like thunder, making my heart rate spike, watching him get into his very nice orange muscle car and drive away.

When I got back to my shop, I saw that my phone had been forgotten. I’d missed a text from Ella.

“Gotta go to Sioux Falls with Deacon for a family emergency so I can’t work today. Sorry! Call you when I know more. XO”

I’d completely forgotten I’d asked Ella to come do reception that day.

I didn’t think too much of it until much later, so far in my mental funk that it also didn’t occur to me that a Deacon family emergency would also mean a Rider family emergency, too. Was everything okay?

***

It was about 2:00 in the morning when there was a loud knock on my bedroom door. I sat up, gasping, startled.

“Jenna… Big ginger biker at the door for you.”

That was Joe. He must be sleeping over. I threw my robe on and went to the kitchen door, groggy, confused, greeting Bronto, the Dominion Brotherhood prospect.

“Hey Jenna. Sorry, I know it’s late, but did you get Ride’s text?”

I shook my head. “No. I was sleeping.”

“Can I come in? It’s important.”

I opened the door wider and let him in. He shut the door and locked it. And then he put the chain on.

He was a tall curly-haired redheaded guy with a baby face, dimples, and a gut.  He was doughy but also looked somewhat muscled underneath the dough, like he used to work out but had let himself go, or like he’d recently started working out but wasn’t to the point of working the dough away yet.

I grabbed a beer from the fridge and distractedly handed it to him. “Be back. Getting my phone.” I went to my room, grabbed my phone, and headed to my bathroom to pee while checking my texts.

There was a text from Rider.

“Hey. There’s an emergency. My sister was in a motorcycle accident and badly hurt. I have reason to believe they may target you next so I’m sending Bronto. I want Bronto staying with you and keeping an eye until I get back. I’ll explain when I see you. Let me know if it’s cool for him to crash on your couch and shadow you until then.”

What the heck?

I wrote back.

“Ok & I hope your sister is ok.”

That explained Ella’s text. And his thunderous expression that morning. It was also incredibly confusing. He was worried someone might hurt me, so he was having someone protect me.

This action certainly didn’t jive with the events of the night before… him leaving after sex like he had just picked me up as a random hookup at a bar and didn’t intend to ever see me again.

It also didn’t jive with him giving me that cold look that morning when I was in the coffee shop.

What on Earth?

***

The next day, Bronto, who was really named Ted, was still my shadow, and he was a helpful shadow.

I put him to work at the salon. He was tall, so he squeegeed my floor to ceiling windows and dusted all our ceiling fans. And then he did a lunch run, but he got that Jesse biker guy to relieve him. Bronto was a good guy. I didn’t take advantage; he offered.

I didn’t hear from Rider, though. And that was concerning. I asked Bronto what was happening, and he wasn’t real forthcoming, but he said Rider’s sister was reportedly going to be okay, but that another Dominion Brotherhood member had died in that accident.

My heart hurt for that. Bronto got me details, so I could have flowers sent to the hospital to Rider’s sister.

After the salon closed, I followed Bronto (he on his Harley, me in my car) to his house so he could pick up some clothes. Bronto lived with his grandmother, who was a sweet old lady. She insisted I come in and then she made me tea and fed me homemade snickerdoodles while Bronto packed a bag and I gave her two coupons for free wash and sets.

She was sweet and highly appreciative. And I could tell it was a real treat for her, because she said three times that she never spent money on her hair. I told her I did a day a month at Ella’s grandmother’s seniors’ home with free hairdos because I knew it’d brighten up the day of any of the senior ladies there to feel good about herself. Bronto’s Grandma sent us off with two dozen more snickerdoodles from her freezer.

Bronto had said he’d gotten the offer to prospect for the MC from a cousin who lived in Sioux Falls who was prospecting there and ready to get patched in. Bronto had spent some time with “The Brotherhood” when he visited his cousin and he talked about how stoked he was to be prospecting for them. They recruited him because of his shooting skills.

I quirked my eyebrows up at that and the fact that he’d said all this in front of his grandma who beamed with pride, talking about how great Deke and his boys were. She’d said that Spencer had come over the week before and helped Bronto clean her gutters. This surprised me about Spencer.

Saturday evening, back home, I got a text from Rider.

“Hey. Everything all right with you?”

Me: “Yep. I’m having a quiet night in with Bronto and Pippa. We’re doing facials, manicures, and pedicures. Not Bronto obviously. LOL. How’s your sister doing?”

Him: “She’s doing better. Thanks for the flowers.”

Me: “It was nothing. I hope she’s gonna be okay.”

Him: “Me too. Prognosis looks good.”

Me: “Excellent. I heard someone didn’t make it? I’m so sorry. Was he a friend?”

Him: “Yeah. Thanks babe. I’ll check in with you tomorrow.”

I stared at the phone a while and then wrote,

“Ok. Very sorry about your loss. Have a good night.”

Him: “Will do. You too.”

Okay, suffice it to say… I needed Ella.

I needed Ella, because I now needed to analyze every single thing that happened, so I could try to make sense out of this. But, Ella was in Sioux Falls with Deacon. I’d had a text from her that day, but I needed to actually talk to her.

I took my phone to the bathroom and called her. It went straight to voicemail.

Pippa was crashed on the couch, her feet on Bronto’s lap, separators still between her toes after pedicures, otherwise I could’ve talked it through with her.

He was eating popcorn and we were streaming Breaking Bad. His suggestion. We’d watched three episodes already, and polished off a dozen snickerdoodles. Pippa said she and Joe had had a fight and were taking a breather that night. But, she didn’t want to talk about it. I wanted to talk about my issues, but I couldn’t talk the Rider stuff over with Bronto, and it was getting late, so I decided to crash.

We tried to wake Pip, but as per usual, Pippa slept like the dead, so I took her toe separators off and Bronto carried her to her room and put her to bed.

***

Sunday morning, I woke up to hilarious drunk texts from Ella.  And that told me that things were probably more than good with Rider’s sister, otherwise no way would she be partying and texting me to tell me about what she ate and how she puked as well as the fact that she was in love with Deacon.

Me? This was braless Sunday, my new-ish tradition, and I was taking the day for me. I had no idea why Rider was having me protected. I had no idea how to de-code biker hot guy actions, and so I decided to just keep busy.

The salon was closed Sundays. Pippa had gone to her parents for Sunday dinner, and I cleaned my apartment after Pippa’s early afternoon yoga class at a studio a few blocks away, with Bronto watching, and now I was home, in sweats, bra-less, and sorting out my make-up drawer, while washing my make-up brushes.

Bronto had shadowed me all day long, except now he was outside the apartment in some biker pow wow in the back parking lot with four other bikers, including Jesse and Scooter.

Scooter looked rough. Really rough.  His face was purply and his lip was fat. He hadn’t arrived on his motorcycle; he’d been dropped off by a cab. I waved at the driver, not remembering his name, but knowing Ella knew him and he’d definitely brought me home from the bar at least a few times. He waved at me as I’d come out to the rooftop terrace.

I’d been thinking about asking the bevy of bikers to put up the rest of the lattice so that the terrace would be fully enclosed, and no one would dangle anyone again.

While I was having that thought, my phone made a text alert noise and I didn’t recognize the number.

“You with a dominion brotherhood biker? You need to watch this and know who you’re in bed with. From a friend.”

The phone made another noise and now there was a video attachment.

I sat down on the Adirondack chair by the chimenea and hit play.

My eyes were immediately assaulted by porn. Dirty rape porn.

I made a face of disgust at seeing a gang bang on my screen. A nude skinny chick with huge knockers and long straight blonde hair was roughly thrown over a double bed with the sheets half off in a shabby looking bedroom.

There were four guys in view, but just from the waist down. They were all advancing toward her and one grabbed his zipper and yanked it down and pulled out his dick.

I was about to exit out of the screen when I saw a black heart tattoo.

What?

And though he rolled on a condom fast, before I could get a good look, I knew. I knew there was a silver double stud piercing inside that condom. And I knew there was a name in that black heart.

No.

I blinked, trying to focus, but then the camera panned out a little and Scott…Scooter was one of the other guys. His face was clearly visible, and the camera zoomed in as he bent and grabbed the girl’s hair and used it to hold her still while he jammed his dick into her mouth and glared at her with hate as he roughly yanked her hair.

Bile rose up the back of my throat.

I glanced down from my spot on the roof terrace at him standing there, holding his side like it hurt, his face all purple, his lip still fat, as he talked to Bronto, Jesse, and the other Doms that I didn’t know.

My eyes moved back to the screen and another of the four guys was in view, very long dark hair, tattooed and bare-chested. Good-looking. A fourth guy moved in and was fisting his dick. He had his head shaved close, but not bald on the sides, his hair in a faux hawk. And then I got confirmation of what I already knew after seeing that heart tattoo and that piercing when Rider’s face was visible on the screen, plain as day, as he moved inside the girl, his eyes focused on her ass.

Frozen horror is the only thing I can think of to describe my feelings.

The good-looking long dark-haired guy leaned into the girl’s ear as he grabbed her roughly by the breast. “Yeah, you fuckin’ whore, we’re gonna fuck all your holes until they bleed.”

Scooter was thrusting into her face and Rider pistoning inside her from behind. In her ass.

Scooter let her go so that the long-haired guy could climb under her. He stuffed his dick into her vag while Rider was still inside her rear. “No. Please no!” she called out and then Scooter roughly pulled her hair until he got his dick back into her mouth, stopping her protests.

I exited out of it. My heart was racing. Blood pumped in my ears. Bile was bubbling in the back of my throat. My hands were shaking. My whole body was shaking. I swallowed, fumbled clumsily, and forwarded the video to Ella. I dashed inside and grabbed my purse and my keys and then I was running down the stairs.

I got into my car and fishtailed out of there, my phone to my ear, shooting a look of absolute utter disgust at a shocked-looking Scooter, while dialing Ella’s number.

“Hey Jen,” she answered, “Can I call you back in like five minutes? I’m just getting out of the car.”

“Kay,” I sniffled. I was feeling woozy. I was in my car, driving. Reeling. My heart racing.

I shouldn’t be driving. I’m too upset. This isn’t safe. Shit. I drove straight through a stop sign.

“What’s wrong?” Ella asked.

“I got… I got this video text and… and…” I dashed tears off my face and pulled over to the side of the road. I was on a side street. I needed to turn the car off and catch my breath. And stop crying. And figure out what to do.

“What was in the video?”

I put my phone on speaker and dropped it to the passenger seat, getting both hands on the wheel and trying to focus. I was parked, but I focused my eyes on the road ahead and chewed on my lips, gripping the steering wheel. My knuckles were white, I was gripping so hard.

“I… I…I just sent it to you. But maybe I shouldn’t have. It’s really horrible, Ella. Rider, he... he…” I choked on a sob.

Maybe I shouldn’t have sent it. I was about to shout to tell her to delete without watching.

“Jenna, it isn’t true!” Ella said, almost shouted.

“Ella, it is! The video shows it!” Then it dawned that she was making no sense. “Wait. How do you even know what I’m talking about? What the fuck?”

This didn’t make any effing sense. How could she know?

“It’s all unfolding here,” she told me. “I heard this rumor. And it’s not true. They’re saying that it was just a scene. A consensual fake rape scene and it was before he met you.”

“And you didn’t fucking call me?” I could hear a lot of background noise.

Ella sounded out of breath. “Jenna, listen, there’s a lot to talk about here. Things are unfolding. It has to do with the accident with their sister and the guy she was secretly seeing and that’s why you’re under protection and…”

“Jenna,” a deep male voice cut in, “Deacon here. Where are you? Bronto said you took off and he needs to keep you safe. There’s shit that you don’t know.”

No. Uh uh. I did not think so. Forget this shit! I hung up without answering him. I started the car back up and I drove to Ella’s house.

When I got to her place, I saw her dad in the garage with two of his buds and I waved distractedly.

“Hey, Jennabean! What ya doin’, where ya goin’? Elliebelly ain’t home.” This was a typical chant from Rob.

“Hey, I uh, need to borrow Ella’s uh… belt.” I waved my hand dismissively and ran in the house and up to Ella’s room. I just needed a place to sit and gather my thoughts, figure out what to do next. I didn’t wanna go back to my apartment where Bronto and fucking Scooter were.

Maybe I’d just crash here tonight, get some space. Call the cops. Or what? I had to gather my thoughts.

Rider ass-raping a girl while three other guys also raped that girl. Well, two other guys, but I’m sure the guy with the faux hawk would’ve gotten in there, too, if I’d kept watching.

My God.

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe through the emotions flooding me.

I’d had sex with Rider. Twice. I’d fallen asleep beside him that first time, trusting him.

A text came in and I twitched, worrying it was more videos. It was a text from Ella.

“Can you call me? We need to talk.”

I put the phone down and got a bottle of water from Ella’s mini fridge. I went into the bathroom and stared at my reflection, taking deep breaths. I heard my phone again. I went to her bed. She’d texted again.

“Deacon’s gone. I’m alone if you wanna call.”

I curled up on her bed, my head on her Betty Boop pillow, trying to get my bearings, trying to shut out the things imprinted on my brain. The guy I’d been fixated on for days and days, a guy I’d had sex with twice was a rapist. A rapist. I couldn’t talk to anyone right now, even Ella. 

How could I have been so totally wrong? And why hadn’t Ella called me immediately to warn me about this?

Ella’s closet door was open. I eyeballed it and saw all sorts of men’s clothes in there with hers. Motorcycle boots and other pairs of guy shoes on her closet floor.

Yeah, he’d moved in with her in less than a week.

Shit. Ella needed to get the eff away from Rider’s brother. With all we’d heard about Deacon and now this? They’d done some fast talking and fancy footwork to get Ella to overlook what Spencer had told us. I needed to get her and me away from them.

My mother’s voice rang in my brain, “Bikers, Jenna?”

What were we thinking?  These guys didn’t care about the law. They wanted to ride fast, get drunk, and get laid. We’d grown up seeing lots of bikers around, knowing they caused havoc with bar brawls, knowing that some of them were outlaws.

Clearly, Dominion Brotherhood were a group of guys who didn’t care about the law, or decency, or… evidently… female consent for fuck sakes!

She texted me again. It was a long one.

“I’m sorry if you’re mad but I have had a lot going on and didn’t know how to handle this rumor, certainly not by phone. I also know that it wasn’t forced on that girl. I was talking it through with Rider about him talking to you about it. I can’t say much on here because it’s sensitive but it seems this is part of the rival between the two MCs and the bad guys are trying to make the good guys look like the bad guys. They’ve hurt people in retaliation for the feud and they’re trying to use this to break up relationships since they can’t enact the physical retribution because you are guarded. Know what I’m saying? You need to stay safe in case they try that. They tried to hurt me. Do the same as the girl in the vid.  Only for REAL! They found out who my uncle is and that stopped them. There’s a lot you don’t know. We are coming home tomorrow I think and you and I can talk then but for now, please don’t hide from bronto because he’s keeping you safe in case they want to try to hurt YOU. Know what I’m saying?”

I read it a second time and called her.

“Jenna!” she answered, relief in her voice.

“They tried to hurt you?” I demanded. And now I was shaking with anger.

“Thank God you called me!” she said.

“What happened to you?” I was choking up. I had to hang onto the anger. I could not fall apart now.

“They nabbed me and were gonna gang rape me. They sodomized Scooter on the side of the road because he doesn’t have a girlfriend to get back at for Kailey, the girl in the video. But she let those guys gang bang her. She wanted it. It was a sex game. But then she started dating a Jackal and lied. They did that to Scooter, ran Lick and Jojo off the road. Lick’s one of those four guys and now he’s dead. The only reason they probably didn’t steal Jojo and do that to her is because she and Lick were in a secret relationship, so they didn’t know who she was. Jet, the girlfriend of another guy in the video, she got an email at work today because she’s been under guard and now you. Jenna, there’s so much shit swirling around it’s like a damn hurricane.”

“I’m not asking about any of that shit,” I snapped, feeling slightly dizzy from her explanation. “Don’t care about any of it; I care about you. They didn’t hurt you?”

“No… They hooded me and tied me up, but then they found out who my uncle is, and Chris came and got me and dropped me back off with Deacon.”

I felt sick. These sick bastards. For once, though, it was good that Ella’s no-good uncle and alpha-hole cousin were bikers.

“Bronto was assigned to keep you safe in case those guys came after you, but Jenna, it’s my fault.”

“Your fault?”

How could this be Ella’s fault?

“My fault they know about you. I started to plead with Uncle Willie, who said he’d put word out that no one was to touch me, that he should put that word out about you, too, and that’s what put you on their radar.”

“It’s not your fault that these dirty fucking bikers are scumbags, Ella. I’m coming down there and getting you and getting you the fuck out of there. What’s the address?”

“No idea. I’m at the Sioux Falls Clubhouse, but you don’t need to come get me. Deacon---”

“You need to fucking end things with that biker, Elle. This shit is whacked. First all that shit we found out about him and then all this?”

“You know that wasn’t his fault. You don’t even know all of it.”

She needed to get out of her so-called cock fog.

“What I do know is that nothing but bad has happened since you met him!”

“I’ll be home tomorrow. We can talk then. For tonight, let Bronto look after you. Rider and you can talk.”

Pff. As if. I was so done with Rider Valentine. So done, I was beyond done.

“No fucking way any Dom is getting near me again. Bronto has been staying at my apartment, hanging out at the shop during the day. It stops now.”

“Where are you?” she asked.

“Your room,” I said.

“You’re in my room? Have you spoken to my parents? Do my parents know any of this?”

“Your mom and Beau aren’t here. Your dad is in the garage with Jase and Uncle Lou. They saw me and said you weren’t here and I just waved and said I was borrowing a belt.”

Ella’s dad came into the room and smiled at me.

“Hey,” I said.

He saw I was on the phone but moved closer, looking at me gently.

“Hey honey. Coupla Doms’re coming and they’re gonna need you to go with them. They’ll be here in a sec and will take you somewhere safe, Jennygirl.”

Nope. I grabbed my bag and slung it over my shoulder and went to move past him. He blocked me.

“You need to wait. Go with them. Honest. Things are shakin’ up and, wait a minute for them.”

I shook my head vehemently. He reached for his phone in his pocket and then he was dialing. He was also blocking the doorway.

“Huh? What? No, I’m not.” I tried to sidestep around him.

He blocked me again.

“What are you doing?”

“Wait a sec, sweetie. Who you talkin’ to?” he asked.

“No. I’m not going with any of those motherfuckers. I’m talking to Ella. Why?”

“Jenna who’s there?” Ella was asking in my ear.

Rob talked into his phone, raising his index finger to me to wait. “Use the outside stairs and come up. I’ll keep her here till then,” Rob said into his phone.

“Your dad is here and he’s calling someone and saying I’m here and he’s gonna keep me here until they get here. What the fuck, Elle?” I headed for the stairs, the inside ones that led to the second floor of the house. Rob grabbed my hand.

Bronto and that other Dom, Jesse, were at the fire escape door.

“Go with the boys, honey,” Ella’s Dad said, his face gentle, but his grip on my hand tightened so I couldn’t get away. He walked me over to the door and unlocked it for them.

I tried to wrench my hand away. No way did I wanna go with these guys. He didn’t understand. I had to make Rob understand.

I shrugged him off just as Jesse rushed past me and blocked the staircase leading down into the second floor of the house. Bronto was blocking the door leading to the fire escape.

I threw Jesse a challenging look. He returned it.

“You can either come nice, or we carry ya kickin’ and screamin’,” Jesse said.

I moved toward him, ready to push past him. He grabbed my phone.

I glared at him. “Gimme that back!”

“You comin’ willingly or are we carrying you outta here?” Jesse demanded.

“You wouldn’t dare!” I hissed. “Rob, do you have any idea what’s going on, what kind of pieces of shit these Doms are? Gang raping dirty motherfucking fuckers. I’m not going with them!”

I was losing it, I could feel how red my face was as I screamed in Jesse’s face.

“Oy!” Jesse snapped and then motioned to Bronto, “Grab her, Bront.”

“Don’t you fucking dare touch me!” I pointed at the big galut.

“Jenny honey…” Rob put his hand on my shoulder, “I promise you, it’s for your safety. I know these guys aren’t out to hurt you.”

“Oh, you know that, do you? Did you also know they’re a bunch of gang-rapers, Rob? You need to get Ella the fuck away from these assholes. Gimme my fucking phone!” I snapped at Jesse and I was gonna let Ella’s dad see, for himself, what some of these guys were all about, “I got a video and when you see it ...”

Jesse didn’t wait for Bronto, he bent and threw me over his shoulder himself and I struggled until he took me out Ella’s fire escape door. It was a wrought iron staircase that led to the driveway and I lost my nerve going down it upside down over Jesse’s shoulder, so I grabbed onto his leather and held on for dear life. I was put into a pickup truck cab and sandwiched between Jesse and Bronto.

“I need to drive. Don’t make us tie you up and throw you in the back,” he threatened.

“Rob!” I hollered at Ella’s dad. He waved at us as we backed out of the driveway. He had his phone to his ear. “Make them show you the video. You’ll see! Call the cops and save Ella. She’s at the Sioux Falls clubhouse!”

I started struggling harder, trying to climb over Bronto to get to the door.

“Hold her down!” Jesse demanded. Bronto gripped me in a bear hug so I couldn’t move. I tried, but I was held tight against his chest. I fought like a crazy woman. This guy was immovable.

“Jenna, we’re just gonna get you safe.”

“Yeah, right! Safe. Bullshit! You know I saw that video and you guys are afraid I’m taking it to the cops. What are you gonna do? Take me into the woods, bash my head in and bury me?”

“Fuck, this bitch is rangy,” Jesse muttered and pulled over. “Hold her.” He got out, leaving the truck running. I was still struggling and Bronto had a solid grip on me.

“You’re just gonna hurt yourself, Jenna,” Bronto said, sounding all sad, not mad or annoyed.

“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!” I writhed and squirmed.

“No way any of us wants you hurt. We’re keepin’ you safe, babe,” Bronto said and loosened his hold on me to look me in the eyes. “Swear to God, Jenna. No one wants you hurt.”

I fought off the urge to start bawling. Bronto was tugging on my heartstrings with that sad look on his face and I couldn’t let him.

Jesse had been fiddling in the back of the pickup, and now he was in and he had a roll of duct tape in his hand.

I screeched as he came at me with it and I tried to kick him.

He caught my feet, dropping the roll of tape.  He used his arm across both my ankles to keep me still and lifted the tape.

“See this? Behave your fuckin’ self or I wrap your wrists, your ankles, and your mouth!” He glared in my face and the guy was scary. I froze. His duct tape roll was an inch from my face. I was plastered against Bronto.

Jesse threw the roll of duct tape onto the wide dash of the pickup, slammed his door, shifted me so that I was sitting face forward again, shifted into drive, and we shot off into the night.

“Where are we going?” I demanded a few minutes later.

“Shut it,” Jesse snapped.

“Fuck you!” I returned.

“Last warning.” He lifted the duct tape and waved it in my face while driving.

I folded my arms across my chest and leaned back against the seat. Bronto snapped the seatbelt across my lap and I heard it click into place.

“We’re taking you somewhere safe. Ride’s on his way.”

“Why is Rider on his way?”

“Talk to ya, I guess.” Jesse shrugged. “Fucked if I know. I’m just followin’ orders.”

Talk to me? Right.

Threaten me, more like. Delete that video off my phone and warn me to keep my mouth shut, more like.