The sound of a big metal door slamming shut jolts me awake. I’m hoisted over someone’s back. Is it Hunter? No. Fear overtakes me as I struggle to remember anything. Then Dash’s face fills my mind, and I scream.

I pull my legs back and slam my toes into whoever is carrying me. He grunts, and I crash to the ground.

The ground is hard and cold, and the drop knocks the wind out of me.

“Bitch!” the familiar voice says. It’s Dash.

I hear three other men laughing.

I look up and see that I’m in some kind of warehouse. It looks abandoned, or just really shitty, I can’t tell which.

The three guys are sitting on cheap stools at a cheap foldout table. Two are playing cards and another is messing with his phone.

“You guys aren’t gonna’ help me with this?” Dash asks.

“You hear that Rudy?” the one with long hair says. “He got beat up by a little girl, now he needs our help!”

They all cackle, all except Dash.

I leap to my feet and run for the door.

“Ey! Ey! Rudy!”

Rudy, the biggest of the three, leaps off his chair and runs for me.

“You need my help with the little girl?” I hear Dash asking sarcastically.

I grab the handle and pull it down, but then I feel Rudy’s meaty hands grabbing hold of me and peeling me off the door.

“You wanna’ get tied up?” Rudy asks, “or you wanna’ go sit in the corner and think about what’cha done?”

I squirm against him, but when I realize there’s a chance I might not get tied up, I stop fighting.

“Good girl,” Rudy says.

“Don’t tie me up,” I say, “and I’ll sit still.”

If they tie me up, the chances of getting away reduce to close to zero, but if they leave me unrestrained, I can take advantage of any opening.

“You guys aren’t even gonna’ tie her up?” Dash asks. “You can see she’s a runner.”

“Ey!” one of the three barks at Dash. “You do your job, we do ours, got it?”

“I’m just saying,” Dash says, “Fleischmann won’t be happy if—“

Rudy springs to his feet again and shoves Dash into the wall. “Watch your fucking tongue! You don’t say his name—“

Fleischmann. Gideon Fleischmann. It doesn’t surprise me, not really. So he’s going to use me against…Hunter? No, Hunter has already been taken care of in Gideon’s eyes. This is about Mom. He fired Hunter so he could control Mom, and he’s going to use me to control her.

Shit.

That means Hunter probably doesn’t even know I’ve been kidnapped. I know just enough about his background to hold out hope that he’ll somehow find a way to rescue me, but if he doesn’t even know I’m being held, how can he save me?”

“You ain’t told anyone else his name?” one of the three shouts over. “Ask him that, Rudy.”

Rudy pulls Dash off the wall and shoves him back into it. “You ain’t told anyone else—“

“I heard him!” Dash whines. “No, I never said his name to anyone else. I fucking promise!”

“’Cause we don’t need that fucking Thorn guy coming to look for his fuck meat.”

“What the hell did you just call me?” I hiss, jumping out of my chair.

“Get back in the corner,” Rudy says, jabbing a finger at me. “Or I swear to God I’ll tie ya’ up! I don’t want to have to smell ya’ pissing yourself, but if you make me tie you up, that’s what you’re in for, little girl!”

I sit back down, swallowing my anger.

“Hunt doesn’t know shit,” Dash says, holding up his hands. “Just let go.”

“Alright,” Rudy says, backing away from Dash. “Cause this plan’s airtight, so long as there ain’t no leaks.”

“No leaks,” Dash says, grinning.

I suddenly remember just before Hunter left. I saw the spark go off in his head, and he told me he knew how Gideon Fleischmann found out about me. Could it have been Dash? If anyone is a leaky ship, it’s that spineless asshole. So maybe Hunter does know about Gideon, and maybe he can find out that I’ve been kidnapped.

“She heard the name,” one of the guys playing cards says.

“Quiet!” Rudy says. “Don’t scare her.”

I force a laugh. “Yeah, as if being kidnapped off the street and then locked in a warehouse with you guys hasn’t already scared me.”

“If you was really scared,” Rudy says, “you’d shut the fuck up. If your ma does what we tell her, you’ll be free to go, alright?”

“Alright,” I say, nodding.

Bullshit. I have to get out of here.