Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 156(@200wpm)___ 125(@250wpm)___ 104(@300wpm)
“But…?”
“But I don’t want to,” she yelled before throwing her arms around me and peppering my face with kisses.
It was another hour before we got out the door.
Feeling smug and happy, I strolled into the clubhouse less than ten minutes later. Ace looked up when I entered his office and frowned. “Well, don’t you look like a man who spent the night fucking his woman?”
“Jealous?” I snarked.
Ace looked at his desk and picked up a sheaf of papers, and I almost didn’t hear him when he muttered, “Yes.”
Curiously, I inquired, “Of the fucking or the girl?”
He sighed. “Both, I guess.”
“I get it, man.”
“Yeah. Okay, enough of this bullshit, we’ve got work to do.”
We went through potential properties for a couple of hours, then headed to King’s office to give him our recommendations.
Before we reached his door, my cell vibrated. I checked the caller ID and frowned when I saw a number that looked familiar, but I didn’t recognize. I let it go to voicemail, but then I got a text alert before the number called back again.
Unknown
It’s Mark. ANSWER!
I immediately hit the accept button, my heart racing because this could only be about Nora.
“Mark?”
“Fucking hell, Ash! They came out of nowhere! I-I-tried to stop them!”
“Mark!” I shouted. “Calm the fuck down and tell me what’s going on!”
“They took Nora!”
11
NORA
One minute, Mark had been teasing me about finally having my first boyfriend, and the next, a truck sideswiped his side of the ambulance. He’d thrown the rig into park and jumped out so fast, I hadn’t understood what was happening until it was too late.
A van skidded to a stop only a few feet next to me, and it took me a moment to realize the driver was wearing a ski mask. In June. When it was eighty-three degrees outside and humid. I turned to call Mark’s name, but he was yelling at the guy who hit us and didn’t hear me.
By the time I undid my seat belt, three other guys had piled out of the van. They were all wearing ski masks, too.
“Holy guacamole, this cannot be good,” I muttered.
I was quickly proven right when one of them yanked my door open and pointed a gun at my head. “Get out.”
“Okay.” I slowly climbed out of the rig, careful not to make any sudden movements. Taking care of Ink’s bullet wound the other day didn’t mean that I wanted to end up with one of my own. Ever.
“You’re coming with us,” he growled as soon as my feet hit the ground.
“I’m what?” I squeaked.
He wrapped his hand around my wrist and started to tug me toward the van. Even as I struggled against his hold, he turned to one of the other guys and ordered, “Grab whatever shit you think she’ll need from the back of the ambulance.”
Realization hit me…I was being taken by these men so I could provide medical care to someone. To an unknown location where my patient could be fighting for their life from something I couldn’t treat. And if they died, odds were good that these men wouldn’t be happy.
I started fighting as though my life counted on getting away from them—because it likely did. “Mark, help!”
My partner rounded the front of the ambulance just as the guy holding my arm lifted me off my feet to toss me into the van.
“No, stop! You can’t take her,” Mark yelled.
The driver turned in his seat and aimed a gun at me. “Come any closer, and I’ll shoot her.”
Mark stopped, holding his hands high in the air, his eyes agonized as he stared at me. “Take me instead.”
“No way in hell,” the guy who’d manhandled me growled. “She’ll be a fuck of a lot easier to handle than you.”
The man who’d been ordered to grab supplies dumped a bunch of stuff into the back of the van before climbing in with me. I was relieved to see my trauma bag was one of the items since it had most of what I needed on a variety of calls, and I had a feeling that I could use whatever help I could get.
On that thought, I shouted, “Call Eli! Tell him what happened.”
“Will do. Stay safe,” Mark answered, a muscle jumping in his jaw as the two remaining men climbed into the van. Then they slammed the door shut, and the driver stepped on the gas.
From my safety training, I knew that being taken to a secondary location was bad. Getting shot in the head would’ve been worse, though. As long as I was still alive, I had hope. And a secret weapon who would look for me and had an entire club to help.
“Who’s Eli?” the guy who’d manhandled me into the van asked.
“My boyfriend.” I’d been awkward when Mark had used the term earlier to describe him since we hadn’t really made our relationship official. And calling Eli any word that started with boy seemed like an odd choice, but under these circumstances, it was a heck of a lot better than explaining he was the biker I was sleeping with…and was supposed to move in with if I made it out of this situation alive.