Lingerie Wars (Invertary 1)

“He took her,” she said. She was trembling.

“Who?”

Instead of answering, she sobbed. For the first time since his youth, he had to work at staying calm. He wanted to shake her. He wanted to roar. He wanted to remove everything that stood between himself and Kirsty.

Behind him the women of Knit Or Die came screeching to a halt.

“What on earth is going on?” Shona demanded.

Kirsty’s mother didn’t know whom to answer first. Lake put his hand on her arm. She turned to him.

“Who took Kirsty?” he said.

“Brandon.”

Everything within him stopped dead. The women gasped. Heather wrapped an arm around Kirsty’s mother.

“Where?” Lake said.

It was hard to get the word out, his jaw was clenched so tightly.

“I don’t know,” Kirsty’s mum said. “He dragged her up the high street. She told me to get you.”

He nodded and turned towards the door. Kirsty’s mum put a hand on his arm to stop him.

“I saw a knife,” she said as she started to shake.

“Oh my goodness,” Jean wailed.

Betty appeared, charging through the crowd in her red nightie.

“What the hairy hell is going on?” she demanded.

“We need to get to him before he hurts Kirsty,” Margaret said.

The rest of the women nodded solemnly—even Betty, who didn’t have a clue what was going on.

“You lot stay here,” Lake ordered. “I’ll handle this.”

“In your birthday suit?” Betty said.

Lake ignored her. He stared the women down.

“I’m serious. Don’t interfere. You could make matters worse.”

They stared back at him, clearly ignoring everything he said. There was no time to deal with them. He had to get to Kirsty.

Margaret Campbell sobbed beside him as her friends cooed words of comfort.

“It’s okay,” Lake told her. “He won’t hurt her. I won’t let him.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks. Lake pushed the marquee flap back. He couldn’t see Kirsty, there were too many people. But he knew where she would be. He should have looked into that necklace when Brandon first showed an interest in it. He knew there was something else going on. He knew it in his gut. And now this? He hadn’t even told Kirsty how dangerous the guy was. Fury coursed through him. It was his fault and he knew exactly how to fix it.

Behind him someone shouted, “Come on, girls. Let’s get Kirsty!”

Without a second’s hesitation, Lake ran out into the night.

Brandon pushed Kirsty through the bustling market and up the high street to her home. He was moving so fast that she found it difficult to keep up on the high-heeled boots she wore. She stumbled over the uneven road. Brandon tightened his grip on the inside of her upper arm as he yanked her forward. All the while, his right hand held a knife to her side.