I remember screaming her name before the final hit came. The lights went out then, and all I knew was darkness.
18
Kennedy
My breath was hot against my face. Darkness surrounded me, the bile rising inside as the rough fabric of the hood covering my head scraped against my lips.
My pulse pounded in my ears, every nerve in my body standing on edge. The hands dragging and shoving me along held me firmly by the arms, and when my bare foot caught on something on the ground, tripping me and making me cry out, the hands only tightened even more.
“Move,” a gruff, venomous voice spat from next to me, making me tremble.
I closed my eyes, trying to steady my breathing. I mean it wasn’t like I could see anything anyways, right?
I’d awoken screaming, rough hands yanking me from my bed and from the arms of Landon and Caleb. The men in dark suits with guns and grim looks on their faces had ignored my screams as they beat my two men half unconscious, dragging them both naked except for boxers out of the bedroom. A bumpy ride in the back of a blacked-out van later, and here I was—hooded, barefoot, and dressed in underwear and old bathrobe, being dragged along to God knows where by the men who’d just stolen us away.
I gasped as the men suddenly shoved me back, my arms flailing in the drop before my butt hit the seat behind me.
“Sit, be fucking still, and behave,” the horrible voice in my ear rasped. “Or if you can’t handle that, I’m happy to tie you up and put a gag in that pretty mouth.”
I nodded, shivering. But when I heard the sound of more people coming, and the unmistakable sound of the men I loved roaring my name, I lunged from my chair. Arms shoved me back, hard, knocking the wind out of me as I groaned in pain.
“Kennedy!” Caleb bellowed, followed by the sound of scuffling, a grunt, and then the sound of a fist hitting flesh. Caleb groaned, and I screamed his name before the voice next to me suddenly struck me hard across the face.
I gasped, adrenaline spiking through me as a hand shoved me back into the chair.
“Last chance, bitch,” he growled. “Don’t fucking tempt me.”
Suddenly, there was the sound of clapping. One set of clapping, to be exact. Slow, ominous clapping.
“My, my, my.”
The voice was both comically whiny and shiveringly creepy.
“Shaunessy!” Landon roared, the sound of more scuffling and another hit making me wince.
“So, the fuck is this, huh?” the creepy voice sighed. “Here I am scouring the fucking desert for you two assholes. I’m lookin’ in LA, in Vegas, in Phoenix. Shit I even heard a rumor about you in Miami. But here you are playing lumberjacks up in the goddamn woods?”
Neither Landon or Caleb said a word.
“Take their hoods off.”
I gasped as a hand yanked the bag off of my head, light blinding me instantly as I blinked and winced. Slowly though, I blinked, my eyes focusing and my heart suddenly jumping into my throat.
We were in an old warehouse of some kind—definitely abandoned and half over-grown by the woods. The floor was dirt and broken concrete, the walls crumbling, and the air dark and wet. And standing twenty feet away from me, their arms raised and their wrists tied to an overhanging pipe, were Landon and Caleb.
The hoods were pulled from their faces too, and when they saw me, they moved lunging. The two of them snarled, twisting at their binds and swearing, muscles straining and rippling as they fought to break free.
The creepy voice laughed this extra creepy laugh, and when I turned, my blood ran cold.
The man who looked to be in charge was everything his voice had made me think he’d be. Pale and sickly, with greasy black hair slicked back, a goatee that made him look like the devil, and beady, black eyes. He was dressed in a three-piece suit, and the many rings on his fingers glinting as his fingers curled around the handle of the sawed-off shotgun in his hand.
His thin lips curled into a wicked grin.
“So, this whole thing…” he wheezed out a little laugh, wagging his finger between Landon and Caleb and me.
“What kind of fucked up little freakshow is this?”
I glared at him, rage burning inside of me.
“One of these assholes your boyfriend, honey?” he laughed again. “Let me rephrase that. Is one of these assholes your boyfriend and so fuckin’ pussy that he’s gotta bring another dick in to satisfy you?”
We were surrounded by about twenty guys in black with guns, and they all chuckled along with the man with the shotgun. He turned towards Landon and Caleb.
“So, which one of you shitbirds is it, huh? Who’s got the tiny dick that doesn’t do it for the lady?”