Scars (The Triad 1)

SCARLET

I came to with my arms tied behind my back and a gag in my mouth. My eyes were almost swollen shut, and my ribs were screaming. I tried to take calm breaths through my nose because the harder I tried, the harder it was to get air into my lungs. My face was wet with either tears or blood, I couldn’t tell.

My legs were tied together at my knees and my ankles. I still had pants on, and I thanked whatever gods there were that it didn’t seem like they had raped me while I was out cold. We were moving, and by the feel of things, I was in the boot of a car. It was pitch-black with two faint red lights shining in.

I could barely control my movements being tied up the way I was. With each brake and acceleration, I was rolled back and forth like a sack of potatoes, doing fucking wonders for my healing shoulder injury. I groaned and tried to stretch my legs as straight as I could get them. They were seizing up, which had to mean we had been traveling for a while if I was stuck in that position long enough for my muscles to cramp.

I groaned into the gag as they stretched and loosened. Being short was working to my advantage. I was able to get almost completely straightened out. But every time I took a breath, my ribs ached and made tears fall down my cheeks. They had definitely broken my ribs.

The car turned onto a gravel road, left or right, I couldn’t tell, and didn’t miss a single pothole. I was starting to think they were aiming for them just to see how much they could actually jostle me around. The car slowed and came to a halt, pushing me towards the back of the boot. I grunted when I rolled over on my injured shoulder, biting into whatever rag they had shoved into my mouth.

The car door opened, and heavy footsteps crunched back towards me. It was all I could do to not let myself spiral into a panic attack. I wanted to cry, but my mind wouldn’t let me. I was too stubborn for that shit. I was not going down like a little bitch. I still didn’t know who had taken me, whether it was my family or the druggies.

I had pushed it completely out of my mind that it could’ve been the guys. I wouldn’t let myself think like that. There was no way they would have set this up. Something had to have taken them out of the house last minute. Something important or they never would’ve left me alone. I wasn’t delusional. I didn’t think they were so head over heels for me that I was considered one of them. But they cared enough that they wouldn’t do something like this. It wasn’t them.

And so it only left two options, and neither one was too appealing. If it was my family, I would more than likely be dead before the sun as up. If it was the gang, I had no idea what would happen. Torture was the first thing that came to mind. If they knew the guys had any kind of feelings for me, they could use that to their advantage. I shivered.

I counted the footsteps as they approached. When they paused at the door, I held my breath. The latch clicked open, and I was bathed in amber streetlight. The guy standing in front of me was wearing a ski mask over his face, and the light behind him made it impossible to make out anything about him. One hand held something to his face. A phone?

“No eres tan fuerte ahora, ah perra?”

I didn’t speak Spanish, but I knew what perra meant. I was getting really sick and fucking tired of people calling me a bitch. I stared at him, refusing to look weak even if I was bound and gagged at his mercy. He reached down and pulled me out of the boot by my hair, my scalp screaming at the assault. My body flailed and fell hard onto the gravel. I couldn’t help it; I screamed again. He shoved the boot shut and looked down at me.

“Solo espera lo que tenemos planeado para ti.” He spat on my face, and my temper flared. He was going to pay for that one with his life.

“Let’s go,” another guy said from the side of the car.

“The warehouse,” he said into the phone and then hung up and put it in his pocket. With that, I was picked up and thrown over dude’s shoulder, crushing my already broken ribs. Pain flared through every inch of my body, and when the blackness threatened at my vision, I welcomed it.

Surely the guys would come for me soon.

I just had to stay alive.