Until Fools Find Gold (Providence Gold 1)

“I’ll kill them all,” I roared in his face.

“And I’ll help you,” he assured me. “But we can’t do jack shit until we know who took her. To get that information, you’ve got to keep your shit together and help me. You with me?”

“If they’ve hurt her,” I warned, shaking my head.

I could feel my hands shaking too, but I didn’t realize how badly until I felt him nudge me and looked down to see him holding a gun out to me.

“Then we get them, deal with them, and you put her back together,” he said, checking his phone and tapping something onto the screen. “I’ve told Maggie to stay locked in our room but to listen for noises in here. I’m going to reach out to a friend of mine who’s currently in Hawaii who has guys here with their ears to the ground. As soon as we get any leads we’ll head out.” The fact that he was so organized was a relief. At that moment, all I could do was swallow over the lump in my throat. “You’ve got to keep your head though, man.”

Snapping my head in his direction, I had to hold back from punching him. “And how would you feel if it was Maggie?”

Nodding, he took a step closer. I was slightly taller than him, but there was no underestimating the power that he had.

“Yeah, I’d be fucked up,” he agreed. “But just saying, you’re not gonna be any good to her with your head up your ass.”

I knew what he was saying was true, and in a minute, I’d do just that.

At this precise moment though, I wanted to roar and tear the room apart with my bare hands.

Taking deep breaths, I started to walk around the room, forcing my eyes to focus on anything and everything I could see.

That was when I saw it, a tiny flash of something shiny poking out from underneath the bed.

Crouching down I picked it up and felt something tear inside me when I realized what it was.

It was the ring I’d put on her finger just hours before. The matching one with the diamond in it was waiting to be picked up today, and I’d planned to take her somewhere special to give it to her.

I was going to get that opportunity even if I had to tear the city apart one brick at a time.14 LunaEvery part of me hurt as I lay there, but what hurt the most was my jaw. I’d woken up only moments before, but already I knew that I was in a dark box in a vehicle of some sort.

Feeling around me carefully, I felt the thick and firm padding on the walls of whatever I was in. There was a faint hissing noise that initially scared the shit out of me, with images of the pit of snakes in Indiana Jones flashing through my head. When I’d felt a cool breeze hitting me from above though, I’d discovered the tiny hole with cool air coming in through it.

I’m pretty certain oxygen was being pumped through it into the box– how civilized and generous of them!

The more I tried to focus on my surroundings, the more memories came back of how I’d gotten here.

I’d woken up to get some water just as a shadow leaned over me in the dark. I’d obviously still been drunker than I’d realized last night, because had I been sober and the lights hadn’t been on, I’d have freaked out. As it was, waking up in the dark had my hand shooting out to find the lamp switch. I’d never gotten the opportunity because I saw the shadow, went to scream and was hit in the face. The pain had stunned me and stopped me from screaming even harder as I was pulled from the bed by my hair. Then again, the fact that I couldn’t move my jaw properly had also prevented me from screaming too. That shit hurt!

I’d tried to fight them, but they’d shoved me face down on the bed and secured my arms behind my back with something. I’d felt my ring being ripped off, and when I’d started kicking at my attacker, there had been a sharp pinch followed by a burning sensation.

The next thing, I was waking up in here and it brought me to now.

I was in a tiny dark place - all of my biggest hang-ups all rolled into one freaking fantastic package. Thankfully, they’d moved it so that my hands were now tied in front of me, but it felt like I was in a coffin.

I decided to risk opening my mouth and screaming for help, but quickly realized that that wasn’t going to happen. The pain of just opening it slightly was enough to have me sucking in deep breaths through my nose, doing everything I could to stop myself from throwing up and potentially choking on it.