The Initiation (Darkness Within Duet 1)

Was this an enemy of Draven’s?

Was it someone close to him?

This made no sense.

Why take her?

Silence fell in the truck. No one made a sound. She groaned as they went over certain speed bumps in the road and she hit her head a couple of times.

Harper only knew they were getting close as the guy lifted her up off the floor and turned her so that he could remove the gag.

“What is going on?” she asked.

Her arms were bound, and she couldn’t remove the spittle from her chin. Staring out of the window, she was confused. They were on the street where she and Draven lived. Only, they were heading to his home.

They pulled up onto the drive, and she was grabbed again.

“Let me go!”

The men did no more than drag her inside the house. Their grip on her was terrifying as they led her into Draven’s house.

Was he here?

Why were they taking her to his home?

Nothing made sense.

When they forced her into Alan’s office, she saw him there, looking smug as he stared at her.

“What is going on?” she asked.

“Did they see?” Alan ignored her question, talking instead to the man at her right.

“No. She was alone, and we made sure. We don’t know how much time you’ve got before he figures it out.”

“We’ve got plenty of time,” Alan said. His gaze fell to her, and fear ran down her spine.

This was bad. The longer she stayed here, the worse it was going to be.

“So, my son and his friends have turned you into a whore.” Alan tutted as he poured himself a drink.

Harper’s heart raced, and she fought against the hold of his goons who’d taken her from the mall. She didn’t like this, not one bit.

Draven would be pissed. Axel, Buck, and Jett would be willing to start a war. They were her guys, just as she was theirs. Together they would fight, but against their own parents, or at least one of them, she didn’t know.

“You’re making a mistake.”

He nodded at the goons, who pushed her forward, slamming her against the desk. It didn’t matter how many times she’d been hit, she would never get used to the pain, even as she forced herself to stay in focus, to not lose herself.

“Let me go.”

Her shirt was pushed up, and his hand touched her back. She closed her eyes as his fingers traced across the ink at the base of her back. A hand held her neck, keeping her face flat to the surface of the desk.

“Stop it.”

“You know a pussy is nothing more than a hole, and yet it causes so much fucking trouble. You, girl, are a fucking thorn in my side. There is always pussy that is willing to take cock without needing to know every detail of their lives. You all need to learn to keep your heads down and your legs spread.”

The insult had her attacking even harder. The sudden force took the goons by surprise as she slipped from the grip. Grabbing the letter opener on his desk, she stabbed the blade through the first goon’s shoulder, and grabbed the gun she’d also seen, and pointed it at the two men.

Alan burst out laughing, clapping his hands. “They sure have trained you well.”

She wasn’t fast enough to dodge the hand that struck her around the face.

He kicked her in the stomach twice, and she tried to get away.

Alan grabbed her hair, pulling her back up against him. She tried to fight, but a grip around her neck held her still as he started to choke her. With nowhere else to go, she was at his mercy, and it terrified her.

“Hear me properly, I can kill you. I can make the next few years of your life unbearable, but I have a feeling I’ve got a way of getting what I want, by removing you from the picture and you keeping your life.”

“What?” she asked as he let go of her throat.

“I want you gone.”

“Not going to happen.”

Alan smiled. “I want you gone. Your bags packed, no trace of you ever. As far as my son and his boys are concerned you skipped town because you couldn’t handle being known as his whore.”

“He’ll know differently,” she said.

“You’ve run away. Gone. You’ve run at the first opportunity.”

“And if I don’t do this?” she asked. “What then? You’re going to kill me? Draven wouldn’t allow that. He’d be your problem.”

“If you don’t go in the next twenty minutes and be out of Stonewall, I’m going to kill Draven and his boys. First though, I’ll make sure that Draven knows you did this. You caused this, and I will make them all beg for mercy before I do it.”

She shook her head. “You’re bluffing.”

“I figured you’d say that.”

She watched as he lifted his cell phone up while also turning on a computer screen. One look at it and she saw it was the security feed inside the mall. Draven was there with her guys. They were all there, talking, and across from them, she saw the guy holding a gun.