Page 87 of Stag

[voice1: You keep taking unnecessary risks with that *censored*]

Censored? What the fuck? She must be swearing, but why the hell did this thing have some censorship on it? Damn it, Grease.

“Marissa, please, slow down. You’re driving way too fast. There’s no place to pull over for oncoming cars!”

[voice2: Marissa, please slow down. You’re driving way too fast. There’s no place to pull over for oncoming cars.]

Huh it was picking me up too. Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe it’d be needed to prove that she’d completely lost it! I shouldn’t have risked this, what was I thinking?

[voice1: *censored* that. I’m not messing around here, Claudia. You’re not safe around those men. I’m getting you to safety and then we can discuss your decision making.]

Ugh, she wasn’t going to listen to reason, and now I was trapped with her in a speeding car.

[voice1: Maybe this is how we die. At least we’ll be together. Hey. Give me that!]

She snatched my phone, tossed it out of her window, and kept moving way too fast for our safety. I gripped the seat, my fingers tight with tension, and whitening as I gripped harder when she took a fast bend. I was screaming at her to stop, but I had come to a chilling realisation. She had no intention of stopping until she killed us both.

Chapter Thirty-Five

There are moments in life where everything stops. Silence falls, and in that silence, all that exists is the panic overwhelming you. Filling your senses. It becomes all about that breath you can’t reach, and the thundering of your heart as it reacts to the burst of adrenaline that comes from abject terror.

The terror came from a phone call, while I was on hour four of my stakeout with Danno.

First a text:

Micro: About to call. It’s urgent, so answer fast.

I glanced sideways at Danno and swallowed hard, knowing that something awful was about to happen, or maybe already had.

“The Pres is calling. I need to take this.”

Danno just nodded as the phone started ringing in my hand and I hit the answer button, lifting it with a trembling hand to my ear.

“Pres?”

“We’ve got trouble, brother. Claudia’s missing.”

Fuck. There it is. That thud of my heart that tells me I’m about to freak out. The tingling in the back of my head. The roaring in my ears. She’s missing? How can she be missing? I can’t breathe!

“What? What happened? She was supposed to be safe!”

“Shut up and I’ll fill you in, but you need to get straight here.”

Danno was watching me carefully, digging his own phone out as he listened.

“She left the compound. We don’t know why, or even when. She said she was going to the bathroom, and never came back. Caroline raised the alarm after twenty minutes or so and we searched the grounds, but she’s gone.”

“FUCK! You people had one fucking job!”

Danno tapped my arm, shaking his head slowly.

“Tell me.”

“Hang on, Pres.” I clenched my trembling fingers as I turned to him. “My old lady has disappeared. She was at the clubhouse and now she’s just gone.”

Danno’s eyes turned fierce. “The sister?”

They just fucking know everything, don’t they?