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“I promise. Scouts honour” I say holding up three fingers and smiling at him as I turn and walk into the mall. At the salon, I’m greeted by a young man wearing all black and a string of pearls. He introduces himself as James and gets very excited when I drag the elastic from my hair and let it fall down my back. We spend the next ten minutes going over what I’d like and what he wants to do and settle somewhere in between. I spend the next two hours being pampered and chatting with James. James has the mirror covered as he cuts and dries my hair and has a huge amount of fun removing the sheet with a flourish to present me with the ‘new me’.
I am thrilled with his work. He’s dyed my hair a slightly darker shade than it’s natural dark brown and put mahogany highlights through the ends. My brows and lashes have been tinted the same shade of dark brown. All this makes my hazel eyes pop and my olive skin looks even browner than usual. My nails have been painted a deep red to match the highlights in my hair and I feel like a new woman.
“Jade, you look stunning. That biker of yours is going to go wild when he sees you!”
“Wilder than usual you mean? Yes, he probably is” I say laughing. As I pay, I make sure to make a follow up appointment and thank James profusely for his work. It’s been over two years since I put this much effort into me and it feels good.
I call Saint from the salon and arrange to meet him at the main door to the mall. “Wait inside. I will come in to get you” he demands.
“Surely, I can meet you near the door? There will be plenty of people about”.
“And you’ll be easier to take. No. Meet me inside. I’ll be there in ten”.
I found a seat facing the door and sat. I lasted all of two minutes. There was a clothing store just outside the door and a pretty top was calling my name. I wandered outside and was examining the top when I felt someone very close behind me. Before I could turn around, a gravelly voice in my ear warned me not to at the same time as something sharp was pressed into my kidney and a large arm wrapped around my shoulder and chest. “Not a sound girly. I’m not going to hurt you. Just delivering you to someone.”
Before I can scream or even plan a move I’ve been lifted off the ground and shoved into the back of a car that was waiting at the kerb – all of four steps from the shop. The man climbs in beside me and pushes me down behind the front passenger seat as the car takes off. I’m held there by a firm hand with no chance of moving. I try to slow the panic building in my chest as I try to take in what has happened. The salon is located on the first floor overlooking that mall exit. Hopefully someone saw what happened. I don’t know how he’s done it but it would seem Ranger has wormed his way into the US. No one else could possibly have any reason to want me. Panic starts to rise again but I force it back down. I realise that the people who have taken me must be the Vipers that I saw a few weeks ago that the club has been trying to track. These guys won’t hurt me. They’d be stupid to deliver me damaged. Ranger would kill them. As this reality sinks in, I relax into the floor and try to come up with a plan. If I can escape from these guys before they pass me off to Ranger, I stand half a chance.
I can’t tell where we are or where we’re headed but I can tell we’ve left town. They’ve not taken my watch from me so I know we’ve been travelling for about twenty minutes. There’s also no more traffic or people noise and I can hear that we’re travelling on an unsealed road. If only I’d said yes to that smart watch Axel wanted to buy me a few years ago I could send a message. Then it hits me, they didn’t frisk me or take anything from me. My mobile phone is still tucked the waistband of my jeans. Tap will find me! He’ll be able to track me! Knowing there is nothing more I can do without drawing attention to myself, I sink further to the floor and hope that someone saw me get taken and that Tap can find me before it’s too late. If I can conserve my energy now, I might have enough to run later if I get the chance.
Saint
I pull up at the mall entrance and my heart leaps into my throat. There’s people everywhere but I can’t see Jade. Parking the bike I head inside the mall, just in case something has distracted her enough to drag her back inside. Again though, there’s no sign of her. I take a chance and run up to the salon she was at. Maybe she left something behind, although every bone in my body is telling me otherwise. Telling me that something is drastically wrong here. Just inside the door is a young guy dressed in all black with something around his neck – fuck me if it isn’t a string of pearls. Shaking my head in wonderment, I approach him and ask about Jade. “You’re Saint? You’re Jade’s man? I’m James, I did Jade’s hair today. She was heading downstairs to meet you. I saw her through the window. She was looking at something in that shop just outside the door.”
“Was anyone else with her?”
“Not that I saw. I only saw her briefly then I turned back around to the basin. When I turned back around a minute later she was gone. I figured she had met you. Is everything okay?”
“No! She’s missing. You see her, you call me!” I say writing my number on the nearest piece of paper and shoving it at him as I run out the door. I call Dublin as I move toward the exit. “Is Jade with you? Has she called?”
“Hey Saint. Slow down. I haven’t heard from her or seen her. Why are you asking?”
“Because she’s fucking not where she said she’d be! She’s missing. Fuck!! Call Tap for me and get him to trace her phone then call me back.” Hanging up, I head to the shop James pointed out and started asking questions. No luck, person after person. No one had seen anything. I move to my bike and my phone rings as I swing my leg over.
“Saint, it’s Tap. The last place I’ve got her phone is down by the river near the old camp north of town. I’ve already called Smoke. He’s organising everyone to meet us there. Get moving.”
Dublin pulls alongside me as I start up my bike. “We’ll find her” he says grimly “that woman was born to be yours. She’ll fight for you. Let’s go!”
Jade
The car rolls to a stop and before I can react, my door is opened and I’m dragged backwards out of the car and pushed to the ground. We’re somewhere on the lake edge but it’s not an area I know. Thug one pulls me up from behind me and blindfolds me before tying my hands loosely in front of me. Clearly they don’t think I’m much of a threat because I can feel that the bindings are quite loose. Next thing I know, I’m being dragged towards the lake. I stumble and fall on the rough ground landing on my knees. Putting my hands out in front of me to stop me falling further I land harshly on them jarring both my wrists.
“Watch what you’re doing” thug one growls at thug two. “He’ll have our heads if she’s damaged when we deliver her” Thug two growls back and then lifts me into the air. As he throws me over his shoulder my phone falls from my jeans. I hear it land with a thud on the ground below me and hope that neither of them notice. My hopes however are short lived.
“Fuck. You didn’t check her for a phone before you nabbed her? Seriously? Fuck, now they can trace her you idiot!”
“Fuck off! I didn’t exactly have time to frisk her. Grab and go were your words and that’s what I did”.
They start to bicker back and forth between themselves about who’s the dumber of the two but not before thug one stomps on my phone and grounds it into the dirt below me with a crunch. My hopes of being found just fell significantly and with this realisation, I start to struggle believing that with them going at each other, now might be my only chance of escape. Luck however is not shining on me today and thug one grabs my hair and drags my head up at an awkward angle. I can smell his rancid breath as he growls in my face. “Keep still girly. I’m not gonna die today because you couldn’t behave yourself. Hurting you is not in my best interests but if I have to knock you out, I will. Hear me?”
I spit in his general direction but still my body realising that if I’m unconscious I have even less control than I do now. “Play nice bitch!” he yells and directs thug two to drop me into a boat. I land with a thud and hit my head on the back of something hard. An outboard motor starts up and we launch out onto the water. My eyes are closed and I’m seeing stars as my head screams in pain but I force myself to open my eyes. I find that I’ve landed at such an angle that I can see a tiny sliver of the surrounding landscape from underneath the bottom of the blindfold. I do my best to take note of my surroundings and surmise that we are headed toward one of the islands in the middle of the lake. There are a few and I’ve never explored any of them but I figure that I’m capable of swimming back to the lake edge from most of them. It won’t be easy but I can do it. All I need is an opportunity to escape. I don’t know where I am exactly but I do know that I’m still relatively local. We didn’t drive for long and I recognise the lake area. These guys must be complete idiots, which is of some small comfort to me. I let my eyes close, resting my body for when the time comes that I’ll need my strength.
I don’t know how long we motor along for but eventually, I hear the outboard back off and we come to a stop with a not so gentle bump into land. I refuse to get out of the boat and walk forcing thug two to expend energy carrying me to wherever they want me to go. In my head I’m counting off the minutes and I’m trying to check out the terrain through my peep hole at the bottom of the blind fold. Fifteen minutes. That’s how long we walk for before I hear a door open and I am dumped unceremoniously onto a dirt floor. I guess thug two isn’t happy about having to do all of the heavy lifting. My blindfold is removed and I find myself in a tiny two by two metre shed – walls and a roof only and door that can be locked apparently. I can now also confirm that the thugs are Vipers. They’re wearing Vipers cuts but they sure as hell don’t behave like any bikers I’ve ever met. At best, they’d be prospects and frankly, not very good ones. The thugs are outside arguing about what to do next. At this point in time, I don’t need to add fuel to that fire by intervening. These two will self-destruct soon enough so I leave them to it and continue to save my energy for later.
It’s cold in here. Very cold. Winter isn’t far off now and the nights have been cold enough to warrant a fire every night lately. My head is hurting but I decide to get warm and keep the blood flowing with some exercise. I make up a routine of sit ups, squats and planks and do this over and over until I’m warm. Then I spend some time trying to loosen the ties at my wrists. I loosen them to the point that I could slip them if I wanted to but leave them in place. It’s dark in here but still daylight outside. I call out to the thugs. “Hello out there…hello, anybody out there?” I hear shuffling of feet but there is no reply. I need to see my surroundings while I still can so I keep pushing “Hello. I need to pee, let me out of here.”
“Pee in the corner”
“No! That’s disgusting! Let me out, I need to pee. And I’m hungry. And my head hurts. Let me out”
