“Stay away from me!” I barked hoarsely, jabbing a finger at Zane as he put a hand out towards me. “You stay away from me.”
“It’s not what you think,” Gareth said quietly, his jaw tight. “This is not what you think it is.”
“Oh it’s not? So, I’m not chained to a wall in a fucking cell? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Can—”
“Fuck you,” I spat at Zane. I shook my head. I’d been played. I’d been taken in by three gorgeous, too-good-to-be-true men, and they’d used that to actually take me.
They’d kidnapped me.
“I’m telling you, this isn’t what you think it is,” Foster hissed, swearing as he shoved his fingers through his hair.
“Enlighten me,” I said fiercely, my back against the wall, my knees tucked under me, and my hands balled into fists.
“Okay, it is what you think, but not... I mean, we’re not...” Zane swore to himself and shook his head. “Fuck, I’m doing a shit job of trying to explain this.”
“No shit.” My eyes narrowed at him, the fury and the betrayal threatening to tear me apart. “What the fuck is happening?”
“We didn’t know it was you,” Gareth said quietly
“What?”
“The target,” he sighed. “We didn’t know it was you. Zane and Foster didn’t the first night when you met them, and I didn’t last night.”
“The target?”
“Yeah,” Zane said slowly.
“So, you were going to kidnap some poor girl, and I’m supposed to feel better since you didn’t know it was me?”
“Of course we didn’t know. We’re not psychopaths.”
“Just kidnappers.”
The men said nothing, until finally Foster sighed. “Yes. Yeah, we are. I don’t think anything about the other night told you we were nice guys. And you didn’t seem to mind it then.”
I blushed traitorously at the memory of him and Zane taking me together, making me come like I’d never come before. Slowly, I found myself looking up at them, the fury dying down.
“Please, get me out of here,” I said quietly.
Gareth swore and looked away.
“We can’t, Cassandra,” Foster said through clenched teeth.
“What?”
“Not yet. Please, just….” He sighed. “Just trust us. We had no idea you were the target, and trust me when I say we hate ourselves for doing this.”
“Then why?”
“It’s a long story,” Zane growled.
“We’re going to get you out of here,” Foster said again. The other two shot him looks, and he glared at them. “We are. We’re just going to need time.”
My shoulders sagged as I stared at the floor, feeling deflated. “What’s going to happen to me?”
They started to move towards me, and I jerked back.
“Cassandra,” Foster said firmly. “We’re not your enemies here.”
“Yes you are. You brought me here, so unless you’re taking me back to the resort right now, we’ve got nothing to talk about.”
“Cas—”
“Stay away from me,” I hissed as the anger came rushing back. I glared at the three of them, tears threatening to pour down my cheeks. “Just stay away.”
“We’ll be back,” Zane choked out.
“Don’t.” I looked away, up at the dirty, greasy window. “Just fuck you.”
They lingered another minute, waiting for me to turn around again, but I didn’t. Slowly, they left the room, leaving me alone.
They saw an easy target in me. They saw a girl in need of attention, alone, and one who’d be putty in their hands. And there in that cell, they had me.
As their captive.
Chapter 11
It was dark, and I was freezing when something woke me.
I sat up in the darkness, sleep slipping away from me as I grew more alert.
“Hello?” I whimpered timidly, my eyes going wide in the darkness.
“It’s me, Cassandra,” Zane’s voice whispered back.
I frowned. “Go the fuck away, please.”
“No,” he said flatly. He was closer now, and I could halfway make him out from the dim moonlight coming through the greasy window. “No, because you need to know some things about why you’re here, and about why we’re here. You need to know what we are.”
“I know exactly what you are,” I spat.
“It’s not like that.”
“Please. The matching tattoos of the motorcycle chick? You carry a knife? What are you, bikers or something? A gang?”
“We were, once.”
“Perfect. I hate being right.”
Zane chuckled. “You’re only half as right as you think you are. Mind if I sit?”
“Yes.”
The cot creaked as he took a seat next to me anyways. “We were a club of sorts, once. Me and Foster and Gareth, we go way back to when we were all kids trapped in the system.”
“The system?”
“Homes, juvenile centers, temporarily guardians.” He shook his head. “We never wanted to be a part of any of it after that. Society, systems, whatever. All we wanted was life on the road, so that’s what we did. Been the outlaw life every since.”
“And now you kidnap women.”
“No,” he growled, his voice suddenly edged.
“You took me, and I assume you’re being paid for it. That’s called being a professional kidnapper.”
“It's not that simple, Cassandra. That’s what I wanted to tell you tonight. We’re locked into this.” He shook his head as he leaned back against the wall beside me. “We never wanted this shit, believe me. ‘Outlaw’ doesn’t meant stealing innocent girls, it means your own rules, your way, and life on the road.” He turned, his eyes searching mine. “Just you and the bike, and nothing else matters.”
“Sounds simple.”
“It is.”
I cracked a small smile. “It sounds pretty nice, actually.”
“You’re telling me, darlin.”
“You still haven’t said how I came into all this.”
Zane nodded. “We pulled the wrong job. We needed money, and a friend of a friend looped us in with Mitch for work. We didn’t know what we were signing up for. We thought we were transporting goods — you know, some guns, some coke — nothing we haven’t done before. Not this though. But now, we can’t get out.”
“You can’t just leave?” I shrugged. “You seem like you’re all much tougher than that Mitch guy.”
He looked away.
“What?”
“He has people that are…close to us.”
I froze.
“Yeah. He’s got eyes on them always. We run, they get the hit, and we can’t allow that.”
“Who?” I said softly in the darkness.
“Gareth’s sister, Foster’s sick grandfather, and my…”
He trailed off and looked away.
“Zane,” I put my hand on his arm. For some reason, I believed him. I trusted him. I still wasn’t sure what to think of all this, but there was a sincerity about him that made me want to let my guard down.
“Who does he have?”
“My son.”
I froze, my heart dropping.
“His mom lit out a long time ago, believe me — fuck knows where she is. Cody’s been with my grandma for a long time now, but I know that’s who Mitch is watching.”
“How do you know?”
“He’s like that. He finds where your heart is and goes after that.”
Zane looked down, and my hand slid up his forearm to take his hand, giving him a squeeze. “I’m sorry.”
He smiled. “Hey, I’m supposed to be the one comforting you here.”
“Says my kidnapper.”