“Come on,” Frank snapped. “Don't make us hurt your boyfriend any more than necessary.”
Grudgingly, I allowed him to escort me into the house while keeping one eye on Wesley's unconscious form. One of the other men picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder like a sack of rice, then stomping on Wesley’s phone when it dropped from his pocket.
Inside Granny Winter's friendly-looking home, I was roughly patted down for my phone, then directed to some stairs off the kitchen and down into a dark, spacious basement where several cages were set up. The bars were thick and cemented into the floor to prevent even someone of supernatural strength from ripping them out. Frank shoved me roughly into one of the cages; then his buddy tossed Wesley in with me. As the cage door clanged shut, Granny Winter's sneering face popped up in front of me. She was a tiny woman, no more than five-foot-three, but she clearly held a lot of power in this town.
“I can't believe my luck,” she crowed, licking her wrinkled lips in delight. “After all these years, I can finally get my revenge for the things you've done, you whore.”
“Listen, old lady,” I tried again, “you've clearly got me mixed up with someone else. I have never met you before in my life, and I've certainly never done anything to deserve this sort of reaction. We were sent here by N to speak with Vic. That's all.”
She laughed a hollow, humorless sound. “The fact that you think I will believe that is pathetic. Don't you worry, though, I am not as cruel as you. I'll give you a fighting chance.” One of the men received a text message, then showed it to Granny. “Well, you enjoy your last moments here while I speak with the pack and arrange your execution. You won't be getting away this time, Bridget.”
“Wait!” I screamed as she turned away and began climbing the stairs. She was surprisingly quick for such an old lady. “I'm not Bridget! You've got the wrong person!”
No reply came, except for the slamming of the door at the top of the stairs.
“Shit!” I swore, looking around at my surroundings. “Shit!” It was the sort of situation that deserved a double swearing. Because we were fucked. How the hell was I going to convince this crazy old bat that I wasn't Bridget? By all accounts, I was the mirror image of my mother, and if she truly was immortal, then it was entirely plausible that we would look the same age. Fucking hell. Whatever Bridget had done to this woman, it wasn't good. And now, it seemed, I would be the one paying for it.
A low groan came from Wesley, and I crouched beside him, running my hand over his hair gently.
“Hey, Wes, it's okay. Just me,” I whispered as he slowly regained consciousness and pushed up on his hands.
“Kit, what the hell just happened?” he demanded, rightfully confused as fuck. Poor guy had a split on his cheek and a huge red welt where he'd been hit. It was going to come up in a seriously impressive bruise the next day. If we were still alive.
“Turns out they think I'm Bridget, and they seriously hate her. The old bitch said something about going to arrange my execution…” I tried not to sound worried, but fucking hell, that woman just used the word 'execution' like it was a totally normal afternoon activity!
“What?” he exclaimed, sitting up the rest of the way sharply then wincing as his head undoubtedly pounded from the hit he'd just taken. “Sweetheart, that doesn't sound good… Why didn't you use your abilities and run while we were still outside?”
“And leave you?” I smiled faintly at him. “Don't be ridiculous, Wes. I couldn't do that. We just need to hope the guys will find us and get us out of here because these cages look like they're designed to counter superstrength.”
Wesley groaned and rubbed his face. “Yeah, I figured they might be supernatural when Mechanic-Frank just knocked me out with a backhand. Hopefully the guys don't get taken off guard.”
As if on cue, the door to the stairs banged open once more, and several sets of heavy footsteps clattered down. Five very angry-looking men were directed into the next cage, and the door slammed behind them before the rough locals retreated back up the stairs.
“Nice of you all to join us,” Wesley joked, and I snorted a laugh then covered it with a cough.
“Nice face, Wes,” Austin glowered. “You walk into a wall or something?”
“Or something,” Wesley muttered back, frowning unhappily, and I took his hand, squeezing lightly to show that I didn't blame him for this situation.
“Where did they find you all?” I asked as they took up spots against the walls or bars of their cage.
“The twins and I went down to the post office to ask around about that address. We found out that a guy named Victor lives there, but before we could ask anything else, the girl we were talking to got a text. Next thing we knew, we were surrounded by guys with your sort of strength,” River reported, coming to stand at the bars separating our two cages. “Any idea what's going on?”
“Hmm yeah,” I grimaced. “The old bitch that seems to be in charge thinks I'm Bridget.”
“Okay…” He frowned. “And that's clearly not a good thing?”
“Definitely not. She said something about arranging my execution so…” I shrugged, then caught sight of Vali's face.
“Jesus, what happened to you two?” I exclaimed, noticing bruises on Cole as well. Vali looked worse, though, with a black eye already so swollen it was almost closing the lid completely.
“Nothing,” Vali muttered, and Cole met my panicked gaze.
“Just had to work some shit out,” Cole contributed, and I clicked on that their injuries had nothing to do with these crazy townspeople detaining them.
“I see.” I squinted at the two of them in warning. “Well, it had better be out of your systems. We have too much other shit on our plates to be dealing with infighting as well.”
“Speaking of that other shit,” River redirected my attention, “run me through everything that's happened so far. What exactly did this woman say to you?”
Word for word, I repeated what had been said. Luckily my short-term memory retained the conversation in its entirety because I had totally missed the clue she had dropped.
“'A fighting chance', that's what she said?” River clarified and looked over at Cole when I nodded my confirmation.
“Sounds like she's going to make you fight someone,” he murmured, drumming his fingers on his knee while he thought out loud. “Which means she's giving you an opportunity to survive.”
“What if she makes you guys fight someone?” I questioned, chewing my lip so hard it was bleeding a little. “There are definitely supernaturals in this town, and no offense to you all, but you probably won’t stand a chance.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Kitty Kat.” Caleb snorted, and I smiled at him.
“You know what I mean, Cal.” I sighed, rolling my eyes, and he grinned back at me.