I’m out of time and the only two options I have are the worst choices left.
I could kill him. I could take this spring and shove it in his neck or drive it into his eye socket. I dream about it, about killing him and freeing myself, while I relish in his pain-filled screams, but the truth is, I’m far too weak. He would overpower me in seconds, and his punishment would likely result in my death anyway. He wouldn’t make it quick though, he would—
I shut down that train of thought before I throw up everywhere. I can't afford to lose what little food I have inside me. I need to retain what strength I have to go through with the only option left.
When the spring snaps free in my hand, something inside me snaps too. I cry deep soul-wrenching sobs that wrack my too-thin frame and steal my breath.
I’m not strong enough to kill him, but there is more than one way to escape hell.
Rolling out from under the bed, I climb on top of it, tucking the scratchy blanket around me to ward off the chill.
I grip the coiled spring tightly in my hand.
And I wait.
Chapter Two
Rebel
I shove the last bite of burger in my mouth and wipe my fingers on the paper napkin before tossing it on the tray with the empty fast-food wrapper.
“How long did Diesel say he was gonna be? I need a few hours of shut-eye, and if he’s going to be gone a while, then now seems as good a time as any.”
Lucky looks up from where he’s sitting on the bed and shrugs.
“No clue, just said one of his contacts might have something and burned out of here.”
He clicks through the basic TV channels before flicking it off and tossing the remote onto the bed. Running a hand through his blond hair, he sighs in frustration. “It’s been a year and nothing. No sightings, no trail of victims…” he trails off.
“If Garrett isn’t looking to get his thrills elsewhere, this Ava chick is likely still alive,” I remind him.
“Yeah, but at what cost, Rebel? How the fuck do you come back from something like this?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe she won’t, but that’s not what we need to worry about right now. Our job is to find her and bring her home to her brother. Nothing more, nothing less,” I remind him.
It might sound callous, but if I don’t compartmentalize, I won’t sleep at night worrying about the girl who haunts my dreams.
The door crashes open at that moment, making both Lucky and me draw our guns, but it’s just Diesel looking agitated as he runs his hand through his dark hair.
“Ravens might have found something. There’s an old abandoned winery about eighty miles from here. Their hacker, G, managed to find a tentative link between Garrett and a judge who died a few years ago. He presided over a lot of Garrett's cases, dirty as they come. In his will, he left everything to his cat. I shit you not. There are currently eight family members contesting the will, and while they do, the winery sits empty.”
I knew sleep was asking for too much. I slide my feet back into my boots and slip my Kings of Carnage cut, with a burning deck of cards emblem stitched into the back, on over my T-shirt, as Lucky follows suit.
“That’s a pretty fucking obscure lead, but it’s better than anything else we have, so let’s roll,” I tell him. Every lead has turned out to be a dead-end and even the cops are left scratching their heads. Useless fuckers.
“There’s more. G pulled the blueprints from this place and it seems there’s a series of underground cellars beneath the building. It’s where the wine used to be kept apparently, but it would make the perfect fucking place to keep a prisoner where nobody would find her,” he announces, grabbing his saddlebag from beside the table where he dumped it earlier.
“If we leave now, we can be there before sunrise. I know you’re tired and missing home, but something tells me if we don’t go now, it will be too late,” he admits.
“Gut feeling?” We’ve all learned to trust our instincts over the years; it would be stupid not to now.
“Yeah, but it’s more than that. I can’t explain it, I just know we need to move now,” he urges.
I nod, grabbing my own bag, and follow him to the parking lot.
We don’t talk, a sense of urgency taking over, driving us on. Diesel and Lucky ride out of the parking lot, and I bring up the rear.
We’re in Raven territory now, and as one of their allies, they’ve given us safe passage and allowed us to wear our cuts, which is just as well as I feel naked without it.
It's cold out tonight, the wind on my face feeling far cooler than it usually is for fall here. With a storm predicted to hit in the next few hours or so, I’m grateful we’re not driving through sheets of hail and rain.
As luck would have it, the weather holds for the whole of our journey, the first few drops of rain eventually falling as we pull up outside the winery next to a massive iron gate.
Lucky and Diesel are already there, waiting for me to climb off. I walk over to them, eyeing the gate curiously.
“That looks brand new. I thought you said this place had been abandoned while the will was being contested?” I look at Diesel, who is checking out the gate himself.
“I did, which means one of the family members put it here to keep people out, or someone else put it here to keep people in,” he replies grimly.
“Fuck,” Lucky grunts. “Looks like we are going to have to go over. Hacking the electronic keypad will take time that we don’t have.”
I look up at the six-foot gate and shrug. I’ve climbed higher.
“Let's get this over with. The storm is closing in.” I point to the waist-high brick sign declaring this place Homestead Wineries. “Let's put the bikes behind that. It will offer them some protection from the elements.”
The rain is falling faster now, so we hurry and move our asses, wasting no time in climbing over the gate.
We creep toward a building at the end of a long overgrown driveway, stealthiness not really an issue right now with the winds picking up and thunder rending the sky, masking our approach.
By the time we make it to the imposing dark building, I’m soaked and my cut and T-shirt stick to my body like a second skin.
I look over at Diesel and see he’s drawn his gun, and with a quick hand signal to indicate he’s heading around the back, he disappears.
Lucky and I draw our weapons and head to the front door. I’m surprised to find it open, given the high-tech security gate, but I count my blessings as we make our way inside and out of the rain.
I wince when the door creaks ominously, but after pausing for a moment, we don’t hear anyone approaching, so we continue on.
The place is enormous, but each room is dark and empty, except for a few abandoned pieces of furniture. A thick layer of dust coats everything. If someone has been here, they sure as shit haven't been using any of these rooms.
“Anything?” Lucky asks from beside me.
I assume the rooms on the side of the hallway he’s checking look the same as these.
“No, not a damn thing,” I grunt, looking up sharply and aiming into the shadows ahead of me when I see movement, relaxing when I realize it's just Diesel making his way inside from the back of the house.