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“Cyrus.” Sammy held out his hand. “Give me your phone. I’ll call him and make him actually get off his lazy ass for once and find this fucker who stabbed my future sister-in-law.”

Handing him my phone, I looked behind me at the large hospital. “He’s under RC. Ainsley lives at an apartment run by the center.” I gave him the address and lit up another smoke.

Sammy nodded, holding the phone to his ear. “Hey, Rowan. It’s your favorite person.” He chuckled, walking away from me and leaving me to my thoughts. My prayers. My worries. My need to find this bastard and avenge Ainsley.

But for now, all I could do was wait.

***



















(Ainsley)

Iknew the possibilityof something like this happening, was few and far between but the fact it happened to me, proved that life was cruel.

With my hands tied behind my back, I was hunched over. My knees hurt, the gravel beneath me, digging into my skin. Whatever was tied around my wrists, scratched and scraped at me every time I moved. My cheek was pressed against the cold ground, my hair matted to my forehead. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t even bother asking after another girl tried and had her tongue cut out for even voicing such things.

I could still hear her screams and the noises leaving her as she gagged on her own blood. She threw up quickly after that, which I was sure didn’t make the pain any less.

I didn’t know who had taken us, but I watched movies and read enough books to know that we were taken for a purpose.

“Where are we? What are we doing here? What do you want?” another girl asked.

It was dark, so I couldn’t make out her features, but I knew that she was close by. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her to shut up for fear that the same thing would happen to her that happened to the other girl.

“Please let me go,” she sobbed. “I have a family. I have parents. I have a son. He’s two. Please.”

My eyes welled, my chest tightening over what she was saying.

“I promise I won’t tell anyone,” she pleaded, begging for her life so she could get home to her boy.

Just when I was about to tell her to be quiet, she gagged. The sound was followed by whimpers and other noises that I didn’t want to know the cause of.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried ignoring the sounds, but I couldn’t. The more I tried, it was like the louder they became. Her sobs were muffled. The sound of a moan filling the room, forced a deep chuckle from somewhere nearby. The sobs hardened, her body clearly betraying her.

Taking a deep breath, I willed my brain to let me fall into it. To disappear and find a safe place within. But when a hand grabbed my hair and pulled me upright, I knew. I no longer had a safe place. Not now. Not tomorrow. Maybe not ever.

Light burned into my eyes, making them water. I was vaguely aware of the deep voices coming from somewhere in the room I was in. Wherever that may be.