Page 17

“Thanks, are you sure?” I ask, taking it from her.

“Absolutely,” she says, popping her piece into her mouth. I do the same, chewing slowly as the minty take fills my senses.

May as well have fresh breath to kill people. My lips twitch in amusement as I toss my towel into the garbage and walk toward the door.

“Hey, what do you think about this place? It’s gorgeous, don’t you think?” the girl asks, forcing me to turn around. I hate having anyone at my back, and now she’s reminded me of that.

“Yeah, they’ve done a really great job,” I say, chewing my gum to get over how much I also hate small talk.

Grabbing the door, I open it wide so that she’ll have to walk out first. The motion makes me lightheaded, and I frown as I begin to feel fuzzy. Fuck, something is wrong.

“Are you okay? You look a little pale,” the girl says, her arm moving around me to help me out of the bathroom.

“No, don’t touch me,” I complain, my words coming slow. Fuck, whatever this is, it’s working too fast.

Was it the gum? Can’t trust fucking anyone. This girl was way too smooth.

“Shhh. You’re so pretty. Dane is going to have fun with you,” she coos. “He likes his girls a little spicy.”

Moaning, I jerk away from her only to run into a hard man’s chest. Without hesitation, he lifts me over his shoulder, his hand squeezing my wrists hard.

“It’s your own damn fault if you fall,” he grunts. “I guess the gum does work?”

“Like a charm,” the girl says, amused. “Most women can’t resist a stick of gum when they’re in a club. Now to find an exit.”

“Should have thought this out better,” I grumble, twisting my body despite how tired I am. Everything is telling me to go to sleep, and my limbs feel heavy.

I can’t even spit the fucking gum out because even my tongue feels like it’s swelling. What I thought makes perfect sense has the fuckhead holding me chuckle.

“I have no idea what you said, gorgeous, but your holes are the only things I’m really interested in,” he says, spreading terror through me, despite the warm fuzzy feeling inside of me that is telling me I’m safe.

My very words are slurring, and I can feel myself starting to black out. God only knows what’ll happen if I do, so I dig my nails into my palms. The prick of pain helps, fighting the effects of the drug in my gum.

Who the fuck thinks of shit like this? I swear, if this is the new street drug, Mr. Emil and my father are gonna shit bricks.

“I’ll find an exit,” she says with a giggle. “I can’t wait to watch you fuck her, baby.”

“You’re so good to me, Livie,” he whispers as her heels move away. I hope I can remember her name, because my knife needs some time with the little bitch.

Using bathroom girl etiquette to drug me is just the lowest someone can go. I hate to play the damsel in distress, but it’s needed. Dammit, I’m never going to live this down.

“Help!” I scream, the word garbled as I decide to give up on words and just make as much noise as possible.

“Oh fuck, no, hush,” he says, lifting me until I slide down his body so he can cover my mouth. It’s all I can do to sag against him, my energy quickly running out.

“The hell is going on in my club?” Jared yells, and my eyes begin to roll back.

“Dammit,” the man mutters, beginning to drop me.

“I need security by bathroom A in the Above right now,” Jared growls into his ear comm as I begin to flop to the ground.

Time is moving at a weird pace for me and my body hits the ground as the guy who was about to abduct me gets clotheslined by the guard as he tries to get the fuck out of the hallway. Jared lifts me into his arms, worry in his eyes, and the worst thing happens.

I almost choke on the damn piece of gum. Finally able to spit it out, it hits him in the face.

As the darkness creeps in, I whisper, “Evidence,” before passing out.

JARED

I’m not even fazed by the fact that I have gum and saliva on my face, I’m pissed that someone tried to kidnap Liliana.

“Who are you working for?” I ask, my voice dark and raspy as I walk over to the man being held by my security guard.

“I’m not telling you shit!” he yells, making me wince.

“How do you feel about shoving him in a room where he can hang out for a while?” I ask my guard.

He eyes Lili before nodding. “Can I hit him a little?” William asks. “She looks like she’s been drugged, sir.”

Glancing down at her, and the way she spit out her gum, I nod.

“I’m taking her to the hospital now. Just need to get everything settled,” I mutter.

“I’ll handle it,” he promises. “If that shit is on the gum, you don’t want it on your skin for long, boss.”

Cursing to myself, I call Theo and Elijah on the comms unit.

“We need to go to the hospital. Calmly come find me at the office. I need to get out of this hallway before someone flips their shit when they see me,” I say. “Liliana got drugged in our damn club, guys. I also need a napkin. Don’t ask.”

“ Never ,” Theo says sarcastically. “ I’ll grab you a napkin.”

“ On my way,” Elijah grunts. “ I’ll alert the managers.”

Moving quickly, William half picks up the dick who dropped Lili, his arm banded around his throat so he can’t make a sound. Following him, I smirk as he walks into a cleaning supply room and locks himself inside.

That’ll work just fine. It’s also far enough away from everything that no one will hear any yelling. Looking around, I see a redhead walk past me, and I glare at her back, wondering if she did this to Lili. She doesn’t look back though, simply stepping into the bathroom.

Turning away, I walk to the office and find Elijah and Theo on my heels. Sitting for a second with Lili in my arms, I peel the gum off my face with the napkin.

“I want this tested,” I grunt, after waiting for the door to be closed. “Someone is drugging people with gum, if what I’m understanding from Lili is correct before she passed out.”

“What the fuck?” Elijah mutters. “Can people not get pussy without drugging them anymore? I don’t want this shit in our club.”

“It could have happened to anyone,” I remind them. “Let’s get to the hospital, and I’ll call in a favor to ensure she’s checked in as a Jane Doe and that we get this gum tested.”

“Do you feel anything?” Theo asks as I stand. Shaking my head, I tell him that I don’t. “I’m still driving. Let’s go out one of the back doors.”

Following Theo, we hide from sight as we leave. What a way to have to leave our opening night, but the club is a hit regardless. Our managers are trained well enough to take over in a pinch, so this will be a good trial run for them as well.

Getting into the car, I hold Liliana in my arms as Theo drives. He drives with a heavy foot to the hospital, and Elijah gazes over his shoulder at her. I don’t blame him one bit since I’m doing the same thing. Her breathing is slow, my fingers on her pulse as I hold her body against me.

Your father will skin me alive if you die, Lili.

She’s a badass, kills people as easily as breathing, but how does a girl protect herself against something like this?

I hope that William will be able to get information out of the guy who was trying to leave with her, including if he’s the one who gave her the gum.

Although, the odds are very low that she would have taken gum from a man. That means…

“The guy who was going to walk out with her had an accomplice,” I grunt. “My gut says it was a woman.”

“You sound like a detective or some shit,” Elijah mutters half heartedly as he stares at Lili.

“Doesn’t make his point any less valid,” Theo says. “Do you think she’d have taken gum from a guy? That’s some girl shit. Don’t girls have some kind of girl etiquette for club bathrooms?”

“If there is one, she definitely broke it with Liliana,” Elijah says. “Are you sure she’s breathing?”

His voice is high and worried. I understand it, because my heart is thudding as I continually check to see how far we are from the hospital. Instead of waiting for Rachelle to die in a box, we’re bringing her girlfriend in because she was drugged.

A light night before kidnapping indeed.

“Five minutes out,” Theo says, replying to an unasked question in the vehicle. “She’s going to be fine, Elijah. If someone is dosing people with roofies or some shit, she’ll get rid of them herself. On second thought, drugs could be why she’s in Santa Barbara.”

“Ignacio’s father doesn’t run drugs or skin,” I remind him. “You could be right that she may be hunting someone down. She was at the bar the other night. I saw her.”

“We did too. Could Lili be bait and the grim reaper?” Elijah asks.

“Too much conjecture, not enough answers,” I sigh as Theo pulls into the hospital parking lot. He uses a side lot where we won’t run into as many people, and this entrance doesn’t seem to be as well used. “It all tracks, though. Without her to tell us, it’s hard to know what the fuck is going on.”

Theo pushes the car’s gearshift into park and turns off the car before we all bail out. Walking quickly, I hope she decides to trust us, even if we don’t deserve it at all.

THEO

Her phone has been going off non-stop in the little plastic bag that they put her shit in.

There’s an awful lot of weapons on her body along with a bracelet, which are also in the bag next to me.

Liliana brings the name Warrior Barbie to a new level, and frankly is fucking scary.

There’s not a firearm on her, so they left the bag on the bedside table and started running tests.

She has an IV to help flush her system out, and the nurse said that Lili was lucky we found her. Jared said that he found her just outside of a bar, but that he didn’t know much else. The gum is with someone we trust to test it, and they’re also running blood tests on her to see why she collapsed.

I mentioned that I was worried she may have been drugged, and the nurses said that was a possibility they were exploring. Jared, Elijah, and I are just waiting for her to wake up at this point.

We’ve been here for over an hour, and she hasn’t fucking twitched.