Page 133 of If You Give an Artist a Killer Muse

Oh god… What if it’s Rurik? I don’t know what to do if something happened to him.

“It’s Oscar!” She cries out, “Oscar never came home last night. We checked the security footage from the gallery, and some assholes knocked him out in the parking lot and took him!”

Fuck.

Dread washes over me.

“We’ll find him, Nat. Don’t worry.” Then I dare ask, “Was… Was Rurik with him?”

“No,” Nat says, “No, he wasn’t. Rurik was supposed to work with him last night, but I don’t know what happened. Just… Briar, I need you.”

“Send me the coordinates, and I’ll meet you there,” I say, already gearing up.

*-*-*-*

As soon as I arrive at the spot, Nat throws herself at me. I can feel her tears pooling on my neck as I hold her. I look over her shoulder to see Mr. Rogers looking disheveled as he’s speaking to one of his men.

“What’s happening?” I ask once Nat pulls away from me. “Update me with what’s happening right now.”

Nat swallows hard before nodding. I can tell she’s trying to shift her emotions and treat this like our usual work, but I’m sure it’s hard when it involves someone she cares about.

As soon as she finishes explaining, the blackness I felt earlier turns to crimson red. All I can picture is blood. Not mine, not Nat’s, not even Oscar’s… But the assholes who kidnapped him.

Oscar is like a big brother to me; he’s part of my family. Someone is hurting a member of my family.

“Do we know what the motive is?” I ask Mr. Rogers, who came to us while Nat explained everything.

He shakes his head, looking solemn. “The audio in the footage wasn’t working. But Oscar was putting up a fight. Another CCTV caught the car while they drove past it, and we could read the license plate.” He nods at the man he spoke to. “One of my men is tracking it down now.”

“What’s the plan?” I ask, rubbing Nat’s back as she tries to keep her shit together.

“Do what you girls do best.” Mr. Rogers answers. “But you’ll have us as backup.”

Before we could say anything, the man tracking the car interrupts us.

“We got them. They’re in an empty parking lot behind an abandoned mall.”

As soon as we got the location information, we made a quick plan and bolted out of there. The plan is to drive over there, with Nat and me in one car and Mr. Rogers and his team in another. We assess the situation before saying the magic word when we need help, knowing we can hear and speak to each other in our earpieces.

Immediately after me and Nat pull into the dark parking lot, we step out of the car quietly. Seconds later, we are greeted with high beams aiming right at us.

“Dude,” I complain, lifting my hand to cover my eyes. “There is such a thing as too much lighting. Turn that off. I don’t want you guys to see my zits and blackheads.”

“We knew you two would come,” Asshole #1 says, walking in front of the lights.

Me and Nat glance at each other before looking back at him.

“Sir, if you wanted our attention or Nat’s attention, you could have just called,” I say, feeling for my gun behind my back.

“Lift your hand, or I will shoot him!” A random guy next to him says.

Shit, I didn’t even see him there. That fucking high beam is literally blinding me.

“You know, it’s rude to have your high beams on when there’s someone in front of you,” I snap before immediately taking my gun and shooting the lights off.

Nat already shot the random guy by the time I was done. As soon as our eyes adjusted to the darkness, I notice it was just Asshole #1.

“Huh,” I say out loud, hoping the team can hear me in their earpiece. “There’s only one of you?”

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