Page 107 of Devious Gambit

Ten minutes to drive there, another ten minutes to wait around for the mysterious messenger, the exchange should take five minutes at the most, then ten minutes to drive back to me again. That meant Jace should’ve been home forty minutes ago. Forty minutes.

He’s not answering my messages and that only accelerated my anxiety. I didn’t want to seem like a pestering needy girlfriend, but I was really worried. I rang his number and it went straight to answer phone, which meant his phone was turned off.

Every scenario bounced about in my mind. He’d gone to the police with the information. He got sidetracked by that big Cody player or a girl and went elsewhere. Or maybe it was a prank by a couple of friends to lure him to a sleazy party and they’re all sitting around drinking and having a laugh about it. It was Saturday night after all, football season was over and there was much to celebrate.

Worse of all, I wondered if he was hoodwinked by the mysterious messenger and maybe Cody was part of the betrayal. I never trusted that guy from the moment I laid eyes on him.

I changed into jeans and a hooded sweatshirt and started pacing back and forth. I didn’t know what to do. “Should I go down there? Maybe he doesn’t want me down there.”

I rang Lise for input, since she had plenty of experience with devious activities. I let it ring twice before I ended the call, worried that Jace might call me while I was on the phone with her. My head was about to explode.

My phone rang, but it wasn’t the call I was hoping for.

“Are you alright?” Lise asked me.

“Jace has gone to meet someone who said they know the identities of the rapists,” I spoke so fast, I doubted she caught on.

“Shit. When was that?” she asked.

“An hour ago. That’s too long, Lise, I’m really worried.”

“Did he go alone?”

“No, with Cody.”

“So, he’ll be okay then.”

“You think?”

“What could go wrong? Who would be dumb enough to rough up those two big solid guys?”

“I guess.”

“Ring me when you find out the rapist’s names, the king and the dirty rascal.”

“Okay.”

I checked my messages as soon as I clicked off with Lise. Nothing. Not a damn thing.

FORTY FIVE

Jace

They got me good.

Thoughts of Rhys kept me going until my knuckles cracked and head almost split in two. I was wrong. Four against one were bad odds. They pinned me down as I tried to kick, punch and bite, threw the bag over my head and bound my wrists and ankles. When they spoke, they used a voice changer, which amplified the creepiness of the whole situation. It was like four try-hard Darth Vaders got the urge to beat me up. The assholes were obviously trying to make up for deficiencies elsewhere.

I couldn’t see a thing and my body was screaming out in pain. Every jolt, every movement shot through me like a bolt of lightning, reverberating into my bones and bruising my organs. I refused to cry out and held back from wincing every time they kicked me in the guts.

I became weightless and could hear crunching in the snow as they carried me along. My body was on fire. I had to keep myself alive. I had to keep breathing. If I lived through this, I’d hunt the fuckers down and kill them.

Rhys. Think of Rhys.

I kept quiet, dead quiet. Without the use of my sight, I had to rely on my hearing and sense of smell to ascertain where I was. I wasn’t hearing anything apart from their footsteps in the snow and their breaths.

“Over there,” one Darth Vader directed.

For a second I was flying and without the use of my arms to shield my fall, my ribs and jaw cracked when I landed. The metallic taste of blood entered my mouth and my cheek was burning cold.

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