Page 53 of Eagle

He nodded, agreeing, and it grew silent between us as we waited for our brothers to join us. When they did, I motioned them into the garage and closed the door.

Now all we had to do was wait.

That was the hardest part.

Chapter 22

Leona

I was terrified. Not because I didn’t think that the guys would find us, but because of what these men had planned for us. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before, and I felt doubly bad for Ella when she told me she’d been taken by the same MC the year before. She’d gone into shock as soon as the van doors had closed, and she hadn’t said much since. Jillian had filled me in on what had happened to Ella as we’d tried to keep her in the moment and not get lost in her head.

We’d been taken to a place out in the country, near to Georgetown, and were now sitting on the ground inside a large cage, much like the one sitting across from us with Lola’s dogs inside. The dogs had been happy to see her, and she’d run to their cage, only to be dragged away by her hair and tossed inside the cage we were now in.

Bastards!

The men who’d taken us had left after that, and we’d searched for a place to sit down that wasn’t covered with dog poop and other unidentifiable matter. There was blood, but none of us mentioned it. Val and Jillian were flanking Ella where she sat quietly in the corner of the cage. Lola and I were sitting against a wall of crates. At first, I’d thought that the crates were inside the cage, but a closer look had revealed that they were actually being used as a wall to keep whoever was inside trapped. We were actually surrounded by a three-sided fence.

“I hope the guys get here soon.”

No one said anything in response to Val’s comment. It was wishful thinking. No one was asking the obvious question—how would they find us? I thanked God that Delta had witnessed what had happened and was able to give them some information that might help.

“What do you think they’re going to do to us?”

Since Jillian was looking at me, I offered her a smile that I didn’t feel. I didn’t even want to think about the possibilities. “Maybe we should focus on getting out of here.” I began to look around the cage. There was a combination lock on the door, so that option was out. I stood up and turned, studying the crates that Lola and I were resting against.

“Why do you think they took us?”

“They said to teach our men a lesson,” Val reminded Ella, and I glanced at them long enough to see Val giving her best friend a comforting hug.

“What are you looking for?” Lola questioned, getting to her feet.

“A way out,” I mumbled to myself. I went to the side fence where it bumped up against the crates and inspected it closely. “Oh...my...God!” I couldn’t help myself and started to laugh. “They can’t be that stupid!” I glanced around at the others. “Can they?”

“What?” Ella asked with hope in her voice. She was looking where I was looking but hadn’t seen it yet.

Before I said anything more, I verified that my suspicions were correct by studying the area in question. When I gave the fence a shove, the whole thing moved slightly. “Oh, my God!” I said again, this time in awe. “This fence isn’t even attached to the crates!”

“What?” Val climbed to her feet and went to the other side, doing the same thing to see if that side was also unattached. “Neither is this side!” she said enthusiastically. “These must be the dumbest kidnappers in the world!”

All of us laughed, but it didn’t last long, as we knew that our situation was dire, and we didn’t know when the Maniacs would return. Ella and Jillian joined us, and the five of us stood there looking at the crates for a second. We’d already figured out that the sides moved, but just enough to reveal that they weren’t attached. We tried several times to push them away from the crates, but because they were connected to the fence at the front, they wouldn’t bend outward enough to allow us sufficient room to slip through.

“We need to move some of the crates,” I said, moving to one corner. “Shit!” I swore when the crate I’d chosen wouldn’t budge. “Someone help me.”

Val quickly stepped forward, and together we pulled one forward and out of the way.

“God, they’re heavy!” she huffed.

I nodded. “We need to move these three, and then we should be able to slip through,” I said as I moved to the second crate. This time all of us worked together, and we soon had a space cleared from the wall that was big enough to get through.

The elation in Jillian’s voice was equal to what I was feeling. “I can’t believe it was this simple!”

“They obviously designed these pens to keep dogs in, not people.” I rushed to the door and listened for any movement outside.

“What about my dogs?” Lola was right behind me.

“Honey, right now we have to focus on getting out of here. The men can deal with getting the dogs back.” I glanced back at everyone, undecided if I should open the door. What if someone was out there?

“Maybe we should look for a way out at the other end,” Val suggested.

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