Page 2 of Blaze

“Roommate,” I whispered, my voice shaking.

The big guy’s brows drew together. “What?”

“Sabrina isn’t really my friend. She was my roommate, that’s it,” I explained with a wince, mentally kicking myself for correcting the description of who Sabrina was to me. Considering the current situation, it didn’t really matter. They seemed desperate to find her, and Jason had tossed me to the wolves to save his own butt.

“I don’t care if she’s your sister, best friend, roommate, or mortal enemy.” The big guy took a step closer. I moved back but bumped into the wall behind me, and his lips curved into a satisfied sneer. “You’re gonna help us find her, or I’m gonnabe forced to do something I don’t enjoy—beat the shit out of a woman.”

My gaze darted toward Jason, which made the guy who’d tugged on my arm laugh. “Don’t worry, he’ll get his ass kicked either way. Maybe worse, depending on if that bitch still has what she stole from him or not.”

“But you already?—”

Jason’s complaint broke off when the third man boxed the back of his head. “Shut the fuck up, or we’re gonna use you to show Courtney how hard we can hit.”

I shouldn’t have been surprised by his use of my name since Jason knew me, but it threw me off even more.

“Repeatedly,” the biggest one growled before turning his attention back to me. “You get that we’re serious about finding Sabrina?”

My mind was reeling, but I nodded and gulped down the giant lump in my throat. “Yes.”

“Good,” he grunted as the other two dragged Jason toward the door. “The bitch isn’t answering any of his calls, but you better hope like hell she’ll answer for you. We’ll be back in forty-eight hours, and I expect you to have some answers by then.”

Two days was nothing, especially when I already knew that Sabrina wasn’t taking my calls either. I had no hope of finding her in such a short time, which only gave me one option to get out of this mess.

Glancing over his shoulder as he neared the door, he warned, “And don’t try anything stupid, like going to the cops. We got eyes and ears everywhere, so we’d know that you tried to fuck us over like your roommate. Then our next visit would be a hell of a lot less friendly.”

The plan that had been forming in my brain flew out the window with his threat. Calling the police and getting the wrong person wasn’t worth the risk.

When the door finally shut behind them, I slumped against the hard surface, tears filling my eyes. I could’ve used a stiff drink after that scary encounter, but I was only twenty, so I couldn’t go out and buy one. And we didn’t have anything in the apartment because Sabrina drank her alcohol as quickly as she bought it.

If I made it out of this disaster, I needed to be much more careful when it came to picking my next roommate. Or maybe I would look for a weekend job so I could afford the apartment on my own. Anything would be better than going through something like this again. Assuming I survived the mess Sabrina had left behind.

2

COURTNEY

Iwas exhausted the following morning when I went to work. After spending most of the night searching every inch of Sabrina’s room and our shared space, I only managed to get about three hours of sleep. Getting up and ready for a day at the bank was rough, but I didn’t call out sick because I needed to be there to put my new plan into motion.

By the end of my shift, I was a bundle of nerves. The opportunity to look up the information that I needed hadn’t come all day long. But with my coworkers focused on reconciling their drawers, I was finally able to run a quick search on the account I was looking for—Hounds of Hellfire MC.

When I crawled into bed to try to get a little sleep at two thirty in the morning, I thought I was doomed because I hadn’t found a single clue as to where Sabrina might’ve gone. The only things she had left behind in her room were uniforms from all the jobs where she’d been fired or quit. I even dug through the pockets, desperate to find the smallest hint of her whereabouts. But there was nothing.

It wasn’t until I was half-asleep that it hit me…I’d heard her whispering on her phone a couple of days before she left.Something about the Hounds, which I had thought was an odd term for her to use since she wasn’t a fan of dogs. Or cats. Or any kind of pet, really.

It had been the middle of the night, and I was half-asleep while getting up to use the bathroom, so I had just shrugged it off as misunderstanding what she had said. But thinking back on that night, she’d been acting weirder than usual. So I pulled out my laptop and did a little internet sleuthing.

I was surprised to find there was a motorcycle club a few towns over called the Hounds of Hellfire, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they were somehow involved in her disappearance. After more digging online, I found no bad stuff about the club. No news reports about trouble they caused or members getting arrested, like what you’d see with motorcycle clubs on television shows. They owned a lot of stuff in Riverstone, including some business names that I recognized from work.

Bluesky was a regional bank, and most locals kept accounts with us. That was also apparently true of the Hounds of Hellfire MC.

Without any other leads, I figured a quick check of the bank’s system couldn’t hurt as long as I didn’t get caught. I hoped I’d find an address listed on an account that wasn’t public. Maybe a place where they’d hide a person…or at least some paperwork to help me find Sabrina.

It was a long shot, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And I was stunned to discover that my bet paid off.

There was an account with an address on one of the old county roads owned by the same LLC listed on the bar I’d read about last night, The Open Road. I’d never been out that way, but if the area was anything like the county roads surrounding my town, it would be the perfect place to hide stuff from prying eyes.

I was just about to jot down the address when the teller directly to my left said, “Hey, Courtney.”

My head jerked up, and I glanced over at Susie. “Yes?”

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