Page 11 of Bound By Valor

Standing alone outside the club around 2:30 AM, I lit a cigarette, the streets quieting as the night drew to a close. The crisp night air felt good against my skin, a welcome reprieve from the pulsing music.

Suddenly, I felt a looming presence behind me. My skin prickled, mingling with dread that had my stomach tied in knots. My shadow was never this close.Never.

And this presence was anything but protective. It felt ominous.

“Finally out of the cage, little bird,” a voice hissedfrom the darkness behind me. Suddenly, I wished I hadn’t been skipping gym for the past few days.

The next second, my world flipped. A rough hand clamped down on my shoulder, spinning me around. The sudden movement jolted me, my cigarette tumbling to the ground. The bright ember fizzled out as it hit the pavement.

I angled myself to drop a sharp elbow to his face, but then I felt it—a sharp prick on the side of my neck. Cold dread washed over me as the realization hit: I was being drugged. The world began to tilt, sounds and lights blurring into a disorienting cacophony. My limbs grew heavier, my thoughts muddled and slow, stealing my ability to fight, to scream.

“My girlfriend’s just drunk, man,” said the same muffled voice, trying to sound casual as he dragged me away. Panic surged through me; my limbs locked up, completely unresponsive despite my desperate attempts to break free. An overwhelming fear enveloped me, more intense and terrifying than anything I’d ever known.

I squinted through the heavy haze clouding my vision, my eyes straining for a sliver of clarity. There—he was a silhouette from a nightmare, the one I called Blondie, his identity clicking into place even as my capacity to react slipped away.

My world narrowed down to a pinprick of awareness, then blinked out entirely.

???

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, a fog of grogginess enveloped my senses. Abruptly, asharp slap cut through the silence, jolting me into painful awareness. It wasn’t the first; my cheeks throbbed with the sting of multiple hits, each one, brutal.

“What the fuck do you want, Blondie?” I growled through the pain, my voice hoarse and strained.

“Blondie?” he laughed, a cold, mocking sound that chilled the air. “Name’s Casteel, little bird. Now tell me where Grant is. The guy you were with that night?”

Grant.

“I don’t know him. He ran off shortly after you pussies did,” I managed to spit out, my throat searing as if scorched by acid, suggesting I might have been choked earlier.

Sadistic bastards.

“Fuck. I think this bitch was just in the wrong place, wrong time,” someone murmured to Casteel in the background.

Ignoring the comment, Casteel leaned closer, his breath foul against my face. “Listen,” he hissed, “he killed my brother. So you better tell me where he is or I’ll display your fucking body on a crosswalk.”

A bitter laugh escaped me despite the danger. “He doesn’t care. He doesn’t even know me, you idiots.”

Deep down, I prayed that my shadow was Zarek. That he’d somehow come for me.

“Fine, just keep her alive,” Casteel finally conceded. Then he whispered with a smirk. “For now.”

“Can I play with her a little?” The other guy. His insinuation stirred a different kind of panic within me.

Before I could retaliate, the room tilted slightly as I tried to find a sliver of strength, but the darknessbegan to creep in again at the edges of my vision. A sharp slap rang in my ears and my body succumbed once more to unconsciousness.

SEVEN

Zarek

“So this is what you’ve been doing, huh?” Logan’s voice hit me like a cold splash, jolting me from my stakeout haze.

“What are you doing here, Gunner?” I rolled my eyes, irritated that I’d been caught.

“What, just enjoying the show, watching you gawk at her,Ghost!”He chuckled.

“I’m not gawking. She got mixed up in something that night. I just want to make sure she doesn’t end up in trouble,” I defended sternly, my gaze locked on Leora’s lively figure among the throng of club-goers celebrating her birthday.

“Well, nothing’s happened. As you can clearly see,” Logan retorted. Only if he knew what Calzone had done, breaking into her apartment.

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