Page 86 of Pray for the Damned

If I let him get me outside, that could be it. At least while I’m here, there are witnesses, people that might care if I live or die. But as soon as I’m out on the street, no one will be able to save me.

It’ll be all over.

I finally look up at the couple that was helping me, only to find them being held by two men I noticed at one of the back tables.

Of course he didn’t come here alone.

“Please don’t hurt them,” I whisper. “They were only trying to help me. Please don’t kill them for that.”

He chuckles. “I think you should be more worried about your own life, sweetheart.” He shoves me out the side door and into the parking lot, and I go without fighting. I need to save my energy and fight when I have the chance, because right now all fighting is going to get me is shot.

I catch sight of a black van, and my stomach bottoms out. Fuck. They could take me anywhere, and no one would know. No one would know where I am. They wouldn’t be able to find me.

The closer we get, the harder my heart beats until I’m certain it’s about to thump right out of my chest, and yet my feet continue to carry me to my own demise.

The door opens, and I’m shoved inside, my body hitting the metal ground hard and tearing a cry from my throat.

“Shut the bitch up, you know how I hate listening to women cry,” he barks out, but I’m too distracted by the pain and panic as they war for dominance.

Another set of hands grasps my shoulders, and I’m tugged up into a sitting position at the same time someone else secures my wrists with cable ties, but it’s all a blur through the tears I refuse to shed.

I don’t want these people to see my weakness. I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of my tears.

Except when they move away from me, and I realize there’s someone else across from me, a sob breaks free.

Emmett is tied up, his face black and blue and his knuckles torn and bruised from where he put up a fight. His dark eyes lock on mine, and I see every single emotion I’m feeling swirling around in the depths a moment before the van jerks forward and I almost topple over.

“Stay calm,” he whispers.

I nod, my neck moving of its own accord.

At least I’m not alone.

At least someone knows where I am.

Even if they’re just as trapped as I am.

At least if they’re about to kill me, Emmett can be the last thing I see before my life ends.

That small amount of comfort allows me to rest against the side of the van, conserving my strength for whatever awaits us on the other side of this drive.

CHAPTER SIXTY

EMMETT

Imust be rusty because somehow I allowed them to get a jump on me.

Fuck.

How could I let this happen?

One minute I’m on my way to the club to see Waverly while Kade is working, and the next I’m shoved in the back of a van and beaten until I had no choice but to surrender. If I kept fighting, they would have started breaking bones, and it’s a whole hell of a lot harder to escape when your limbs are broken.

When I watched my father throw Waverly into the van, my own panic almost overwhelmed me, but I forced my face to remain neutral, the mask I wore for years slipping into place with ease.

Kade will find us.

I know he has trackers on Waverly, and if he’s smart, he has trackers on me the same way I do him. But there’s no way for me to know.

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