Page 101 of Coco and the Misfits

Smiling, I remove the bolt, take out the chain and throw the door wide open. “Zach?”

Only to be jumped by two men who shove a rag into my mouth and drag me away and down the stairs.

This is it, I think, the only thought getting through the fog of utter panic. This is the end of me.

It’s them, the two guys from the Alpha Bet night. How did they find me? Why did they come for me?

Had it been them staring at me from across the street the other day and not Atticus after all? Had the noises I had heard a few times outside my door been them?

I’m kicking and squirming as best I can, screaming through the dirty rag stuffed in my mouth, but they’ve come prepared this time. One holds me as the other ties up my legs and hands with cable ties, and then they wrap me in a thin carpet and carry me down the rest of the stairs to the entrance.

Like Cleopatra, I think randomly. Wasn’t she wrapped in a carpet once to impress Mark Antony?

Nothing royal about the way they’re carrying me out of my building, though, and oh shit, they’re going to rape and kill me, aren’t they? Or sell me through a dark omega slaving web. I’ve read about that.

I just never thought I could become a target.

In full panic now, I start squirming and kicking harder, and someone slaps at my head, hissing “Be quiet!”

Stunned, I stop struggling. I can’t breathe very well, either, the carpet slowly suffocating me.

They are saying something, moving faster, and I fight the haze inside my head because I need to escape now?—

A shout, a curse, a jostle.

I tumble, my feet hitting the ground, cushioned through the carpet, but the jolt is painful. Someone growls like a beast, and I’m jostled again.

My fall is stopped and the carpet unrolls enough that I can draw a breath. The rag in my mouth is choking me. A hand pulls it out and I start coughing.

“Coco! Sweetheart, are you okay?” Atticus is gazing at me with worried eyes, cradling me to his chest. He’s kneeling on the ground, I realize as I draw breath after shaky breath and my brain reboots. “Did they hurt you?”

“I’m okay,” I croak and he curses. “I’m fine.”

“Zach! Ryder! Come back here!” he yells and I hear running steps.

He’s not here alone. Zach? And Ryder? How are the three of them here together?

He has to see the question on my face because he says, “Zach wanted to give you more than just flowers tonight and we were going to help him.”

Help him? Nothing makes sense. Why would they help him?

“Ace! Is she okay?” Zach is running toward us. “Ace!”

“Wait up! Fucking athlete.” Ryder follows him, kind of red in the face. “Not all of us are martial arts trainers.”

“Your punch was solid,” Zach says.

“Yeah, but man, you decimated them,” Ryder rumbles. “You… Coco? Those assholes, they tied her up!”

“You… all of you…” I struggle to sit up, hogtied as I am, when Atticus unrolls more of that dirty carpet off me. “What the hell is going on?”

“Hey to you, too.” Zach grins. “Nice to see you’re okay.”

“Those assholes,” Ryder grunts. “Those motherfucking sons of bitches thought they could take her away. Fuck them.”

“What did you do with them?” Atticus asks.

“Locked them up in my car,” Ryder says.

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