Page 51 of Finding Her Panthers

Jax and I give each other a look and turn back to her and speak simultaneously. “Yes.”

“Men are stupid.” She shakes her head in exasperation.

“I’m not going to argue with that.” I hold my hands up, surrendering. Jax is pretending to be interested in something on the computer.

“Uh-huh.” She glares at both of us then gets up to get a cup of coffee.

“Have you heard from Blue?” I ask.

“He should be here soon, too. He said Ryker had something else we would be interested in. But he wouldn’t tell me over the phone. I don’t trust the phones now either. If we can, make sure if it’s anything sensitive, we do it in person.”

“That reminds me, I haven’t checked my phone for days. I keep putting it in my pocket but spacing out that I even have it.” She pats her pockets, coming up empty. “I must have left it upstairs with everything.” She gives me a naughty glance. “I’ll be right back.”

“How does it feel? Not that I can’t tell, but it went well?” Jax brings my attention back to him. The view isn’t as good as watching her walk away.

“Very well. I feel whole now. Like she has always been the missing piece.” We share an understanding look.

“There's a text on here from an unknown number. I never have any messages unless it’s Penny.” Harmony’s voice is filled with panic, holding the phone in front of her. “Should I open it? I’m afraid it’s going to be something I don’t want to see.”

Jax and I jump from our seats. Jax reaches for the phone. “Shit, this can’t be good. It was sent last night.” He cringes at her anguished face. “Blue’s here. Maybe we should wait for him.” We all stare down at the phone, uneasy until Blue walks in the door.

“What’s going on?” he asks, taking off his coat and joining us.

“I got a message on my phone. It’s a video.” Harmony motions to it with shaky hands.

“Shit.” Blue glances from her face to the phone.

“Are you ready? Prepare yourself,” Jax warns her, his finger hovering over the play button.

“As ready as I can be. Do it.” She takes a deep breath as he pushes it.

At first, all we can see is a black void. Then a distorted voice starts talking as a bright light illuminates an extremely beat-up Penny, slumped in a chair, her wrists and feet bound to the legs. Harmony hisses at the screen, her fists clenched.

“We have the one you love the most.” A garbled, robotic voice says. “We propose a trade. You for your sister. Will you sacrifice yourself for her? She did nothing wrong except love you. But you, you are the betrayer. Will you betray her?” Suddenly a long pole shoots a bolt of electricity from behind the camera into Penny, causing her to shoot up straight and cry out in agony. I shoot over to Harmony, holding her, stopping her from falling to the floor. “We will contact you tomorrow night with details. If you don’t show up, who knows what will happen to her. Maybe we will have some fun with her.” The video ends right after Penny looks to the camera with dead eyes.

Harmony is dead weight in my arms. I think she passed out until Jax started talking to her.

“Don’t fall apart. The good thing is she is alive. They don’t intend to kill her.” He shakes her arms, looking into her eyes intently. “You want to kill them, right?”

“Yes,” she grits out through clenched teeth.

“If you fall apart, they get what they want.” Jax slides his arms up to her face, his hand molding to her throat. “Just imagine the moment you have Cindy in front of you, the satisfaction you will get from torturing her.” His words snap her out of her helplessness. She gains her feet and pulls away from me.

“Thank you, Jax.” Her voice still isn’t right. It’s like she locked away all of the emotion from it. Nothing is coming down the bond either, which scares me the most.

“Let’s figure out if there are any clues in that video.” Jax looks at Blue. “Any ideas?”

“There isn’t much to go on,” he says, casting uneasy glances at Harmony.

“Jesus, Blue,” I scold. Sometimes he has no tact.

“What? She doesn’t need us to lie to her. She saw for herself. The background is black, and we can’t see anything behind her.” He waves his hand to Harmony.

“I appreciate the honesty, Blue.” Her voice is monotone, and even Blue has the sense to look concerned.

“Why even disguise the voice, though? We know it’s Cindy,” I ask.

“Unless whoever else is working with her is someone we know. Someone that we trust.” Jax crosses his arms, his jaw is stiff.

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