Page 60 of Secret

The car behind suddenly takes to the other side of the road, so that it’s next to us. I’m thankful we are in the middle of a country road and there aren’t any other cars around. I look across Blake into the van and can't see anything other than the shadow of a person in the window, as it’s too dark. I’m wondering what the hell they want when suddenly the van hits our car, hard, and we fly off the road. My scared face looks to Blake’s as the car flips.

The next few moments are blurry. I remember screaming and hearing banging, then pain. I try to wake myself up as I'm pulled from the car by my one arm, and I hear a crack followed by blinding pain in my other arm. I can’t see or hear anything. There’s nothing but the pain in my arm for a while. But then I try to look up. I can feel my head pounding as I lift it slightly, and one side of my face feels wet and warm. I know its blood pouring down the one side of my face. I try to ignore it, the arm that's not being pulled is so painful I can’t think of anything else.

When I finally look up to who is carrying me, I’m a little taken aback to see the face of a massive, bald man. The scary-looking man has a snake tattoo down his neck, and I don’t know if it’s the pain that is making it look like the snake is eating his ear or not.

The man’s gaze hits mine as he walks, and he throws me over his shoulder. Everything is blurry, but then I remember as my head hits his back.

“Blake's in the car, my boyfriend, please help him,” I slur my words and I’m not sure if anyone can understand what I just said.

“Shut up, little girl,” he says in a cracked voice. I shiver and try to fight him to make my way back to Blake. I try screaming Blake’s name, but I feel myself being thrown into a van. The door slams behind me as everything goes dark. The pain from my head is now blinding as I try to lift it, only to see a skinny, brown haired-man going through a box next to me.

"Izzy," I hear my name being shouted by Blake, and the next noise I hear is a gunshot. Before I pass out, I scream and scream until a sharp prick on my neck takes me into darkness.

Chapter25

BLAKE

Why does my head hurt so fucking much? I ask myself as I slowly take in my surroundings. I'm in a car and, other than my head banging, everything feels all right. My eyes blur as I open them.

I’m hanging by my seatbelt, and I’m not fool enough not to realise the ringing in my ears isn’t a good sign. I can smell smoke, but I can’t see much in the dark night with just the car lights shining across the empty field. I look to the driver’s seat to see it empty. I unclip myself from the seat belt and fall to the ground with a thud on my side. I’m lucky I didn’t hit my head on the way. I look back at the empty driver seat, and it all comes back. I remember the car driving us off the road.

Izzy was driving.

Where the hell is Izzy?I think as my whole body starts panicking, and my eyes dart around the outside of the car. The broken glass cuts through my hand as I pull myself up to my door, but I don’t feel anything as my mind desperately thinks of where Izzy is.

I slide through the passenger seat and out the door, and as soon as my feet hit the cold ground, I see a shadow of a large man with a girl on his shoulder walking toward a van.

I feel sick as I clumsily start running toward the van as he throws her inside of it. I hear her say my name in a slurred voice, and a rush of fear fills me as I try to run faster toward the van.

"Izzy!" I shout into the silent night with only the sounds of the van’s engine and the sizzling noise from the crash behind me. The giant bald man, who had Izzy, turns to me, and I recognise him instantly from the snake tattoo on his neck.Izzy is in far worse trouble than I ever thought. Fuck. I need to get to her.

"Stop," I say breathlessly as I run toward him with all of my strength. I’m too focused on Izzy in that van, and how she might be hurt from the crash, that I don’t look at the snake tattooed man as I run the last few metres to the van. The idea of anyone taking her is scaring me more than anything else at the moment. I don't see the second guy come out of the van, but I do hear the gunshot and feel the stabbing pain in my upper arm.

I fall to the ground in blinding pain. As I lie on the cold earth, I hear the van take off into the night with Izzy. I want to shout and scream, but everything goes black.

My eyes open to a blurry night sky, and I quickly realise I must have blacked out.

I have no choice but to look at my arm as the pain is sharp, so I rip my shirt at the top with my other arm so I can see. It isn’t bleeding too much, the bullet must have gone straight through as I can feel the exit wound on the other side. It takes all of my strength to get myself up off the ground, but thoughts of my time with Izzy flash through my mind, making it possible.

I walk slowly back to my wrecked car as it’s on its side and open the boot to find my gym bag. I tear a shirt up carefully, even though it kills my arm to do, but I’m fucking lucky that I have a pocket knife in my boot. I grit my teeth as I look back at my arm, I know what I fucking need to do. I force more thoughts of Izzy into my head as I make a knot around the bullet wound on my arm with the torn shirt, pulling it tight with my good hand and teeth. I have to hold back a scream, as, fucking hell, it hurts so much. I swear I saw my mother’s face and then Izzy’s as my vision blurs again.

I have a strange thought pop into my head of Izzy smiling at me as I hold her in my arms. Izzy’s strawberry scent filling my mind as she sweetly kisses me as I watch her lean back and smile at me. I know there will never be another girl like her for me. I would die a thousand deaths for my beauty.

My Izzy, my beautiful girl, gets me through the next few minutes without passing out, and I remind myself I need to move because I know who fucking has her.

I shake my head and call a cab with my phone, which was in my pocket, after trying to ring the brothers first. I’m fucking lucky I have spare cash in my gym bag too.

It takes a little while for me to walk down the road and find the end, to tell the cab driver where I am. I can't have him seeing the bloody crash because he will call the police, and Izzy doesn't have that much time. I pull a hoodie on, and, fuck, that hurts, but I'm so buzzed with worry about Izzy, it doesn't matter.

My fear for her life is overpowering any concern I have for my body now. I can pass out when she is safe in my arms.

I try calling all the brothers and none of them answer, it makes me want to punch something. I guess they think I'm calling to say sorry, but they still should have answered the bloody phone.

Fucking hell.They need to answer their phones, I think as I call Harley’s phone again. I send some messages asking them to call me, and it’s important, but none are read as I wait.

The cab finally pulls up and the driver just frowns at me as he asks for the address. I tell him Izzy’s address, and he just nods at me and drives. I’m lucky this one isn’t a chatty guy.

When we pull up, I pay him one hundred pounds and ask him to forget seeing me. The man looks at me for a second before he agrees. I walk straight up to their house and open the door, not bothering to knock as we don’t have any fucking time. That monster could be doing anything to Izzy.

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