Page 13 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

The fact Zeke and Asher looked equally pissed was no consolation.

"Listen here, you motherfucker," Hunter growled. "I want the destination of the truck and I know you can get it for me. I'll wait." He listened with a scowl on his face. His expression hardened. He glanced over at me.

"Whatever he wants us to do in return for that information is going to suck," I observed.

"You won't get any sympathy from me," Zeke said.

"Me either," Asher said. He opened the front passenger door of the car, reached in and pulled out a sandwich. He bit into it and smiled at me.

"Did I mention I have a gun?" I asked.

The asshole smiled broader and went on eating. I should have killed him back in Perth. Or Melbourne. Or Sydney. Hell, there were a bunch of places I could have done it and didn't. That was what I got for being too nice.

"Yeah, yeah," Hunter was saying. "Whatever we have to do. Just get us that information." He was silent for a moment. "Fine, call me back on this number."

He pressed the screen and glared at the phone as if somehow it was in on some conspiracy against us.

"He said he doesn't know the specifics, because he leaves that to the asshole who works for him. There are several different places they could take Lila to be auctioned. They keep it random so the police can't figure it out and they don't tell Caleb until they get there. They know what will happen to them if they try to screw him over, but this way if the police go after Caleb, he can't give them a thing and they can't pin anything on him. The dickhead in charge will take the fall."

"That sounds like Caleb," Zeke said. "Did he say who the dickhead in question was?"

"Hades fucking Turner," Hunter growled. "His brother, Ares, is dating Lila's sister, Kennedy. He's an asshole, but Hades is a thousand times worse. If he touches Lila, I'll rip his bloody arms off."

"Get in line," I snarled. "Hades is a massive prick. I'm not at all surprised he runs this part of Caleb's operation. It's exactly the thing he'd get off on. Having power over other people, especially helpless women." Lila was far from helpless, but when it came to Hades, I hated to think of them in the same room, much less him holding her in the back of a disgusting truck with other women.

Hunter paced back and forward in front of the headlights. With the fence behind him, he looked like an angry, caged tiger. One with claws ready to tear people apart.

"Any idea which direction the truck went?" Zeke asked. He looked up and down the otherwise empty road. We were in the middle of nowhere. Kilometres away from anything. Of course we were. Caleb wouldn't run an operation like this in the middle of the suburbs. That was more Samuel Bell's style.

"None," I replied. "Hunter and I were chained up back from the road."

"Chained up?" Asher huffed a laugh.

"Yeah, in case anyone gives a shit, we were drugged and kidnapped." I glared at the drummer.

That made Asher laugh even more. "Wait until I tell Abbie that. She's going to find it hilarious." He pointed a finger at me. "Don't say you didn't deserve it. How many times have you kidnapped her? Twice?"

I shrugged. "Something like that, but no harm came to her."

"It doesn't seem like much harm came to you either," Zeke observed. "Excuse me if I don't give you any sympathy either. I'll save that for Lila and the other women in her company."

"Who kidnapped you anyway?" Asher asked. "Not that I care or anything."

"Funny you should ask, one of them was your brother, Dane. Helped by Zachary Sinclair and Chloe Bell." Otherwise known as a pack of assholes.

"How about that, Dane getting his hands dirty." Asher spoke lightly, but he looked disgusted. For once, we agreed on something. Had hell frozen over?

Zeke's phone rang. Not with a Wolf Venom tune as I would have suspected, but one from Blazing Violet. There was hope for Zeke after all.

Hunter answered before the first bar was done. "What?" He frowned as he listened. "Yep. Yeah. Okay. We know the place. Yeah, we know we owe you one for this. You know where to find us after we find Lila." He sounded like he wanted to tell Caleb to fuck off to hell, but for now we needed him. As long as we did, we'd play more or less nice.

He mashed his thumb down on the screen and handed the phone back to Zeke. "Let's get the fuck out of here. We need to get to her before—" He shook his head and didn't finish his sentence.

He didn't need to. We all knew what might happen if we didn't get there in time.

"I'll text the location to Slade," Zeke said. "He can meet us there."

I slipped into the back seat of the car and tried not to look like I was freaking out on the inside.

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