Page 24 of Diesel

I know I’m outnumbered, but I won’t stop fighting, won’t stop resisting. The desire to survive, to live, is too strong. As hands tug me out of the cab and drag me across the graveled shoulder, I’m sure I’m going to die. They’re going to take me around the side of the truck where other drivers can’t see me, shoot me in the head, and take my load. I wouldn’t be the first or the last trucker to get killed for their cargo.

But the strangest thing happens. We get to the back of the trailer, and they keep tugging me past the trailer and all the way to the black Charger. The trunk squeaks as it opens, and they lift me, tossing me inside like a bag of trash.

“Let me go! Don’t even fucking think about closing that door,” I shout as if it’s going to do me a damn bit of good.

“Keep quiet,” the blond barks. “And you might make it through this alive.”

“Either way, you’ll wish we killed you,” the other snarls, a grotesque sneer on his face.

The trunk closes with a finalthunk,and then fear takes over.

I try to talk myself off the ledge time and time again, but the tight space and the darkness are overwhelming. The car rumbles tolife under me, and we’re back on the road. Time passes slowly, and it feels like they’ve been driving for days, weeks, even. I let my eyes close, hoping that movie shit about it improving the other senses is true.

I hear one guy call the other Ghost. Definitely a nickname, but it’s a name. The name is unfamiliar to me, but who knows what kind of items are in the trailer, and who knows if these guys are gangsters or tweakers in need of a fix? Either way, they want what I have.

The Charger slows, and I’m sure we’re exiting the freeway, but I have no fucking clue where we are or where they are taking me, never mindwhystrangers would kidnap me.

When the trunk finally opens, I attack immediately, kicking at the first figure I see without regard. He falls back, and I leap from the trunk, but I overestimate just how long I’ve been in there because my legs give out almost instantly. “Fuck!”

An arm wraps around my neck and then my waist, effectively restricting all movements except my legs as they drag me away from the Charger and to something behind me that I can’t see.

“Calm down you crazy bitch.”

“I am calm,” I shout, knocking my head back, hoping to knock that fucker’s teeth loose.

“That’s a problem,” the guy behind me says, stopping at the bottom of the steps. His grip on my waist falls away, and I try to make a run for it, but his forearm muscle tightens around my neck, and I freeze.

“Good girl,” he damn near purrs before covering my mouth with a disgusting-smelling cloth that knocks me out within seconds.

CHAPTER TEN

Diesel

I walk up to the guy waiting beside his tractor/trailer. “We got a few more pallets to load up,” I tell him. “You wanna come up here and get the paperwork signed?” Then I scan each pallet ready to leave Morgan International. Aria has made plenty of changes to how the business operates. This makes it more efficient but also difficult for the wrong people to know what the fuck we’re shipping. Good thinking.

“I’ll be right there,” the trucker replies, smiling as he smokes a cigarette and stares at the clouds.

The door on the other side of the warehouse smacks against the wall, and my brother stomps across the cement floor with a dark scowl. “What the fuck?” he shouts to no one in particular, so angry smoke is practically wafting off the top of his head.

I shrug because with Lucky, you never know. Maybe he and Aria fought over something, or maybe it’s some club shit that has him all riled up. I finish with the driver because nothing leaveslate on my watch. I wait until the driver is gone before I turn to Lucky.

He’s still pacing up and down the warehouse, obviously waiting for me. This gives me pause because I can’t think of what I could’ve done recently to piss my brother off like this.

“Diesel,” he growls.

“Lucky,” I growl back. “ Why you so fucking riled up?”

“That chick didn’t make the goddamn delivery,” he barks, still pacing. “It’s about a four-hour drive and should have already been delivered. Yesterday. Did that bitch fuck us over?” He glares at me like this is somehow my fucking fault.

“Whoa, man.” I step forward, frowning as I get in my brother’s face. “I hope you’re not saying what the fuck itsoundslike you’re sayin’, man.” Sure, he’s got me in age, but I’m bigger and thicker. Everywhere.

“So where the fuck is that shipment?”

“I don’t know,” I sigh. “Let me see what’s goin’ on.” I pull my phone out of my pocket, but the goddamn battery is dead. After that shit yesterday with the Bloodthirsty Devils, I bunked at the clubhouse after church and forgot about everything. “Shit. I need to charge it.”

“Convenient,” he snorts, shaking his head.

“Fuck you. Cassidy might be the only new person that’s been around lately, but it’s not like we don’t have plenty of people who want to fuck us over.” I know he’s angry. Fuck. I’m angry too—and worried—but his attitude isn’t helping.

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