Page 49 of In It for the Long Ride

“Are at a truck stop on I-70 between Greenville and Effingham,” I growled.

“Good. Trista is waiting at your clubhouse. I’ll call you on Monday.”

The black sedan shot forward, and I stumbled in my effort to hop out of the path. Demetri waved at the enforcers and got inside. The mobsters broke up Damien and Mak’s scuffle and assisted the former toward his brother’s sedan.

“Good seeing you, boy.” Damien grinned, before ducking inside.

“We need to move,” I raised my voice so Mak would stop chasing the sedans. It wasn’t like he was going to do any damage on foot!

When I turned, Easy was doing the thousand-yard stare that I’d seen so much of in the war.

“Now, soldier!” I roared, and he twitched out of it.

Chapter 22

Daisy

I wasn’tsure I’d have the strength to lift my hand and open the doors when I arrived, hell, I could barely see with the tears burning my eyes. I became aware of sirens, so many sirens in the distance.

They stunned me for a moment, and I stood there with my eyes closed as the sound grew closer. The roar of motorcycles raced toward me from the opposite direction and all the tears broke free. They were two sounds I’d grown to hate. Two sounds that always changed my world, and it was never for the good when they merged into a chorus like this.

“Daisy!” Carl roared.

I opened my eyes and stared at him through the wisps of long curls that blew around my face. The gravel around us crunched as police cruisers flooded the lot. I gasped as Eric and Mak Miller jerked open the doors of the moving trailer.

I didn’t get close enough to see inside, I was afraid to. I kept my gaze trained on my nephew while my heart slowly started to break for Mak. He’d dropped at the door after a single look inside. The man was currently clutching his mouth, his cheeks and the back of his neck were lobster red.

Eric dipped inside as police raced past me.

“Sir! Eric, get back,” the sheriff yelled.

“She’s alive!” he called, and I couldn’t help it, I clutched at Carl and started to cry again.

“Oh my God.” I started to chant as I buried my face in his chest.

He hugged me and turned toward Steel Cages like he meant to walk me away from it all.

“What are you doing? I’m not going anywhere!”

“Daisy,” he clipped, jerking my arm until my eyes flew up to his.

They were gentle and yet, the message in them was unmistakable.

“You’re scared of what shape she’s in.”

“She’s been held captive. She ain’t gonna be the same, Babe. Nobody is after an experience like that. Best to give her and them some space–”

His words cut off when a feral scream split the air and kept right on sounding from within the moving trailer. It started to rock and we could all hear something banging around inside. Despite his insistence that space was needed, Carl, along with every uniformed officer on the lot raced toward the moving truck all over again. Carl shoved the sheriff out of the way and climbed inside.

“Hey,” someone with authority barked from behind us.

I hadn’t even realized I was running with them, until I was struggling to climb in after them. Demon and Mak Miller started wrestling with the police to keep them at bay behind me, but I didn’t have time for that.

“Everybody, stay calm. Everybody, stay calm, please,” the Sheriff was pleading.

They could take me to jail if they wanted. Trista was dangling in Eric’s military-style restraint hold, wearing only a dingy, sports bra and a pair of underwear. She was wailing and flinging about in Eric’s arms with no real direction. She’d losta considerable amount of weight. Even her knee bones were prominent, I noticed, as she bent one and flailed the other. Her foot caught leverage, sending them off one side of the trailer and crashing into the other.

The girl was hooded and try as he might, he couldn’t keep her from hurting them both long enough to get the damned thing off her.

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