Page 61 of Ryder

Just hold on.

13

CRYSTAL

I wakeup and my head spins. It’s hot and clammy, and I can barely breathe. It’s also then that I realize my hands and feet are bound.

“Oh, my God,” I whisper. My throat is hoarse and dry.

When I try to open my eyes, I can barely see a thing. One of my eyes won’t open. I’m surrounded in darkness and there’s a bad smell in the air; gasoline mixed with a musty scent I can’t place.

Where the hell am I?

What did Jimmy do to me?

I remember him storming toward me as I dropped my bag, then he punched me and everything went dark. He knocked me out… The bastard knocked me out.

Anger bubbles up inside me, but it’s quickly replaced with fear.

He did this to me. That rat bastard did this!

My mind flashes to Ryder — he’ll blame himself for this. I just know it. How was he to know that Jimmy was following us?

His words were so vicious. I’ve never seen him so angry. And I’ve also never been so terrified in my life.I need to get out of there.

I try to sit up but immediately regret it; pain shoots through me. It’s then I realize that I’m hurt. Not just my head that’s pounding so hard it may explode, but my entire body. It aches everywhere.

I press my fingers to my nose with my bound hands and draw them back. Blood coats my fingertips. It’s almost dried, so I’ve been here a little while, even if I don’t know where the hellhereis.

Then I hear the faint cries close by. I listen intently. Are there other people here?

I glance around. Am I in some kind of cage?

The bastard not only hit me, but he knocked me out, tied me up, and then locked me in a cage?

I try to sit up, but that’s proving difficult; none of my limbs work. The only thing he didn’t do was gag me.

“Hey, are you okay?” a voice close to me whispers.

“I… I don’t know…”

“She’s alive, that means she’s okay,” says another voice from farther away.

“Where am I?” I stammer. “How did I get here?”

“The same way we all did,” the girl in my cell says. I can faintly see her outline “We were kidnapped.”

“Kidnapped?” I breathe the words, unable to grasp what she’s saying.

“She catches on quick,” says the second voice sarcastically.

“Don’t mind her. I’m Gia, by the way.” She bobs down close to me. “Are you okay?”

“No,” I breathe. “I’m not.”

“You’re pretty fucked up,” she says.

“No shit.”

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