Page 82 of All Your Firsts

“I’m okay,” I say with exhaustion clear in my voice. The terror-induced adrenaline seeps out of my body, and a bone-deep chill replaces it. “It all happened so fast. The guy knocked Jess out in that maze. She needs to go to the hospital.”

Vic helps me up and wraps me into a tight hug as Axl picks Jess up and holds her tightly to his body.

Vic grabs my hand as we walk, and I yelp. “You’re hurt?”

“I got thrown into the back of the van on my wrist,” I say, sniffling at the immense pain I now feel that wasn’t there in the face of danger.

Vic holds my arm and wrist delicately as we walk. “It’s okay, I swear.”

“It’s not okay. I thought you were dead. You both vanished, and Jess’s car was still there. I want to know everything after we get your wrist looked at, and where the fuck is your phone?”

“I left it in Jess’s car,” I mutter as I look at the ground.

I’m just full of stupid decisions.

The on-call doctor meets us at the clubhouse because the guys have one on retainer. He looks at Jess first. She woke up during the ride here confused and was complaining about her head hurting. The doctor confirmed she has a concussion and gave her some stitches but instructed her to go to the hospital for more testing.

I walk away with a sprained wrist but nothing more, thankfully. It’s not lost on me how much worse things could have gotten.

Vic and I enter a room I’ve never been in before. A large oak table dominates the center, with multiple chairs where the guys currently sit. This must be the church he was talking about.

Julian’s fingers move across the keyboard with lightning speed as Trey and Marcus lean in to see the screen.

Trey looks up as we enter. “How’re our girls?”

“My girl,” Vic mutters.

“I’m okay,” I say with a tight smile.

As time ticks by, the weight of my impending freak-out becomes heavier. A moment I’ve been dreading since Vic found us. I just don’t want to do it in front of everyone, so I put on a brave face, camouflaging the torrent of emotions swirling within me. They want answers, and I have them.

Julian continues to type while Marcus looks over at Vic. “The car you saw speeding away had no tags or identifying marks from what we could see. Someone scrubbed the video footage from the servers as we were looking at it. Whoever did this is good... too good.”

“And the number that texted me the location?” Vic asks.

“Burner, apparently. I can’t find shit,” Julian says, sounding disappointed.

“What about the van?”

“Samuel is towing it here as we speak.”

Marcus looks over at me. “We’re going to need answers,” he states as he crosses his arms over his chest.

Out of the three of them, he’s the scariest because he’s the most stoic. His eyes bore into yours with an intensity, not creepy, but like he’s analyzing you.

I once asked Vic, and he said it has to do with his past. He has trouble trusting people. His intimidating presence still leaves me slightly unsettled despite feeling sympathetic toward him. Then, I found out he’s the club’s enforcer, which means he’s very good at keeping order and killing people. Scary.

“Is Axl planning on coming down?” Trey asks Vic.

Vic shakes his head. “Nah, he’s with Jess. I’ll update him later.”

All four of the guys look at me, but Vic is the one to break the silence. “Start from the beginning.”

Taking a deep breath, I examine my quivering hands, a telltale sign of my anxiety that prompts me to tuck them away behind my back.

“Well, we were going through that maze thing, and I felt someone’s eyes on us. It wasn’t until we went through the second tunnel that someone in a ski mask caged us in.”

My stomach turns as I recall the feeling of staring up at the man who took me.

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