Page 46 of Deuce

I hated the steps you had to go through to access voicemail.By the time I finished pulling up the program and hitting all the appropriate buttons, I’d refilled my coffee and was heading to the fridge to get the coffee creamer.

I hit “one” to play the most recent message.My mouth dropped open when I heard Janet’s panicked voice.

“I was so dumb to fall for this.Ignore them.Save yourself.”

Her voice cut off abruptly, to be replaced by a man’s rough tone demanding I surrender myself to them.If I did, they’d let Janet go.If not, they would send her to me piece by piece starting with her fingers.

The phone slipped out of my hands, landing face up on the floor.

I gagged, my stomach rebelling at the thought of my BFF being slowly butchered piece by piece because of me.

Deuce would never let me go trade myself for Janet.

As if conjured by my thoughts, he strode in the door.One look at my face, and he knew something terrible had happened.“What is it?What’s wrong?”

I stared at him, unable to speak.What could I say?I couldn’t let him stop me.

His eyes dropped to the phone on the floor, and we both made a grab for it at the same time.

He was faster than me, and stronger.He grabbed it, holding it over his head just out of my reach.

“No!”I pummeled his chest with my fists, screaming like a banshee.“Give it back!”

My dad appeared in the doorway, taking the scene in with a glance.Striding over to Deuce, he plucked the phone out of his hands.

Deuce wrapped his arms around me, holding me squirming and straining against him.“Play the message.”

My dad looked me straight in the eye and hit replay on the message.Janet’s voice hit me like a punch in the gut and I sagged against Deuce.Tears rolled down my face as I listened to the kidnapper list a time and place for a meeting.“I have to go.”I whispered.“She’s my best friend.”

My dad shook his head, his face a mixture of misery and sadness.“You know they won’t let her go.They’ll keep both of you.”

“But it’s my fault.”I turned and buried my face in Deuces’ chest.“It’s all my fault.”

“No, it’s the fault of a bunch of soulless assholes who need be taken down.”Deuce hugged me tight.“We need to come up with a plan, and you need to promise me you aren’t going to do anything stupid.If you go to them, they’ll just keep both of you or maybe kill Janet in front of you just for fun.These people are the worst of the worst.Promise me.”

He didn’t understand.I hated lying to him, but there was no other way.“I promise.”

“She’s lying.”My dad spoke up.“I can always tell.”

Deuce tilted my head up to meet his gaze.“Are you lying?”

“No.”He asked me to promise not to do anything stupid.I didn’t consider saving my best friend to be a stupid thing to do.

“Are you going to stay on the sidelines and let Riptide deal with this?”

I sighed.“That’s not what you asked.”

“I don’t want to have to lock you in our room to keep you from getting yourself killed.”

I narrowed my eyes.“You wouldn’t dare.”

A look of incredible sadness crossed his face.“I would, if it kept you alive.”

“I’ll deal with her.If she hates me for the rest of her life, so be it.You go tell the rest of your buddies what’s up and see if you can come up with a viable plan to rescue Janet.”

My dad grabbed my good arm and led me out of the room.“Let’s go find Willow.When you’ve had time to calm down, you’ll realize we’re right.We will get Janet back, but we’ll do it without throwing you to the wolves.”

At that moment, I was so angry I didn’t know what to do.Sitting calmly by, not knowing what they were putting Janet through, was sheer torture.Was she even still alive?Had my stupidity in using that dating app cost my best friend her life?

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