Page 74 of Tied in Knots
I can’t even go there.
Right now, I just need to focus on finding her.
As Xander makes his way through the busy, early morning rush hour traffic towards the town centre, my phone vibrates for a text message.
I yank it out, wondering if it’s Faith somehow, even though she doesn’t have my number. It’s not. It’s Derek.
“Fuck!” I bellow as I read the words in front of me. “We need to find her,now! Move this fucking car one way or another, Xand. She is in danger.”
Four words that he understands and responds to.
He swerves onto the other side of the road and shoots off at breakneck speed, pretty much ignoring the speed limit, the fact he is on the wrong side of the road, the horns blaring and the cars hurtling towards us.
“Jesus,” Ben remarks. “Please don’t let us die before we find her.”
I grip the grab handle as Xander uses his advanced driving skills to manoeuvre us into the busy town, eyes peeled desperately for Faith before she is grabbed off the street and lost to us forever.
ChapterForty
Faith
So far, so good.
I managed to make it to the bus stop several minutes before the small bus trundled down the road. Upon inquiring, I discovered that it goes directly to Woodthorpe, straight down this road. The fare was a couple of quid, and I had the exact change, so I feel like I’m winning at life right now as I sit on this bus, jostling about, ready to jump off when we get into the town.
I press the button when I see the high street and a few seconds later, I’m jumping off just as the shops are opening up for the day. I look around and head for the chemist. If anyone knows where the clinic is, they will. It occurs to me belatedly, and I feel like an absolute idiot, that by blocking Pete’s number, that will probably block him from being able to track me as well. I roll my eyes to myself, wondering how I never thought of this before. I guess there was so much going on, it just escaped my not very tech-minded notice. Whipping it out, I do precisely that, feeling a sense of relief that is quite liberating, and then look up the walking directions to the clinic. It opens at nine o’clock so hopefully I’ll be in and out and on my way back home before I’m missed.
A few minutes later, I reach the clinic and their friendly receptionist has me booked in. I sit and wait my turn, which isn’t very long at all, and then I’m sorted out and out of the door a mere half an hour later.
I’m shocked a second later, when a giant, Harvey-sized man grabs my arm and growls at me, forcing me into submission before I’ve even batted an eye.
I whimper and lower my eyes, my shoulder hunching and my back stooping.
“That’s it, little whore. Submit. You’ve given us quite the runaround, but lucky for us, your brother was quite talkative once we beat him enough times.”
“Derek!” I gasp. “What did you do to him?” I feel an anger descend that is foreign to me and makes me struggle in his grasp to get free so I can claw his eyes out.
He holds up Derek’s phone with a savage grin and waves it at me. “Easy peasey, lemon squeezy.”
“Fuck!” I hiss. Iknewturning my phone on was a bad idea. If Pete has hurt Derek, I will kill him with my bare hands and damn the consequences.
“You were owed to us, princess, now get a move on. I don’t want to pick you up and cause a scene, but I will if I have to,” the bear-man snarls.
Wait.Owed?
Oh, shit. This isn’t Pete, this is the pack that wanted to buy me.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Harvey warned me to stay inside the estate, but I didn’t listen and now I’m fucked up the creek without a paddle.
“Let go of me!” I yell, making the scene he didn’t want to cause.
“Shut up,” he grits out.
I don’t shut up. In fact, I go louder. “Help! Help!” I screech like a banshee, because there isno wayin hell, I’m going without a fight.
