Inside Danger (Outside The Ropes Book 2) (38 page)

The other guy stepped in and grabbed my legs, immobilizing me completely between the two of them.

“You’re not going anywhere. Not till we say so.” The thick, short man warned.

They took me back up the stairs and turned into the second room on the left. There was nothing there but a few wooden chairs and pallet of crumpled blankets in the corner.

Setting me in a chair, Damien pulled my arms over the back of it until Des came back in with the rope. And that’s when I recognized her, Destiny, Damien’s sister. She smirked wickedly, eyeing me as she handed the rope over to her brother.

She crossed her arms over her large chest, watching as I was tied up to the chair. Rope was wrapped around my legs, torso, and arms.

Damien tied the last knot and the other guy jerked on the rope at my chest, testing it.

“We need to call Rock, update him,” his yellow eyes slid to Damien.

“He’s already on his way. I just talked to my man.” Destiny took a step towards me and leaned forward with a fake grin. “My man, Regan, you hear that? You ain’t fucking with this one.”

I met her eyes. I guess she hadn’t got over high school. I’d told her I had sex with her boyfriend, in the same sentence I told her I slept with her brother and her dad. I wasn’t serious, only trying to piss her off when she kept calling me a whore. I could have slept with him though, he came up to me the next day offering to make the statement true, but I sent him away.

“Want another hair cut?” She asked, overly sweet.

My hair use to reach my lower back, but she had cut a chunk of my it in science class the following week.

“Want another nose job?” I responded with the same sweetness.

I’d broke her nose immediately after she cut my hair. She got suspended, but I got expelled, my third strike with the school. That’s when I dropped out. I wasn’t going to a delinquent school.

Destiny’s eyes flashed with anger and I knew what was coming. She slapped me across the face.

My head jerked to the side, but I brought it back to look at her with a smile. “Try that when I’m not strapped down.” I knew I should have kept quiet, but there was no getting on these peoples good side, and all tied up, my words were all I had.

“Fuck you.” She slapped me again.

I laughed.

The two men in the room seemed content to just watch the show.

“Glad you find this so funny you stupid whore.” Her eyes blazed into mine. “You’re gonna get to use that talent of yours real soon. Get to spread your legs for all kinds of men, see how much you laugh then.” She straightened herself up as another girl walked into the room, the one who had pulled her gun on me earlier.

The new girl, with red streaked hair, stood beside Damien. She looked between Destiny and me with a raised eyebrow.

“Have you met Harley?” Destiny turned to her and then looked back at me. “She’s a big improvement over Nan. Can’t get over that my brother would stoop so low, with filth like her.” Her lip twisted up. “So damn glad that girls gone. If only you would fucking die already.”

Explosions went off in my head and I jerked against the ropes, but they didn’t budge. “Fuck you.” I pulled back my words as she smiled. I couldn’t let her get to me, that’s what she wanted.

The third girl walked into the room, she was tall and cut. Her arm was extended, my phone in her hand. “Jay just left, but he gave me this. It keeps going off.”

Damien snatched the phone from her, eyes dropping to the screen, and then he looked up at me. “Looks like someone’s worried about you.” He moved his fingers over the screen. “What’s your code?”

I told him as he aimed his gun at me, not thinking it worth dying over. I hoped Dexter had heard enough to know the phone wasn’t with me anymore.

Damien continued to press on the screen. “He’s not in Florida yet?” He frowned, looking towards the other guy. “I thought our guy at the docks said it was going down today?”

He stepped towards me, pressing the gun to my head. “What do you know about this? When is the shipment coming through?”

I met his eyes, looking past the gun. “I don’t know.”

“Bullshit.”

The gun cracked my face, blinding pain exploding my jaw and blood filling my mouth.

My phone vibrated in his hand and Damien focused on the screen, reading the message. “Fuck,” He groaned and signaled to the guy to walk out with him. The girls followed him, Destiny flashing one last smile before closing the door on me, leaving me in the musty darkness.

I immediately tested the binds, ignoring all the pain that radiated from multiple joints. I couldn’t think about what damage I may have done. I knew nothing was broken to the point of not being able to move, and that’s all that mattered. Destiny’s threats scared me, but their interest in Gage’s shipment worried me more, what were they planning for him?

The more I moved, the tighter the ropes became and the pain in my wrists increased, I was rubbing the skin raw.

Pounding boots from the hall stilled me. The door creaked open and a new guy walked in, the whites of his eyes glowing in the dim light. He held out my phone with a tattooed covered hand. As he stepped close to me, it became clear his dark skin was covered in tattoos, only his face was clean.

“She’s here.” His deep voice had a rasp to it.

“Regan?” Gage’s voice spoke from my phone. That one word held an ocean of concern, washing over me.

“Yes.” My voice cracked, unsure what I should say.

“I swear to fucking God if you hurt her—”

“No one’s hurting her.” The man standing in front of me in jeans and leather jacket cut him off. “Not as long as you do your part. Get that shipment, I’ll call tomorrow.” He pressed the end call button.

He slid a chair over the floor, placing it in front of me and sat down. “Looks like you’re staying here longer than expected” He rocked his chair onto the back two legs, fingers pressed to his lips. “That chair won’t do, but I heard you already tried to escape.” He slammed his chair back down onto all four and leaned forward towards me. “Don’t try that shit again.”

Damien silently walked into the room, standing along the back wall. “We could always keep her under, to the point that she can’t fucking think.”

The man in front of me nodded, eyes hooded as he looked over me. Then he stood up and walked towards the door. “Do it,” he ordered before exiting.

Damien smiled at me, nodding his head. “Stay there. I’ll be right back.” He was breathless with excitement.

He came back into the room with the short guy that shot Silas, a little black bag in his hand. Damien sat on the ground and took a baggie of white powder, spoon, and needle out of the black bag. “Shit, Quin, we need a lighter.”

Quin laughed, stepping back to the door. “Des must have been in the bag.”

Damien laid out the items and attached the needle onto the syringe. “You’re gonna love this shit. It’s gonna take you on a good fucking ride.” Scooping out some of the powder, he added, “This is that stuff that’ll have you begging for more, willing to do almost anything for it. You’re lucky we’re willing to do it this way.”

Excitement ran through his words, like he believed what he said. But I was feeling anything but lucky. My stomach swirled painfully and my heart pumped out of my chest, my veins already collapsing on themselves in preparation for what was coming.

Quinn came back in with the red haired girl, Harley.

She kneeled down behind Damien and ran her hands over his shoulders. “Here, Daddy.” She slid a lighter into his hands.

He smirked up at her and she went in for a kiss. He leaned into it and used one hand to hold the back of her head, his eyes cut to mine as he swept his tongue into her mouth. Then he pulled away, flicking the lighter with one hand.

Picking up the spoon, he held it over the flame. “Tie her off.” He nodded to his girl.

Harley picked up the rubber band and scooted to where I was, tying it around my upper arm.

“No.” I tried to jerk away, but couldn’t move. “No,” I yelled louder, panic gripping me. I rocked in the chair.

“Hold her,” Damien said, syringe drinking up the liquid now in the spoon.

The other man hovered over me and pressed down on either side of my chair, holding me in place.

The sting of the needle broke into my skin and in the next second a wave of sensation crashed into me, turning me to liquid.

It was like I was trapped in an endless land inside myself. My mind spread out before me alight with pure feeling. My head rolled back with the overwhelming high.

“Feels good, right?” Voices echoed around me and the hands on my stomach were electric as they moved up me. “Give her more.”

But the feeling lost its good effects almost immediately, the waves crashed over me too fast, too strong. My heart beat too fast, too strong, bursting with the effort.

An explosion. Suffocating darkness and pain.

“IS SHE BREATHING?” A GIRLS VOICE.

My brain had no control over my body. My brain had no control of anything. My eyes wouldn’t open. But I wasn’t in the chair anymore. I was laying on something, hands and feet untied.

“She stopped fucking shaking.” A guy.

I was untied. In my wreck of thoughts, I grabbed that one. I couldn’t even see straight but I jumped to my feet.

“Whoa.”

“Stop her.”

Voices swirled around me, streaking past me. Flying by as I ran through them.

Monsters grabbed me. I pushed them away. Throwing punches. Clawing. I could hear them shriek as they fell.

A burst of light. I slammed into darkness.

“You can’t give her anymore right now. What the fuck, you’ll kill her. We need her alive.” A girls voice was talking.

I was back in the chair, tied up. My skin was crawling, itching, tingling, without relief. I kept bobbing in and out of consciousness, trying to grip onto the moment, but losing the battle.

“This isn’t for her. That shit was intense, I need a fix.”

“Me too.” More voices agreed with Damien, swirling into a hum of nothingness.

I don’t know how much time passed, minutes, hours, days? But when I fully woke up, the room was empty besides the tall one, Jay.

He sat in a chair to the side of me, foot rested on the edge of my seat, smoking a blunt. Thick smoke rolled out of his mouth as he watched the end of it burning in the dark room. The door was open and let in light from the rest of the house.

I blinked, trying to align my vision.

“Finally.” Jay took a hit, the smell of weed filling the space around me. “How you feeling?”

I pulled my eyes from the floor and looked at the guy next to me, holding in a groan. It hurt to move my neck. It hurt to sit. It hurt to breathe. All of me hurt.

“What time is it?” I asked instead of answering, voice scraping out of my raw throat.

“Almost six.” He held up the cigar. “You want a hit?”

“No.”

My limbs felt heavy, beyond heavy, but the heaviest weight was on my chest. It was hard to take a full breath.

“In the morning?” I don’t know why, but it felt important to know when I was. Nothing else made sense.

He laughed, a soft squeak of a sound. “Yeah, in the morning. You missed the party. Slept right through that shit.” His words meant something, but I couldn’t figure it out.

“I have to use the bathroom.” I don’t know what they expected me to do.

“I’ll get the others.” He knocked the burning tip off of the blunt and stood up with a sigh before walking from the room.

My stomach soured as I looked over myself. They had changed me. Instead of my clothes, I had on a large t-shirt over my bra and underwear—that was all.

I turned over his words, what could have happened while I was out? It was even worse to think about what would happen today, now that I was awake. But the worse, was to think about what was happening with Gage and his shipment, when would that drop off be and what would happen then?

The guy that had been on the phone with Gage yesterday stepped into the room first, followed by Damien, Harley, and the taller girl.

“I thought the plan was to keep her high so she didn’t have to be in the chair.” I think this guy was Rock. He seemed to be in charge as he stood in front of me.

All I could do was stare back, waiting for something to happen.

“She tweaked hard. I dosed her and she started fucking shaking and throwing up. We took her out of the chair and she went crazy, straight fucking crazy. So we tied her back up.” Damien stepped next to him and stared down at me too.

“That’s because you gave her too much. You almost killed her.” The taller girl said, face severe as she accused Damien.

“You should have let her die, Jade.” Harley sneered at the tall girl.

“What the fuck are you even doing up here? Learn your fucking place.” Jade took a threatening step to Harley.

Rock turned his head to Damien.

Damien stepped between the girls and walked Harley out of the room with whispered words. Then he came back to stand with the other two.

“She can’t die. Not until we meet up with her people tomorrow. They’re expecting to see her.” Rock’s raspy voice was calm as he instructed the other two. “And even then, the plan is to sell her to Shadow after and make some more money from her.”

“Whose Shadow?” My voice was calm, but my legs and arms were still shaking from the drugs or nerves. They weren’t planning to trade me for the shipment, I already knew, but this confirmed it.

The three looked at me, like they had no clue why I would talk and didn’t understand a word I said.

“I think it’s time for another dose,” Damien said, not taking his eyes from me.

“Are you trying to kill her? “ Jade whipped her head to Damien and then turned back to me with a critical eye. “What drugs do you take?”

My chest was tightened, pulse already picking up from fear of another shot. “I don’t.”

“No fucking wonder. You can’t give her anymore of that shit,” Jade ordered.

“That’s bullshit. She runs with Rusnak, of course she uses,” Damien defended.

Rock turned to leave, “Jade you take over dosing her. It’s gonna take shadow a while to get her feening, but we can start the process. Take her to the bathroom too.” He looked between the two of them with a warning look. “I don’t want any more shit, she’s out of here this time tomorrow.”