Chapter 3

AVIA

My head throbbed so badly it felt like someone had cracked my skull open. A groan slipped from my lips as I forced my eyes open, but everything around me stayed dark. The air was filled with the smell of dust, cigarettes, and for one disoriented second I thought I was still home, maybe passed out after another exhausting shift or bing watching too many movies, but then I tried moving my hands and rough rope bit violently into my wrists.

Fear shot into me instantly.

My eyes widened as I jerked against the restraints, the chair beneath me scraping loudly across concrete while my breathing turned shaky. Something rough covered my head like a sack and every breath I took filled my lungs with the disgusting smell of sweat and dirt.

Fear crawled slowly into my stomach as flashes of memory suddenly came rushing back.

The ally.

The men chasing me.

The hands grabbing me.

A palm clamping over my mouth before everything went black.

Oh my God.

“Help!” I screamed immediately, struggling harder against the ropes until pain shot through my shoulders. “Please! Somebody help me!”

Voices echoed somewhere nearby. They were male voices and laughing. Talking casually like nothing was wrong while I sat tied to a fucking chair somewhere God knows where. Tears burned my eyes almost instantly as fear rose higher and higher in my chest.

“Please let me go,” I whispered brokenly. “Please…”

Nobody answered and the voices continued talking over each other like I wasn’t even there, like I wasn’t a person sitting in the middle of whatever nightmare this was. My heart slammed painfully against my ribs while I tried again to loosen my wrists, but the ropes only tightened harder the more I struggled.

Then suddenly the chair jerked backward violently and I screamed.

Rough hands grabbed the sack covering my head and yanked it off hard enough to sting. Bright light hit my eyes immediately and I turned my face away with a gasp, blinking rapidly as my vision struggled to focus.

“Aw, look at her,” somebody mocked with a laugh. “Poor little thing is terrified.”

My stomach dropped.

There were men everywhere.

Big men with guns hanging from their hands like it was nothing, their dark clothes blending into the filthy warehouse around us. Rusted pipes lined the ceiling above while wooden crates were stacked across the massive room. The entire place smelled like smoke, oil, and blood.

Actual blood.

My breathing caught painfully in my throat.

Oh my God.

“Look at the camera, pretty girl.”

A hand suddenly grabbed my hair and yanked my head back so hard pain shot through my scalp. I cried out immediately as a phone flashlight was shoved directly into my face, the brightness making tears instantly gather in my eyes.

The man holding the phone smirked while angling the camera toward me.

“Ravens,” he said. “We got your girl.”

Confusion hit me through the fear.

Ravens?

Who the hell was that?

“Thought you could hide her from us?” he continued calmly. “Been tracking your ass for weeks.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said shakily, trying to pull away from the painful grip in my hair. “Who the hell is Rav—”

The slap came so hard my vision blurred.

Pain exploded across my face and my head snapped violently to the side as a cry ripped from my throat. My ears rang and tears spilled painfully into my eyes.

“Shut the fuck up,” the man beside me snarled.

I tasted blood and that terrified me even more.

The man holding the phone grabbed my jaw roughly and forced my face back toward the camera while another stepped behind me. I heard the loud click of a gun before cold metal suddenly pressed against my temple.

My entire body froze.

“You got fourteen hours,” the man recording said calmly. “Bring the Black Coast shipment codes, the account access, and every fucking file you stole.”

A sob caught painfully in my throat. What the hell were they talking about?

“I swear I don’t know anything,” I whispered desperately. “I don’t even know who Ravens is.”

One of the men barked out a laugh. “Damn. She really clueless.”

“Not our fucking problem,” another muttered.

The gun pressed harder into my skin and my breathing immediately turned shaky again.

“You hear that, Ravens?” the man said into the phone. “Fourteen hours before we paint the floor with her brains.”

Fear ripped through me so violently my stomach twisted. This couldn’t be happening. There was no way this was real. A few hours ago I had been heading home like every normal night and now I was tied to a chair with a gun pressed against my head while strangers threatened to kill me over things I didn’t even understand.

The recording finally stopped and the man lowered the phone while another shoved something rough into my mouth before I could speak again. I gagged immediately as the dirty rag filled my mouth, the disgusting taste making my stomach churn.

“Keep her quiet,” somebody muttered and then, they they just walked away.

I sat there breathing hard through my nose while tears streamed silently down my face. The ropes around my wrists burned every time I moved and my shoulders ached badly from how tightly my arms had been pulled behind me. I tried again to loosen my hands, twisting hard enough for pain to shoot through my fingers, but nothing worked.

The warehouse echoed with voices and footsteps while the men moved around casually with guns hanging from their hands like it was completely normal. One of them even laughed while lighting a cigarette and somehow that terrified me more than the screaming had.

Fresh tears burned my eyes as panic slowly gave way to something worse.

Hopelessness.

Nobody even knew where I was.

I was going to die.

Theo was probably blowing my phone right now wondering why I wasn’t answering.

I didn’t know how much time passed before a loud gunshot suddenly exploded somewhere outside the warehouse.

BANG.

Every man inside froze instantly and for one second nobody tried to moved.

Then chaos erupted.

“What the fuck was that?”

“They are here!”

“Get your fucking guns!”

The men around me immediately started reaching for weapons while others rushed toward the warehouse entrance. My breathing picked up instantly as another gunshot echoed through the building followed by shouting outside.

Then screaming.

One of the men near the entrance stumbled backward suddenly before blood exploded across his chest. He hit the concrete floor hard and didn’t move again.

My eyes widened in horror. Gunfire suddenly erupted everywhere.

The deafening sound filled the warehouse instantly as bullets tore through metal and concrete, sparks flying from the walls while men shouted over each other.

“Move!”

“Behind the crates!”

“Kill those motherfuckers!”

I screamed through the rag and tried desperately to pull myself free while everything exploded around me. Nobody was paying attention to me anymore. Bodies hit the floor around the warehouse while smoke quickly filled the air and the sharp smell of gunpowder burning my nose.

Oh my God.

I was going to die here.

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly as more gunshots rang out around me followed by horrible screams of pain. Somewhere nearby someone collapsed with a loud groan while another man yelled curses before the sound abruptly cut off.

Then suddenly rough hands grabbed me from behind and my eyes snapped open in fear.

The man from earlier yanked my chair backward while wrapping one arm tightly around my throat. His breathing was hard and panicked against the side of my face while his gun pressed hard against my head.

“Everybody fucking stop!” he screamed wildly and the gunfire slowly died down.

Silence filled the warehouse except for heavy breathing and distant groans of pain.

“I swear to God,” the man shouted, his voice shaking slightly, “one more fucking step and I blow her fucking brains out!”

Tears poured down my face instantly.

My chest hurt so badly from panic I thought I might pass out as I stared ahead and finally saw them.

Three men stood across the warehouse surrounded by bodies.

Blood stained the concrete floor around them while smoke filled in the air, wrapping around them like something out of a nightmare. None of them looked even slightly panicked. One leaned casually against a crate while another cleaned blood off his knuckles with terrifying calmness.

The third stood in the middle.

Tall.

Still.

Dangerous.

I couldn’t properly see their faces through the dim lighting but something about them made fear slide slowly down my spine.

“This all your fault!” the man behind me screamed angrily. “If you hadn’t fucked Gabe over none of this would’ve happened!”

None of the men answered.

“You greedy bastards ruined everything!” he continued hysterically. “We were supposed to be partners!”

One of the men across from us suddenly laughed.

Not normal laughter either… The kind that sounded genuinely insane.

“You dumb fucks really thought we didn’t know you were stealing from us?” he asked, amusement dripping from his voice.

The arm around my throat tightened painfully, making it hard for me to breath.

“You used us!”

“Yeah,” the same man replied with a shrug. “And you got too greedy to notice.”

The gun dug harder into my skull.

“I’ll fucking kill her!” the man screamed.

Nobody moved.

Nobody looked scared.

The tall one standing in the middle tilted his head slightly before speaking for the first time.

“Do it then.”

My breath caught painfully in my throat.

The man behind me laughed shakily, sweat dripping down the side of his face while his grip tightened harder around me.

“You think I won’t?” he snapped. “Where’s that other psycho brother huh? This his girl too right? I want him watching when I blow her fucking head off the same way he did Clara!”

Silence.

It was so silent it felt like the air itself suddenly felt colder.

One of the men slowly grinned and lifted two fingers, tapping them lightly against his forehead twice.

I noticed the red laser light—

BANG.

The man behind me jerked violently.

Warm blood splattered across my cheek and a choked scream tore from my throat as the grip around me disappeared instantly. His body collapsed beside my chair with a sickening thud, blood rapidly spreading across the concrete beneath him.

I stared at the body beside me and my entire body went cold.

Oh my God.

A pair of black boots stopped directly in front of me and I flinched violently before slowly looking up.

One of the men crouched down in front of me until I finally saw his face clearly.

He was beautiful.

Terrifyingly beautiful.

Blood splattered across his black shirt and tattooed neck while pale eyes studied me carefully. He reached forward slowly and pulled the rag from my mouth.

I gasped desperately for air.

My entire body still shook violently from fear while tears streamed endlessly down my face.

The man stared at me for a long moment before suddenly grinning.

“Relax, little bird,” he said softly, brushing blood away from my cheek with his thumb.

“You’re safe now.”