MasukBethThe double cheeseburger didn’t stand a chance.By the time we pulled out of the drive-thru, the smell had me clawing the wrapper like an animal. I shoved the first bite into my mouth before Stacy had even turned back onto the main road.The Dr. Pepper was cold, fizzy, and glorious.I didn’t even care about the grease dripping down my wrist.“Take it easy,” Stacy said, glancing over at me with a half-smile and a worried crease between his brows. “You don’t have a time limit, baby. No one’s gonna take it from you.”I paused mid-chew, blinking. “Was I eating fast?”He huffed a soft laugh. “Like a damn cartoon character.”I slowed down after that—barely. By the time we reached his house, the burger was gone, the fries were a memory, and my soda cup was a hollow graveyard of ice.He parked, cut the engine, and ca
BethZach didn’t say anything when he came back into the room.Just knelt beside me, pulled a folding knife from his boot, and sliced through the zip ties around my ankles. I hissed as the tension released, blood prickling back into my feet like a thousand hornets waking up at once.He glanced down at my shoe—just one, the other long gone—and slipped it off gently. “Easier barefoot,” he said quietly. “Just be quiet. It’s almost over.”I blinked up at him. “We’re moving?”He nodded once. “Just a change of location. You’ll be fine.”That wasn’t a promise.It was a command.I swallowed hard and nodded.Zach helped me to my feet, steadying me when my knees wobbled. The door opened, and the scent of oil and exhaust hit my nose as we entered a warehouse bay. I caught the edge of a white van, its sliding door open, and concrete glowing under cheap fluorescent lights.“Blindfold,” Zach said, holding up a strip of black cloth. “Just so you don’t know where we are. Sorry.”He didn’t give me a c
BethRoy was humming.Low and off-key, like a drunk pretending not to be drunk.He leaned against the far wall, peeling a clementine with slow, sticky fingers like he didn’t have a front-row seat to my kidnapping. Every so often, he’d glance my way and smile.“You know,” he drawled, licking juice from his knuckles, “if I were him, I wouldn’t be rushing back. Not when there’s a whole buffet waiting down south.”I didn’t answer.Didn’t blink.Didn’t even breathe too loud.He pushed off the wall and wandered closer—only a few steps—but enough to make my pulse spike.“Bet he’s enjoying himself,” Roy continued, cocking his head. “Sun. Sand. Maybe even a blonde or two.”Still, I said nothing.He crouched down in front of me, eyeing the zip ties at my ankles like he was trying to decide how fast he could cut them. His voice dropped to a whisper.“Won’t matter once Mick’s done with you. You won’t want him after that. Won’t want anyone.”My jaw clenched so tight I felt something crack behind m
StacyI didn’t knock.I didn’t hesitate.I slammed the front door open with a good hard kick and strode into the villa like I owned the fucking deed.Marble floors. Glass walls. Designer furniture that screamed money without taste.Figures.Madison was the first to see me.She stumbled out of the kitchen topless and wearing nothing but a bikini bottom and a sheer beach robe, pair of oversized sunglasses, tan lines too sharp and pupils too wide. Her jaw dropped when she saw me.“Oh my God, Stacy,” she gasped, grinning. “You came all the way here for me?”She launched herself forward like I was some kind of romantic grand gesture.I caught her by the wrists, twisted them together in one hand, and shoved her off with enough force to make her stumble.“Don’t fucking touch me.”Her mouth popped open, stunned. “What the hell is wrong with you?”Before I could answer, the real disease walked into the room.Tommy.Shirtless, sweaty, eyes glassy with whatever powder Madison had dragged back fr
StacyI called in the kind of favor that comes with blood in the ink.Nate Ellington—CEO of a biomedical tech company so rich it made the Fortune 500 blush. We’d met at a conference years ago, bonded over scotch and surgical horror stories. I never cashed the chip he owed me.Until now.“I need your jet,” I said without preamble.“You got it,” Nate replied. “Where and how fast?”“Puerto Vallarta. Immediately.”Silence. Then, “Who do I need to bury?”“Not yet,” I said. “But keep a shovel warm.”Within two hours, I was in the back of a black Escalade headed to the airfield. My phone buzzed constantly—messages from the PI, updates from Adam, confirmation the funds were ready to wire.But my head was somewhere else.On Beth.Tied up. Terrified. Alone.And I wasn’t there.I stared out the tinted window, jaw clenched so tight I could feel the echo of it in my temples.When the plane door opened, the pilot nodded. “We’ve been instructed to fly low and fast. Wheels up in five.”Good. Because
BethThe room was dim, but not dark.A single bulb swung overhead, casting shadows that shifted with every breath I took. My wrists were bound behind the back of a chair—tight enough to bite into skin, not tight enough to make me bleed. Ankles strapped to the legs with zip ties. My mouth was dry, but I wasn’t gagged. That would’ve made it too easy for them to forget I was still a person.I wasn’t sure how long I’d been here.Time felt slippery.I remembered the sidewalk. The bench. Levi’s voice in my head telling me to wait there.And then—The car. The hands. The missing shoe. A voice shouting. Asphalt scraping my knee. My phone—gone.Now this.Now them.Three men.Two near the door, flanking it like discount bouncers. The third—older, rougher, with a voice decayed from cigarette smoke and a suit that didn’t quite fit—was pacing with a phone to his ear.I didn’t know his name at first.But then he said it.“Mick.”My stomach turned.Whoever he was talking to… I didn’t have to guess.







