Fancy was going to just love the fact she was going to be living at the clubhouse indefinitely. The same went for Kimber and Petra.
There was absolutely no good news to be had, and I had a feeling that things were going to get worse before they started getting better.
✽✽✽
Chapter Twenty-Three
The prettiest body…
Fancy
“Strike!” Kimber shouted. She pranced around, galloping like a horse, and waved her hand over her head. “Beat that, ladies!”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed my ball. “If you could please stop getting strikes, that would be nice.”
Kimber tsked and shook her head. “That is a big ol’ fat negative, ghostwriter.”
Petra looked around and sighed. “How is it that I’m disappointed about this guy not showing up when I only found out about him two hours ago?”
Kimber put her arm around Petra’s shoulder and rested her head on it. “Don’t get your panties in a twist over this guy, P.”
“And besides,” I added. “It’s only a few minutes after when he said he would be here.”
I walked up to the lane and lined up with the pins in front of me. I was far from a good bowler, but I liked to think I could hold my own. At least, I could when Kimber wasn’t getting a strike every other time she chucked the ball down.
I threw the ball and managed to knock down two pins. The second time, I only managed to add one more to my score.
“Try to aim at the pins, Fancy, and not the gutter,” Core advised. Point and he were bowling in the alley next to us, and they were managing to clean up a hell of a lot more pins than Petra or I were.
“Oh gee, thank you so much for the advice, Core,” I mumbled. “I didn’t know that was what I was supposed to do.”
“We need more drinks!” Kimber shouted.
“I’ll get them.” It was my round to buy anyway. I pointed to Core. “Stop knocking all the pins down. You’re not supposed to make ol’ ladies feel bad.”
“Ol’ ladies, huh? You fall into that category now?” Core chuckled.
I shrugged and folded my arms over my chest. “Well, I guess so.”
Core nodded. “You do, Fancy. I was just giving you shit.”
“Is this part of my hazing to be an ol’ lady? I have to put up with everyone’s teasing?”
“Uh, sure?” Core hesitated. “And you also have to grab us a couple of beers.”
I rolled my eyes. “Now you’re just making that up.”
He held out a twenty. “Possibly, but we will take a couple of beers.”
I grabbed the money and headed toward the bar. “Core has the next round,” I shouted.
Kimber and Petra cheered while Point laughed his ass off.
I made my way through the crowd to the bar and waited for my turn.
“Fancy?”
I turned to my left and came face to face with Kent. “Kent,” I beamed. “You made it.”
He held his hand out to me and smiled nervously. “Sorry I’m a little late. I was working on something and lost track of time.”
We shook hands, and I felt absolutely nothing except that his hands were a bit clammy.
“No problem at all. We haven’t even bowled a full game yet so you haven’t missed much. I was just grabbing a round of drinks for everyone.”
“Allow me.” Kent pulled a fifty out of his wallet and laid it on the bar.
This was a good sign for Petra. If Kent was willing to open his wallet to pay for drinks for people he didn’t know, then he had at least a few good qualities about him.
“So what kind of work do you do?” I asked. The bartender was on the other end of the bar finishing up some drinks so I figured I would vet out Kent a bit.
“Uh, insurance.”
Once Kimber found out Kent was in insurance, she was going to lose her shit. She always gave me crap about me wanting a safe guy who worked in some boring job like insurance.
“Oh, nice!” I beamed. And boring.
The bartender made his way over to us, and I ordered three more Alabama Slammers for me and the girls and two Coors for the guys.
“And I’ll just have a water,” Kent added.
Sweet heavens, he really was a bore.
He handed the bartender the fifty and leaned closer to me. “I was kind of upset when you told me you had met someone.”
I smiled weakly. “Yeah, it kind of just happened. If I had known, I wouldn’t have started talking to you.”
Kent nodded and looked around. “Yeah, yeah,” he muttered.
“So, uh, I really think you are going to like Petra.” I was floundering trying to find something to say to him. I didn’t realize how awkward this was going to be. I wished Dyno was here, or even Core or Point to help break the tension.
“I’m sure she’s a great girl.”
Kent moved closer to me, and I stepped to the side but bumped into a man on the other side of me.
He closed the space between us and grabbed my arm. “You’re going to walk out the door with me right now.”
“Wait, what?” I sputtered.
He tightened his grip on my arm and tugged me closer. “Do what I fucking say or I’ll kill you right here.”
I gulped and tipped my head back to look at Kent. His eyes had turned from friendly and welcoming to menacing and dark. “Kent, please, just let me—”
“Fucking move,” he growled.
He squeezed my arm even tighter, and I struggled to not yelp in pain.
“Kent,” I pleaded.
Something hard poked me in the side. “I will shoot you and every person in this bar if you don’t fucking move.”
I frantically looked around hoping someone would notice what was happening, but no one was looking at Kent and me. “Please, you don’t have to do this, Kent. Just let me go and I won’t tell anyone.”
“Fucking move, bitch,” he growled.
He twisted my arm, and I grimaced.
“Fine, fine,” I whispered. I didn’t know what else to do. He had a gun digging into my side and he was holding tightly onto me.
“Move.” He dropped my arm, but he kept the gun pointed at my side. “You so much as make one move other than toward that door, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
I nodded and headed toward the door with Kent following right next to me. I knew that to anyone we walked by, it looked like Kent and I were together, not him kidnapping me by gunpoint.
I prayed Core or Point would look toward the bar, but they never did.
Kent and I were out of the bowling alley and moving toward a tan sedan. The same tan sedan that had pulled over when my car had broken down.
“Oh, my God,” I gasped.
“I see you’re starting to put things together,” he growled. “This was supposed to happen sooner, but that dumbass biker you’re fucking got in my way.” He leaned close and pressed his lips to my ear. “You were supposed to be Plume.”
My blood ran cold, and I realized I was as good as dead.
“But this works out better because I get to dump your body in the parking lot right at your boyfriend’s feet. It’s fate,” he whispered. “You were meant to be Madison street, Fancy. This is fate,” he repeated.
We made it to the car, and he popped the trunk. “Get in.” Kent stuffed me in the trunk and covered me with a black blanket. He pointed the gun at my head and a sick, twisted smile crossed his lips. “You’re gonna be my prettiest body yet.”
He raised his hand, and the butt of the gun came down on my head. I stayed conscious for a few seconds before everything went fuzzy and then black.
✽✽✽
Dyno
“Fancy isn’t answering her phone.”
Quinn shrugged. “Kimber probably confiscated it to keep her from talking to you.”
“Like Fancy would have let her do that.” I tried to call her again, but it just rang.
“I talked to Kimber about half an hour ago. She said they were about to start b
owling. I’m sure it’s just her turn to bowl or something.” Quinn pointed the remote at the TV and flipped through the channels. “What are you thinking about the Devil’s Rebels?”
Quinn and I had stayed back to take a phone call from Jet of the Royal Bastards, but he had yet to call. Any information we could get on the Devil’s Rebels, we were going to take. Too bad this lead seemed to have fallen through for the moment.
“I think we’re fucked if we don’t come to some type of understanding with them.”
Quinn nodded. “Agreed, but I don’t know if they are going to go for anything besides three women.”
I was afraid of that too, but we had to find something better. Something that would be more lucrative than selling people. Except, I had no idea what the hell that was.
“Hopefully we are talking with Jet tomorrow.”
“We trusting them?” I asked.
I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to bring more people into the mess that we were in. Sledge vouched for his friend Playboy, but that didn’t mean that the Royal Bastards were going to be down with helping us.
“Not much of a choice,” Quinn muttered. “They can at least give us some information on the Devil’s Rebels.”
Quinn settled on a movie and dropped the remote on the coffee table. “I think this is the quietest the clubhouse has ever been,” he laughed. “I’m so used to Kimber, Fancy, and Petra being here.”
“True that, brother. Somehow got used to those three being here.”
“You mean Fancy,” Quinn smirked. “You’ve gotten used to Fancy being in your bed.”
I flipped him off. “Screw you.”
Quinn held up his hands. “Hey, don’t get pissed at me for pointing out the obvious. You’d have to be blind to not see how into each other you are.”
“We’re just enjoying each other.”
Quinn barked with laughter. “Yeah, I heard you two enjoying each other yesterday when I walked past your room.”
“The same can go for you and Kimber, brother.”
“Touché,” Quinn smirked.
“Quinn!” Rhino shouted. “Your phone is going off.”
“Bring it here,” Quinn ordered.
Rhino walked over to the couch and handed it to him.
Quinn looked at the phone and then at me. “It’s Kimber.”
He put the phone to his ear and didn’t even get a word out before even I could hear Kimber shouting into the phone.
“What?” Quinn shot up off the couch. “Slow the hell down, Kimber. I can’t figure out what the hell you are saying.” Quinn looked down at the phone and put it on speaker. “Maybe you guys can help me figure out what she is rattling on about.”
“Quinn!” Kimber shouted. “Are you there?”
“I’m here, Kimber. What is going on?” Quinn demanded.
“She’s gone!” Kimber shouted. “She went to go get some drinks and she never came back. SHE’S GONE!”
“Who? Who is gone?” Quinn demanded.
My heart dropped in my chest. Had the Devil’s Rebels already started taking what they wanted? Did they grab Petra?
“Fancy! Fancy is gone! She was there, and now, she is gone!”
My heart plummeted to the fucking floor. “What do you mean she is gone?” I thundered. “Core and Point were supposed to be keeping an eye on you guys.”
“They were,” Kimber insisted. “Fancy just went to get the next round of drinks, and then, she was gone.”
“Hang up and call the police, Kimber,” Quinn ordered. “We’re on the way there.”
“I’m sorry, Quinn,” Kimber cried. “I didn’t know this was going to happen.”
“I know, baby. Hang up and call the police. We’re gonna find Fancy, baby. We’re gonna find her.”
Kimber disconnected the call, and Quinn shoved his phone in his pocket. He looked up at me. “You good?”
Was I good? Was I fucking good? The woman I had been spending all of my time with and who I wanted to spend a fuck of a lot more time with was missing. She had been at the bar ordering drinks, and then, she was fucking gone. I clenched my fists at me sides and dug my nails into my hands.
“Dyno,” Quinn called. “Fucking say something, brother.”
My eyes connected with his. “Whoever the fuck took Fancy is going to die.”
✽✽✽
Chapter Twenty-Four
Think, Fancy…
Fancy
I listened to Kent move around but didn’t open my eyes. I had been awake for a while, but I pretended to still be passed out.
Kent muttered under his breath, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
Earlier, I had heard him walk away, and I chanced opening my eyes. I was lying on a cold, hard tiled floor next to a drain, and there were two long, stainless steel counters in front of me. I tipped my head back and saw what looked like a stove. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like I was in a restaurant’s kitchen or something like that. But where?
Kent’s footsteps moved closer to me, and I willed myself to breathe evenly. I didn’t know what he was going to do to me, other than obviously kill me, but I knew I didn’t want it to happen any sooner than it needed to.
He brushed my hair from my face, and his breath drift over my ear. “I’ll be right back, my precious. I forgot to grab my tool bag from the house.” His tongue trailed along my earlobe, and it took everything inside of me to not cry or squirm with disgust. His hand trailed down my side and lifted up my shirt. His hand ripped down the cup of my bra, and he palmed my breast. “You’re going to be the best one yet,” he moaned.
He squeezed my breast hard, twisting it harshly before he released it with a groan.
His footsteps moved away; the sound of locks clicking echoed in the room; a door creaked open, and then, the door shut again.
I didn’t know how long he was going to be gone for, but I had to get up and see if I could escape or something. Lying on the floor ‘til he killed me was not the way I was going to go down.
Move, Fancy.
I quickly scrambled off of the ground, and my head pounded like I had been struck with a sledgehammer. My legs trembled as I walked, and I held my hand to my head. My stomach rolled, and I counted backward from ten. “No throwing up,” I gulped.
Get out!
I scanned the room I was in. I wasn’t in a kitchen, but I was in a basement. Kent had draped a tarp over one of the stainless-steel tables, and there was plastic on the floor around it.
That was where Kent planned on killing me.
I had to be in the basement of a house or something because there were two small windows on each side of the room at the very top of the ceiling, and all I could see was sky in one, and in the other, I could glimpse the top of a water tower.
My eyes darted to the door he had left though, and a shiver ran through my body. This was Kent’s killing room.
I had to get out of here.
I scanned every surface, my heart dropping into my stomach until I spotted Kent’s keys on the counter along the wall. His jacket was draped over the end of the table, and my heart jumped. “Please,” I whispered.
After I searched the pockets of his coat, my heart sank once again. No phone.
But then I saw it. On the wall opposite me.
A phone. Hanging on the wall and plugged into the phone jack underneath.
“Holy shit.” I grabbed the phone, praying it worked. The dial tone met my ear, and I almost cried out in relief. What were the odds that Kent had a landline that still worked?
I glanced back at the door, weary of Kent coming back in. If he found me on the phone, I was as good as dead. Though, even if I were to hang up the phone right now and lie back down, I was just as good as dead.
Kent’s endgame for this whole thing was me not breathing, so I was going to do everything in my power to not let that happen.
I punched nine-one-one and started crying when the dispatcher answered. “Nine-one-one, what is your emergency.”
> “I need help,” I whispered. “Please help me.”
“I’m here to help, ma’am, but I’m going to need you to raise your voice a bit for me.”
My eyes darted to the door and stayed there. “My name is Fancy, and I’ve been kidnapped by the guy who had been murdering women in the town of Marion.”
“You’ve been kidnapped,” the dispatcher repeated.
“Yes. He took my from the bowling alley in town and now I’m in some basement where the only thing I can see out of the window is sky and a water tower.”
“So you don’t know where you are?”
Jesus. Didn’t I just say that? “No, I don’t know where I am. I’m in a basement and all I can see is the maroon water tower.”
“Maroon?” the dispatcher asked.
“Yes,” I growled. “Maroon. I don’t see anything written on it other than the letter n.”
I heard frantic typing on the other end of the phone. “You’re looking at the Marion water tower over on the west side of town.” The keys of a computer kept clicking, and then they suddenly stopped. “Is there any way you can escape and find a place to safety?”
If I could have been able to do that, I wouldn’t have wasted time calling nine-one-one. “No,” I whispered. “If I could have escaped, I would have. Right now, I just need you to tell me that someone is coming to save me before Kent decides to murder me.”
“I’m dispatching officers to your location right now. Are you hurt?” he asked.
“Not yet, but he could be back any second. I don’t know where he went. Please,” I pleaded. I needed the police to appear right now. “His keys are still here, so I don’t think he went too far.”
“Five minutes, Fancy. Officers are coming to you as fast as they can. Stay on the line with me until they get there.”
“Oh no,” I gasped.
“Fancy, tell me what’s going on,” the dispatcher called.
I hung up the phone, put it back where I had gotten it, and dived back to the floor.
Kent was back, and five minutes was going to be too late.
✽✽✽
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lean Into It (Kings of Vengeance MC Book 2) Page 15
