She could never win.
They were all impossible to please.
After she paid the girl at the register and loaded up her bags, she made her way out of the store and around the corner, into an alley that led to the parking lot. It was strange for the middle of the day, but it was unnaturally quiet down there and the way the buildings on either side of the street were angled meant that the sun didn’t reach down to the walkway and she was in virtual shadows.
She felt a cool blast of air coming from behind her and then she heard the engine… She wouldn’t normally have turned to look, but she had been so unnerved that day that she almost did it automatically. She stopped and turned to see a huge, blacked out van flying down the alleyway towards her. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, but it was so fast she didn’t even take a breath.
The van screeched to a halt beside her and the back door slid open. Two men wearing balaclavas jumped out and lunged at her, her shopping bags smashing to the ground and the milk bursting and gushing around their feet. She was so stunned, she didn’t make a sound. The men had hold of her by the arms and they were pulling her, dragging her, forcing her into the back of the van.
She didn’t stand a chance. There was no way she could fight them off. They bundled her into the back and the driver was flooring it and speeding out of there before the back door was even fully closed.
Whoever they were, they had taken her.
Destiny had been kidnapped.
5.
She held her breath. The van bounced over the bumpy potholes down the alleyway and swerved out onto the main road of Ironhill. Destiny’s heart was in her mouth, she couldn’t focus on anything, none of it seemed like it could be real.
But it was.
Too real.
The driver swerved again and Destiny slid across the floor in the back of the van and slammed up against the opposite wall. When she looked up all she could see were the two men who had grabbed her looking down at her with dark eyes glinting out from the holes in their balaclavas.
Her heart pounded inside her ribcage.
She dug her heels into the floor and bit her bottom lip. She was determined not to scream or cry.
After a few moments one of the men pulled the balaclava off over his head and sighed. She recognized him instantly as the guy from the store. Now he wasn’t wearing the cap, she could tell who he was and why he was so familiar to her.
Her eyes flicked across to the next mystery man and she waited for him to reveal himself too…
He pulled the woolen mask from his face and looked at her dead in the eye.
It was King… She was sure of it…
King, one of the leaders of the Forsaken Riders of Slate Springs.
Even though she knew that they were going to be coming for her at some point, she still felt the disbelief and shock hit her as she locked eyes with him.
Her past had caught up with her, and now she was going to pay the price.
Her lip started to quiver.
She looked at the man from the store and tried to remember his name… She knew she had met him several times, and she was even certain that he had dated one of the girls from Red X. She willed herself to remember.
Knowledge is power, she told herself. The more you can remember, the more of an advantage you’ll have with them…
The more minutes that went by, the more the tension in the back of the van was mounting. King was boring holes into her with his stern gaze and there was only so much more she could take before she would crack. She wanted to tell him everything, she wanted to explain it all… she wanted him to know that she hadn’t had a choice. She was forced into it… She was on their side, not the Iron Riders…
But would they listen?
“P-please,” she stammered. “K-King…”
He shook his head before she could finish and he clicked his teeth. She could see how angry he was, how much rage was flowing through him each time his eyes locked with hers. It was as if they were age old enemies and this was about to be their final showdown.
But she was just a girl who had got mixed up in the wrong world, at the wrong time… She didn’t deserve this…
She felt the tears start to spring from her eyes and her lip quivered. She knew they would have guns. She knew that they could kill her right there and then if they wanted to… And she was frightened. She had seen how loyal the men of Slate Springs were. Their motorcycle club was everything to them, and the Forsaken Riders would fight to the very end.
Was she about to become a victim of a feud that she had no power of stopping? She was so weak compared to them… So lost…
“This bitch,” King said finally. “Is the reason Tanner is dead.”
She swallowed hard and the tears dripped down her cheeks.
“King,” she sobbed, “I couldn’t… I didn’t…”
“Save it,” he snarled. “We’re not interested in what you’ve got to say.”
She nodded in agreement and looked down to the floor. The van was still bumping along, and each time they went over another pothole or dip in the road Destiny was flung up into the air slightly and came crashing down onto the metal frame of the van.
King and the other guy were sat on the long bench seat in front of her and they looked down at her with such contempt she really believed that if looks could kill, then she would be dead.
The man next to King bent forward as he reached into his back pocket for a pack of cigarettes and as the light from the back window hit his face Destiny remembered where she knew him from…
He was Steel… the biker Candy had gotten involved with whilst they were working together at the club.
Candy…
She had been such a good friend to Destiny… Maybe if Steel was there then she would be too, and maybe then Destiny would stand a chance of getting through this. Even after everything that had happened, she couldn’t see that Candy would want anything bad to happen to her. They had formed such a close bond and she had been like a sister to her whilst they worked those long night shifts with that pervert Marv. She had taught Destiny everything and made her feel at home and at ease. Even when she had to get up on stage and undress in front of a room full of men and shake her ass like her life depended on it.
It was ironic that it had led her here.
To the back of a van. Kidnapped by two lawless men and being taken to her fate.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as the van bounced over another pothole.
But neither of them heard.
She closed her eyes and dug her fingertips into the floor. She didn’t know for sure where they were taking her, but she had a pretty good idea. If they weren’t going to take her out into the middle of the desert, shoot her and bury her in a shallow grave, then there was only one place that she would be going…
The Forsaken Riders’ Club House…
Destiny prayed with all of her might that it would be there. She needed to explain everything. She needed them to understand.
***
The drive seemed to take an eternity and the heat in the back of the van was intensifying. Destiny mopped her brow with the back of her hand and wrist and kept her gaze directed at the floor. She could feel their eyes on her, and the last thing she wanted to do was anger them.
As the van began to slow and the road became bumpier, King leaned forward with a length of rope and a straw bag.
“Give me your hands,” he said sternly.
Destiny knew there was no point in fighting him. She would do better by going along with everything that they said and asked for. She had to get them on her side. She had to explain what she had been put through.
“Here,” she whispered as she held them out and King snatched them closer and began to bind them together tightly with the rough rope.
Destiny winced as the rope cut into her skin and burned against her wrists. King knelt down in front of her and steadied himself against the bench whilst he quickly and smoothly pulled the bag down over he
r head.
The hot dark made her pulse quicken and her panic began to rise. After spending months suffering from crippling anxiety, this was one of the worst things that could be happening to her. She was being shut away, kept in the dark, her claustrophobia started to ripple along her insides and she had to resist the urge to scream and cry out for mercy.
They haven’t even done anything to you yet, she coached herself. It could all get a lot worse. Just breathe. Stay calm.
King and Steel pulled her up onto the bench and held her between them. She could smell the familiar scent of gasoline and cigarettes and for the briefest moment a fond smile flickered across her lips. Apart from the stress she had gone through, working at Red X had given her some of the best memories of her life… and some of the worst. She would be forever grateful to the people of the town for welcoming her and letting her become one of them.
She took in a lungful of air and tried to make out shapes through the blurred vision the straw sack was giving her, but all she could see was darkness and the odd crack of light. Steel tightened his grip on her elbow and she could feel the anger bouncing off him. He was probably more angry than King. Tanner must have been someone close to him and she knew that she would have her work cut out trying to persuade them to listen to her so that she could explain what had happened.
Candy, she remembered. Candy. Candy. Candy.
The van swerved again and both King and Steel seemed to dig their nails into the thin skin on Destiny’s arms. She winced as they secured her between them, and then as she felt the van grind to a halt, she found herself having to fight back the tears once more.
Wherever they were going, they had arrived.
She heard the sound of a door opening up front and steps scuffing along the ground as the driver walked around to the back of the van. With a surge of movement the heavy sliding door was pulled open and sunlight flooded the darkened cab. Even through the bag over her head, Destiny could see how bright the sun was. It flooded her vision and made her crinkle her eyes together, unable to stand the brightness.
“Come on,” King said as he pulled her forwards.
They dragged her roughly out of the back of the van and one of them held onto her tightly as they walked with her quickly. She looked down and could see out of the bottom of the sack the dusty desert sand.
Please let us be at the club house, she thought.
She could hear the sounds of eagles cawing overhead and the wind rattled around them. The remnants of the storm were still evident there, the ground was dusty and damp in parts and she could feel the cold breaking in front of the sun.
“Here,” King said and he pulled her sharply to the right.
They stopped and then she heard the sound of a lock being undone and then the slow creak of what sounded like metal doors.
One of the men heaved her up over his shoulder and carried her back into darkness. She could sense and hear that they were going down some stone stairs and she bit her lip, willing that wherever they were going was not going to be the end for her. She just needed some time. She needed them to listen to her. She had to explain.
“Put her over there,” King’s voice came again.
Steel pulled her down off his shoulder and roughly dropped her onto a lumpy mattress on the ground. She gasped as her knee caught against a wire spring and she bit back the sobs that were desperate to break free.
“Undo her hands,” King ordered. He sounded far away, as if he was standing back outside and observing her and Steel from his vantage point.
“We’ll be back for you later,” he said.
Her hands were free but they left the bag covering her, and she waited as she listened to Steel’s footsteps get quieter and quieter. He climbed the stairs and then with a creak of iron, the doors were slammed closed behind them.
She was alone. They had gone.
With trepidation she reached up and slowly began to remove the sack from her head… She didn’t want to see where she was, but she also knew she had to or she wouldn’t stand a chance…
6.
As she opened her eyes, her first thoughts were that she was in a basement. She sat up straight and threw the sack to the ground, her eyes darting left and right, trying to take in the scene in front of her and get her bearings.
She was on a dirty old mattress, and the air was cold and stark down there. It was musty and damp, and she could see an old furnace in the corner that looked like it hadn’t been used for some time. Pipes ran along the walls and up to the ceiling, which bowed under someone’s weight above as they walked across it. She couldn’t hear their footsteps but she could see little flecks of dust falling in order as if someone had walked the full length of a room and she was hidden below them. She shivered. Even though she didn’t have any concrete proof, she knew that she was at the Forsaken Rider’s Clubhouse. And that meant that there would be a lot of people very close by at that precise moment that wanted her dead. She wiped a tear from her eye and huddled against the mattress and the cool, damp wall. She wrapped her arms around her legs and pulled her knees up to her chest. It was almost as if she thought that by making herself smaller, she would become invisible.
There were two staircases in the basement. One which looked as if it led up to the main body of the house, and the other which was smaller and looked as if it led to the outside world.
“That must be where they brought me in,” she whispered to herself as she counted the steps. Seven in total, all stone and deep, leading up to a set of short double doors which were angled at a slant.
The rest of the room was relatively empty. There wasn’t anything she could see that would give her any clues as to whether anyone else had been down there lately, but her mind did register the fact that there appeared to be a set of chains on the walls and what looked to be wrist restraints. She shuddered.
She really was in trouble.
Somewhere outside she heard the roar of bike engines and she jumped. She cowered closely into the corner and prayed that they weren’t all coming to find her, but with relief the sounds got more distant and she could tell that the bikes weren’t approaching the house, but leaving. She imagined them flying off down the desert into the afternoon sun and wondered if the storm was going to return. If they were leaving, could they be going back to Ironhill? Was taking Destiny just the first stage of a much bigger plan?
She knew that it wouldn’t just be her that they were looking to punish. Surely, they would have more in store for the bike club that had been responsible for such a massive loss of earnings, face, and the life of one of their most well-loved members…
Destiny’s head began to pound. She was freezing cold and her migraine was flooding back to her, brought on by the stress. She felt woozy and she lay down on the mattress and wedged herself up against the cold wall. Even though it made her feel worse, she also felt as if she was hiding… as if anyone who came down there wouldn’t be able to see her right away and she would have an advantage.
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply and slowly, trying to calm herself down. The migraine flashed across her vision and blotches swirled around her. There was no time in the dank room anymore, she had no idea what was happening or how long she had been there. She drifted off to sleep with the sound of roaring engines swimming around her imagination and her body trembling with shivers.
The only release was sleep. All she could do was switch off and hope that when she woke back up it would all have been a terrible nightmare.
***
The air was so icy her muscles were stiff with cold. She couldn’t move. She was frozen to the spot and she groaned as she tried to roll onto her back and push herself up onto her hands. She opened her eyes slowly and blinked as her vision came into focus.
It hadn’t all been a dream.
She was still there. Held captive in a dark and dingy basement. She sighed, her heart weighing heavy in her chest. Her migraine had dispersed, but she could still feel the twinge of anxiety flowing through
her. She sat upright and stretched her arms high above her head. As she did so she turned to the left slightly and her heart almost stopped as she realized suddenly that she wasn’t alone.
There, in the darkness beside her, about ten feet away, was a man sat on a chair watching her.
She blinked to make sure that he was real and not just a figment of her imagination. But he was there. There was no mistaking it.
In an instant she jumped backwards and flattened herself against the wall. Her pulse was racing and her breath was short with panic.
Was this it? Was this the end?
The man leaned forward and his features were caught in a beam of light shining in from one of the small slits of a window high up near the door that led to the outside, and in an instant, she found herself no longer panicking, but feeling a wave of relief.
Whoever he was, she didn’t know him.
“Destiny?” he said in a low, deep voice.
She didn’t dare speak, but she nodded slowly. She didn’t want to anger him, but she also didn’t know how much she could trust him, after all, he was part of the Forsaken Riders.
He studied her for a moment. She could feel his black eyes on her, working over each curve of her body and taking her in. She felt exposed and on display, much like she had the night she had first climbed up onto the stage at Red X… but this time, she only had an audience of one.
“Who, who are you?” she stammered. “Where am I?”
“I think you know,” he mused.
She nodded and bowed her head.
“I’m in the Forsaken Riders’ clubhouse?” she asked with teary eyes.
“Yes,” he said as he leaned back into the shadows.
She swallowed and looked up at him again. She could make out the outline of his physique, and although he wasn’t as hulk-like as Lev, he was a big man and his muscles were bulging out of his tight t-shirt. His shoulders were wide and he had a deep chestnut tan that almost looked dirty in the darkened, underground room. His eyes were big and black and his hair was long and dark, falling softly around his face. She could make out a five o’clock shadow on his cheeks and chin, but she couldn’t be sure for certain if it was only her imagination. His teeth glinted as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a bottle of water. He opened the cap and held it to his lips and glugged it down. Destiny felt herself swallowing and realized how dry her own mouth was. She hadn’t drunk anything since she had crawled out of bed hours before. She yearned to ask him for some, but bit her tongue. It was too soon for her to be dishing out requests.
[Runes of Argyl 01.0] The Runes of Argyl Trilogy Page 115
