Ryder

by Hope Stone

  Speaking of which, as soon as I drove by the huge gathering of bikers in the old Bun Boy parking lot, I realized it might have been a mistake to bring this car. Not only did it attract a lot of attention, but my dad would kill me if anything happened to it.

  It made more sense to park the car in a somewhat private location and then walk over to where the Outlaw Souls were meeting up.

  I looked around and noticed that the Bun Boy Motel across the street had been shut down, and that seemed like a good place to park. I’d tuck the car over in a spot that was visible to me so I could keep an eye on it, but wasn’t like I was roaring into a parking lot in a showy sports car.

  As I was parking the car, my heart leapt as I heard my phone ding with a text message. Unfortunately, it was just my dad.

  How’s it going? Any luck?

  I just got here, Dad. I promise I’ll let you know.

  Okay. Your mom and I love you both.

  As tough as this was on me, this had to be a hundred times harder on them.

  I love you, too.

  I hid the car as best I could while still keeping it where I could see it. I was crossing the parking lot when I heard a weird noise coming from the building. It was like a weird banging vibration. Since it wasn’t a windy day, I figured I’d go investigate before heading across the street to the Bun Boy.

  The closer I got, the more it sounded like it was coming from the metal railing that led up to the second floor of the motel.

  Why would the stair bannister be clanging and vibrating? I leaned over and put my ear on it, and decided to follow the sound/vibration upstairs.

  Although the motel was abandoned, it was still in pretty good shape. The downstairs windows were boarded up and there was graffiti everywhere. Empty beer cans and vodka bottles lay alongside syringes and whatnot. It just looked like a typical abandoned building.

  It was a little creepy, but nothing too bad. It was broad daylight and I didn’t see any other cars or bikes around. All of the activity seemed to be going on across the street. It was really just curiosity that was prompting me to explore. I couldn’t imagine what would make such a strange sound.

  I got to the top of the stairs and noticed that these windows hadn’t been boarded up, but had raggedy curtains that were all closed. I was half tempted to keep exploring, but figured I’d better get back downstairs where I could see the car and go find Ryder.

  Suddenly, I heard a thump come from one of the rooms. I stood frozen for a moment. I was half tempted to run downstairs to safety. But I also wanted to know what it was. What if it was Bailey?

  As I stood there, I heard it again. Thump, clang.

  Following the sound, I went up to the room that was right in the middle of the outdoor hallway. The tattered curtain was closed, but I figured I might be able to see in if I pressed my face against the glass.

  Peering in, it was hard to see because the glass was dirty, the view was obscured by the curtains, and the inside of the room was dark. I sat there for a minute and didn’t see anything, so I figured it was just my dramatic imagination getting the best of me.

  Before I could turn around, though, someone yanked my ponytail, pulling me back into them. I didn’t even have a chance to fight them off. Strong, leather jacket clad arms wrapped around me and a hand came over my face with a cloth and pressed it against my mouth and nose.

  I began kicking and trying to scream, but the cloth had some kind of alcohol or something on it. I was squirming and trying to get loose and his leg swept under mine, making me lose my balance.

  The last thing I was aware of as the world turned dark was me falling limp into a stranger’s arms.

  The first thing I noticed was that my head was pounding with a headache. It felt like Charlie Watts from the Rolling Stones was going to town inside my brain. My mouth was dry, too.

  I tried to open my eyes, but my eyelids were so heavy I couldn’t. It felt like I was on the floor, on some carpet. My hands were tied behind my back and my legs seemed to be tied up, too. I heard male voices, speaking softly.

  “What the fuck was I supposed to do, Diablo? She was right there, sticking her face in the window. She had to have seen them.”

  “Why didn’t you just leave her in the desert? Now we have three people we need to deal with. The Garcia brothers are only expecting two people. Besides, she’s a little old.” That came from the guy called Diablo.

  “Look, I know she’s no teenager, but she’s blonde and American. That has to be worth something. Why don’t you ask the Garcia brothers if they want her. If not, then I’ll have some fun with her and then dump her in the desert.”

  My heart froze in panic. They were talking about me!

  The Diablo guy was silent for a moment, apparently contemplating the idea. It was then that I heard soft whimpering coming from the other side of the room.

  “You shut up!” the second guy said. “I told you both to stay the fuck quiet.”

  After what felt like forever, the Diablo guy said, “Fine. Come with me and we’ll go down to where we get reception and I’ll call. If I can’t get at least a thousand for her, you can have her. I highly doubt they’re gonna want some chick in her thirties.”

  In my thirties? If I weren’t in this position, I’d be offended. I was only twenty-five!

  “I’m getting ten grand each for the teenage girls. I said they were virgins, though.” The Diablo guy laughed and his companion joined them.

  “Too bad, I wouldn’t mind giving them a little going away present.”

  “Don’t fucking touch them. You can have the old one if he says no.”

  Their footsteps crossed right next to my head as they walked to what I assumed was the door.

  “You both stay fucking quiet. I don’t know what you did to get her attention, but if it happens again, you will be very, very sorry.”

  I waited until I heard the door close and the footsteps walking down the stairs before I tried to speak.

  “Hey,” I said softly. My voice sounded hoarse.

  “Paige? Is that you?” Bailey whispered. “We’re blindfolded and can’t see anything but we heard them drag someone in.”

  I forced my eyes open, but all I could see was a sliver of light reflecting on a popcorn ceiling. “Oh my god, Bailey! I’m so glad you’re all right. Is Lily okay, too?”

  “Yeah. I’m okay. My shoulders hurt from being tied up.”

  I rolled over and saw her tied to a chair. “I was banging the chair against the sink to make noise.”

  “That was smart. I heard it and that’s why I came upstairs.”

  There was a moment of silence and then Bailey said, “Paige, I’m scared.”

  “Me, too,” said Lily.

  “What’s going to happen to us?” Bailey asked.

  “I don’t know, guys. But I can tell you one thing. I am not leaving your side. There are people looking for you and they will find us.”

  “I don’t know who did this, that’s the thing. We got out of the car a few blocks from the convention center so we could look at t-shirts and stuff. We were talking to this kid and the next thing we knew this big SUV pulls up and these guys get out and grab us and drag us inside.”

  “We didn’t even have time to fight!”Lily said.

  “I heard the kid yelling. ‘Hey stop’ but we drove away.”

  “So you never even made it to the concert?”

  “No! I bet it was amazing.” Poor Bailey sounded distraught. “We had floor seats and everything.”

  “Actually, the concert was interrupted. Billie Eilish did her set and then there were some kind of gunshots or something right after MCR went on.”

  “What?” they both asked.

  “They weren’t really gunshots but everyone panicked and started running. They had to cancel the show.”

  “Oh my god, how weird.”

  “The good news is, maybe they’ll reschedule and we can still see them,” Bailey said.

  My sister, ever the optimist. I di
dn’t want to remind her that if she were sold to sex traffickers in South America, not seeing My Chemical Romance in concert would be the least of her problems.

  I just needed to formulate a plan to get us out of here before that Diablo guy came back.

  Thirty-Nine

  Ryder

  I was just about to turn into the Bun Boy Motel parking lot when I got a text. It was from Hawk.

  Padre just showed up. I think you better get here.

  OMW.

  Since it was only across the street, it took me two minutes to get there. What I found when I arrived was disturbing to say the least. Padre was there, physically, but he wasn’t acting like himself. He was backed up against the back door to the Bun Boy Restaurant, and his eyes were dark and wild. He was brandishing a knife and yelling.

  “Get away from me. Where’s my wife? What did you do with my wife?”

  “Padre. She’s not here.” Chalupa said.

  “Why are you calling me that? My name is Paul. I don’t know what you want from me. My wife and I are on our way to Las Vegas and we stopped here for dinner. We always stop here for dinner before we go see Tom Jones and Sigfried and Roy. Nancy will kill me if we miss the show.”

  Clearly he was having some kind of psychotic break. Tom Jones hadn’t performed in Vegas since the 1980s. I really didn’t have time to deal with this now. I had less than three hours to find Lily and Bailey.

  “Paul,” I said, stepping forward. “No one wants to hurt you or Nancy. You can put the knife away.”

  He looked crazily around at us. “I don’t know who any of you people are. I just want to find my wife, have dinner, and get to Las Vegas.”

  “I’m sure your wife just went to the ladies room. You know how long they take in there, right?”

  His shoulders loosened a bit. “Right. Yeah, you’re probably right. She is always in there chatting with all the women like they’re best friends.”

  “Exactly. Who knows what they’re talking about? My friend Susie will go in the bathroom and look for her, okay?”

  I nodded to Swole who said, “Yeah. Sure. I’ll go see if I can find Nancy in the ladies room.” She walked around the corner to where the front door of the abandoned restaurant was.

  “My friend Pedro here will take you back to your car, okay?” I motioned to Hawk. “Do you remember where you parked your car?”

  Padre looked confused for a minute and then said, “I think it’s in the parking lot in the back.”

  “Okay, Pedro will take you to your car, and Susie will bring your wife Nancy out and you guys can still make it to Vegas in time to see Tom Jones, okay?”

  He nodded and turned toward the parking lot. “Just take him to his car and wait with him, okay? I need to check out the motel across the street.”

  “Okay. Will do. Be safe.”

  “Can I come with you?” Scorpion said as he walked alongside me. “I hate just sitting here doing nothing.”

  I shook my head. “Look, kid. I don’t even know what I’m going to find over there. It’s probably nothing. What would really help me would be for you to keep your ears open to see what the other MCs are saying. Since you’re a recruit for Las Balas, they won’t think twice about talking around you.”

  He looked dejected. “Okay.”

  I didn’t have time to talk anymore. Something was telling me to get over to that motel, and quick.

  Two minutes later I entered the parking lot of the abandoned motel. My eyes caught on a shiny black Audi parked under a tree behind a dumpster. “What the hell?”

  I parked my bike and walked over there. It looked like the R8 that I’d seen at Paige’s place when I dropped her off the other night. Sure enough, the license plate said DrAntn. Why would Paige’s dad be here, and why was his car behind the dumpster? Was he looking for Bailey?

  I decided to go explore the motel. The lower level was all boarded up, but the upper level wasn’t. Maybe the girls were in one of the rooms.

  As I walked through an opening toward the back stairs, passing a broken out vending machine, I could hear voices. Actually, it was just one guy and he was talking in Spanish. Despite having lived in La Playa all this time, I didn’t know Spanish. But the closer I got, the more I realized I knew who was talking. El Diablo. He was standing next to that guy Chanclas and he was on the phone.

  My fists clenched and I wanted to run out and kick the shit out of him. But I couldn’t do that because then he’d just move the girls. If they were even here, that is.

  Instead, I tiptoed around to the side of the building, making sure to stay in the shadows so I wouldn’t be seen.

  I took the side stairs up to the second level and slowly made my way up to each window. I peeked in as best I could to see if anyone was in them. The first three rooms were clearly empty. But the one in the middle—I wasn’t so sure. I thought I could hear muffled voices coming from inside.

  Pressing my face up against the window I tried to make out what was inside. Yes, there were definitely people in there. I closed my eyes so I could hear better and pressed my ear up. Then, I heard it. Lily! Lily was in there and she was probably talking to Bailey. My heart soared! She was alive!

  Now I just had to figure out what to do. With El Diablo and Chanclas right below me, I couldn’t make too much noise. I needed to find a way to get in the room, get the girls out, and take them to a safe place.

  I crouched down below the railing so that El Diablo wouldn’t see me. That also meant that I couldn’t see them. I just needed to think. I could break the window but that wouldn’t help. Maybe if I got their attention somehow they could open the door. No, they were probably tied up or else they’d just open the door themselves.

  There was only one door and one window in. My time was running out, because I heard El Diablo and Chanclas walking toward me.

  “Just as I thought, the Garcia brothers don’t want the old one. You can have her. Do what you want and then dump her in the desert. Just make sure she can’t identify us. Got it?”

  “Oh yeah, brother. I got it.” His voice sounded gleeful. “I’m gonna have me some blonde pussy tonight!”

  He was disgusting. Who was he talking about, the old one? Could it be Paige’s mother? No. She wouldn’t be here. Then, suddenly it hit me. The car. Paige probably borrowed her dad’s car and came down. The old one was Paige!

  Goddamn it. Instinctively I stood up to look in the window again. It wasn’t my smartest move, because as soon as I stood up, my head exploded in pain and the world closed into darkness.

  Forty

  Paige

  As soon as we heard someone at the window, we all froze. We’d been talking softly about how to escape, but then heard someone outside the door.

  “Shh,” I whispered. If it were that Diablo guy, he’d have just come inside. Lord only knows who else would be there. If it were a friend, yelling for help would work. But if it were a foe, we might make things worse.

  Before I had a chance to do anything, there was a thud, and then the sounds of someone being dragged. This was not good. We needed to get out of here immediately. From what I could tell by the angle of the sun coming through the curtain, it was late evening, and the sun would soon be going down. Whatever they planned to do, my guess was they planned to do it at night.

  As soon as the sounds of dragging went away, I twisted myself into a sitting position. “Maybe if we sit back to back, Bailey, we can untie each other’s hands. Like that game Mom did at your 13th birthday party?”

  “Okay.”

  I scooted over to where she was and managed to get up on the bed, and we sat back to back. I started fumbling with the rope but couldn’t feel where the knots would untie.

  “I know,” Lily said. “I can look at what you’re doing and give verbal directions. She scooted over to where we were and started talking.

  “Okay, Paige, just to the left of your thumb is the main loop of the knot on Bailey’s wrist. If you take two fingers and loosen it. No, put your finger righ
t between those…yeah. Like that.”

  My arms were absolutely killing me and I vowed that if I got out of this I would spend whatever money I needed to get a nice massage. But with Lily’s instructions, we were getting each other’s ropes loosened. It was working!

  It took almost an hour, but finally my rope was loosened enough to slip my hands out. The skin was bloodied and torn, but my hands were free! It wasn’t as easy to untie my feet as they make it look in the movies, and I still had to spend another twenty minutes getting the girls untied too. Eventually, though, we got it.

  “Okay, now what do we do?” Bailey asked. “We can’t exactly walk out the front door.”

  I went into the bathroom and noticed that the window in there was one of the older ones that would be big enough to crawl through. Thank god it wasn’t one of those tiny shower ones with vented glass.

  The thing was, the window was sealed shut from years of disuse and the only way out was to break the glass. Not only were we risking getting cut, but it would make a noise.

  “Okay. Look. Down there is Dad’s car. See that? We can take one of the curtains, smash the window, and then climb out and down that tree, and run to the car.”

  Bailey and I knew full well how to climb down trees and sneak out, but what about Lily? “Do you think you can do it?”

  She nodded yes, so I went into the main room and yanked down a thick curtain from the rod and dragged it into the bathroom. The place had been stripped of anything else like towels or sheets, so this was all we had to work with.

  “We have to be ready to scramble out the window the second we get the opening big enough, Okay?”

  The girls nodded. I held the curtain up over the window

  “Okay. One…two…three!”

  I kicked the window as hard as I could to break it, but nothing happened except it made a really loud sound.