Brick Brick (Knights Corruption MC - Next Generation, #4) - S. Nelson Page 0,74

he was simply fucking with us, dangling a shred of possibility only to snatch it away at the last second? He could make more and more demands, keeping them hostage for weeks, months, possibly forever.

I dismissed each scenario from my frazzled brain, realizing I’d stop at nothing to get them back as quickly as possible.

Fuck waiting until Friday.

We were gonna storm their clubhouse and every known affiliation as soon as Marek gave the go-ahead.

33

Being in the dark heightened my sense of fear, yet an odd perception of safety overcame me, which was ridiculous because I was anything but protected.

I was back in the dank cellar, pacing, mumbling to myself in an effort to comprehend what was going on. If I was on the outside looking in, I’d view me as some nutjob, talking to myself with my hands flying all around me. But I wasn’t crazy. I was sane.

Sane and confused.

Sane and hurt.

Sane and fearful.

“Are you okay?” Braylen’s fingertips glided off my shoulder and I flinched, curling into myself, my brain taking its sweet time deciphering whether the person beside me was a threat or not.

“Why are they doing this?” I whispered, the syllables falling from my lips afterward a jumbled and explosive mess.

Brick had warned me things with the club weren’t good right now, that the issue of my safety was a high priority for him, for my dad, but I never expected to be kidnapped and… I tried to eliminate the memories of what they’d done to me, but I couldn’t, not completely, and I feared I’d never be able to.

Braylen shuffled closer, keeping her hands at her sides this time. “Because Linc took Maddie from them.” At first her words meant nothing to me. In fact, I didn’t understand why she said what she had. Then it dawned on me that she was only answering my question.

I’d found out about Maddie through Brick but only bits and pieces, not wanting to pry. The other reason I hadn’t pushed him for answers was because I didn’t want to imagine all she’d been through. Thinking about it now, as best I could, maybe those details would’ve been useful to know, even though I could’ve never imagined the same thing happening to me.

“Do they want her back?”

“I don’t know,” she answered, gripping her belly, and expelling a breath.

Pressing my hands together and resting them against my mouth, looking like I was about to pray, I asked another question I doubted she had an answer to. “Do you think they’ll let us go?”

“I don’t know,” she repeated, pulling me into her before I even realized she touched me. I fought against the contact at first, but she never relented. “Don’t lose hope. I’m sure they’re working on a plan to get us out of here.”

“But we don’t know where we are. How will they?” I tried again to free myself, but she only held tighter. Each word I spoke depleted my strength, and it took everything not to break down and give in to the cold fingers of despair squeezing my soul.

This was one of the few times we’d been alert at the same time, but instead of treasuring the fact she wasn’t still lying on the floor, I wished for silence.

I hadn’t told her what they’d done to me, or that I offered myself up in her place. If I didn’t say the words out loud, I could pretend it was all a bad dream. Only it wasn’t, and every prick of the slightest sound made my heart race, even if that sound came from me.

My breathing.

My pulse, which drummed loudly in my ears.

Even the constriction of my throat when I swallowed.

Braylen didn’t answer my last question. She just held me closer and kissed the top of my head, but I couldn’t stop my brain from concocting various questions.

When would I be dragged from this room again?

How many would there be?

Would they kill me afterward this time?

And for as torn as I was over the last unspoken question, I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d toss me aside and finally steal Braylen away from me. There would be an odd sense of connection we’d share if they did to her what they’d done to me, a sorrow and pain that would join us.

We’d have someone to share the horror with, someone who understood.

But as the tears filled my eyes, then spilled down my cheeks, my body racked with trembles, I knew in my heart that I would do everything in