Upon hearing my name, he turned and looked over his shoulder and gave a nod.
Ally and I turned and looked over our shoulders too.
Too late.
Before I could react to the two men running toward our car, my door was wrenched open, I was dragged out and I let out a howl when the backs of my legs were ripped from the hot leather seats.
I stopped my howl midway with an “oof” because I hadn’t taken my seat belt off and when the guy yanked me out, my belt jerked me back.
“Jesus, Teddy. Release the belt,” another man said.
I took this opportunity to scream.
Teddy dropped me, I hit the side of the seat and I used the steering wheel to pull myself back into it.
Ally had already been hauled out the other side, she wasn’t screaming and that scared the shit out of me.
I had no time to look for Ally as Teddy’s hands came around to undo the belt and I bent forward and bit his arm.
“Fuck!” He reared back and punched me in the cheekbone.
Hard.
I have never, in my life, been hit by a man.
I got in a bitch slapping catfight at a Public Image Limited – Big Audio Dynamite double bill but we were in a mosh pit gone bad. It was punk, it was expected.
Getting hit by a man hurt.
A f**king lot.
So much, I quit screaming and concentrated on the burning hurt that was radiating out of my cheekbone into my entire face.
“Teddy, for Christ sake. Are you nuts? She’s Nightingale’s. He’s gonna rip your dick off. This is supposed to go smooth.”
I opened my mouth to scream again and started back with the struggling.
Then Teddy was pulled away, someone touched me with something and after that, I didn’t remember a thing.
Chapter Five
Cupcakes
I came to feeling very funky and unable to move my limbs.
I focused on what appeared to be the ceiling of a car and heard voices from what sounded like really far away.
By the time the car stopped, I was able to move a little bit but not much. I was feeling tingly all over and my head was fuzzy.
The door to the car was opened and I was hauled out with hands under my armpits. Whoever hauled me out put me on my feet, my legs buckled and I nearly went down before I was caught. It was time again to lament the mini-skirt as a girl doesn’t want to be tossed around by bad guys while wearing a short skirt.
“Shit, hold her up, you moron.”
Two guys, one of them I noted was Goon Gary (not The Moron), dragged me by my upper arms through a tidy garage and into a house. I was shaking my head, trying to clear it and thinking not much of anything except that I wished I was wearing jeans.
I was taken into a room and heard a man say, “Jesus, what the f**k?”
The answer came hesitantly. “We had to stun her.”