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How had Mike found her this time? She’d been so careful. The landlord had promised everything would be kept off the books. Now Mike was here and her front door was hanging off its hinges.
He was going to really kill her this time.
“Do you actually think I’ll leave you alone? Do you think you can escape me?” Mike snarled. “You’re mine.”
Facial features Payton had once found handsome were now twisted sadistically. Eyes that used to be warm and comforting now held a cruel gleam. His smooth skin was now contorted and red with anger and his mouth a cross between a frown and menace.
She cowered away from him, wondering what he would do next, wishing she could melt into the dingy couch cushions.
She should’ve ran to the bathroom and locked the door when she’d had the chance. But the attack had happened so fast. No knock, just the crash of her door kicked open.
Payton hated this side of him. Mike knew the effect he had on her when he acted this way. Yet still, he puffed his chest and flexed his muscles. He sneered as she curled her legs to her chest, arms tightly around them and head down.
“J-just go, Mike. I’ve already talked to a lawyer and filed the paperwork for the divorce. You can’t stop it.”
His gazed narrowed, zeroing in on her. Anger suffused his face. Mike sucked through his teeth, then slowly curled his fingers into a fist. Payton tucked her face into the tight space between her stomach and knees.
Payton Cole woke with a start. Still caught between reality and nightmare. She reached for Jack. Her faithful companion and brindle Pit Bull, who was always by her side, trained to protect. It took her a second to blink away the fear that had a vice grip on her heart and wake fully.
The memory that came as a dream was all but gone. Payton had relived that pivotal day many times. Despite what her therapist had told her, it wasn’t getting any easier to push the memories or Mike from her mind.
Prickly heat poured over her skin, and a light breeze brushed across her body.
A warning sounded in her mind.
The memory quickly forgotten. Payton focused on the new and real danger.
She wasn’t inside the roach motel that she’d called home the past two months.
That was her first indication something was wrong. The second? She didn’t know the strangers who argued around her.
Jack’s rumbling growl reverberated under her palm. The commands the dog trainer taught her were like second nature now. “Attention,” she murmured to him.
Jack stilled, his ears alert as his gaze scanned the three people; two men and a woman stood in deep conversation not far from her. Payton saw them, as well as the others who lay on the ground around her.
Are those people dead? Who did it? Am I next?
She focused her attention back on the immediate threat. The three strangers. The woman in the group was petite, and though she appeared young, she had a matronly look about her. Payton didn’t know if it was the clothes or the round face and chubby cheeks that made her appear non-threatening. One of the men wore a leather get-up. His face was familiar, but she couldn’t place where she recognized him from. She didn’t dismiss him as a threat but focused her attention on the second man. He was bigger than his friends and dressed head-to-toe in army fatigues. She knew instantly the fatigues weren’t a fashion statement. His buzzed haircut, build, and stance shouted military.
If she and Jack were going to escape, the military guy might cause problems if he wanted them to stay.
“I keep telling you that I don’t know where we are,” the lady said, her voice bordering on hysteria.
“But you said this was your property,” the leather-clad guy said.
The lady threw up her hands in exasperation. “That was before!”
“Calm down,” the military guy said. His tone was firm as if he was used to giving orders. He was probably an officer or someone higher-up in ranks. “Let’s all relax and try to figure out whatever is going on here. It seems that we’re all in this together.”
The lady thumbed toward the leather guy. “Jesus, that’s what I keep trying to tell him.”
Hearing all she needed and figuring out they didn’t know where they were either, Payton sat up. Whatever was going on, these three weren’t responsible for it and seemed as much a victim as she was.
When she moved, so did Jack, standing and adjusting closer to her side. “So do any of you know how I ended up...” Payton glanced around for the first time and caught sight of the skinny trees with big leafy vines that created ominous shadows over her. The sky was dark, but the twinkling display of stars was radiant.
She’d never paid much attention to the sky before. There’d never been much reason to stargaze in Los Angeles. The light pollution and smog blocked out anything worth seeing. But this sky...it was definitely different. Picturesque, but no real picture she’d ever seen.
“If you’re asking how you ended up here, we can’t tell you.” The military guy strode toward Payton. His dog tags jingled around his thick neck with each step. He leaned in to offer his hand. “I’m Ben.”
Jack growled a low warning, and Ben quickly pulled his beefy hand back. Ben gave Payton a familiar look. He was waiting for her to say, “My dog doesn’t bite. He’s really friendly.” Or, “Jack, hush now. Don’t growl at the nice man.”
She wouldn’t be doing either, and when she kept her lips pursed shut, Ben took a healthy step back.
“That’s Danny and Esme,” Ben said with a head nod toward the other two.
With Ben out of her personal space, Payton pushed herself to stand. “So have we been kidnapped or something?”
Danny ran his multi-ringed fingers along the metal collar around his neck. “The or something sounds about right.” He inclined his head toward her. “You’re wearing a fancy BDSM collar too, love.”
Payton’s hands immediately flew to her neck, and sure enough, there was a collar there. She fumbled her fingers around it, looking for a release. There wasn’t one. Payton swallowed hard. Her hands shook. She grasped them in front of her, trying to still the shaking. It didn’t work.
Esme thumbed toward Danny. “Despite what he says, this isn’t my property, and I didn’t bring you here.” Then she glanced at the others spread on the ground. They were either asleep or unconscious. Esme pulled her bottom lip into her mouth. “I...I don’t know any of these people.”
Ben dropped his head back to stare at the sky. “I don’t have a good feeling about this, guys.”
“Do you have a radio or something, to call for help?” Danny asked Ben.
Ben shook his head. “It must be back at my camp. Wherever the hell that may be from here. My men will be looking for me, though. They’ll spread out and search the area. We’ll get some help soon.”
“My tour manager has to be losing her shit right now.” Danny glanced suspiciously at Esme. “I know she thinks some crazed fan kidnapped me for nefarious reasons—”
Now Payton remembered where she’d seen Danny before. He was Danny Legend, one of the biggest rock stars in the world.
Why am I with him?
She’d had her brush with celebrity sightings since moving to Los Angeles, but with no one as well-known as Danny. Like his last name implied, he was legendary.
Esme grabbed her hair and yelled at the sky, “Hey! I told you that I didn’t have anything to do with this!”
“Aye, keep it down, ya? My kids are sleeping,” came a groggy voice. The speaker sat up abruptly. She was probably in her early twenties, pale with light brown hair. She held an infant in her arms, and a little boy slept next to her. “Wait. What’s going on? Where am I?”
* * *
PAYTON DIDN’T KNOW where she was, but she wanted to leave. The only reason she hadn’t made a run for it yet was because of the darkness, and the animal sounds coming from beyond the tree line gave her the heebie-jeebies.
Something howled. Payton jumped, and Jack whined. She realized quickly there was comfort in numbers. Even if she was surrounded by strangers.
As people woke, they exchanged stories and meandered about. Payton found a spot off to the side. She didn’t want company, but she also didn’t want to be alone either. There were animals out there and maybe something worse. Her gut feeling leaned toward the “something worse.” If she’d learned anything about running from an ex who didn’t want to be an ex, it was to trust her gut.
As the others tried to figure things out, Payton planned. Luckily, whoever kidnapped her had done her a solid and left her fanny pack alone. Most people pointed to it and snickered. Fanny packs were out of style. She didn’t mind people found humor in it. Humor meant they weren’t concerned with what was behind the zipper. Like weapons. Her fanny pack was stuffed with two knives, brass knuckles and pepper spray.
She was used to being by herself with only Jack as her back-up.
These other people? They were on their own.
There were nine other adults and two kids in all. Introductions had been made and although Payton hadn’t wanted to, she gave them her name.
Besides herself, Danny, Esme and Ben, there was Kaylin; a big time movie star, Miranda; mother to Adam and Lexi, Spencer and Mary Ann who were socialites and seemed joined at the hip, Yesenia and Min.
Payton kept her head down and avoided being pulled into the conversations around her. There wasn’t a point in trying to make friends. As soon as the opportunity arose, she was taking Jack, and they were getting away.
It was only after Spencer yelled at Ben did she raise her head again. She didn’t know how the argument had started but the scene was almost comical. Tensions were running high, but did Spencer, who looked like he hadn’t lifted a weight in his life actually think he could win a fight against an active Marine?
Payton chuckled to herself.
“Your collar is flashing orange,” Esme pointed out to Spencer. “What does that mean?”
Payton touched hers. She couldn’t tell if hers was blinking too or not. She glanced around the group. Everyone else’s remained the same. Whatever happened, it only affected Spencer.
“It probably means ‘settle down, boy,’” Danny drawled. “I run into dudes like you all the time. Your family has money, so you think you’re better than everyone else when you’re really a pathetic loser.” Danny nodded toward Ben. “He’s right. In situations like this, dudes like you die first.”
“So now you’re threatening me too?” Spencer sputtered.
So now Spencer planned to take on both Ben and Danny? Payton rolled her eyes and went back to using her knife to carve points into the sticks that had fallen from the trees.
Min, a petite Asian, wearing a business suit that looked more expensive than a year at the dump Payton called home, raised her hand. “And what do you mean, ‘situation like this’?”
Before she could stop it a snort came out of her mouth. They were no closer to finding out who was behind whatever the hell was going on, and instead of preparing for a fight, they were talking everything through. “Kidnapped. Taken. Whatever you want to call it,” Payton interrupted because no one else seemed to want to say it. “Obviously we’ve got some hunger games shit going on here.”
Mike had made her watch a movie with him. It had been about a group of people who’d taken a wrong turn off an interstate, and a family of backwoods hillbillies decided to hunt them for sport. It was one of those gory horror flicks made with a limited budget, where fake blood splattering the camera lens mattered more to the producers than the plot.
Payton had hated it, but Mike insisted she watch. He’d told her that he wanted to participate in something similar. A human hunt. He’d said the only thing stopping him was the lack of money to buy into something like that.
I guess he saved up.
“Some of us are planners. Some are doers. Some can’t fight their way out of a cardboard box. And some are too stupid to realize what danger they’re in.” Payton made a point to glare at Spencer.
He acted as if there was no real danger. He wasn’t that bad looking, average guy with blond hair, but it was his air of arrogance that set him apart from Ben and Danny.
She shouldn’t be annoyed Spencer had the luxury of not fearing for his life, but it irked her. “My money is on Richie Rich here to die first.”
“W-we’re going to die?” Miranda clutched Adam and Lexi closer to her breasts.
Esme glared at Payton. Payton’s only response was to lift her shoulder. It was true. The quicker they faced facts, the better off they would be.
Esme sat next to Miranda and coddled her. “Hopefully, no one will die. If we work together, we’ll get out of here. All of us.”
Payton grunted. All they needed now was the “da-dum, da-dum, da-dum” music to set the scene and women in high heels running and tripping their way through a dark forest to call what they were going through a real-life horror flick. She eyed Min and Mary Ann. Mary Ann had on sparkly stilettos, and while Min’s heels weren’t as high, they looked expensive.
Case closed. People were definitely going to die.
“Hey, I’m all for being optimistic.” Yesenia fingered the collar around her neck. “But there’s no denying these. Spencer’s collar is back to normal. But we don’t know how this works or what they’re for. Maybe they track our emotions or something?”
Kaylin lifted her arm to show the one-inch wide silver band around her wrist. “We also don’t know the reason for these funky wristbands.”
Payton clenched her jaw. It was all so obvious. The collars were to punish, and the wristbands were to track. But she wasn’t saying anything else. The last time she did, she got the evil eye because she was scaring Miranda and the kids.
“I don’t know about the collars. But maybe these are smartwatches?” Kaylin studied her arm and fidgeted with the wristband.
“Not any smartwatch I’ve seen.” Danny tried to force the band from his wrist then finally gave up with a grunt. “These things are not meant to come off. Well, not by us at least.”
“I think it may be counting down or counting up to something,” Min said as she studied hers.
Payton wanted to ask if anyone here had pissed someone off. If they all had that in common, then her suspicions would be confirmed. Mike had saved up, or his parents had loaned him the money to participate in a human hunting game. But if she asked she would have to be prepared for all the questions about an ex she didn’t want to talk about.
Esme frowned at her wristband. “How can you tell?”
Min shrugged her petite shoulders. Her business jacket slid down her arm, revealing tan skin. “I don’t know. Just a gut feeling.”
“I think she may be right,” Ben added. “I can’t read it. I don’t know what any of these icons mean. But this right here,” he tapped his band, “is the only thing that’s changing and I think the same characters keep coming up. Like a cycle.” He turned his attention to the real watch on his other wrist. “We should try to figure out how often the same character comes up. Compare it on a regular watch. It might be helpful in the future.”
Miranda raised her hand. “I-I can do that. It’ll give me busy work and keep my mind focused on anything else besides...”
Ben gave her a nod, not needing her to finish the sentence. “Do you need a watch? I mean, one that we know how to read and work?”
Miranda shook her head and raised her other arm. “I have my own. I got it from a second-hand shop. It’s cheap, but it’ll do.”
“Okay, we’re working on at least one problem.”
The group took turns cataloging any food or weapons they had on them. It was only when they began discussing the timeframe they’d been taken that Payton really tuned back in.
“Wait. Back-up. Did you say that you were getting ready for a Scandal watch party?” Kaylin asked Yesenia.
Yesenia nodded. The waist-length braids she wore followed the movement of her head. “Last night, Thursday.” Her lips turned down and her brows crinkled as if in thought. “I was walking home from the corner store around seven thirty.”
“Yesterday wasn’t Thursday,” Min said. “I got taken on a Monday. Mondays are my late nights at work.”
“It was a Friday for me,” Esme said.
“I was in the mountains for so long that my days were running together,” Ben said. “I don’t know when they got me. Whoever they are.”
“So we all weren’t taken the same day?” Esme asked. “What did they do to us while they were rounding up everyone?”
A hushed silence fell over the group. Payton cursed under her breath. She already didn’t like being abducted, but now it turned out her abductors had had her for a few days doing God knows what with her.
“Well, I for one am tired of this crap. No one can keep me here against my will. I’m out.” Spencer pushed to his feet, then trotted through the trees, disappearing within the dark brush.
“We should stick together,” Ben yelled after him.
Mary Ann and Kaylin stood and watched him leave. “I-I think he has a point,” Mary Ann said. “I don’t want to stay here anymore.”
“Wait. Do we have a choice in the matter?” Min asked.
Payton paused. She’d stick with her earlier decision to stay with the group for now. The sun wasn’t fully up yet. Spencer would either get himself lost or attacked by one of the animals that kept making all those rustling noises out there. Spencer wasn’t brave, he was a fool.
“We’ve been sitting around talking, but what about just leaving?” Kaylin asked.
Ben held up a hand. “It looks like the sun will be coming up soon. We should wait until then to send scouting teams out. It’s dark, and we don’t know where we are, meaning it’ll be easy for us to get lo—”
Spencer’s high-pitched scream broke through the night, silencing everyone.
That jackass got himself attacked by an animal.
Tension thickened the air as everyone waited. Whatever got Spencer might be coming for them. Payton gripped her knife tight in one hand and a stick in the other. A few seconds later, Spencer staggered into view. He stopped and leaned heavily against a tree, breathing hard and labored.
“What happened?” Ben asked.
“These are shock collars.” Spencer grabbed his. “There’s a marker a little ways off. Try to pass it, and it’ll feel like you’re being cooked alive from the inside out.”
Kaylin and Mary Ann rushed over to help him sit and leaned Spencer against a tree. Reluctantly, Yesenia let him take a swig of the vodka she had in her grocery bag.
“You said there was a marker before you got shocked?” Ben asked Spencer.
Spencer swallowed hard then used his forearm to wipe a sheen of sweat from his forehead. “Yeah, big orange sticks in the ground. When I got close to it, my collar buzzed, and when I tried to pass, I was shocked.”
Ben scrubbed a hand down his face and stopped at his chin. “We’re meant to stay in this area. We’ve been corralled.”
Determination filled Payton. Whoever abducted them would find she wasn’t the docile woman they had bargained for.
“So we know what the collars are for,” Esme said. “Now to figure out the wristband and what this thing behind our ear is.”
Instinctively, Payton touched the half-inch in diameter and round, indentation behind her right ear. She’d noticed it before but assumed it was some kind of insect bite.
“Well, I can tell you what I think it is,” Min said. Everyone turned toward her. “If you all aren’t fluent in Hangeul, then I’m assuming this is a translator.”
“Hangeul?” Esme asked.
“It’s my language. I was taken from Seoul, South Korea.”
Danny let out a rough sigh. “This situation is getting crazier and crazier.”
“I’d just assumed we were in Mexico.” Everyone turned to look at Esme. “That’s where I live.”
“Wait.” Miranda held up both hands and looked as though she would throw up. “We aren’t in Ireland anymore?”
“And everyone already knows I was in Afghanistan,” Ben added.
“Well, hell.” Yesenia gave them all a confused look. “I knew right away I wasn’t in Brooklyn the second I woke up.”
Payton choked on a breath. She’d assumed she was still in California.
Ben tilted his head back and glanced at the sky. “And it just got crazier-er.”
Payton slowly lifted her head. The sun was beginning to rise. But instead of blue or white clouded skies, the sky was painted in dark purple and soft pink. The sun also seemed closer and more prominent than it should’ve been. Someone gasped, and Esme turned. Another planet, a swirl of pastels, loomed over them, large and imposing.
“What in the actual hell?”
“Wherever we are, it’s not on Earth,” Danny whispered.
I guess I finally escaped Mike.