Sherri slumped in the back of the dark van. Only for a few seconds when they’d tossed her in had she gotten a look at her companions. Both looked young, one redhead and one blonde. She’d tried nudging the girl next to her, but it had been at least half an hour since she’d heard so much as a peep.
That poor tiny blonde had panicked and tried to escape, which didn’t end well. After, the men hit the other girl and drugged her to stop her from screaming.
Sherri had gone limp the second the screaming started, hoping if they thought she was still knocked out from before, they wouldn’t give her the full Monty. The plan seemed to have worked, to a limited degree. Her head swam, but she knew which end was up, which was clearly more than she could say for the poor thing sacked out against her side.
In a way, the girl next to her had been blessed. She hadn’t had to hear the screams and the sick growls—clear signs that the blonde hadn’t made it far after the van stopped—but it also meant that any chance they might have to fight back or escape would be that much harder.
“We’ll do the handoff tomorrow night. My guy will bring the product. Don’t screw up.”
“Course not.”
“You already let the other one get away.”
The second low voice up front sounded familiar, but Sherri couldn’t tell much. The drugs distorted her senses and muffled her hearing.
A man had grabbed her from behind in the parking lot of Ash’s restaurant while unlocking the door to her rental car. He’d kept his face covered. The other guy had gotten in after they’d stopped. After the blonde girl had screamed about wanting her mother and tried to get free.
They had to be werewolves, like Ash. Or like Ash, but violent. He may have gotten a little aggressive in bed, but he’d been careful with her. She couldn’t believe him capable of something this hideous.
Her self-defense training hadn’t been worth a damn against the raw strength of the asshole who’d grabbed her. He’d pinned her arms like she was the bug, and he the sadistic sixth grader with pointy tweezers.
Where were they going? They’d pulled off for what seemed like an hour or more, waiting for the guy in the passenger seat. Now, based on the speed and the recent lack of stoplights, they’d been heading far away from civilization. Which meant even if they got free, they’d have a hell of a time finding help. Or finding anything, for that matter.
Nerves made a tight ball in her stomach. She nudged at her comatose traveling companion with one shoulder. “Hey, sweetie. Time to wake up, don’tcha think?”
The girl squirmed and mumbled but didn’t respond.
Sherri eased to the side. She’d felt around the best she could in her immediate location, hoping for something to cut the ties that bound her hands. Surely this thing had a sharp edge somewhere.
“That young one is bleeding. Clean her up. Keep these two locked down until the moon is full, or it’ll be the last time I do business with Los Lobos Muertos.”
The one driving made what sounded like a threatening noise. “I hear you.”
The one in the passenger seat seemed to be in charge. Sherri had caught salt and pepper hair and a hint of a thin mustache under the dome light when he’d gotten in.
“Ooh. Yes.” She whispered her triumph to the still-comatose redhead when her fingers snagged a piece of metal on the van’s rear door. When she tried to rub her ties against it, the metal shifted and clinked.
Sherri froze, her adrenaline playing pitter-pat on her chest walls. She took a breath. The noise had been quiet and the men up front were so engrossed in conversation that—
“Young lady, we’ll be at our destination in a moment. I suggest you hold your horses and wait until we can untie you properly.”
As her training instructor would have said: That did not go according to plan.
She pressed against the wall and turned the situation over in her head. If she could get this girl to wake up, maybe when the doors opened they could run. They’d have to disable both men, however, in order to get a decent head start. Allowing herself to be taken inside of wherever they planned to hold her decreased her chances of getting out alive, but maybe she could find a weapon or a phone. Neither option sounded likely.
The men mentioned some sort of deal taking place the following night, so they were probably safe until then.
The question was, what kind of deal? She’d heard of young women being kidnapped and taken over the border, drugged and then forced into prostitution. Trafficking girls wasn’t one of the things she’d been called down to work on, but it could be tied to drugs and money laundering, which she knew more about than she wanted to. Especially after Ryan and his shenanigans.
If they were being taken somewhere to be sold it could give them time. Maybe there would be confusion during the exchange. Maybe the trade would get busted. People got caught crossing the border all the time. They also slid under the radar too often for Sherri to be able to count on this deal being stopped. Add to that of course, that if Sherri and this poor girl did get taken out of the country, they’d be infinitely more screwed.
This entire theory hinged on Sherri’s assumption that Bad and Badder’s discussion hadn’t been about something entirely different. Guys like these two probably had their fingers in dozens of disgusting pies. Still, what chance was there that they nabbed Sherri and this other girl for some harmless reason like they needed help making brownies for their motorcycle gang bake sale?
Next to her, the other one stirred and mumbled something that sounded like “No.”
Sherri turned toward the sound of her voice in the dark. “Yeah. Didn’t think so.” With her elbow, she nudged at the girl’s side. “Come on, honey. I think it’s time for you to shake a leg.” Whatever was going on, it would be best if they both had their brains working.
“Hey.” The girl whined and swatted at Sherri’s foot. “No, I don’t want to go to school today.”
God, if only that was their biggest problem. “Sweetie.” Sherri tried to keep her voice low, knowing from the little metal scraping incident that the guys up front had sharp ears. She nudged the girl again. “We’re in the back of a van near the border. Do you remember what happened?”
Hair brushed her shoulder. “Oh, God. Shit, that was real.” The girl moaned and squirmed some more, probably trying to straighten up, or maybe grapple with the current reality of her existence. “What do they want with us? Can we get out?”
Sherri looked around. The van approached a cluster of houses with lights, although she wasn’t sure if that improved their present situation. “I’m hoping so.”
“Do you think we can run?”
The vehicle slowed. She glanced out the front windows and saw two men under the porch lights holding automatic weapons. “Not yet.” Sherri shook her head. “I hope we can, but they’ve got big guns out there.”
“Oh. God. They’re gonna kill us, aren’t they? Like that other girl.” In the shadows, the girl’s wide eyes and quivering chin weren’t visible, but through the sound of her voice Sherri saw them clearly.
“Shh.” Sherri scooted over and rubbed her shoulder against the other girl’s. “Don’t think that way. We’ll figure something out.”
The van came to a stop, and the man from the driver’s seat came around. Wait, she knew this guy. That jerk from the bar. Son of a bitch. “Well now,” he said with a toothy grin. “Don’t go fillin’ the girl’s head with lies.”
***
Ash grabbed a discarded set of coveralls from his father’s garage. For good measure, he also grabbed a ball-peen hammer.
He’d already checked for Sherri at her hotel, startling the bunched undies from two older ladies in pantsuits when he shifted nude into his human form right in front of her door. He managed to charm his way out of them calling security and into finding out that she’d last been seen on her way to the hotel bar around dinnertime. On her way to seeing him.
He’d also found a turquoise wallet in the trash by the back exit of Howler’s. The cash and cards had been cleared out, but he remembered it from when she’d tried to settle her tab at the bar. Her scent trail ended there by a red Altima rental car, but so did someone else’s.
That someone else needed to get his canines removed with a ball peen hammer.
He took only a moment to listen and sniff before he knocked on the door. He’d bet his restaurant and everything in it that Jojo had been dumb enough to think he’d have sufficient protection if he hid Sherri here. This situation was gonna be hairier than the one at the hotel. Less charm, more hammers.
His stepmother answered the door. “Ash, what on earth—”
Ash shoved past her on the way into the kitchen. He found Jojo and two pack elders hunched over plates of chorizo con huevos. “Where the fuck is she?”
Jojo shot out of the chair. “Man, what the fuck are you—”
“I said...” He hauled Jojo by the shoulder and swung the hammer upward, catching him hard in his hopefully-full stomach. “Where the fuck is she?”
Jojo responded with a pained grunt, maybe more thanks to the hammer in his gut than to Asher’s question. “Did that hurt? Because you’re gonna get another one if you don’t fucking answer me.” Heart pounding, he tightened his grip on Jojo’s arm. He swung the hammer back again to make his point. “Next time I’ll aim higher. Now. Where is she?”
“What in God’s name are you tearing up my house for at this hour?” Eyes blazing and barrel-chest heaving, Ash’s father filled the doorway. Behind him, one of the pack’s human hangers-on hovered with wide and curious eyes—until he got kicked away.
Two of his father’s lieutenants filed in, guns at the ready. Ash’s father gave the signal to hold steady, which was a good thing. Ash didn’t intend to stand down. Not until he saw Sherri.
Ash turned, but shoved the hammer between Jojo’s shaking chin and heaving chest. “Having us a little chat is all, Pop.”
His father gave a look of disdain. “Maybe he’d talk better if you took the hammer off his throat, eh? What’s this talk about?”
Maybe so, but Ash didn’t trust Jojo. He wasn’t letting the little runt slither out the door until he had an answer.
He and Jett had left the pack behind because of their involvement in one too many stomach-turning “business” ventures. Simply telling his father that Jojo had a human stowed away somewhere wouldn’t hold much weight. For all he knew, his father was involved in whatever insane scheme got her taken.
So he faced the wolf who’d sired him and said the only thing he could be certain would matter. “Jojo took my property. I’ve come to get what’s mine.”