“You’re a friend of Amanda’s, aren’t you?” he asked, and Sage wondered who this guy was. Again she got that funny feeling in her gut. She held her purse on her lap as he touched her arm.
“She’s outside. She’s kind of embarrassed because she’s wearing the same clothes as Saturday night. She asked me to come in here and get you.”
Sage looked at the guy. She didn’t trust him one bit. Why would Amanda put her in this position? Then again, Amanda did things on a whim. Perhaps this was the guy she hooked up with.
“Hey, I know you don’t know me, but she’s your friend and she said you would understand because you know her so well,” the guy explained.
“Hey, is everything okay?” Curtis asked as he yelled to her from his seat. The guy talking to Sage looked annoyed.
Sage told him what was going on and Curtis looked the guy over. “I can come with you?”
Just then Liz was pulling on his arm. “You said you would dance with me. Come on, just a few times around?” she asked.
“Go ahead, Curtis. I’ll be fine.”
She smiled at him and then stood up from the stool. As she walked, she felt her cell phone vibrating the closer she got to the doorway. There must be better reception outside. If that was the case, then she would talk to Amanda and text the guys. As the guy pushed the door open, she reached into her bag when she saw that there wasn’t anyone around.
She turned to look at the guy as she heard tires screeching, and a van coming down the side street. Her gut instincts kicked in just in time as the guy next to her tried to stab her with something. She sidestepped, and he charged at her. She swung her fist hitting him in the nose. He came back at her as the van stopped and she took a moment to look to see when the guy struck her in the cheek. She felt the pain and it pissed her off. This guy wasn’t going to get away with taking her. She didn’t know what was going on, but her training all came to her in a flash. She maneuvered out of his hold.
“Don’t fight me, bitch. It will just make matters worse for you. No guy’s gonna want a beaten up whore. They want pretty ones.”
“Fuck you!” she yelled as he swung at her again. She did one of her martial arts side kicks and hit him in the gut. He held his stomach and then shoved her to the ground. She fell, landing next to her purse. Remembering the pepper spray, she grabbed for it as he came at her again
with something. She saw it was a syringe as she turned, pointed, and squeezed the button hard, hitting him in the eyes. He was yelling and carrying on, when another guy jumped from the van just as the side door next to her opened. It was Curtis and his buddies. The two men got into the van and took off down the road.
“Sage. Oh God, are you okay?” Curtis asked as he knelt on the ground and moved her hair from her cheeks.
“They tried to take me. They tried to stick me with a syringe.”
“What the fuck is going on?” one of the guys asked.
“Did you get a license plate off that van?” Curtis asked one of his buddies who was typing in his cell phone.
“Sure as shit did. I just put it in my phone so I wouldn’t forget it. Give it to me to send to Sage’s boyfriends.”
“What?” Sage asked.
“Matt and Quaid have been texting and calling us. We didn’t get the calls inside. I felt my phone vibrating and came down the hallway when I read a text from Matt. It said that Amanda isn’t texting Sage, and that it’s a trap. Amanda was abducted on Saturday night.”
Sage covered her mouth as she gasped. Her heart was racing. She was shaking and her cheek was sore.
“Let’s get you some ice, and call Matt right away,” Curtis said, as he pulled her into his arms and held her tight.
Sage was trying to digest all the information. Amanda was abducted. Someone just tried to take her. Maybe the same people who took Amanda.
I want Matt, Quaid, Virgo, and Dale. I need them.
Chapter 8
Sage was holding ice against her cheek as she sat in the back of an unmarked police car. Matt apparently had friends in lots of places. Two of them, both Texas Rangers, were driving her home to Pearl. After she filed the report with the police and they updated her on what was going on back home, her head was pounding and her cheek really sore. Some of the stitches on her arm opened up, but she would have Doc take care of that as soon as she arrived. They were all waiting for her at Doc’s office.
She was able to give a description of her attacker, and thanks to quick thinking by Curtis’s friends, they had a license plate to the van. There were also surveillance cameras on the outside of the dance hall where deliveries were. They caught the whole attack. She knew everyone would see that video before she made it home. But she didn’t care. This was why Hank and Dalton trained her so well. They wanted her to be prepared to defend herself.
“We’re almost there, sweetheart. I know that ice for your arm and cheek are probably near melted by now, but you’ll be in good hands shortly,” the Ranger told her.
She whispered, “Thank you,” even though her head was pounding. The ibuprofen she took earlier wasn’t working anymore.
“That headache is getting worse. The paramedic said you might have a slight concussion. We saw the video. You slammed your chin down on the ground pretty damn hard,” he said.