“Raine, Are you okay? Answer the door.”
Nothing.
Leaning over the porch railing, Briar peeked in through the window. The shade obscured a lot, making it had to identify what she was looking at, but she was pretty sure it was Raine in a heap on the floor.
“Raine, I’m coming in.”
At this point, Briar didn’t care about privacy. She could apologize later if the sounds were just Raine and her boyfriend, or girlfriend, having their idea of a good time. Or just Royce’s sister doing yoga with headphones on so she couldn’t hear her. Didn’t matter.
“Raine!” she shouted louder. “Raine, can you hear me?”
Reaching out, Briar twisted and shook the door handle, and the door edged open as if the lock hadn’t engaged. Pushing it open all the way, she rushed to Raine’s side. The other woman lay on her front, her head to one side and one arm at an awkward angle next to her body.
“Raine, can you hear me?” Briar asked as she kneeled and gently shook her shoulder.
Raine’s eyes opened slowly. She seemed to recognize Briar but didn’t say anything.
“Raine, you need to tell me what happened. Where are you injured? I’m going to call your brother, okay?” Did Raine have a medical issue? Epilepsy, maybe? Briar checked, but she wasn’t wearing a medical bracelet on her wrist.
She thought Raine shook her head, but whatever. She reached into her back pocket for her phone—only to realize she’d left it in the cup holder of the 4Runner.
“Dammit.”
She was getting ready to rise to her feet when she heard a scuffing sound. Alarm flooded her system and she twisted awkwardly, just in time to see a large man crouching down behind her. He had something in his hand, but not a gun. Raine moaned as Briar kicked out one leg to try to sweep him off his feet, only to miss, lose her balance, and land partially on top of Raine.
“Got you,” the hairy man growled as he slapped some sort of sticky patch on the exposed skin of her neck. “Easier than we thought, too.”
When Briar came back to herself, she was no longer in—wherever had she been. What had she been doing? Panic flooded her system and her heart rate shot up, making it hard to think straight.
How had she ended up here, wherever “here” was? It was dark and metal dug into her wrists, probably handcuffs. Her ankles had been left free, though—that was good.
Wherever she was, it was pitch dark. If her hands hadn’t been bound to her, she wouldn’t be able to see them anyway, and the room smelled… musty. Briar wasn’t afraid of many things, but not being able to remember what she’d been doing and how she’d arrived in this place scared the hell out of her.
“What the hell?” she whispered into the darkness.