“I want to go to California.”
“Yeah?” He grins. “Yeah, I can totally see that for you. When?”
“Soon.” The longing in my voice is clear and I know he hears it when his expression turns soft.
We drift into lighter topics and I get to enjoy hanging out with my brother for the first time in so long. By the time we’re finished with our burgers my stomach hurts from laughing so much. I feel lighter. We make plans to grab lunch again.
“Don’t even think about starting your road trip without saying bye.”
“I won’t, promise. See you later.” I wave after I steal Holden’s last fry.
“Hey!”
Laughter fills my voice. “Should’ve been faster then, dude! Bye.”
He waves me off as I head out. A smile lingers as I pull out my phone and find Fox checked in on my hang out with my brother.
Fox: Having a good time?
Maisy: Yeah. On my way home now.
Fox: Home. I like the sound of that. Come back fast so I can show you how much.
Maisy: Are you in the garage? Maybe I’ll spread out on the hood of the Charger for you again.
I’m too busy grinning at the next flirtatious text I’m writing to pay much attention to a guy who leans out of an alleyway when I pass. Hands grab me from behind a beat later and my scream is cut off by his big hand covering my mouth. Panic surges and I try to break free without dropping my phone.
Some part of my brain knows my phone is important, I can’t lose it if I’m taken to a second location.
Don’t drop it. Don’t let go.
My hand hurts from how tightly I grip it. All those times Dad worried about a kidnapping roll through my head. I thought he was paranoid, but I was so wrong.
Pain stings my arm and then my limbs stop obeying, feeling like lead weights. My eyelids weigh a million pounds. Oh shit, I can’t! The harder I breathe, the more difficult it becomes to fight my attacker off.
Everything goes dark. I’m trapped in my mind screaming.
When I crack my eyes open they feel dry. I blink a few times, trying to get my sluggish brain to work through the fog. It’s like I took too much of the cold medicine that always makes me groggy. I scrunch my face up and move, only to find my wrists are restrained by zip ties.
The fuck—?
“Jesus, about time.” Disoriented, my head snaps up at the menacing, slightly accented voice coming from the shadows in the corner. “I only gave you half a dose of sedative.”
“Where am I?” My tongue feels stuck to the roof of my mouth.
As soon as I ask, my stomach sinks. On the wall of the box-shaped room in large black stenciled letters is a familiar logo—SynCom. The shell company Russian thugs are using to pull the strings running Nexus Lab.
They brought me to the abandoned warehouse? Shit. I’m in serious trouble. Fox and I never had time to find a way into this place before Ethan interrupted us.
Blinking rapidly, I remember. I was on my way back to Fox after lunch with Holden. Someone grabbed me. My arm twinges with the phantom pain from where the needle stabbed into my skin. I don’t feel my phone on me, unsure if I won the fight not to drop it or if this thug took it from me when he kidnapped me.
“You’re nowhere special, little girl,” my babysitter informs me.
He’s a rough looking guy with yellow teeth and a barrel chest. Older than me by at least fifteen years, but not as old as my parents. What’s worse, I recognize him. I thought he was Mayor Taylor’s bodyguard when I ran into Mom in town. Sweat beads his brow and his hair is buzzed short. He stalks closer from across the room and nudges his heavy boot against the rung of the metal chair I’m tied to.
Against my instinct to keep him in my line of sight, I tear my gaze from him and take in the room we’re in. It’s dusty from disuse. There’s a single door in the corner and a high window that’s clouded over with grime letting in a minimal amount of light. The ceiling is low, like this is an office framed out of the larger warehouse.
“Why did you take me?” Some of the aftereffects of whatever he drugged me with lingers, clinging to my head like a stubborn cobweb. “And what the fuck did you give me?”