Page 13 of Vengeance (Ruthless MC 4)
Then Hyena filled up my vision.
He grabbed me by the sides of my face and asked me questions I couldn’t understand. Or answer.
New plan.
“I have to get ready for my shift at the roadhouse,” I told him, pushing away his hands. “My shift starts in an hour, and it takes two buses to get there.”
New plan, new plan, new plan. The only one I could think of in my state. Go to work. Work was all I knew.
I rose to get another pair of denim shorts and noticed that Vampire and Des-E were also there. All three had shown up to the site of my career grave.
Des-E had two guns out for some reason, one in each hand. They were huge and matching. These must have been the Desert Eagles that earned him his road name. How did he even manage to shoot such big guns? The recoil alone…
It didn’t matter.
I didn’t have time to chat with them like we were old friends.
“I have to go,” I told all three of them, grabbing my Rydell College sweats and a pair of shorts to change into once I got to work. “I have to sh-shower. And…I h-have to…I have to catch my bus.”
They look nothing alike. That’s the weird thing about Vengeance. They’re three opposing forces operating as one unit.
But all three men stared at me with the same expression.
Sad and worried. And they were blocking my way to the door.
“Allie,” Vampire said.
Why is he calling me by my real name? I wondered. He never calls me by my real name—
I cut off wondering because it didn’t matter. I had to keep moving. Falling asleep, not once but twice, was what started this most terrible day, what ruined my life. Frantic desperation clawed at me. New plan. Keep moving! Never stop moving.
“I have to go,” I told them again. “Please, get out of my way. Or I’ll be late for work.”
They didn’t get out of the way.
Instead, Vampire and Hyena glanced at Des-E. Who took a step toward me.
And then…
That was the last thing I remember before waking up here. Wherever here is.
I sit up in the bed and look all around. I’m in a room bathed in natural sunlight. Some kind of multi-hued wood lines both the walls and the floors. And the bed and the nightstands are made out of what looks like small logs.
A cabin, maybe? But larger than what most people envision when they think of a cabin. The room is vast and shadowed beyond the bed. And floor-to-ceiling windows showcase a second-floor view of a plain that seems to go on forever, interrupted only by some kind of large stone structure. An isolated hill made of rock and cast red under the setting sun. If I’m remembering right, those things are called buttes, maybe?
Where am I? The question echoes in my mind as I look around in a panic.
But then I still when I spot Hyena.
He’s sitting in a leather armchair directly between the bed and a closed door that I can only assume leads out to the rest of the house. And he’s reading.
I squint. Is that…?
Yes, it’s a Celebrity Weekly with that identical-twin pop act, sasha X kasha, on the cover. Dressed in a gray Henley and a pair of blue jeans, with his blond hair hanging shaggy and loose in his face, Hyena no longer looks like a biker, but a man on vacation, catching up on his celebrity gossip.
But what is he doing here? What am I doing here? In a bed?
A new possibility turns my stomach to lead. And I glance down to make sure.
But no, I’m not naked. In fact, I’m wearing the Rydell College sweats I grabbed for myself when I was discombobulated enough to think I’d still be going to work. And I smell…I sniff at myself. Whoa, good. Really good!
Not like vomit, blood, or my usual no-name bar soap. My skin carries a luxurious fragrance that makes me think of pearls and crisp white linens.
They didn’t hurt me.
Just the opposite, in fact.
Something tells me that this place, wherever it is, is completely safe. They saved me. They got me out of that terrible house and brought me here.
A flood of warm feelings wash over me. I can’t thank Vengeance enough.
But as grateful as I am, I still have to ask Hyena, “Where are we?”
CHAPTER 7
HYENA
I jolt at the sound of her voice. I’d been so caught up in the story about who Sasha, the “serious” twin in sasha X kasha, may or may not be dating, I didn’t notice Doc wake up.
That would have never happened to Vampire. It’s been near a decade since we all decided not to re-up, but he stays on constant alert. Des-E and me know him better than anyone else on Earth, and neither of us can say for one-hundred percent sure that he actually sleeps like a normal human.
