Jase and Cam were over with the girls, and Brock was with them. Katie was nowhere to be seen and I wondered if Teresa was going to be looking into a new profession. I wanted to chat with them, but when I saw Pearl, she looked like the rabid spider money.

Sending Pearl an apologetic look, I started working tables and running orders from the kitchen out to the floor. Before long, my brain was empty with the exception of drink and food orders, and that was perfect. Even though I needed time to think about what had happened, I didn’t want to think about it then.

I’d just ran an order of fries smothered in cheese and crab meat—what I planned on gorging myself on during break—to a table along the wall near the door, when I turned to head toward the cluster of round tables circling the pool tables and felt a hand curve around my arm, just above my elbow, and then there was a voice I didn’t recognize, right in my ear.

“Cause a scene, and I’m going to light this place up.”

Every molecule in my body turned to ice as I froze. The only thing that moved was my pounding heart.

“Good girl,” the man said, his hand tightening around my arm. “We’re going to walk right out of this bar. Behave and no one gets hurt. Got me?”

My mouth dried, and I jerked as I felt something press into my lower back. A gun? Shock blasted through my system, halting comprehension of what was going on. The man behind me started guiding me toward the door, and I imagined that to anyone around us, we looked like we knew each other. Well, other than what had to be a horrified look on my face, but we were at the door in seconds.

There was a crowd around the bar. Roxy and Nick and Jax were all serving drinks, and there were enough people that I couldn’t even see Aimee or my friends as the man reached around me and opened the door.

No one looked over.

No one stopped us.

Twenty-five

Kidnapped!

I was freaking being kidnapped!

This didn’t happen in real life. Maybe in books and in the movies, but not to real people.

But it was happening unless I was having a full-spectrum hallucination. My heart was working into cardiac territory as I was ushered around the side of Mona’s, toward the back parking lot, which butted up to trees, empty warehouses, and probably where people went to die.

The hand on my arm was harsh, biting into my skin, and I didn’t feel what I suspected had been a gun pressing into my back any longer. My legs were shaking so badly I was surprised I could walk or even stand, but then I saw the dark SUV parked near the Dumpsters, engine running.

The window rolled down on the driver’s side and from deep within the dark recesses, a voice boomed. “Hurry the fuck up, Mo.”