“Georgia, seriously?” Was she thinking at all?
“Hello?”
A gruff, only slightly feminine voice came over the line. “Logan Green, I am gonna tan your hide. Your momma and I didn’t send you to Texas so you could go to a bar. Teeny is crying. I don’t like it when Teeny cries. I swear, I am going to have such a talk with that Julian Lodge. He thinks he’s a big man, but I can tan his hide, too.”
Logan’s Mom Number 2 sounded kinda scary.
Georgia cleared her throat. “Uhm, ma’am. Logan can’t come to the phone right now.”
“Who is this? I was not informed my son has a girl.”
“Could you ask her to call the police?” Nat asked because somehow, someway things just fell apart around Georgia.
A low growl came across the line. “There are two of you? You find Logan. You tell him there is no way we accept that. We’re traditionalists. If he wants to join the freaky lifestyle we have around here, then he can find a friend and share a girl with her. Or you two nice girls can join us together but that kind of love is sacred.”
Nat’s frustration welled. “Ma’am, we need to hang up now because, you see, we’ve been kidnapped and put in a cage. So we might only have a few seconds to call someone to save us.”
Sure enough, she could hear someone moving overhead. The ceiling squeaked.
“I would ask you to call your son, but I kind of stole his phone, but only after he tossed mine in a lake, so it’s really not my fault,” Georgia was saying. “It’s his fault. It was rude what he did.”
A few things fell into place for Natalie.
“Holy shit. You know where we are? You have his phone tracked?” Hope started to rise, but that squeaking was getting closer. “Where are we?”
“Well, my boy’s phone says he’s at some strip club. I didn’t raise him to go to strip clubs. If he wants to watch naked ladies, he can go up to the nudist camp like the rest of the men. It’s more civilized. Now, why are you two young ladies in a cage?”
Brilliant light stormed into the room, temporarily blinding Nat. Her time was up.
Georgia hung up the phone and tried to shove it back between that impressive cleavage of hers, but it was too late. Gretchen dropped down into the hole they were in. She flicked a switch and a low light came on. The whole room was small, but there was space to move. And they weren’t really in a cage, not the kind she’d been kept in before. This was more like a storage locker. She wondered if they’d had to move the drugs out of here to put her and Georgia in.
“Give it up.” Gretchen looked different in the low light, as though every bit of softness had been stripped out of her, leaving something hard and brittle in its place. Gretchen had never been particularly lovely, but now Nat could see the nasty edge to her features. “I know about the phone. This is where Cooder and the boys cut the drugs. Do you think we don’t have a camera in here? We watch every move those boys make through a security camera.”
“Why are you doing this?” Nat had to ask. She struggled to get to her feet, holding on to the bars of the cell for balance. Georgia got up beside her.
“I’m doing this because my Master ordered me to and I’m not like you, Natalie. I’m not some pathetic wannabe. I’m a slave. A good one and Master Tate recognizes that. He will reward me for my service.”
“Lady, you’re butt-fuck crazy. Seriously, you need a shrink.” Georgia wasn’t going to be particularly helpful here.
Gretchen brought her right hand up, showing off the nasty pistol she was carrying. “Give me the phone, bitch, or I’ll shoot you. I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill you. The Master thinks you’ll bring in a decent price once we manage to get out of here.”
“Price? Ewww. What the hell happened to sisterhood?” Georgia frowned as though this was a sorority sister throw down. “You’re kind of a cow, you know. I wouldn’t use that phrase on many people, but you totally deserve it.”
“You can’t get away, Gretchen.” Panic wasn’t going to win the day. She had to see if there was an ounce of reason left in Gretchen. “We already made the call. We know we’re at a strip club. How many of those could there be in Willow Fork? Ben and Chase are on their way. They won’t let Tate have me.”
A nasty little smile lit her face. “Why do you think I let you do it? They won’t find you. This room is hidden and soundproofed. They can look all they like. My Master could be in here taking what belongs to him and they would be two feet away and never the wiser. So let the cops come. It will only make your men look stupid. My Master is smarter than those posers.”
“No one is smarter than my brother. My brother will figure it out, and then you’re in trouble because Chase won’t give a crap that you’re a girl. He’ll kill you,” Georgia said.
A loud report reverberated through the room. Nat gasped as Georgia’s body jerked and slumped down. Blood. There was blood coming from her arm.
There was no sanity left in Gretchen.
“Give me the phone or I’ll shoot her again,” her former friend said. “And don’t even tempt me with shooting you, Natalie. It’s what Hawk should have done. He should have simply slit your throat, but the Master thought he could fix you. Now Master Tate thinks the same thing, but I believe he’ll learn. He’ll fuck you for a while, but he will come back to me. I am his true slave.”
Nat got to her knees. She had to reach into Georgia’s shirt for the phone. Georgia’s face was tight, pain filling her eyes, but she kept quiet for once. She bit her lip as Nat extricated the phone. It had been their only chance and her bluff about talking to Ben and Chase hadn’t worked. They had to hope that Logan’s mom called someone, anyone. More than likely she thought it was a bad joke perpetrated by her son’s good-time girl. How many people in the whole world would believe a story like theirs?
But she had to protect Georgia.
And she had to stay alive.
She handed the phone to Gretchen. She had no intention of telling Gretchen her plan, but it formed instantly. She’d always known that if this happened again, she would find a way to die. She would take herself out before going through the pain and humiliation again.
She was wrong. They were worth it. Her parents were worth it. Her real friends were worth every ounce she could endure. Her future was worth it.
For the first time, she acknowledged the truth. She was worth the pain. She was worth it.
It had taken the love of those men to prove it. She wouldn’t fight. She wouldn’t scream and rebel. Oh, she would kill him if she could, but she wouldn’t rage against him, inviting the possibility of death. She would wait.
Because they would come for her and they would love her no matter what Tate managed to do.
And if she managed to survive, she would take their collar and join them because this was her life and her choice and no amount of torture would take that from her again.
“Here.”
Gretchen grabbed the phone, frowning. “He’s going to break you. Or he’ll kill you. Either way, it’s what you deserve.”
He wouldn’t. Hawk might have been able to, but Nat had Kitten to buoy her. She could see it now. Kitten had given her a reason to fight. Now she had more reason than ever. She had Ben and Chase. They would never stop looking. They would look until they found her, and she intended to be waiting. She could be old and gray and broken, but the moment she saw them again, she could begin her life anew.
And she would protect Georgia. Silly, bratty Georgia.
Gretchen scrambled back up the ladder and the world went dark again.
“Sweetie, are you okay?” She groped in the darkness, looking for Georgia.
Georgia hissed. “Hurts like hell. I don’t like being shot, Nat.”
“Is the bullet still in your arm?” The last thing she needed was a Georgia who might be easier to kill than to move. She couldn’t stomach the thought of Chase and Ben’s sister being murdered because Tate thought it was easier than taking her along.