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That gut instinct to go back was twice as strong now. Intuition began to hit me with warning signals demanding I turn my ass around. Continuing went against every bit of common sense I possessed, a giant middle finger to everything I’d been taught growing up.
I couldn’t stop now. I was damn near on top of where Grace and Mel should be. I passed through the exit and found myself staring up at a large wooden barn where the music was coming from at a near-deafening volume. I officially felt like those infuriatingly idiotic girls that made all the wrong choices in horror movies, except this was real.
I calmed my vivid imaginings with facts.
No one had been hiding in the cornfield and there wasn’t going to be a psycho wielding a chainsaw coming at me from inside this barn.
Being cautious for self-preservation’s sake, I slowly approached the large structure. I noticed right away that it didn’t have any of the luxury fixtures or elements I’d expect from a Sainte property. In fact, it looked rather dull and plain sitting in the center of a leveled dirt circle.
There were no windows or notable features apart from a large set of matching pine doors. My attention was drawn to the large black bar keeping them closed. I silently cursed at the sight of it. Did someone lock Grace and Mel inside? What a dick move.
I knocked on the door to see if I’d get a response. When I didn’t, I slid my phone back into my pocket so that I could use both hands to grab the round metal handle. It didn’t budge an inch at first. I tightened my grip and with a grunt, I pulled hard to the left. With a loud clang, the heavy bar slid out of place. The sudden momentum nearly knocked me on my ass.
Both doors swung open to reveal a metal grate going from floor to ceiling a few inches inside the doorway.
Mel, Grace, and a couple people I wasn’t familiar with were all on the other side of it. My sister was nowhere in sight.
“Lana?” Mel questioned with a hint of confusion when she realized who had opened the barn. I stepped inside intending to let everyone out. A guy in the back yelled out for me to stop.
His warning came a fraction of a second too late. Once I passed over the threshold, both barn doors slammed shut and the metal grate immediately retracted. Looking up at the high ceiling, I spotted a track-like pulley system that had been triggered.
A loud bang echoed from behind me, a sign the bar I’d just removed had slid back into place. The music abruptly cut off, leaving heavy breathing to fill the cutting silence.
“Did you see that? Fuck, we’re never getting out of here!” A curvy blonde yelled.
Grace rushed towards me and grabbed hold of my shoulders, checking my body over from top to bottom. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I took hold of her hands and gently removed them. “What is going on?”
“How did you find us?” Mel asked, coming to stand beside Grace.
“I got your location in a text from Grace that said you needed help. Not that I did you much good.”
Grace shook her head back and forth. “Lana, I never text you.”
“Well, someone did.”
I pulled my cell from my pocket and showed her the screen I still had pulled up on the Find My app. Her dot was showing right where we both were. They shared a look before settling their gazes on me. I didn’t like what I saw. Mel’s silver eyes had darkened and there was a pensive expression marring her porcelain features.
“They lured her here too,” a heavily accented voice carried from the far side of the barn.
“What is she talking about?”
Grace expelled a breath and glanced at my screen again. “I left my phone in the car because I thought we’d be in and out.”
I didn’t know that. Hadn’t I locked my doors? Come to think of it, where were my keys? I ran my hands over both pockets and realized my fob was gone. I did it again to make sure I wasn’t tripping. Where the hell did my keys go?
“What is happening? Someone got into my car and stole your cellphone to trick me into coming here? How would they know you even left it there?”
“Because they’re clearly on bullshit,” Mel seethed. “Do you know how we got here? Some bitch dressed as a clown told us L would meet us in the barn. It made sense at the moment.
“Now that I’m in here I feel like a fucking idiot for walking through those doors.”
“That makes two of us. I think I know who you’re talking about.”
I looked towards the other people inside with them. “How did everyone else get shut in here? Don’t tell me you all went waltzing through a cornfield together.”
