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I didn’t need to finish that thought even though my mind had eagerly filled in the blanks.
“No. Absolutely fucking not.” Sadie shook her head, arms folded over her chest, a sober expression on her face. “We will find Bonnie and get her back. Period. The Crusaders, Ronan, can’t fuck with us or those we care about, without feeling my wrath, goddammit!”
“Ma, settle down.” Virgil put a hand on her shoulder which she shrugged off.
“I’m fine, Virgil. Really. Get Lance and Savannah back here. Now. I’ll watch over that little bitch until we find Bonnie.”
Those words were ominous, at best, and I knew the next few days would be long as hell.
But, if it ended with Bonnie back where she belonged, it would all be worth it.
Every last thing done to get her back would be worth it.
More than worth it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Bonnie
“Shit!” The word, or rather the coarseness of it as it worked its way out of my throat, shocked me. I rarely used profanity, and when I did, shit wasn’t my word of choice.
However, the jarring pain of trying to open my eyes against the blinding light above me left me no choice. I squeezed my eyes shut as tight as I could until total blackness surrounded me, but as strange as it sounded, I could still feel the light.
Then it dawned on me. It wasn’t just light, it was heat. The sun. I was outside and, despite the searing pain of the brightness, that thought immediately had me trying to pry my eyes open again. I couldn’t, but what I could do was try to sit up and figure out where I was and how I got here.
Waking up in a strange place wasn’t exactly something I was used to, especially since until recently, I’d never shared a bed with a man. Hence, I had no clue if I should be worried or not. Until I heard the sound of a car off in the distance. Way off in the distance, but I was outside, so that didn’t make any sense.
Another attempt at opening my eyes produced another squeal of pain, but I was determined to look at my surroundings. My hands dug deep into the ground and pushed to lift me to a sitting position. That allowed more pain to tear through my palms as sharp rocks and broken glass dug into my flesh.
“Okay, so definitely outside,” I whispered to myself and shook off the pain. I needed to open my eyes to see where I was, pain be damned.
I nodded and counted to five before slowly peeling my eyelids open and letting them fill with water as they tried, in vain, to adjust to the sunlight.
“Crap!” I kept my eyes open but aimed at the ground, the spot of shadow from a bush providing just enough relief that I could finally see shapes and colors. I could finally make out where I was.
“The desert?” I looked around in shock at the baby cactus plants springing out from the ground, the tiny bushes so starved and dehydrated there was hardly any green to be seen. Otherwise, there was mostly debris and litter, bottles and discarded potato chip bags, signs of late-night gatherings far away from the prying eyes of the law.
It was a party spot, but I wasn’t a party girl, and I couldn’t remember how I ended up in the desert. The last thing I remembered was talking to Maisie at Emerald Isle. She found me just as I cashed out my winnings, not enough to get me out of Glitz but enough for a week or two in a crappy motel.
“My money!” Only the desperation of the poor and downtrodden could have opened my eyes so wide, blinding me until white dots appeared at the edges of my vision and everything started to focus. Everything.
My pants were off and bile rose in my throat. I turned my attention from my surroundings and placed them squarely on my person once again.
There was a crusty blob right in the center of my chest, off-white in color and my body went cold the moment I recognized it. Semen. It wasn’t just the one blob either. There were tiny spurts and long lines of white across my bra and down my stomach. I even felt it hardening on one side of my face. Blood dried on the center of my right arm. It looked like it had dried while dripping from my vein in the hot desert sun.
Someone had injected something into my vein, and I felt sick just thinking about it. I turned my head to the side, the pain unbearable and retched. Then I cried. Tears rolled down into my own vomit. I couldn’t believe my life had come to this.
Some strange person with nefarious intentions, had drugged me.
