77

Jax didn’t reply, he just flipped Zane off. Zane swore and shut himself away in his office. Work would have to keep his brain busy.

Ava watched the city move outside the window of the car. Her aunt and uncle were chatting in the front seat about what they would do with the rest of the money. Her uncle must have hit the jackpot. But Ava was lost in her thoughts.

She tried to push the pain away. She didn’t want her relatives to see it. Ava could cry when they got home, safely locked in the bathroom. She would let herself have one evening of self-pity and then she would rebuild her life. First step would be to call Gabriel and see if he still wanted her to live with him. She would take him up on his offer if he did.

Then she needed to get a lawyer to evict her relatives and get her own place. She wasn’t as prepared for her new job as she would have liked. But she was sure she and Gabriel could work something out. But first she needed to get her feet back under her and that work would start as soon as she got back home. At the thought, she realised she didn’t recognise the area they were headed to.

“Uncle Jonas, where are we going?” she asked.

“Oh, we just need to take a detour to drop something off with a friend,” he said.

“In a warehouse district?” Ava’s warning bells started ringing again. She got no reply as they turned off from the road and down towards a big warehouse. The doors opened and men flagged her uncle to drive in. “Uncle Jonas?” Ava asked. All of her alarms were going. Outside the car, the doors to the warehouse were closing and men were gathering around the car.

“Get out, Ava,” her aunt said.

“Why?”

“Because we said so,” her uncle told her. Ava’s mind tried to work out how to get out of the situation. She saw no way to escape. The men outside were too many and had their attention on the car. They were in a closed building and she didn’t know her way around the place. She could see some areas where they stored things, if she could get there she could hide and wait for someone.

But who would that someone be? She was no longer under Zane’s protection, no one at the mansion would miss her. Gabriel was expecting her call, but not until the next day. She slipped her phone out of the bag and into her pocket as discreetly as she could. Then she took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. She tried to stand with the car at her back, getting an overview of the men surrounding her.

“Miss Cobler, it’s a pleasure meeting you again.” The voice that came from behind her made Ava freeze. No, she thought. This can’t be happening. She slowly turned around. On the other side of the car, Mr Johnson stood with a wide grin on his face. Ava felt her blood drain from her face. “Now, now, miss Cobler. Where are your manners? Is this any way to act around your new owner?” he said, merely chuckling as he saw the horror on her face. She turned to look at her uncle. He just shrugged.

“Mr Johnson came to me this morning and offered me a good deal of money to buy your freedom from that Velky man. I didn’t see why it would make a difference which man you belonged to, and this way, me and your aunt get a little something,” her uncle told her. Shit, Ava thought. She was in big trouble.

“You see, little angel, it wasn’t your uncle’s money that paid off his debt, it was mine. That means I effectively bought you,” Mr Johnson said as he rounded the car and walked towards her. Ava hated that he called her angel. She wasn’t his angel and would never be.

No money in the world would change the fact only one man had the right to call her by that name, even if he had forgotten her existence. She would only ever be Zane’s angel. “Cat got your tongue?” he asked with a smirk and reached out his finger to tap her chin. Ava gave him a smirk and then she bit his finger as hard as she could.

It may not have been the smart move, surrounded by his men. But she would not let this man touch her without a fight. She bit down and as Johnson screamed, she locked her jaw in place. He should know that anything which came close to her mouth would get the same treatment. She tasted blood as Johnson franticly tried to pull himself free.

She felt someone grab a hold of her, tugging her backward. Someone grabbed a hold of her hair and someone tried to force her mouth to open. It came to a point where Ava had to release his finger. She smiled at him as he held his hand to his chest, screaming obscenities at her. “Fucking stupid bitch, I will teach you to bite,” he yelled, walking up to her and slapping her face with his good hand. “Search her and load her into the car,” he told someone behind her. Ava felt defeated as the man behind her found her cell phone and handed it to another man.

She had hoped they wouldn’t search her. It was her only way to let anyone know what was happening. Ava glared at her uncle and aunt as she was dragged off to a van. Her hands and feet were tied together in a hog tie and an old pillowcase was pulled over her head. Hands picked her up and tossed her into the van. Not again, she thought as she remembered her first kidnapping. She had been lucky that time, ending up with Zane. Ava knew she wouldn’t be so lucky this time. She remembered the woman Johnson had brought to the meeting. Was that her future?

They rode around in the van. Ava had lost count of the turns they had made along the way. They had stopped, new people had got into the van, some had left. It felt like she had been there for hours. Her arms and knees were burning from the strained position. Finally they stopped and Ava was yanked out of the vehicle and her hands and feet were untied. She still had trouble standing as the blood rushed back into her limbs. Someone pushed her to walk forward, and she stumbled, trying to feel in front of her to avoid walking into something.

“Fucking move, bitch,” someone grunted behind her and she got another push in the back. Ava tried to hurry along, but it was hard when she couldn’t see. She could still feel the blood taste in her mouth and it made her queasy.

“Get in,” another voice said, pushing her to change direction to her right. As she veered off in that direction, rough hands stopped her. She heard the noise of a door slamming shut and then someone removed the hood from over her face. The pillow case had let in some light. Ava was grateful that the bright light in the small room didn’t hurt her eyes.
She was in a small, grey room. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of painted concrete. A naked lightbulb hang above their heads and in a corner there was a bucket and in another some old blankets. She wasn’t alone. Johnson was there, as was the man Ava had thought to be his son and two of his other men. She noticed with satisfaction that his hand was bandaged.

“You know, this could have been done civilly. You could have listened to me, bent to my will like you did your former master. I would have let you have the simple pleasures in life, make sure you were fed, had a comfortable place to sleep. I might have been forced to slap you around a bit, to make the photos look real. But nothing too bad,” Johnson told her as he stared at her. “But if you insist on acting like a fucking animal, we will treat you like one.

You will have no rights and no food until you calm the fuck down. And yes, we will have to make the photos we will send to your former master look real good,” Johnson continued. Ava refused to let him see the panic and fear that flowed through her. She squared her shoulders and met his eyes.

“You don’t need to send photos to Mr Velky. He has no interest in me now that our business deal is terminated,” she told Johnson. He chuckled.

“That is not what my informant tells me. My source tells me he is more than fond of you,” he said in an amused tone. Ava felt a cold hand grip her heart. Was there a traitor in Zane’s organisation? Who could it be?

“Your information is bad, I’m afraid. Would someone who has any interest in me just let me walk out the door? Does that seem like a man in love?” Ava asked Johnson, as she tried to figure out who had sold them out to this man.

“I admit his behaviour has got me a little confused. I could have sworn he gave me these signs during our meeting. But you are right, letting you walk away from him was a strange move. Nevertheless, let us make sure, shall we?” he told her with a smirk on his face. Ava had no idea what he was talking about, but she could tell from the look of his and his men’s faces it wasn’t anything good.

The slap across her face from Johnson took her by surprise. The slap from his son did not. Ava had learned some self-defence from Ryder, Tom and Carlos. She avoided the hit and pushed the man in the chest with both hands. He lost his footing and stumbled back, ending up in a heap on the floor. “Pathetic,” Johnson growled.

Ava had a feeling he was talking about his son and not her. She knew she couldn’t win. She knew she wouldn’t get away from four men in a closed room. But she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Strong hands grabbed her arms from behind. Every way she turned sent pain through them. She was trapped. Johnson glared at her and started beating her with his fist.

Punches rained down on Ava, hitting all parts of her upper body and head. After what seem like an eternity, Ava saw a blackness creep in from the parameter of her field of vision. She feared losing her consciousness as much as she welcomed it. She would get away from the pain if she let go. But she didn’t know what would happen to her body when she did. The men could do what they wanted with her. She fought it, but in the end she had to surrender as she felt herself slip into darkness. The last thought she had was of Zane.