“Raven?”
She crawled to her friend, touching her face, then her neck, feeling for a pulse. When she found one, she nearly cried out with relief. There was no way her friend could be dead.
Fear lodged in her throat as she moved to cradle Raven’s head in her lap. She ran her fingers through the woman’s hair.
“I’ve got you.” She closed her eyes as another bolt of pain worked its way up her spine.
Breathing deeply, she continued to whimper as they went over some potholes. Each jar of the van causing more pain.
She didn’t know how long they’d been driving for before Raven began to wake up.
“Fuck, ouch, fuck,” Raven said, wincing.
Ava stroked her hair. “You’re awake. You’re fine, I hope.”
Raven opened her eyes and she watched as the other woman became aware of her surroundings. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know.”
She didn’t sit up.
Ava stayed, running her fingers through her hair.
“One of them got me good.”
“I was dragged in here,” she said, sniffling. “Harlow’s not here.”
“She’ll be okay,” Raven said.
She sat up with a groan, sitting on the opposite side of the van. “Smokey’s going to kill me for this.”
“Do you know who we’ve been taken by?” Ava asked.
“The Twisted Bastards. They weren’t wearing leather cuts, but they’re the only ones after you and they are pissed at us for shutting down several of their operations.”
“Smokey warned me.”
“You were his top priority.”
“The club comes first.”
Raven laughed. “They all say the club comes first, but we all know they think with their dick.” Raven closed her eyes, frowning. “I don’t mean anything bad by that.”
Ava smiled. “It’s fine.”
“What I meant to say was Smokey loves you. I’m not talking the sweet kind of romance either. I’m talking the full-on die-for-you kind of love. I never thought I’d see him fall hard for a woman. I’m glad he has.”
Ava smiled. “I love him so much. There are times I can’t even think of being without him, and I’m so jealous of the women at the club.”
“He’d get rid of them in a heartbeat if that’s what you wanted.”
“He told me, but he warned me the guys would hate me.”
Raven laughed. “Yeah, they would. They would totally be pissed about it.”
Ava’s hands continued to shake.
“We’ll make it out of here,” Raven said.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I know Smokey. I know the town. He’ll be alerted in no time what happened. Harlow’s involved, so we know Big Dick will be all over it. He has the ability to find anyone. We’ll be fine, Ava. We’ve just got to make it through.”
The truck came to a stop.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Ava said.
“Like what, like charge at them?”
“Answer now,” Creed said.
“I’ll do anything. You know that.”
Creed smiled, and fear rushed up Ava’s spine as she looked at him.
“I thought you might say that.”
Ava was pulled across the room and dumped into a chair. More pain rushed through her body, and she wrapped an arm around her stomach protectively.