Read Online Reunion by Meli Raine - Free Book Online Page B

will is all that is keeping me going.  
    Allie is tucked entirely into the pipe, her elbow bent under her, gun in hand. She tries to move her arm out and fails. She needs my help.
    “Check the text, damn it!” Allie barks.
    Her words break through my haze and I reach down. I’m sweating now. The glass cover of the phone is wavering.
    New guy in parking lot , the text says . Get out now .
    New guy? What new guy? El Brujo, Frenchie, and Galt are out there. Who’s the new guy?
    A new text appears.
    Don’t shoot Galt.
    What? What? “Don’t shoot Galt?” I read aloud.
    “Galt?” Allie gasps. “Did Chase actually say that? I’m not supposed to shoot him?”
    I shrug. “That’s what it says.”
    Her eyes are so wide I can see the ring of white around her irises the entire way around.
    “Okay,” she says slowly, shaking her head slightly. “If Chase says so.”
    The hatch opens. I shove the phone back in my waistband and stand.
    “They’re here,” I whisper to Allie, shoving a box in front of her face.
    And then I turn toward the sickening sound of boots click-clacking down the steps.
    “Where is she?” Frenchie calls out in a sing-songy voice. He sounds like a creepy molester in a van by the playground, luring kids with promises of candy.
    I stay silent and move as close to the stairs as I can.
    He appears, El Brujo behind him, then a huge guy in a leather vest, bald and looking just enough like Mark in the face for me to guess he’s Galt. Some other man comes up from behind. A biker. He’s big and bald, with a tuft of hair at the neckline of his shirt. My vision blurs from panic and fear, so I can’t quite make out his face.
    “Cat got your tongue?” Frenchie taunts me.
    “Who got her face?” Galt asks with a low whistle.
    “She tripped and fell,” Frenchie replies.
    “Into the back of your hand?” Galt says with a huff of disapproval. His eyes trace a long line down my face. I reach up and touch the crusting scratch left by Frenchie’s ring.  
    “Girlie Girl here is clumsy like that.” Frenchie moves aside to let the other three men find room.
    The dean—El Brujo—looks around. His eyes spot something far behind me.
    “Cruelty to animals? Oh, my, Carrie. First the pit bull, and now this ?” His voice is a teasing ribbon of bile.
    I follow his eyes to the mousetrap. The rat’s head is stuck, its tongue poking out, body twisted in agony.
    Yet it is still breathing. The rise and fall of its chest makes my eyeballs pound in rhythm to its breath.
    A normal person would argue with El Brujo. A normal person would say she never hurt Wizard the pit bull. A normal person would faint right now. A normal person would scream or beg for help from Galt and the new man.
    But normal went out the window a long, long time ago.
    All I can do is hope they take me out of here and that Allie can escape. Maybe Drew can save me in the parking lot.
    Maybe becomes my only hope.
    Galt looks at me with eyes shaped like Mark and Chase’s but a stone cold black. “Where’s the girl?”
    I freeze. Does he know Allie’s here?
    “Who?” I croak out.
    “The one who’s missing. The cops got the big shipment, but she wasn’t in there.”
    He’s talking about Amy.
    “Who?” I ask again, playing dumb .
    “Girlie Girl here turned into a fucking owl,” Frenchie declare s. I n two steps he’s across the room and his hand’s across my face again. It all happens so fast I can’t flinch. Can’t move. Can’t defend. I fall to the ground and the back of my head hits the wall.  
    I t feels like a gong of pain being struck by a mallet.
    None of the men reacts. It’s like Frenchie swatted a fly.  
    “Carrie. Carrie, Carrie, Carrie,” El Brujo says. “You think you can trifle with me? I’ve spent years building my empire. And yes, it is an empire. I started with my father’s farm in Mexico and turned it into an international operation. I made my way through the finest schools in the United States and Europe, all