Ryan sighed, and did as she was told. In the coldness of the evening, running barefoot was going to hurt more than it could potentially help.
Dane handcuffed her hands behind her back, then pushed her into the room with the broken girl. “You know I’m a good shot,” Dane said.
“Yeah.” Ryan had gone with him to the ranges more than once.
“If you try and run, I’ll kill Liv.”
Ryan swallowed thickly. He was smart, too, knowing what she cared about most. Her own life was slightly negotiable. Liv’s wasn’t.
Dane picked up the body of the teenage girl and led them back out behind the house to a large van with a mesh grate between the driver’s area and storage. He opened the back and shoved first Jasmine, then Ryan, inside it. Ryan leaned slightly, testing the lock on the back doors.
“It’s not going anywhere,” Dane said, irritated now.
Ryan shrugged. “Was worth a try,” she said.
He chuckled, and then slammed the trunk shut and left them in the dark.
30
Monday 7th November; 10pm
Ryan wasn’t certain who she wanted to shoot first, when she was placed in the basement in the bar. Dane or Ross? Or even Veronica? It was a tough choice. But the red marks on Liv’s wrists and the bruises provided ample incentive.
Maybe all at once, if she got the access.
Still, Ryan had learned her lesson and was silent. The broken girl was next to her, apparently awake but not speaking. Instead she just dozed against the wall. She was there, but not really there.
She, too, had learned her lesson.
“Use the van and clean it?” Ross looked at Dane, who looked back at him. They were ignoring Veronica.
“Makes sense.” Dane nodded.
“Up.” Ross grabbed Liv’s wrists bound behind her back, and Dane slung the woman across his shoulders in a firefighter’s hold. Neither of them bothered looking at Ryan.
Instead Ross held up the gun so Ryan could see it. Biting her tongue so hard she tasted coppery blood, Ryan followed. It was back to the same van they had just arrived in. The wind was rushing against them, biting at Ryan’s face and exposed arms. The last thing she wanted to do was get back in the van.
“You could have kept us in there,” Ryan muttered.
Dane patted her cheek. “Shut up.”
Ryan gritted her teeth, biting back all the words she had to say about his conduct as a police officer and a human being.
None of it was pleasant.
Jasmine was shoved in there first. Then Liv, then Ryan. The truck bed was shut unceremoniously, and then silence reigned. Ryan could hear the faint noise of Ross and the others talking, but she couldn’t make it out. There was plexiglass or something noise-canceling between where they were stored and where the driver rode.
She tested the strength of the handcuffs around her wrists. They hadn’t bound her feet, at least not very tightly. It was either that or they’d have to carry her.
Hopefully, that would be their fatal mistake.
“Ry?” Liv’s voice was whisper-soft.
Ryan scooted towards her, trying to press as close as she could. “Hey.”
Liv awkwardly pressed a kiss to her lips, made even more awkward by the bumping as the truck started moving.
“Can you help me?” Ryan kept her voice low, just in case they could be heard somehow. She doubted it, but being safe rather than sorry couldn’t really hurt in this case.
“Of course,” Liv answered without hesitation.
Ryan shifted and turned until Liv’s hands were near her head. It was awkward and cramped, but it would do. “Can you get one of the bobby pins out of my hair?”
Stupid men. They never thought of such things.
She felt Liv’s hands comb through her hair, looking for the delicate bobby-pins that held her hair back. “Got one.”
“Great. I’m going to take it with my hands now.” Ryan took it from her hands as carefully as she could in the dark of the truck. She closed her eyes, focusing on her lock picking skills as much as she could. As cheesy and unrealistic as it seemed, bobby pins were one of the easiest ways to escape handcuffs. She straightened it out into an L, then inserted the tip into the handcuffs so she could bend it to the angle she needed. It wasn’t that hard; handcuffs weren’t very secure when you knew what you were doing.
Not that they told the criminals that.
A soft click told Ryan her work had been rewarded. Letting out a fast breath, she took the handcuffs off, rubbing her wrists to promote circulation back into them.
“Here.” Ryan could move better now. The first thing she did was use the broken part of the bobby pin to take out the zip tie around her ankles. It required inserting the straight end of the bobby pin between the locking mechanism and the zip tie, so she could just pull the end out without it locking automatically. “I can take off your bindings.”
Liv held herself still, letting Ryan do the same thing to her zip ties and get them off of her wrists.
Liv exhaled in relief, rubbing her wrists as Ryan got to work on her feet. It was awkward work in their cramped quarters, but it was necessary.
“We’re severely outmanned,” Ryan murmured, settling so she was close to Liv and they could talk.
“That’s putting it politely,” Liv muttered. The van was bouncing along, both Ryan and Liv bouncing with it.
“I’m sorry, Liv.” The regret in Ryan’s voice was genuine.
Liv shook her head; Ryan could feel her hair moving in the dark. “I got myself into this,” she said.
Ryan kissed her cheek, or whatever part of Liv’s face she could reach. “We’ll be okay.”
“Did you say that for me, or for you?” Liv chuckled.
“Both,” Ryan drawled. The tension was straining between the two, and Ryan’s heart was racing. All she wanted to do was get out of the situation, and live her happily ever after.
“Ross is the one who threw the rocks at the house,”
