Gangs Aren't My Style (A Black Death Novel)

Chapter 32 - A New Dawn, A New Horizon

Gangs Aren't My Style

Book I of the Black Death Trilogy

PART TWO: Memories That Don't Seem To Fade

Chapter 32 - A New Dawn, A New Horizon

When Ally awoke, it was an ordeal. Her head pounded and a ringing was all she could hear. For a moment, she could remember nothing. Then, with one vicious jolt that would have knocked her to the floor had arms not been holding her in place, she remembered.

Her eyes shot open. The light was blinding, a vicious white ordeal that seemed to overpower any other color the room might have possessed. She squinted, and cautiously tested her limbs for range of movement. She could feel them, and even shift her legs, but her arms were hopelessly pinned to her sides. An arm was slung around her waist and a warm chest was pressed to her back.

Ally cringed as she shifted and twisted enough to wrap her fingers around his wrist, attempting to pry the man's arm from around her waist. It had an opposite effect, as she realized when the deadweight behind her moved and a groan sounded through the room.

"Good morning, beautiful."

No. This was definitely not how they would be playing this out.

"Get off of me, now."

He sighed, and his arms loosened then fell from her waist. This time there was nothing to restrict her as Ally sprang from the bed, immediately running to the door. It was locked. She rattled the knob again but the result was the same.

The man was smirking sheepishly at her from his position on the bed. "Why don't you just come back to the bed and sleep off your hangover with me?"

Ally pulled the two pieces of her shirt closer together, cringing at the distant memory of the man undoing the buttons the previous night before he himself passed out cold from the drink. "Unlike you, I wasn't drunk. You drugged me."

He neither denied or confirmed her accusation, but he did not require his affirmation to know it to be truth. Instead, his eyes narrowed. "Ally, get back in the bed before I decide I feel like doing more than just sleeping."

When she did not comply, he shook his head in annoyance and pulled a coil of rope from his dresser drawer. "Tisk, tisk, Ally. So young and naive."

Ally tried the door again, that all-too-familiar panic rising in the back of her throat but suddenly he was behind her, roughly grabbing her wrists and forcing them behind her back. She bit back her cry of pain as he tied the rope around them repeatedly, tightening the coarse material until it was nearly unbearable.

She pulled away from him, slamming her shoulder into the door. "Help! Somebody help me! James!"

He sneered, then backhanded her across the cheek. "Your precious little brother won't be coming to save you any time soon."

He threw her back on the bed and she cried silently as he secured duct tape across her mouth. He sat down beside her and ran a hand reverently over her brow. "I'm sorry I had to do that, baby, but I can't have you taken from me. I've been watching you since James brought you here as a personal slave."

He stroked a finger across her jawbone, and leaned down to breathe in her scent. "Mhh, so sweet."

She sobbed, trying to shift away from him, but he only drew her back and rolled them so that she was pressed to his side. "Go to sleep, beautiful."

His snores hit the air long before Ally managed to fade into oblivion.

"WHERE IS MY SISTER?!?"

It was the yelling that woke her the next morning. Ally had never heard her brother sound so demanding, or so threatening.

She sat up quickly, realizing that she was in the bed alone, and ran to the door. Her fists (still locked together into one awkward lump that she was using to batter the innocent door) rattled the wood on its hinges. Then, she realized the duct tape had loosened in her sleep. She yelled as loud as she could. "James! I'm in here!"

The door soon flew open, but it was the man who had captured her, not her brother. "Shut up, wench," he demanded with a furious intensity, throwing her back against the wall.

Ally cried out, pleading with him. "Please let me go. Surely you know now that you will not get away with this!"

"I said quiet!" he exclaimed, raising his fist as if to strike her for the second time.

She cringed away from him, but his knuckles never again found purchase with her fair skin. James stormed into the room and caught the man's fist while it was still in the air. "You would DARE to raise a hand to my sister?"

​ Through his haze of fury, James noticed her tears. He shoved the piece of trash gang member out of his way and into the awaiting arms of his second in command. The man in question secured her capturer's hands in handcuffs and led him roughly away, but Ally knew his punishment would be far from over.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently, his eyes pleading for it to be true.

Ally nodded shakily, giving him a watery smile. "I will be."

James leaned down to pull a pocket knife from his boot and cut through the ropes still securing her wrists. She wasted no time before throwing her arms around him and pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. This time was not like the last, James had been there to save her. He had rescued her.