I have to wait ten minutes before I’m allowed to go back into the clubhouse and let everyone know what’s happened. Strike forcibly told me to tell my dad and brothers, he wanted them to hear it straight from me and get a good look of my face and what he’s done to me. To hurt my family, Strike had them rip my clothes from my body but that’s not the worse part. They slapped and punched me, everywhere on my body including my face. Just to give my family a message. I tried not to cry out or show my pain, but there were so many men hurting me. I could only take so much.

How am I even supposed to know when ten minutes has gone by? Strike was most likely bullshitting me when he said one of his men was watching me to make sure I did what I was supposed to do.

Suddenly there’s a loud bang behind me and I scream. Is he back?

“Drew?” I hear Devlin. “The fuck?”

I open my eyes and see my big brother frowning down at me. It’s really dark out here so I doubt he can see the state I’m in.

“Why are you on the floor?” He ask, stepping closer to me. “Where the fuck are your clothes?”

I wrap my arms around myself and cry. “I’m so sorry.”

“Drew, what’s the matter?” He kneels down in front of me.

“He’s got Natasha.” I cry.

I see his body stiffen, even in the darkness. “What?”

“Strike has Natasha.” I repeat, tears running down my face.

Suddenly he’s up and running inside. I hear his voice shouting above the music and it’s cut off. Brothers run outside, all scattering around the garden and begin searching.

A blanket is wrapped around me and I look up to see Lauren. I jump up and wrap my arms around her, crying into her body as she holds me.

“Drew, what happened?” She asks, my brothers eagerly watching us.

“Tasha brought us out here to give me fresh air.” I cry. “It’s all my fault!”

“Get her inside!” My dad yells from the door looking furious.

Lauren guides me inside whispering encouraging words to me. That is until we’re in the light and she sees my appearance.

“Oh my god!” She gasps. “What did they do?”

At hearing her shocked voice, Grim stands beside her and stares wide eyed at me.

“I’m going to kill him!” He roars, becoming the Grim he is well and truly known for.

“Baby?” I hear my Dad’s voice. “What have they done to you?”

He sounds broken and that’s just what Strike wanted, to hurt my family.

“I’m ok.” I insist.

“You don’t fucking look ok!” Shouts Devlin.

“They hit me a few times but it was just to hurt you, don’t let them!” I plead.

My dad rushes to me and wraps me in his arms. I wince as soon as he does and he pulls back. “What?”

“I’m fine.” I argue but Lauren doesn’t believe me. None of them do.

“Let me see.” She steps closer and I pull away.

My mum comes from behind, cornering me so Lauren can lift the blanket. All the men turn to give us privacy without a word spoken and when Lauren sees under the blanket, her eyes shine with tears.

“Oh Drew.” She sobs.

When they have the all clear, the men turn back around and Lauren tells them exactly what I didn’t want her to. “She’s badly bruised already. Cuts everywhere, he didn’t?”

“No.” I immediately close that question and she breathes a sigh of relief.

Scrappy and Baby rush inside. Both of their eyes widening when they see me.

“Tyre marks leading west from the gates.” Scrappy informs.

My dad turns to everyone ordering them around. Luckily for us, we have CCTV so we should be able to see where they went. With Grims’ connections, they can also look into the police security a tape, that’s if the club has kept their good connections with them. After what went down with the prospects, Big John and Marie, it was really tough but without them, it would have been worse.

When my Dad is done and it’s just my close family I stop them from wherever they’re going.

“I need to tell you something.” I announce and I instantly get all their attention.

“When we were outside, Strike came out of nowhere, he was waiting for something and when we went out, we gave him what he wanted.” I take a deep breath a carry on. “She pushed me away, tried to get me inside but one of his men caught me. He was saying some fucked up things to her.”

“What things?” Devlin cuts in.

“Similar to what she told me was on that letter.” I admit to him and he pales. “He hit her around the head and she fell. I watched as he pushed her to the floor.”

Tears drench my face and the blanket I clutch around myself. Lauren and Elise begin to cry beside me.

“He told me I had to tell you his plan.”

“Which is?” Devlin steps closer.

“He said he has taken what’s his, but he still wants his Raven.” I look to Lauren and she nods in understanding. “He’s willing to let her go, if he can have Lauren back but if he doesn’t have her in the next twenty-four hours, he won’t let you have Natasha and he will still want Lauren, as well as me and Elise.”

“Fuck!” Devlin shouts, kicking the boxes of rubbish beside the door. “We have to get her back!”

Grim rushes to Devlin, wrapping an arm around him and holding him close. “We will brother.”

“How?” He cries. It’s heart breaking seeing my brother like this.

“I don’t know yet, but we will.” He demands and I really want to believe him. I should without a doubt but now that I’ve seen Strike in person, I don’t know what’s going to happen. That man is terrifying and will obviously do anything to get what he wants.

Lauren ushers me away followed by my mother and Elise. We go to my room where she sits me on my bed and runs me a hot bath. As they fuss, all I can think about is how Natasha looked when she lay on the floor. I just pray to god she’s ok.

Fuck my head feels so sore! What the hell did I drink last night?

With my eyes still closed I roll over to feel Devlin but I don’t feel anything. No warm body, just cold emptiness. I snap my eyes open and when I see I’m not in Devlin’s bedroom back at the clubhouse everything that happened flashes back in an instant.

Oh my god Drew! I hope she’s ok. I don’t know what happened after I was knocked out but I know it can’t be good. I remember Strike talking about a plan of his and needing Drew’s help.

I take in my surroundings and something doesn’t feel right. In my experience with Strike, I always end up in a grotty dirty hell hole, but this place doesn’t feel so bad. That doesn’t sit well with me. Don’t get me wrong, this is no palace. It’s plain and the only colours that seem to be present are black and white but it’s clean. Strike doesn’t do clean.

I slowly sit up on the bed and look around the small bedroom I’m in. The only window in this room is high on the wall, way out of my reach and tiny. Even I wouldn’t be able to fit through that! Looks like the only way out of this place is that door. I slowly make my way over as if I’m secretly being watched and try to open the door but as I thought, it’s locked.

I turn to lean my back against the wall in frustration and then I find something very odd. On a table against the wall are two magazines. Frowning I make my way over to them and flick through them. They haven’t been tampered with or anything, just normal gossip mags.

In confusion, I sit back down on the bed. What the fuck?

This isn’t Strikes style at all!

Sweat drips down my body as I continue to punch as the fake body in front of me. I have to get this frustration out somehow.