by Bree Rivers
“Who? Are you referring to my son, Vanity?”
“Violet. I’m called Violet now.”
“No, you are my Vanity. You always have been you know.” The Senator’s wandering fingers slid down her face and neck to settle on her right breast. “Ever since you were a little girl, I knew I’d have you.”
“You don’t want me, Senator. I’ve been with others, and—”
“Now, now, my dear. When my friend here is finished, you won’t remember any of that unpleasantness.”
“But Kane. Kane will—”
“Kane doesn’t care about you, Vanity. He doesn’t even know you’re alive.”
“No. Kane loves me. Davis loves me.” His fingers tightened on her nipple so hard it made her whimper with pain as visions of the nightmare in the warehouse pressed against the hatch she hid it behind. “The drugs will wipe your memory, Vanity. Everything must go. Kane will go, as well, my Vanity. You’ll be mine as long as you entertain me. I suggest you stop fighting it. I’ll have my way in the end.” He turned to the physician and gestured to her free arm. “We won’t have that long, Doctor. I suggest you run two IVs and double the maximum dose—”
“That may kill her, Senator.”
“So be it. If it works and I get my way, you’ll get a small fortune. So stop pretending to care and do as I say.”
Violet fought. She bucked against the cold metal bite of the chains. She screamed. She cried. It didn’t matter. The needle slid into the softness of her skin, and the doctor pushed the poison into her vein. Violet tried to hold onto something. Davis’ touch. Kane’s smile. Even the terror behind the hatch.
But no one can hold on that long. No one could stop the strength of the chemicals. Soon, even Violet lost her grasp.
KANE STRETCHED BEFORE he opened his eyes. The coldness of the sheets surprised him. Then he remembered the brush of her lips against his cheek and the murmured comment that Violet was going to the lake. Rising, he pulled on some pants and scratching his belly went to the surveillance room. A swim sounded good. He thought maybe they should test Davis’ theory, and try making love in a lake.
Toggling through the screens, he scowled when he didn’t see her.
Flipping through the screens again, he slowed down and kept looking for her. What the fuck? She was nowhere on any of the screens. Rushing into the bedroom, he slammed Davis’s foot. “Something’s wrong.”
“She having a nightmare?” Davis was talking before he opened his eyes.
“I’d tell you if I could fucking find her.” Kane went running out of the house toward the lake determined to figure out what happened to his girl. Violet disappeared from his life once because he thought he was doing the right thing. He would be damned if he let her leave him again. The last time it was his fault. The only way it would be his fault this time was if he let her go.
MARIA WAITED UNTIL the middle of the night to go downstairs. She was here. Maria was sure Vanity was here. May heaven be merciful, Maria feared her Vanity was here for over a week. The Senator, the monster, may have hidden her well, but you don’t work a lifetime in service and not learn every secret your employer tries to hide. Her team, otherwise known as the Senator’s staff, had gotten her enough hints to be ready for her plan.
The other good thing about spending a lifetime in service was you made friends, other people who worked for powerful men, who needed to have ways to survive.
It took her ten minutes to find the entrance behind the surplus cleaning supply shelf. At the end of the darkened hallway, only her phone’s light to guide her, there was a cell. With actual iron bars. A moan from the shadows told her she’d either found her Vanity or some other poor girl the Senator caught.
When she got the iron key ring from the hook, her hand shook so hard she wasn’t sure she could get the door open. Inside, there was her Vanity. Spitting on a curse, she used the same keys to get the manacles off of her girl’s wrists. Her purple hair was matted to her head, her color ashen. Maria started to softly pray at the state she found the child she’d helped raise. Pulling out the IVs, she cast them to the filthy dirt floor. She had the foresight to bring down a blanket with her.
Tapping on Vanity’s cheeks, her eyelids barely flickered.
“Madre de Dios,” she bit back a sob. Maria pulled Vanity to a sitting position and wrapped the blanket around her body. Her baby had nothing on but a bra and underwear. She was half frozen.
“I could help.”
Looking over her shoulder, she saw Carlos, the night guard watching from the corner of the entrance. “Please ... if you tell ... I just have to—”
“He’s going to kill her. She was always nice to me. Let me help.”
Maria nodded, sure she had no way of getting Vanity to safety without the younger man’s muscular back. He lifted her as gently as Maria could ask.
“Where are we going?”
“Quickly. My car.”
The two of them made their way at a sedate fast-walk through the darkened house and out the servant’s entrance in back. Maria opened the door to her twenty-year-old sedan when Carlos shook his head. “They’ll spot her when you drive to the gate. Raphael’s on duty tonight, and he’s a son-of-a-bitch. You need to put her in the trunk. I know it’s not the best—”
“No. You are right. I wasn’t thinking.”
Vanity tucked into the trunk, she sighed as Maria got into the car. Looking up at the man, she gestured to the passenger seat. “You could come with me.”
“Better I stay. I may be able to keep the Senator off your trail.”
Maria squeezed his hand before shutting the door and driving away. Each milestone she cleared, Maria continued to pray. When she got to the private airport, she couldn’t believe no one stopped her. When she drove up to the jet, she saw him waiting. “Agent Kramer. You’re here. Good.”
“Ms. Flores, where is this super witness you promised me? If the FBI is going to take your allegations against the Senator seriously—”
“If you stop speaking Special Agent in Charge you will find your super witness in the trunk of the car.”
“Trunk? What the hell did you do?”
“If I hadn’t saved her Agent, you wouldn’t have the witness you need. Now get us to Seattle and find some medical help.” She opened the trunk, and the Agent cursed when he saw the condition of Vanity.
“This woman is a junkie—”
“Don’t you say that. Don’t you ever say that.” Maria held Vanity’s hand between both of hers and softly caressed it. “My Vanity never did drugs. The Senator—the monster—he did this. He was trying to get my Vanity to forget, but he never understood just how strong a woman can be. Now, can you get us to Seattle?”
“I suppose. I have an old colleague there. He can keep the two of you off the grid, as it were.”
“Good. Then I can figure out if the apple is like the tree or not.”
“What?” The Agent lifted Vanity out of the car. “Ms. Flores, what are you talking about?”
“Never you worry Special Agent in Charge. Never you worry.”
DAVID SAT DOWN AT THE table and sighed. Gray and Roman both had equally defeated expressions. Lara and Ivy both came to join them sliding into their husband’s laps. Gray cupped the bump of Ivy’s growing second child in his hand. “They still won’t come back from the lake house? Did you tell them I cooked?” Ivy asked David.
“They wouldn’t come, Ivy.”
“You should have told them Lara was going to come and serve them dinner,” West tried to joke.
“Unfortunately they wouldn’t even come to save me from the threat of my wife’s cooking.” Lara opened her mouth in mock outrage, sighed, and rested her head against his. “Kane and Davis are heartbroken.”
“Why would Violet run? It doesn’t make sense.” Ivy turned to Gray, her eyes shiny. “Does it?”
“No, love. It doesn’t. But those two are so caught up in their pain—” The thunderous knock on the door made everyone at the table flinch with surprise. “Who
the hell is that?” Gray asked.
“Like I would know.” David rose to get the door as Lara cleaned off the extra place settings at the table. When he wrenched open the door, he was confounded to find Wade Matthews. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were a Texas Ranger until the day you died. Aren’t you supposed to be wearing a cowboy hat?”
“Believe it or not, I joined the bureau. How are you double-O?”
“Keep it down, Wade. My friends feel I must be a delicate flower.”
The two men chuckled as they shook hands. David pulled the door partially closed, “What’s going on?”
“I’ve got a bit of—as you would put it—sticky wicket.”
“How can I help?”
Wade gestured to the car at the curb where a squat older Spanish woman was staring intently at them. “Think you can put my witnesses up for a little while?”
“Witnesses?”
“There’s a young woman in the back seat. I have to get a secure physician here to see to her. She’s had a rough time. Damnedest thing. She looks as stomped as can be, but her hair is still bright purple.”
“Purple?” David cursed. “It can’t be.” Ignoring the gasps coming from behind him, he pushed his friend to the side and rushed to the car. When the Spanish lady sprawled in front of the door to protect the passenger, he physically moved her to the side. Laying down on the rear seat, covered by a blanket, was the woman whose disappearance had broken his friends' hearts. “Oh Violet, we have to stop meeting like this.”
“You know her?”
“I do.” David gestured to Gray and Roman to come closer. “We all do. Where the hell has she been?”
“Senator Long had her locked in his basement.”
“Hell,” Gray cursed when he caught sight of Violet.
“I’m calling Shane.” Roman took out his phone and a few steps away.
Gray took out his phone. “I’ll get Magnus to corral Kane—”
At the mention of Kane’s name, both the squat Latin lady and Violet flinched as if they’d been struck. “You know Mister Kane? You must get him here. You tell him Maria needs him to come here. Mister Kane will come. You must tell him.”
“I will,” Gray promised. Turning from them he began to whisper furiously into the phone.
“I take it you’re fine with putting us up?”
David chuckled at the sight of Lara and Ivy stomping down the walkway with the most determined looks on their faces he’d ever seen. “I would not suggest you try to take her away, cowboy.”
“You do realize I work for the FBI, David. People don’t usually fight me.”
David shook his head, “You’ve never met my wife.”
SHANE ENTERED DAVID’S guest house with a scowl firmly placed. “What the hell? Why is Roman summoning me to—” He froze when he caught sight of the huddled form in the corner of the room. All he could see was matted purple hair hanging down to mask the face, a filthy nightgown and the bright red bruises circling a wrist. The transformation from over-worked pissed off alpha male doctor to teddy bear was instantaneous. “Hello, Pretty Girl. What hijinx have you gotten into now?”
“Damn it, David where the hell is she?” Kane came tearing into the room followed closely by Davis. Violet whimpered and tried to squeeze herself into a smaller ball and farther into the walls of the corner of the room.
“Quiet,” Shane’s voice was low, steady, and deadly. “Pretty Girl, what’s happened to you?” He ignored the curses from his friends and the growing audience behind him. All that mattered was his patient. “You need to talk to me, Violet, before I go and kill someone for no reason.”
“Her name is Vanity,” a female voice stated.
Looking up he smiled at the fierce brown eyes staring him down. “I was told she prefers to be called Violet. And you are?”
“Maria.”
“God, Maria?” Kane grabbed the woman and gave her a tight hug. “You rescued her, didn’t you?”
“I did, Mister Kane.”
“You saved the love of my life, Maria. I think we can discard the Mister stuff.”
“I call you Mister to remind you of who you are Mister Kane. Don’t mess with an old woman.”
“You took on the Senator. You’re a superhero in my book.”
The old woman wiped at her tearing eyes and swiped gently at Kane’s arm. “I do not think it matters what you call me. The monster, he had our Vanity—”
“She prefers Violet, now.”
“Violet? Matches her hair. Either way, the monster had Violet in the basement for days before my staff heard about it. There were some IVs in her arms, and they were pumping her full of some kind of drug.”
“Drug?” Shane took out his kit. “Hell, let’s get a blood draw and see what we’re dealing with.”
As soon as she saw the needle, Violet went wild. It took Kane, Davis, and Maria holding her down for Shane to get a decent blood draw from her. The noises she made were one he’d only heard when an animal was caught in a trap, and it made him want to puke. “Someone get this to my clinic and tell them to put a rush on it.” He looked up and realized just how many people were crowded into the guest house. “And we need to clear you guys out. I want some time alone with my patient.”
“She will not speak doctor.” Maria reached out a hand to touch Violet to give comfort, but the girl just shook with terror.
“Wait, I have an idea.” Kane grabbed Lara, and the two of them rushed toward the main house.
“I wasn’t kidding,” Shane ordered. “Everyone out.”
They filed out slowly, casting saddened looks at Violet. Davis moved to the farthest corner of the room and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. Apparently, he wasn’t going anywhere. When Shane looked at Maria, she just folded her arms over her chest. “I will not leave her, Doctor—”
“Shane. Everyone just calls me Shane.”
“Well, I helped raise this little girl. I will not leave her when she needs me most.”
Kane and Lara came running in. Shane’s eyebrows rose at the item Kane was carrying as if it were a Ming vase. “Seriously, man?”
“TRUST ME.” KANE GOT down on the floor with Violet, who was still a shaking huddled mass. He held out the glittery wand Lara had used with a fairy costume during their last Halloween party toward Violet with just two fingers. “Look, Violet. Please just look for a minute.”
The pale bruised eyes opened and slid down to the wand, widening with the memory. She reached out to take it, then retreated once more. “He said you weren’t real,” she whispered. “He said you’d never—”
“The first rule of life in the manor,” Maria interrupted, “the Monster always lies.”
Kane flinched at the realization the people who helped raise him, who were fixtures in his life, called his father, the Monster. The pain came more from the fact it was earned. “You remember, don’t you, love? You’re the fairy princess, and I’m nothing but the ogre ...” Violet grabbed the wand and broke it over his head. He heard the others shift but held up his hand. “It’s okay.”
“He said you wouldn’t come.”
“I didn’t.” Kane swallowed hard. “And I’m going to have to live with that for the rest of my life. Again.”
“Enough, Kane.” Shane pointed to the door. “You and Davis get out.”
THEY LEFT ONLY BECAUSE Shane wouldn’t move until they did. When the door shut behind the pair, he looked at Lara. “You’re going to need my help.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Ok, Violet. We need to start with a—”
“No more needles.”
Shane sat back on his heels and cursed. She wasn’t going to make this easy on him. “There was a doctor,” Maria explained. “He was a bad man. I kept the maids away from him, but he had her chained to a bed.”
“Fuck.” Shane scrubbed his hand over his face. “No needles,” he promised Violet and Maria. “I do want to take your vitals.”
“And I think a really thor
ough shower is in order first,” Lara announced.
Shane took a deep breath as he sat back and let the two women take over. He’d often been surprised at just how powerful women standing and caring for other women could be. There was healing in sisterhood men had little understanding of. He at least knew how to respect it.
WADE SHRUGGED, “THERE you have it. I’ve been investigating your father—”
“Please,” Kane drawled, “please just call him the Senator.”
“I couldn’t get anywhere. No one would talk.”
“The Senator knows how to cover his ass,” Kane shrugged.
“Maria stepping forward was a miracle. She promised me someone who had everything I could ever want on him. I had no idea the Senator had a girl locked up in his basement or that he was pumping her full of drugs to fry her memory.”
“I could kill him,” Davis muttered.
“Stand in line.”
Every male in the room looked at Kane with understanding and camaraderie. Gray leaned forward. “You know the squad will support you.”
“And good news, our family owns an island you guys can retreat to.”
Wade held up his hand, “Let’s try to avoid talk of breaking federal laws in front of me, please?”
“Learn to not listen,” Gray suggested.
The door opened, and Shane staggered inside. He ignored everyone sitting at the table and went straight to the bar David kept fully stocked in the corner. His hand shook as the doctor poured half a glass of the aged whiskey that was his favorite. He downed it with one flick of his wrist and then poured another. It took three more shots before he joined them at the large table in David’s eat-in kitchen. Then threw the crystal tumbler against the wall and stared at the shards strewn across the floor.
“You know if we’re going to keep using my house for these crises we’re really going to have to talk about a fund for the repairs.” David’s wry observation was met with one chuckle and smiles from the rest of the room.
“Where’s Ivy?” Shane sat between David and Magnus.