by Sam Crescent
“Why does it matter to you, Rick? This isn’t your family anymore. You’ve got Mandy back at home. Why not leave this shit behind and go back to her?”
He got another two blows. One to his face, the other to his stomach. He couldn’t fight back, but Rick had trained him to take a beating.
“I’m getting tired of you saying my wife’s name.”
“Mandy, Mandy, Mandy.” He laughed as Rick’s eye twitched.
“Okay, fine, you want to play that game?” Rick got up and walked over to the cage where Tulip was.
“What are you doing? Let her go.”
Tulip screamed as Rick grabbed her hair and pulled her out of the cage. He threw her down to the ground and lifted her head up.
“You won’t do anything.”
“To kill her?” Rick asked. “Of course not. I won’t kill her. No, but seeing as this woman isn’t mine, that I found her and brought her to you, there’s nothing stopping me from breaking her just a little bit.” He grabbed her arm, twisting it. If he put too much pressure at that angle, it would break.
“Landon, don’t,” Tulip said.
“Where’s Tamsin?” Rick asked. “What deal do you have with Jade?”
“Don’t do it, Landon. You’re protecting her.”
Rick had him.
He wasn’t going to give away Tamsin’s location but he couldn’t allow for Tulip to be heard.
“I don’t know where she is,” he said. “My cell phone. Call her. If you tell her it’s a code red, she’ll give her location.”
It was a lie. To give Tamsin a code red, his sister would know he was in trouble and she was to give a fake location.
“How about this?” Rick said, dropping Tulip to the floor. He dragged her back to the cage and threw her inside. “Let’s see how long she lasts being all cold.”
“I will kill you.”
“No, you won’t. One day, you’ll see I’m doing this for your own good.” Rick went over to the pile of clothes. While he looked for a cell phone, the basement door opened and down came his brothers.
Jacob, Abel, Oliver, Gideon, and Damian, of course, no one could forget Gabriel Colton either.
“I should have known you guys wouldn’t be far behind,” he said.
“What the fuck did you do to him?” Jacob asked.
“What I have to. It seems to me you boys don’t know how to do your job properly and so you’re leaving it to me to fix.” Rick tutted.
Within seconds, he had his cell phone.
Landon gave him the code to get into the cell, and he waited.
The call started to ring, and ring, and he hoped Tamsin wouldn’t answer.
But she did.
“Hey, Landon, it hasn’t been long since your last call. I’m starting to feel special.”
Landon paused. Pain filled every single part of his body and right now, he had to keep her safe from his family and from the Savonas. The only way to do that was to risk certain death.
Glancing at Tulip, he knew he had to protect her. She was his completely. Sarah wasn’t his, he realized that now. There was a connection between them but only in the vaguest of senses.
“Landon, you okay?”
One look at his brothers, and he saw their fear, their concern. They didn’t want anything to happen to her, but if they brought her home, they were going to sell her to the highest bidder and he wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
“I’m here, Tamsin.”
“What’s going on?”
“Tamsin, you remember what I told you about a code red?”
“Yes.”
“Then I need you to understand you’re in danger. Code red. Highest.”
Tamsin gasped. They all heard it.
“Tell me where you are so I can come and pick you up.”
“Landon, no, I’m fine. Honestly, I don’t … for me.”
Seconds passed, maybe even minutes. All he could hear was Tulip’s shivering. Whatever happened, he needed to protect her.
His brothers could all go to hell as far as he was concerned.
Tamsin gave her location. Her voice didn’t waver.
“I’ll be coming for you soon,” he said. Tamsin knew he wouldn’t be coming, but someone else would. She had to be vigilant. Not go to town. Not do anything to draw too much attention to herself.
“Okay, I’ll see you when you come for me, and Landon?” she said.
“What?” he asked.
“Tell my brothers if you see them to leave me the fuck alone. For once, I’m living my life the way I want to and I’m not going to be another pawn in their lives. They already put their women in danger. I want to be left alone.” She hung up her cell.
“You go for her, you’re going to hurt her,” he said, looking at Rick, then at each of his brothers in turn.
“You and I are going to have a little chat,” Rick said. He pulled out a knife and sliced through the binds that kept him to the chair.
Before he knew what was happening, he was being hauled up out of his chair and dragged upstairs. His uncle Rick’s strength never failed to surprise him. Even now, he was being pulled without much effort at all.
He needed to see Tulip one final time, and as he looked at her shivering, he would do whatever it took to get her out of there, Jade as well.
Neither woman deserved this.
This was all on him and he would protect them both. He’d promised them, and he wouldn’t fail. The last thing he ever wanted to be was like his father.
****
Tulip wrapped her arms around herself as she watched the brothers leave the basement one by one.
She couldn’t believe Rick had put a gun to her head and was willing to kill her. Men like him were monsters to the core.
“Well, this is nice,” Jade said.
She wasn’t curled up on her bed. The Denton men had attacked so quickly neither of them had time to change. The cold was unbearable. This was one of the things she hated most about being on the streets. The cold always got to you, always pushed you to the limit of what you were willing to do.
She shivered, trying to warm herself up.
“There has to be a way out of here.”
“They’re metal bars,” Tulip said, watching as Jade started to squeeze each bar within her own cell.
“I don’t care.”
“You’ve been with Landon a handful of months and you think you can break out of any place?”
“I’ve got to be willing to try. If I don’t, they’re going to send me back to my family, and now that I’ve had a taste of freedom, I’m not going to give it up.” She squeezed one of the bars. “Come on.” She slammed her open palm against one of them.
“Even if you were to find a weak spot, how are we going to get out without Landon? I’m not leaving him behind. You saw that crazy look his uncle had. He’ll be killed.”
“What do you care, anyway? It’s not like you love him.”
Tulip glared at Jade. “I … it doesn’t matter, but did you see what he did? He’s willing to risk his sister for us.”
Jade moved toward the bars that separated their two cells. She put her hands around Tulip’s. “I want you to listen to me very closely.” She’d lowered her voice. “Landon will not risk his sister. She’s not coming home and the code red is the exact opposite of what Landon told them. The code red means Tamsin knows he’s been taken. He’s in danger and it means will she be too. They have their own secret code. He helped her to break free, just as he helped me to survive.”
“He was going to kill you.”
“Yes, but he didn’t. I’m alive. I’m free. I’m not going to allow myself to be handed over to my family. Especially if they decide Landon is still a viable choice as my husband, and they make some kind of deal. I know we haven’t exactly put a label between us, Tulip. I’m hoping one day you would consider me a friend. Friends do not fuck each other’s men. It’s not how it goes.”
“I know that.”
“So it will do for us to get out of he
re. If we can escape, I know for a fact Landon can. He got away the first time with his sister, who’s younger than both of us. He’ll do it again.” Jade kept on pulling on the bars.
“And if he doesn’t?” Tulip asked.
“Have you always been this sucky person or do the Denton men just make you feel that way?”
“I don’t consider myself sucky. I’m a realist. When I escaped the last time, they wanted me gone. Now, it’s a whole different story.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “They wanted me to find Landon, to draw him out, and now that they’ve got what they want, they’re not exactly going to keep us alive.”
“Don’t give up hope just yet. If they wanted you dead, you’d be on the ground dead. I hate this place. This is where they’ve brought a whole load of traitors.”
“We’re not traitors.”
“Not in the traditional sense, no, but we ran from them. They may see us as such. I don’t want to linger long enough to find out. Help me or die shivering. At least if we’re doing something, we’re not going to die.”
She didn’t see a reason to argue.
“If you went back home, wouldn’t you live in a life of luxury?”
“A life in a cage, Tulip. I’ve told you before. I don’t want to die a woman forced into a marriage I don’t want, with a man I don’t love.”
Tulip laughed. “You believe in love.”
“I believe in the possibility for the future, don’t you?”
“I don’t know what I believe, in all honestly, or what I trust.” She rubbed at her temple. “It’s all fucked up if you ask me. Until a couple of days ago, I was a nobody. Now I’m someone with no family and a guy who … I don’t know.”
“Do you have feelings for him?” Jade asked.
“I don’t know.” She squeezed a bar and then went to the door and reached around, stroking the lock.
Tapping her fingers against it, she looked back into her cell. The mattress wasn’t on the floor. She stepped over to it.
“I don’t know isn’t a definite no.”
“He’s the only person who’s ever tried to do anything for me,” she said. “In his own way, he’s been the only person in my entire life to care. Even then, he didn’t want to see me die. It was … nice.” She shook her head, tossing up the mattress.
“What are you’re looking for?” Jade asked.
“Some beds have some nice metal springs.” She bent down, unhooking one of the springs. “And that means we don’t have to stay here testing for a weakness within the bars because they left us the perfect key out of here.” She worked the spring open, moved toward the open bars near Jade’s cage, and they unwound the metal. It was a little rusty, so they had to be careful. A couple of the springs snapped and were completely useless.
Tulip gritted her teeth, they finally, carefully got one unwound. They both smiled.
“Do you know how to do this?” Jade asked.
“It’s been a couple of years, but I know how.”
“How do you know how to do it?”
“Simple. Some foster parents aren’t always nice and to make sure you don’t leave the house, they liked to lock the doors. Some of them had bolts, no way of getting out unless you smashed the wooden door. Some were nice locks in the doors.” She knelt down beside the cage. This was the kind of lock she was able to work from within.
This felt wrong. There was no way Rick Denton would have left them alone like this with a chance to escape, unless he didn’t figure they knew how to pick a lock. Either way, she wasn’t going to give herself long to think about it.
It took her time and as she kept dropping the spring, which resulted in it snapping, requiring her to take more springs, unwind them with Jade’s help, and get started all over again.
“Do you think there are cameras in here?”
“Who cares? So long as they’re busy, we have our chance.”
She wasn’t going to leave without Landon. He’d risked everything to save them.
She didn’t tell Jade her plan. Leaving him behind wasn’t an option.
Finally, the lock sprang open and she wanted to cheer but left it to Jade.
Leaving her cage, she went to Jade’s and worked the lock. It still took her time.
“Come on. Come on.”
“I’m trying. Don’t rush me. It’s not like I practiced this as a fine art.” She worked the lock and finally it opened.
Jade rushed into her arms. “Come on. There’s no time to celebrate. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Holding each other’s hands, they started to walk up the stairs. Both of them were careful as they came to a door.
“What do we do?” Jade asked.
“We have to be careful. They are surrounded with guards. Fuck, what if they have men waiting for our escape and they shoot at us?”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take because I’m not staying here to go back to my family.” Jade reached out to unlock the door.
“Wait, they could be anywhere. We’ve got to do this quietly.”
“Come on, Tulip. You think they’re going to leave us alone all day? We’ve got to move, and now.”
She knew Jade was right.
Turning the doorknob, she tried not to panic and wasn’t exactly successful. There was one thing about escaping, another about getting shot at. No matter what, she didn’t want to die today, or any day soon. Jade didn’t seem to share her worry. The only thing on the girl’s mind was escape.
Any other time, she’d have loved her attitude. Right now, with Landon in trouble, it didn’t exactly suit her for this girl to be so selfish about getting out. She wasn’t leaving without Landon, simple as that.
Chapter Eleven
“If you’re going to kill me, you might as well get it over with already,” Landon said.
Rick dumped him on the ground of his father’s old office. Landon knelt on the floor and watched as Rick pulled out a gun.
“You know, Landon, it would be easy for me to do. I like the easy life. It was easy for me to give up all of this shit to be with my woman Mandy. You remember her, don’t you? The woman who was nice to you when you had no choice but to come and stay with us because of your fucked-up nonsense? Now I’m back here, again, dealing with your fucked-up messes, again. I don’t like doing this, but it would seem with Maddox gone, he fucked everything up, even bigger than you.” Rick didn’t shoot. He clicked the safety back on his gun. “Which also means I’ve got no choice but to fix this shit he’s created. Believe me, I’m not in the best of moods right now.”
Rick sat back on the edge of the desk.
Landon looked at the gun. “You’re not going to kill me?”
“Do you really think I’m fucking stupid?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’ve evaded death from bounty hunters, and me from finding you for over a year, and you think by some miracle, I’m going to believe I happened to find the key to locating you?”
“You did.”
“I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“Then do me a favor. Cut the crap and tell me why you got me to bring you home.” Rick folded his arms. “You let me find you. You wanted to be found. Why now? Why after all this time?”
Landon got to his feet.
“And with the Castillo girl as well. We both know her family is looking for her. We also know they’re going to want her to marry one of our own. Tell me, Landon, with a bounty on your head and a brand-new woman you’ve claimed, tell me how this is going to help me. You’ve brought me even more trouble.”
“I can’t protect them. Not Tulip, not Jade. They don’t deserve it.”
“So this is all about protecting your woman.”
“Those last bounty hunters got too close. I can keep on killing every single hunter that comes my way, but after each one falls, another ten take his or her place. They’re everywhere. I know that. You know that.”
“And with
Tulip, you can’t risk it.”
“I need that bounty gone.”
“You think I wouldn’t have gotten rid of it?”
“If you’re the leader of the Denton Family. Why can’t you?” Landon asked.
“It’s a debt that needs to be paid. My brother initiated it and when you make a certain oath, they can’t be broken. These men, they’re going to keep coming and coming. You took that chance, Landon. You were warned.”
“I thought I had nothing to live for.”
“And now you do. What are you planning? To train her? I see what you did with Jade. I’m impressed, getting a perfectly trained wife to kill. That’s smart.”
“She doesn’t want this life.”
“Tough.”
“You got out. You left this life. You can’t be so fucking cold.”
“I can be. I paid my debts. Anything I owe to this family was wiped fucking clean, which is why I’ve been able to live a life away from it all. You’re a fucking kid, Landon, with stupid ideals, and you think you can come and go as you please. Make these messed-up mistakes.”
“I didn’t know.”
“No, because deep down, Landon, you’re still a fucking kid.” Rick started to pace the room. “There’s no going back after what you did.”
“Why are we having this conversation? Go after Tamsin.”
Rick burst out laughing. “You must think I was born yesterday. Your brothers can chase the bullshit, I’m not going to do it. I know you and Tamsin wouldn’t give in that easily. You’re not dealing with an amateur here. You’re dealing with a professional.”
Landon got up to his feet. “Then kill me. All I ask is you take care of Jade and Tulip in the process. That’s all I ask. Please.”
“You think it will be that easy?”
“Please, I know you’ll keep your word.”
“You’ve got me mistaken with someone who gives a fuck.”
“I know I fucked up but you and I both know Maddox had to go. He was off the rails. He’d fucked up and he had to pay the price. Taking out another’s woman.”
“Did you know they’re looking for her?” Rick said.
“What?”
“The Smiths. They’re looking for Tulip.”
It was such a dramatic change of subject, he honestly didn’t know what to fucking think. “What? That’s crazy? That’s insane. They’re looking for her?”