by Madison Faye
“And what do you do,” I said coldly.
Tim grinned, saying nothing.
The older, Spanish man stepped forward. “Time to go, sweetheart.”
I balked at him. “What? I’m not going—”
The scream caught in my throat as the three goons standing behind him suddenly darted into the room and grabbed me. I screamed again, thrashing against them, but they held my squirming body fast.
“The fuck are you doing?!” I screamed out.
“Loose ends, Sam,” Tim said with a passive sigh. “See, we’re moving operations up, and you’re, well,” he chuckled. “Looks like you’re a liability now.”
“A what?!”
I lurched towards him, but the three guys held me back in unyielding grips.
Tim laughed.
“You know what, Sam?” he chuckled. “I think we should start seeing other people.”
“Fuck you, Tim,” I spat.
The older man laughed quietly, chewing on his cigar as he wordlessly turned and started to leave the room.
“Bring her,” he tossed quietly over his shoulder.
I screamed as the three men lifted me, a hand going over my mouth as they began to drag me out of the bedroom and down the hall.
Oh, God…
12
Dustin
We were almost back to our place when the squad car radio squawked.
“Unit eleven, over.”
Blake shot me a look. We were off duty, and on our way to grab a bite to clear our heads after what’d happened and how badly we’d let it go crashing down. And me? Well, I was going to get drunk as fuck, that’s for sure.
The radio squawked again, and I groaned.
“You wanna get that?” Blake scowled.
“Fine, fuck it.”
I clicked the switch over to two-way mode and cleared my throat. “Hey, what’s up, dispatch? Blake and I were just about to—”
“Code red!”
We both froze at the sound of our ranking sergeant’s voice. Sarge never called cars himself.
And then there was “code red.”
That was never a good sign.
“Code red for—?”
“For the op! The Plimpton case!”
Blake slammed on the breaks, yanking the car to the side of the road. “What,” he snarled.
“Surveillance just called it in a few seconds ago — we’re fucking blown on the Plimpton stakeout!”
“The fuck happened?” I said, my voice feeling like lead, a chilling feeling creeping through me. I didn’t know where Samantha had gone after she’d peeled out of the cul-de-sac, but she couldn’t have gone back to that asshole’s house, right?
“Plimpton is fucking gone, guys,” Sarge barked over the radio. “Santiago himself was there at the house, and they’re gone.”
I exhaled slowly.
There was no way she was there.
“Any idea where they—”
“They grabbed the fiancée too, guys.”
The world went dark. For a second, it felt like something was shattering inside my chest. Slowly, I turned to Blake, seeing him looking white, his hands clenching the wheel so hard I was sure he’d snap it off.
“They shook the surveillance tail, too,” Sarge growled. “Look, we need you to come in. The FBI’s coming down, and we’re going to figure this shit out. We’re moving on this, we just need to find them.
Them.
I knew Blake had the same thought as me right then. There was no them to worry about.
Only her.
We didn’t give a shit about Tim and Miguel, and the rest of them in that moment. The only thing in the fucking world that mattered in that moment was finding her.
The only thing that mattered was getting our Samantha back.
“See you when you get here, over and out.”
Sarge cut the call, and the car went silent except the sound of our breathing.
Slowly, we turned to look at each other.
“He took her.”
Blake nodded, his face grim. “Which means something’s up. Maybe she saw something, or heard something. Fuck, I mean Santiago himself was there?”
I nodded. “Look, if we head to the station and wait for the fucking FBI, and we’ll never get her. And you know that.”
Blake swore, his fist crashing into the steering wheel before we both went silent for another full minute.
“You’re thinking what I’m thinking, right?”
I turned to my friend, frowning. “I’m trying to not think about what might be happening to her, actually—”
“No,” Blake shook his head. “Not that. I’m thinking we’re the two most driven guys I know, we’re military trained, and we’ve got a trunk full of shotguns and body armor.”
Slowly, a grim, hard smile cracked across my face, and I nodded.
“In that case, then fuck yes, I’m thinking the same thing as you.”
Blake nodded grimly. “Let’s do this.”
“Where are we thinking?”
Blake’s jaw tightened as he glared out the windshield. “If Miguel dodged a tail, it means he knows there’s a tail, which means he knows they’re being watched. He won’t go to any obvious place, like his own place, or restaurant.”
The restaurant was one of Miguel Santiago’s fronts — Blake and I had staked it out many times. Every week, it seemed like we were adding new places of Miguel’s that intel had just discovered to stake out. The restaurant, the condo he kept by the beach, the place in LA, the sports bar over on Tanner Street, his niece’s—
I froze.
His niece’s house.
Today had been the first day of surveillance on the place, since intel had just figured out that it might be a point of interest.
Slowly, I turned to Blake.
“Dude.”
He shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut.
“Blake,” I punched him in the arm. That got his attention.
“What?” he growled.
“The niece’s place.”
His eyes went wide. “Holy shit.”
“A hundred bucks says no one back at the station even has it on their radar. We just got the intel on that this morning.”
I didn’t have to say another word before my friend suddenly cranked on the engine, slammed the car into drive, and peeled out in a U-turn.
“It’s a shot,” he said icily as we shot down the beach road.
“It’s a shot I’m sure as shit willing to take,” I growled back.
“Me too, brother.”
“We’re getting her back, man.”
Blake’s hands tightened on the wheel. “Fuck yes we are.”
Because no one was going to take our Samantha and get away with it. And she was ours — Blake knew it, I knew it, and I knew she knew it.
She belonged to us, and we were going to go take back what was ours.
13
Samantha
“This woulda been so much easier if you’d just done what you were supposed to do, Sam.”
Tim smirked at me from the sofa across the room. The bitch he’d been seeing behind my back was sitting right next to him, checking her phone — like this was the best time to be going on Facebook or whatever.
Tim shook his head before bringing the match in his hand to the cigar in his.
“Wish you’d just played the part, Sam.”
I screamed — well, I muffled screamed — at him through the gag in my mouth, straining as two of the henchmen finished binding my arms to the swivel office chair.
“You should’ve just played the housewife role. Stay at home, do whatever you want, and don’t ask questions. Don’t poke around,” Tim sighed and puffed on the cigar.
“You know, there’s a saying about curious cats,” the older man said with that dark voice, the Spanish lilt rolling off his tongue.
I glared daggers at him.
My mind spun with what was happening to me. In one freaking day, my life had been a wh
irlwind of things I’d never in a million years imagined happening to me. My relationship - however broken, strained, and on the rocks, coming undone. Getting pulled over, and then getting more turned on than I’d ever been at the rough treatment of the two dominant men who’d pulled me over.
And then there’d been later — later, when I’d submitted to them. Later when I’d found myself sinking to my knees, taking them both, and letting them drive me higher than I’d ever been.
Letting them make me feel things I’d never felt before.
There was the aftermath of that — of sitting there realizing I felt closer to those two men than I’d ever felt to anyone, and being terrified of what that meant.
And then the bomb dropping — them telling me about the surveillance. I’d felt wronged, and lied to, in the moment. But now?” Now all I could think was that I’d overreacted.
Hell, they’d been honest about it. They could have let happen what happened, walked away, and never said a word to me.
But they hadn’t.
And I think part of me knew why. Because I knew I wasn’t the only one who’d felt those feelings. And yes, I knew how clichéd that was for some wayward, lost woman to think when someone, or someones, showered her with attention she’d been starved for, but I knew it was more than that. I’d seen the way they’d looked at me, the way their hands had lingered, at the pain in their eyes when they’d told me.
I’d run away from them and the promise of what might have been with them. Now I was tied to a chair, surrounded by men with guns, and more than ever, I wished I’d stayed with them.
“This is nothing personal,” the older man said with a shrug, puffing on his own cigar. “But loose ends are loose ends, and in our business, those cannot be tolerated.”
My heart raced as I eyed the guns in his henchmen’s hands.
The older man laughed. “That? No, no, we are not savages are we?” he grinned. “No one is going to shoot you in my niece’s living room.”
The girl looked up briefly from her phone and smiled before glancing back down, and I found myself slowly letting out the breath I’d been holding.
“No, you’re going to go for a swim, chica.”
I froze, my eyes snapping back to him.
“Yes, I have this wonderful yacht — you’ll see it,” he said with a low chuckle. “But I’m afraid it will be a one-way trip for—”
Suddenly, shots rang out from somewhere in the house, and the whole room exploded into action.
The old man whirled, barking out orders to his henchmen, and I saw Tim’s face go white as he quickly lurched to his feet.
“The fuck is that, Miguel!?’
“Do I look like a fucking mind reader?” the man snarled.
His niece screamed and dove behind the sofa as more shots banged through the house from somewhere downstairs. I could feel my pulse pounding like a drum.
The older man, Miguel, drew a gun from his jacket, his eyes darting around the room as he screamed out orders in Spanish. The henchmen all dropped to their knees, guns trained on the door to the living room as more shots hammered through the house.
My breathing came ragged behind the gag. Was it the cops? Or God, what if it was some other gang? My mind reeled as all the horrible scenarios raced through my head.
Miguel turned and suddenly, the gun was trained right at me.
“Whoever comes though this door, drop them,” he hissed to his men, cocking the hammer and pressing the gun to my head.
Silence suddenly draped the house.
No more shots, no more screaming.
Time seemed to freeze. The room went still as everyone went rigid, staring at the door and waiting for whatever was going to come through it.
…But nothing did, because that’s when the big floor-to-ceiling windows behind us shattered, as two bodies came hurtling through it.
My heart jumped in my chest.
It was them.
They came up out of their rolling dives with guns blazing. There was Blake, two pistols in his hands, his eyes on fire, and his face grim as he wordlessly fired into the room. Dustin was to his side, a shotgun at his hip as he blasted two of the henchman away with a roar.
Tim screamed — louder than his girlfriend actually, and went running for the door. Blake snarled, grabbing a toppled lamp off the side table and hurling it at my ex-fiancé. Tim screamed again as the glass lamp caught him sure in the back of the head toppling him over.
Miguel swore in Spanish, and as he whirled towards my men, he fired his gun.
And I screamed.
I screamed like my soul was shattering as he caught Dustin right in the chest, sending him toppling backwards, the gun dropping from his hand. Blake roared, diving to the ground to miss the next shots. His eyes blazed as he returned fire, catching Miguel in the knee and sending him sprawling with a loud roar. Blake lurched to his feet, whirling to drop the last two henchman, and then the room went still.
The only sounds were my muffled screams and the girlfriends actual screams, and Tim and Miguel groaning from the floor.
“You!” Blake roared, silencing the screaming girlfriend. “Do not fucking move, understand?”
She nodded, cowering behind the sofa.
He jumped up and ran to me, and I broke. The tears came hot as he sliced the ropes binding my arms off, yanking the gag out of my mouth as I went crashing into his arms.
“Dustin—” I sobbed.
Blake laughed, and I suddenly jerked away from him, my face horrified.
He rolled his eyes. “He’s just milking it, like the baby he is.”
I stared at Blake, suddenly wondering if he was insane. But then, a low groan came from the floor behind him, and my heart jumped in my chest as I whirled towards it.
“Oh, quit being a baby, Jesus man.” Blake grinned as Dustin slowly opened his eyes. “Quit milking the sympathy points, asshole.”
Dustin coughed as he slowly came up to his knees.
The cry wrenched from my throat as I dropped to the floor and threw my arms around him, pulling him close. I felt Blake drop down behind me, this arms circling me as I let the heat and familiar warmth of both of them radiate through me.
“Fuck, that stung,” Dustin groaned as he pulled away. He ripped his shirt open, and my eyes dropped to the Kevlar vest under it. He caught the look on my face and grinned.
“I’d take a bullet for you, darlin,” he said with a smile. “But I’d like to live to take another one, if I have to.”
“You’re insane,” I whispered as I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him with everything I had. I melted against him, my tongue finding his before I slowly pulled back. I turned to Blake, grinning and feeling my face go warm as he pulled me into him and pressed his lips to mine.
Sirens rang outside, and Dustin chuckled.
“And there’s the cavalry, right on time.”
Blake smirked. “How much trouble do you think we’re in?”
His partner shrugged. “The FBI assholes will bitch, but we’re within jurisdiction. Plus, we didn’t kill that piece of shit.” He shot a look at the moaning Miguel. “Or that one.” He glanced at my ex-fiancé slumped on the ground.
There was a bang downstairs, followed by the thunder of booted feet going up the stairs. And after that, it was a bit of a whirlwind.
The SWAT team came barging in, screaming and pointing guns until Dustin and Blake flashed badges. The FBI came, and they did bitch about “protocol,” but the two guys ignored them as they helped me to my feet.
“Let’s get out of here,” Blake whispered in my ear, sending a shiver down my back.
I nodded. “Please.”
“Look, we need to tell you something.”
We were outside, and they were opening the door to their squad car for me.
“I need to tell you something too,” I paused at the door, turning to them. “About earlier, I— I freaked out, and I shouldn’t have. I know you were just doing your job, and honestly, you guy
s watching me isn’t the worst thing in the world.”
They grinned.
“If we’re being honest, watching you wasn’t actually work.” Dustin grinned at me.
I blushed. “Did you ever…I mean, when you were watching, did you ever see me…” I trailed off, but I could see the hungry fire in both of their eyes, and the heat spiked my cheeks.
I groaned, dropping my face into my hands and laughing. “Oh my God that’s embarrassing.
“Look, nothing against your vibrator,” Blake said with a chuckle. “But I think we can give you something better to play with.”
I bit my lip, eyes wide as I looked back up at them, feeling my body tingling.
“Two somethings, actually,” Dustin added.
They pulled me into them again, kissing me one at a time and letting their arms circle around me.
“Listen, we don’t know what this is, Samantha,” Dustin said gruffly, pulling me close, his hand dropping to my hip. “We know you’re like no other woman we’ve ever met, and we know there’s something about you that makes it impossible for us to not be around you.”
I swallowed, feeling myself nod. “It’s crazy, but I feel the same way.”
“Whatever this is…” Blake shook his head. “We don’t have to know what it is yet, you just have to know that we’re here, and all we want is you. All we need is—”
I silenced him with a slow kiss, melting into him before I pulled back.
“And all I need is you two,” I whispered.
Dustin pulled me into a kiss, and I moaned into his mouth as I felt Blake’s lips on my neck.
“Maybe we should go somewhere,” I whispered.
“Hop in.”
14
Samantha
We took the highway out of town, me sitting between them in the front seat of the cop car. They had the windows down, the sea air breezing through the car as the radio played something soft and the stars glimmered above.
I was smiling — smiling more than I had in honestly years as I sat there between these two men who’d somehow changed so much of my life in one day. I felt Dustin, sitting next to me on the passenger side, take my hand in his much larger one — his fingers slipping between mine. I grinned, feeling my heart flutter as I let my head lean against Blake, just letting the glow of that moment seep into me.