He threads his fingers through mine. “We all wanted to rescue you, but we couldn’t.”
“I get that now, but you try spending five weeks as a prisoner, surrounded by people so effed up they might as well have been zombies, having no one for company, and dealing with—” My lip wobbles and tears well in my eyes.
“I know, Abby, and I’m so sorry.” Charlie’s face softens, and his tone is gentle as he draws circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.
I squeeze my eyes shut to ward off the pain. “I don’t want to talk about it,” I whisper.
“It’s okay.” He lifts me out of my chair, situating me in his lap. His arms wrap around me, and I bury my face in his neck, needing his comfort. I’m starved of human affection, and it’s been a lonely few weeks.
“He will pay, Abby,” he whispers in my ear, smoothing a hand down my hair. “We’re not letting him get away with it.”
“I just need to pull in for gas,” Charlie says, when I question why we’re pulling off the highway again.
My appetite vanished after my mind drifted into forbidden territory, but I still forced a few mouthfuls of pasta down. Then we hit the road, and we’ve been driving for four hours.
It’s dark now, and we’ve agreed to drive for another couple of hours and then pull in someplace for the night. Charlie entered a town on the GPS that looks suitable, and I’m busy researching motels on his cell.
Charlie pulls into a gas station on the outskirts of town, glancing anxiously around as he kills the engine. I expect him to get out, but he grips the steering wheel tight, looking like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“What is it?” I ask, unbuckling my belt and leaning forward, touching his elbow.
My eyes startle when he turns to me with fierce determination etched upon his face. “I know you love him, Abby. Even after all he’s done,” he says, and I don’t need to be a mind reader to know he’s talking about Kaiden. “But he doesn’t deserve you! And you have options.”
I squirm uncomfortably on my seat, wondering why he’s chosen this exact moment to tell me all this. I drop my hand from his elbow, and he reaches across the console, circling one hand around the nape of my neck. “The night of our engagement,” he says, peering deep into my eyes as he runs the tip of his finger across the diamond ring I’m wearing. “I meant every word I said.” His pulse is throbbing in his neck, and he’s shielding nothing from me now.
I gulp over the panic building at the base of my throat.
“I love you, Abby. I always have and I always will, and I want to marry you for real.”
Before I can voice any response, he smashes his lips against mine, kissing me passionately.
He keeps a hold of my neck when he eventually breaks the kiss, imploring me with his eyes. “Don’t say no until you’ve considered it. I know your head is all over the place, but I promise you everything I’ve done, everything I’m doing, I’m doing because I love you and I want you in my life. Forever.”
“Charlie. I—”
He kisses me again, and my head spins. “Promise me you’ll think about it. He’s not your only option.”
I want to tell him Kaiden isn’t any option, but I can’t lie to myself.
I hate Kaiden.
As much as I hated him when he first showed up to school.
Probably more.
But there’s a fine line between love and hate, and I fucking hate that I still love him too.
“Okay.” I place my hand on his hard chest. “I’ll think about it.”
He rests his forehead against mine before kissing me once again, only this time it’s a fleeting brush of his lips against mine. “I love you. Don’t forget,” he says, climbing out of the car.
My brows knit together as I watch him fill the car with gas, my sixth sense on high alert.
Charlie is acting weird.
He blows me a kiss as he walks toward the store, and unease slithers inside my veins.
He has just reached the door when it flies open, and a guy wearing a black ski mask shoves him to the ground, swinging a bat to the side of his head.
Terror has a vise grip on my heart, and I’m scrambling out of the car before my brain has processed it, racing toward him when I’m yanked back by my shirt. Muscular arms wrap around me from behind, and someone pulls a covering down over my head.
“No fucking way,” I shriek, lifting my legs up into my chest and rocking forward with all the strength I can muster. The guy holding me loses his balance, and I tip forward again until his arms drop and I’m free.
Yanking the covering off my head, I spin around, thrusting my clenched fist out, glancing the side of my attacker’s face as he’s straightening up. He’s wearing a ski mask too, so I’ve no clue who’s trying to take me this time.
But I’m fucked if I’m getting taken against my will again.
I kick him in the balls, shoving my foot into his crotch with all my might. “I am not.” I swing at his chest this time, landing a decent punch because he’s too distracted cradling his junk to deflect my throw. He staggers back, cupping his crotch, while cussing and moaning. “Getting fucking kidnapped again.”
I kick him in the chest, pushing him to the ground and jumping on top of him. I swipe the ski mask off his head, blinking to ensure my eyes aren’t deceiving me.
“What the actual fuck?” I stare at a face I was recently reacquainted with.
“Way to go, dipshit,” a familiar voice says at my rear. “You can explain this one.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I snap, pouring venom into my words as I glare at Maverick—aka Rick—Anderson. I’d have known it was him by his voice if he hadn’t already whipped off his ski mask after lifting me off his younger brother.
“I’ll explain on the way,” he says, reaching for my arm. “We’ve got to go before someone shows up.”
I jerk back, narrowing my eyes again. “I’m not going anywhere with you.” I glance over at the door, my heart thumping wildly against my rib cage at the sight of Charlie sprawled unconscious on the ground. “And if you’ve hurt my fiancé, I will end every single one of you.” I send daggers at the guy who tried to take me as he awkwardly climbs to his feet. He’s still cupping his crotch, and I can’t get a good look at his face to see if it’s Joaquin or Harley. Until the engagement party, I hadn’t seen either of those boys since they were little kids, so I’m not sure if I could even tell them apart now. There’s only a year between them, and all the Anderson boys look so alike.
“Your fiancé?” Rick inquires, arching a brow and pinning his warm brown eyes on me.
“You heard me.” I thrust my hand forward, showing off my sparkling diamond. “So, whatever feeble effort this is on Kaiden’s part, he’s too late. You’re too late. I don’t need your help. And I don’t need him.”
“Rick!” The other brother pokes his head out the window of an SUV parked at the side of the station. “Get a fucking move on.”
“You’re coming with us.” Rick grabs hold of my arm. “Whether or not you like it.”
“No. I’m not.” I yank my arm back, ready to swing for him, when my wrists are pulled back behind me, and a sweaty palm clamps down on my mouth.
“Don’t make us hurt you,” the brother holding my arms says.
I lift my leg to knee him in the balls with the heel of my foot when he bites down hard on my shoulder, and I lose my focus, crying out as my leg drops to the ground.
“What the hell?” Rick shouts, glaring over my shoulder.
“I’m improvising,” the guy holding me supplies. “Kai said she was feisty, but I’d no idea she was this bad.”
“Kai will chop your fucking cock off if you hurt her. She’s pregnant, for fuck’s sake.”
Everything locks up inside me, and pain consumes me to the point I don’t put up any resistance when Rick slings his arm around my shoulders, walking me toward their car.
Kai sent them to
fetch me, and I want to see him. Because I need answers, and I want to inflict suffering. Charlie said they’d gone into hiding, so this is probably my only opportunity.
A new plan forms in my mind, and I go willingly with Rick, not mouthing any further protest.
“I’ll go with you,” I say, tugging on his arm to stop him. “But I need to check on Charlie first.”
“Charlie will be fine,” he insists, tugging me forward.
“He’s not fine!” I shout, pointing at him. “He isn’t moving!”
“That’s because I gave him a sedative,” he admits, and I launch myself at him, roaring as I drag my nails down his face, drawing blood, before the other Anderson pulls me away. I don’t have the long, shapely nails I usually sport, but my shorter nails are jagged thanks to the lack of manicures in Parkhurst, and they work effectively.
“Can’t we give her a sedative?” the guy struggling to hold me says. “Because this journey will be hell on Earth if she’s going to swing for us every chance she gets.”
“Abby.” Rick’s gaze is thunderous as he dabs at his bleeding face. Strands of dark hair falls across his brow, and he jerks his head, tossing them out of his eyes. “Unless you want me to give Charlie a lethal shot, you will get in the fucking car and behave.”
I want to spit in his face, but I won’t lower myself. “I hate you as much as I hate your asshole of a brother.”
“I don’t expect any less,” he says, sighing as his features soften a little. “Just get in the car before we’re all arrested.” He wipes his face with a tissue.
“You can’t leave Charlie there like that.”
“The staff will take care of him.”
“What if they don’t? I’m not leaving until I know they’ve taken care of him.”
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch. As soon as we’re back on the highway, I’ll call it in. I promise.” I plant my hands on my hips, narrowing my eyes. “The faster we get out of here, the quicker he gets help,” he argues.
I send one last look at Charlie, feeling like a treacherous bitch, as I climb in the back seat alongside the other brother. Rick slides behind the wheel, and the asshole who tried to grab me takes shotgun.
Rick peels it out of here, pointedly locking all the doors and pinning me with a warning look through the mirror. “Message Sawyer Hunt,” he tells the brother sitting beside him, and he nods.
“How did you know where to find me?”
“We were watching the elite, and when Charlie made plans to travel with your father alone, we had a hunch it was to do with you. We staked out Parkhurst until we saw you leaving with him, and then we followed you.”
“Hey.” The guy sitting beside me leans forward, smiling tentatively. I narrow my eyes to slits but say nothing. His hair is as dark as his brother’s, and his eyes are the same shade of brown, but his features are more babyish even if his body is honed to perfection. All four Andersons are hot as hell, and they clearly enjoy working out because this guy is as ripped as his older brother.
“We’re not your enemy, Abby,” Rick says, keeping his eyes glued to the road as we head toward the interstate.
“If this is your attempt at being friends, I pity your enemies,” I retort, ignoring the guy at my side and staring at the landscape as it flashes by through the tinted window.
“It might have started out like that, but things changed once Kai got to know you,” Rick says.
I snort, shaking my head. “Don’t bullshit me. Everything was a lie. Everything was a manipulation to get to my father.” I force my hands to my stomach. “You even used an innocent child as a pawn.” Anger bleeds from my eyes as I stare at him through the mirror. “What kind of sick bastard deliberately sleeps with someone with the sole purpose of getting them knocked up?”
“That’s no—”
“Save it, Rick,” I bark. “I don’t want to hear it.”
At least not from him.
I want to look Kaiden in the eye and ask him if he was the one who messed with my birth control. I have no proof that’s how they did it, but I suspect I’m right, because Kai had no concerns fucking me without condoms. If he wanted to get me pregnant, that was the perfect solution.
Except I’ve had lots of time to think about how it all went down in the ballroom, and I remember the look of horrified shock on his face just before his father revealed the baby news.
My eyes flit to Rick’s through the mirror. I remember him whispering in Kai’s ear just before the baby bomb was dropped, and it’s not a stretch to think it involved Rick.
Someone was in my room that first night in Jackson’s house. The night after I was sexually assaulted. That could’ve been Rick. He has the medical knowledge and obvious contacts to switch out my pill. Or he could’ve put something into the drip.
I’m convinced it went down one of those ways.
But I’m still undecided whether Kai was involved or not.
Which is why I’m waiting until I’m face to face with him to have this conversation.
“Call an ambulance for Charlie,” Rick says, turning to his brother in the passenger seat. He immediately calls it in, and a few of the knots in my stomach unravel.
“Kai loves you,” the guy sitting beside me says. “And he’s going crazy worrying about you and the baby.”
“Sure, he is.” I snort. “That’s why it’s taken him weeks to come looking for me.”
“Harley’s right,” Rick says. “And it’s only taken weeks because we had to wait for an opportunity to get to you. Parkhurst is like Fort fucking Knox, and it was too risky to attempt a rescue.”
“If he loved me, he’d have found a way.” That’s another way I know he’s full of shit. He told me just before everything went down that what we shared was real, but if that was true, he’d have done absolutely everything to get me out of there.
But he did nothing.
“It’s not that simple,” Rick supplies, as we speed ahead on the highway.
“It doesn’t matter, anyway. I hate him.”
“We had to lock him up to stop him from going after you,” Harley says, staring at me with earnest eyes. “He seriously wants to kill us for blocking him.”
“Har.” Rick cautions him with a warning look. “She needs to hear it from Kai.”
“Right.” Joaquin snorts, leveling his older brother with a suspicious side eye. “If you think that gets you off the hook, you—”
“Shut up.” Rick glares at him. “We’re not discussing this now.”
Joaquin flips him the bird. “She’s gonna go postal on both your asses, and this time, I’m not holding her back.”
“You’ve changed your tune,” Rick says, blowing the horn at a car who cuts across the lane in front of us, letting a string of expletives loose.
“If you want to remain inconspicuous, rein in the road rage. Unless you want my father to catch us.”
“Hunt has us covered,” Joaquin confirms, looking over his shoulder at me. “We’re good.” He wets his lips, dragging a hand nervously through his dark hair. “And, eh, sorry for biting you back there.”
“You bit her?” Harley shouts, shock splaying across his face.
I look at the raised, angry mark on my shoulder. “You broke my skin, but I’ve endured worse.” I shrug.
Harley throws back his head, laughing hysterically as he points at Joaquin. “Oh, my fucking God. This is priceless!” He snickers. “He will go apeshit on your ass.”
Joaquin stiffens a little before puffing out his chest and flexing his considerable biceps. “I can take him.”
Harley cracks up laughing again. “Didn’t you see what he did to Rick?” He holds his stomach, convulsing with laughter. “Sucks to be you, dude!”
“What did he do to you?” I ask, fixing my eyes on Rick through the mirror.
“He beat the fucking shit out of him,” Harley says, his laughter disappearing. “And he deserved it too.”
My eyes meet Rick’s in the mirror, and his face conveys
so much emotion. I grind my teeth to the molars, not asking the obvious question, because the answer is written all over his face.
Rick is the reason I got pregnant.
Now, all that’s left to discover is if Kai was in on the plan.
CHAPTER SIX
“Make yourself comfortable, Abby,” Rick says, ushering me into the motel room. We’ve stopped here for the night because it’s almost ten p.m., and it’s pitch black outside with little visibility on this remote stretch of road. Rick seemed keen to keep going, but Joaquin demanded it, insisting on sleeping in a proper bed. “The boys can take the other room and I’ll stay in here with you,” he adds, as Joaquin and Harley disappear into the interconnecting room to dump their bags.
“I have nothing to sleep in,” I say, because they left all my stuff in the rental.
“I’ll grab you some stuff.” He hands me his cell. “Jot down what you need, and I’ll get it. I need to go out for food, supplies, and run a few errands.”
What errands can he be making at this hour of the night? I think it, but I don’t verbalize it, because it suits me if Rick disappears for a while. I kick off my sneakers and sit down on one of the single beds. Resting my back against the headrest, I pull my knees into my chest as I type out a few items. “How long will we be on the road?”
“We should reach our destination Tuesday evening.”
“Why won’t you tell me where we’re headed?” I asked this question on more than one occasion in the car, but all three remained tight-lipped.
“It’s safer if you don’t know.”
I sigh, staring at the ceiling, praying for patience I know I don’t possess after hearing the usual reply. “Do you all spout shit from the same Elite 101 manual? Because I swear to fucking God, if I hear that or ‘everything we’re doing is to protect you’ one more fucking time, I will lose my shit!”
He chuckles. “I can see why my brother’s crazy about you.”
My nostrils flare as I jab my finger at him. “That’s also on the list of statements I never want to hear repeated.”
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