The Monroe Sisters

by Aliyah Burke

  At least she wasn’t as cold anymore and the pain from the feeling returning to her was welcomed. If a chance came to escape, she needed to have working limbs. She wasn’t a triathlete, but she was in shape. At least enough that she should be able to run for help from someone.

  Shoved onto a couch, she struggled once more to a sitting position and waited for the bag to be removed. As swiftly as it had been yanked on her head, it was ripped away.

  Blinking in rapid succession, she waited for her eyes to adjust. The room was darkened enough she couldn’t make out the features of the person in the chair across from her, but she could at least see something.

  “Who are you?”

  The man tsked.

  There it went once more, the niggling in her mind that it was a voice she recognized and knew. However, she still couldn’t pull it from the muck. The fog was lifting, though, and each moment she was lucid, her thoughts were getting clearer.

  “Okay, how about where am I and what do you want with me?”

  “You really are the most ungrateful wench I’ve ever met. Assuming that you deserve to be where you, are and yet you have not a single bit of thanks for those of us who helped you get there.”

  She struggled against the ropes restraining her. “You’re the one hiding in the shadows when I’m all trussed up. Who are you to assume you know anything about what I went through to get to where I am?”

  The body unfurled from the chair and stepped closer. Her breath left on a gasp.

  “Dean Wayne?”

  He stood there, glaring down at her with a smoking jacket on and a pair of silk pants. Condemnation in his gaze along with a haze of lust.

  Ice encased her heart and she shook her head. “What are you doing?”

  “Shut up, Shai. Just fucking shut your goddamn mouth!” He backhanded her, sending her reeling to the back of the couch she was on. “It’s time for you to listen. This isn’t about who I am but who you think you should be.”

  She ignored the blood running from the corner of her mouth—it wasn’t like she could wipe it away anyway. This wasn’t easy for her mind to wrap around for the person before her had nothing but his face in common with the dean she knew at the university.

  That man had been put together and an epitome of calm whereas this male had a wild, untamed look to his gaze. He had dressed like he was trying out for Hugh Hefner’s part in a play or movie. The smoking jacket was open, exposing his unimpressive chest and blanket of hair.

  Hell, if he’d pulled out a pipe and started puffing on it, she wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised. How much more shock could she have by seeing this man was the one who had been after her.

  Stay calm. Figure a way out of this.

  Beyond wishing her facilities were in full functioning order, she had to do her best to keep him talking, buying herself more time.

  “Good,” he said, a sadistic smile tilting up his thin lips. “You’re listening.”

  She waited.

  “It galled me to have to allow you tenure at my school. But I couldn’t go against everyone else who had spoken so highly of you and what you’ve accomplished in such a short time.”

  Great, another fucking closet racist.

  He waggled his finger in front of her. “I know what you’re thinking, that it’s because you’re black, but no. I don’t think women should be allowed tenure, regardless of your color, race or anything else. It has to do with the chromosomes you have, or don’t have. Women have their place in the world and it’s not at a higher educational facility.”

  His smile grew lewd. “Because let me tell you, I’ve had and enjoyed women of all kinds and I’ve noticed one thing about them. They are in their element when they’re serving men.”

  Yep, she officially just threw up in her mouth a bit with that.

  “I’m not the only one with tenure there who doesn’t have a dick.”

  More tsking. “You’re going to get in trouble with that mouth, especially where I’m sending you.”

  Sending me? Like selling me for money? Oh fuck that.

  “Where is that?”

  He tapped his chin. “See, this is the Shai I remember, always calm. I’m sure your mind is racing on how you’re getting out of this. You’re not. You’re all alone and your family won’t ever see you again. It will be a story for a while then you’ll fade into obscurity like all the others.”

  The others? Fuck me, how often has he done this?

  Things clicked in her mind. The occasional missing student over the years that he’d been dean.

  “You’ve been at this for a while. So what’s with the car bomb? If you’re looking to kill me, why not just shoot me now? Why are you looking to sell me?”

  He fiddled with the belt of his robe. “See, your mind has always intrigued me. Most women sit here begging me not to sell them. You’re wondering why I stopped trying to kill you.

  Scratching his chest, he turned in full circle. “I was offered a lot of money for you. Gotta say, I was glad that you didn’t get blown up because the offer came after the bomb had been put on your car.” He leaned forward bringing with him that smell she recalled from the office, fake woodsmoke. “Luckily for both of us, he doesn’t care if I try you out first.”

  “Like I’m a car? Taking me out for a test drive?” Her voice escalated.

  “Exactly. I’m going to tie you to my bed and fuck you like I’ve wanted to do since you walked onto my campus.”

  “Then sell me.”

  “Right, well, I have a wife, it wouldn’t do for me to keep you tied up in the basement.”

  “Of course not, that would be the odd part. Not the fact that you find it acceptable to sell women or think that they shouldn’t be tenured at a university.”

  He rolled his skinny shoulders and the robe slid down, leaving him in slippers and the silk pants.

  “I’m going to miss your mouth.”

  “I see now why you have to tie them all up in your bed. Even the wife? Probably scared they will rip out that carpet on your chest hiding the wimp you are.”

  He gripped her arm in a bruising hold and dragged her up to him. “I have the perfect ball gag for you as well, unless my cock is sliding into your throat—can’t wait to see your eyes well up with tears as I make you take it all.”

  She clenched her jaw. “I have no problems taking a large cock and as I’m sure from the evidence before me”—she lowered her gaze to his groin then back up again—“your two inches will just get bit.”

  Red flushed his cheeks and she struggled as he dragged her to a corner that held a large bed, one she’d not seen before, or had glanced over. Shoving her there, he grabbed one ankle and she snapped out with her other foot, the hiking boot connecting with his cheek.

  “Bitch!”

  “I’m sorry, did you think I was going to lie here and let you rape me? Sod off, you fucker. I won’t.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I’m sorry, Detective, my husband isn’t home.”

  Derek Savvas looked at Mrs. Wayne. Really looked. Part fear and part defiance resided in her gaze. Part of him wanted to comfort her but right now, he didn’t have the time for that.

  “With all due respect, ma’am, you’re lying. I can show you a video of earlier today with you two leaving a diner with Dr. Monroe. Now, she’s not home and her car isn’t anywhere to be found. But we have witnesses who put you as the one getting behind the wheel. Right now you’re an accessory to kidnapping. If anything happens to her, that’s going to go up. And trust me when I say that the book to be thrown is going to be huge. Her sister is one of the ADAs here. Do you think your husband is going to protect you? Or roll on you to lessen his own sentence.”

  She shook her head and he wrangled back his own need to do the same to her. “He loves me.”

  “Right, so you help him kidnap and almost blow someone up. He doesn’t give a damn about you. He wants you there with him so you don’t testify against him.”

  “No,”
she cried, eyes wide. “He loves me.”

  “Really, so on a day off with the man who loves you, you don’t have any clue as to where he is after he drove off with another woman?”

  “He’s at his old house,” she bit off. “He goes there sometimes to think.”

  “Old house?” He shifted closer. “Where’s that?” Her slight hesitation had him growling low in his throat. “Don’t make me ask you again.”

  “It’s about two hours out of town. It was passed down from his family and that’s why he still has it. It’s in his mother’s maiden name.”

  That explained why nothing had popped up on it when they’d checked him out. “Address?”

  He pulled out his cell while she gave it to him. As he took the paper, he waited for the call to be answered.

  “Hey, Sav. I heard what happened between you and Lopez. Sorry, man, he’s a dick.”

  “Shell, I need you.”

  “Ohh,” she teased. “My every dream. When and where?”

  “This has to do with Shai.”

  She sighed. “You are suspended from duty right now and can’t be looking into this.”

  “I have video evidence of the ones who took her today and I’ve got an address. It’s Dean Wayne and his wife. I’m at her house right now. She just gave me the alternate address they have.”

  “Dammit, Sav. You could be ruining the fucking case by disobeying orders.”

  “Right, so I should just sit there and ignore the evidence that fell in my lap?” Anger tinged his tone. “I’m fucking telling you now. Get over here or send someone. I don’t want her to be able to call him and warn him.”

  “Fuck! I’m on my way. Don’t do anything else!”

  It didn’t take her long to get there, maybe thirty minutes, but each one was akin to five hours in his mind. Behind her car was Lopez who had a thunderous scowl on his face as he lumbered out of the vehicle.

  “You’re fucking off the case, Savvas. What are you doing here?”

  “Following up on evidence that was given to me.” He gazed to Shell and pointed to the woman leaning with a mutinous expression on her face against the front door. “Don’t give her a phone until I get to this address that’s two hours from here.”

  Fucking time is counting down. Who knows what she could be going through right now. He wanted to punch someone. Namely the dean who’d done this. Hang in there, Shai. I’m coming for you.

  “Screw that. I’m coming with you.” Michelle gave orders to two uniforms who’d shown up as he bolted for his vehicle. She slid in the passenger side as he started the engine.

  Barely looking behind him, he tore out of there and shot for the interstate to get to Shai.

  “What about Lopez?”

  “What about him?” Sav flipped the lights and siren he had on his SUV. “The address is in my phone. Send it to him if you want. I’m not waiting any longer.”

  He wove around traffic like it was standing still and even asked for more speed from his Acadia. The powerful engine responded.

  “You know this is out of jurisdiction,” she commented as he took the shoulder to move by a few cars.

  “Jump out if you don’t want to be in here. No one asked you to come and I’m not slowing down.”

  He flicked his eyes to the digital readout on the dash and prayed once more that she could hold out one hundred and twenty more minutes. Not that he planned on it taking him two hours to get there, but as that was the time he had been told, he was focusing on that.

  “So it’s like that then?”

  He cut his gaze to her. A teasing smile tilted her lips even as she checked her weapon.

  “Yes.”

  “Lopez responded to the text. He’s bringing others and letting the sheriff there know we’re coming and not to go in until we get there.”

  “Finally doing something.”

  His phone rang and he glanced at it. Lieutenant Meeks. Sav ignored it. The snort from Michelle told him she knew what he was doing. Then her phone rang.

  “Detective Katie.”

  “Put him on the goddamn phone,” Meeks roared.

  “Speakerphone is on for you, Lieutenant.” She waggled a finger at him.

  “Why the fuck are you ignoring my calls?”

  “I’m driving. I don’t have hands free and it’s against the law.” He whipped hard to the left and hit the shoulder once more as the vehicles in front of him wouldn’t get out of the way. “Besides, I’m not one of your detectives right now. You put me on administrative leave.”

  “So the sirens I hear and the fact that you didn’t disclose pertinent facts about an ongoing case means what exactly?”

  “That your hearing doesn’t need to be checked. And I did reveal the facts. I told Detective Katie about them.”

  “You fucking know that Lopez is heading up this case now.”

  He couldn’t stop the sneer from curling up his lip. “I also know you told me not to have any communication with him until after I go see the department shrink for some anger management. Because I’m supposed to be okay with a fellow badge talking about a woman like she’s a whore.” He scoffed and ignored the thunderheads brewing in Michelle’s gaze. “Sorry, that part wasn’t in my welcome packet when I joined.”

  “You could have told me and this isn’t what we’re discussing right now.”

  “I’m not discussing anything, I’m driving and I don’t have to listen to you.” He jerked his head at Shell and she ended the call.

  “That fucker didn’t really say that, did he?”

  “Exactly no but it had to do with her being a great cook and if she fucked that same way, no wonder…” He let it go and shook his head. His knuckles were white, he gripped the wheel so hard.

  Michelle let it go and about fifteen minutes later, she swore.

  “What?”

  “Lopez has been digging and looks like there’s a bit more than we first thought here. The wife wanted the deal so she’s singing like a canary. They’re traffickers.”

  The news hit him so hard, his foot slipped off the gas for a moment. Then he punched it to the floor, the vehicle surging forward with a roar of power.

  Traffickers. The thought of never seeing her again. Never holding her. Never knowing where she was.

  Fuck that. I won’t say goodbye to her. I’m not letting her go. I will apologize for running but we will work this out.

  “Someone is wanting to buy her.” Michelle placed a hand on his forearm. “This is a good thing, Sav.”

  “In what fucking world?” he demanded.

  “He can’t sell dead or damaged. He has to keep her alive.”

  “For now” was the unspoken phrase there.

  “I’m not losing her, Shell.”

  She released him and sat back. “We’ll find her.”

  Words he’d said to people many times over the course of his career but until just then, he hadn’t realized how uncomforting they were. He eked out more speed and prayed as they flew along.

  * * * *

  Shai hung from a hook in the middle of the room, the large bed in the corner forgotten. Her clothing was in tatters but she had delivered more damage than she’d gotten. And until there wasn’t any breath left in her body, she would continue to do so.

  In the back of her mind, she made a note to thank her spin class instructor for being such a fucking hard ass. It had her prepared for this. Even with a leg restrained, she’d been able to deal considerable damage to the dean of her college.

  He no longer looked pristine and like he was untouched. She’d busted his lip, blackened his eye and broken his nose. And if he would give her the slightest chance, she would rip out a huge handful of that carpet on his chest and feed it to him.

  The man had the misconception that putting her like this, she would be easier to control. A fact which wasn’t the case. And she repeatedly made him pay for it. The only reason she wasn’t dead right now, she had no doubt, was because she was worth more to him alive.

  I
really shouldn’t push my luck.

  She’d gone far beyond any rational thought process now. Right now, she was all about staying alive and making it so she could get home to see her family.

  And Derek?

  No, not him. Well, sure she’d be glad to see him, he was a cop after all, but she wasn’t expecting him back in her life.

  The door opened once more and her nemesis stepped back into the room. Gone were the robe and silk bottoms. He wore a suit and her heart plummeted. She couldn’t see the marks she’d put on him and as he moved closer, she could see why. Makeup.

  “He’s coming to get you tonight. I know you think you’re going to survive this unscathed with me but that’s not the case. Right now, I have to go pick up some things, but I will be back. And when I return”—he paused just out of reach of her legs—“you and I will continue this. But I will make sure there won’t be any more fight in you.”

  “There will always be fight in me.”

  His grin didn’t set her at ease. “We’ll see about that. Back soon.”

  He left and closed the door, leaving her in complete darkness. The only way she could ease the ache in her shoulders was by pushing up on her tiptoes. That caused her legs to hurt so it was a bit of a back and forth.

  If I was strong enough to pull myself up the rope, I could unhook myself and find a way out of here.

  That wasn’t the case, though. She was in shape but she sure as shit wasn’t G.I. Jane. So she waited. In the dark. Doing her best to remain limber and ready for anything when the bastard came back. As she hung there, the thoughts streaming through her mind were from one end of the spectrum to the other. Everything from having children, to how she hadn’t seen this in him, to her family. There was one constant in the entire thing. Derek Savvas.

  The handsome Greek who had stolen her heart.

  Refusing to play the “what if” game with herself, she closed her eyes and tried to calm the racing of her heart.