by Jami Alden
The second one nodded, but Danny saw her dark eyes flicker to a point just past his shoulder. Though his gaze didn’t waver, he shifted his focus to the space behind him. Someone was coming up, doing his best to be silent, but the floorboards of the old house weren’t entirely cooperative. He felt the air shift behind him as an arm raised and—
Danny turned, caught the guy’s gun hand in his grip and broke his forearm with a sharp jab of his elbow. The guy screamed in agony, bringing two more people hurrying down the hall. More women, Mexican or Central American by the looks of them, all dressed in scrubs. They took one look at Danny and the fallen guard and went in reverse so fast they tripped over their own feet.
“Stop,” Danny yelled in Spanish, and fired a shot out the kitchen window. Everyone froze. He heard scuffles and muffled screams coming from upstairs, but didn’t take his focus off the injured guard. “How many more guards?”
“Three,” the man groaned. “Upstairs with the girls.” The thuds and yells coming from upstairs convinced Danny that Alex and Moreno were taking care of it.
“Where’s Patrick Easterbrook? Where’s Gates?” he said, feeling like a broken record.
Moreno came thudding down the stairs, a sheen of sweat on his face. “We took out three more guards, and found seventeen girls upstairs. No sign of Caroline.”
CHAPTER 20
Caroline let out a choked cry as one of the goons came toward them and hauled Kate to her feet and grabbed Michael by the back of his hooded sweatshirt.
“No!” Caroline screamed, struggling against her bindings so fiercely she felt blood trickle over her wrist. “They haven’t done anything! You have to let them go.”
“Let them go? Are you kidding, that’s the only thing this idiot has done right today.” Gates turned his attention to Patrick. “Really. The girl’s perfect, her looks and her coloring. And the kid,” his smile was pure evil. “You’d be amazed what some sick fucks will pay to get their hands on a kid that age.”
That was it. The bile surged in Caroline’s throat and the meager contents of her stomach spilled on the dirt floor. The acidic odor mingled with the sickly sweet metallic odor of blood.
Gates didn’t seem to notice.
“It’s too bad you’re not a little younger,” he said, his reptilian gaze sending a shudder through her as it raked her body. “You’re very beautiful, but a little on the old side to be truly useful.”
One of the thugs gave her a lecherous look and murmured in Spanish, “She may be old for babies but she’s still good enough to fuck.”
Gates responded in Spanish as well. “Good point. No need to waste good pussy before we take her out.”
She heaved again, this time nothing but bile, but didn’t let on that she understood. “So what, you’re going to kill me now?”
“No,” Patrick protested. “I have to know what she knows, and who she told—”
“Too late, Easterbrook. Time to cut ties, pull up stakes and lay low for a while.”
“But I can’t leave Melody,” Patrick protested. “I can’t just let my wife think I left her.”
“Don’t worry. She won’t think you left her. Not on purpose anyway.” He and the thug exchanged nods.
This time Caroline knew what to expect. She squeezed her eyes shut just in time to miss the top of Patrick’s skull exploding.
Danny froze at the sound of gunshots coming from the woods outside the house. Without a word he started sprinting for the door.
“Danny,” Moreno yelled. “Don’t go by yourself. Wait for us to secure things here.”
Moreno’s words met a brick wall as all logic and calm faded away. He couldn’t wait. Caroline was out there somewhere, he could feel it, and every second he waited brought her one second closer to death. “You stay with the girls,” he ordered. He burst through the front door of the house and sprinted across the drive, kicking up mud and gravel with his churning steps.
A trio emerged from the brush. Danny skidded to a stop and raised his gun to fire. “Freeze.”
His own blood froze when he saw Kate Medford and her little boy, Michael, being marched at gunpoint to the house. The goon grabbed up Michael and held him up as a shield, the barrel of his gun to the poor little guy’s head.
“Drop it or I’ll shoot the kid.”
Danny drowned out Kate’s screams as he dropped his gun to his side, slackened his muscles as though he was about to obey. The thug eased his hold slightly, letting Michael drop a couple of inches, easing the barrel from the boy’s skull.
Enough for Danny to get a shot.
A single shot through the forehead. The thug dropped like a bag of rocks.
Kate looped her bound hands over the boy and pulled his small, shaking body to her.
Shit. There had to be a better way he could have done that. Now the poor kid was probably in shock and would be seriously scarred for the rest of his life. “I’m sorry,” he said as he knelt next to Kate and cut first her ties, then Michael’s. “He shouldn’t have had to—”
“You have to get her,” Kate interrupted, yanking Michael to his feet and casting a terror filled gaze behind her.
“Caroline? He has her?” Every cell went on high alert.
Kate nodded. “Patrick has her, and that other guy. They’re going to kill her.” Horror dawned across her face. “The gun. They might have—”
“Don’t.” He said it as much to himself as to her as he rolled to his feet. “Don’t think it. Not until we know for sure.”
Warm sticky droplets hit Caroline’s face and she heard someone screaming, then harsh, male laughter. Her legs were jerked by rough hands and she felt the ties around her ankle tighten, then fall away.
She kicked and thrashed as hard as she could but couldn’t escape two pairs of rough male hands that pinned down her hips. Cold air hit her legs as her boots, pants and underwear were dragged from her body.
“Feisty little puta,” one of them muttered in Spanish as he tugged at his fly. “She’ll settle down once she gets the feel of my verga inside her.”
“I doubt I’ll even be able to feel it,” she growled in Spanish and spat in his face. He drew back, momentarily stunned. Caroline seized the opportunity and slammed a bare knee into his groin. He howled and clutched at his crotch.
She struggled to her knees but was hit from behind by a sharp blow from the butt of Gates’s gun. Her ears rang and her vision swam, but still she fought to get away.
Her breath left her in a rush as she was slammed onto her back. Rough hands shoved her thighs apart and a heavy weight settled between. She stared at a hole in the roof, gritting her teeth as she tried to pull herself out of her body, out of her mind, away from what was about to happen to her.
She heard a sharp popping sound and for a moment thought it was her own break with reality. The fumbling and probing between her legs stopped and she realized the pop was a gunshot outside.
Oh God, please don’t let it be Kate or Michael.
The weight lifted and Gates dragged her by her hair to stand in front of him. The cold muzzle of his gun pressed against her cheekbone. He shoved her through the stall out into the barn, careful to keep Caroline in front of him. Old furniture and empty boxes were scattered across the floor. Several mattresses were piled haphazardly in the corner, the top one stained with rusty looking streaks.
Caroline didn’t let herself contemplate where the bloodstains had come from.
Cold dirt and hay bit into her bare feet, and she tried not to dwell on the fact that she was half naked. She was still alive, and they hadn’t raped her. She could endure a little nudity.
Gates ordered his henchman to take a look outside. The man obeyed, moving cautiously to the door. He slid it open a crack, letting in a streak of feeble gray winter light. Caroline watched, heart thudding against her ribcage as the man lifted his gun and craned around for a look. He shook his head, indicating he’d seen nothing. He took a tentative step outside, until only half of his body was visible. Carol
ine heard his footsteps crunching through dead leaves and gravel as Gates pushed her closer to the door.
Suddenly with a grunt the thug reappeared in the doorway. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out but a choking sound. Caroline let out a horrified cry as a thick bubble of blood burst over the man’s lips, soaking his chin like a macabre beard. As he fell to his knees, the man’s eyes widened in horrified knowledge of his own death.
Gates cursed and dragged her back toward the stall. “Who’s out there?”
“We took out your guards and the cops are on their way, Gates.”
“Danny!” She couldn’t keep herself from crying out in elated relief. “I’m back here.”
Her exclamation earned her a punch to the head that made her ears ring.
“You two need to let her go,” Danny said in his cold, hard, commander’s voice.
Something bugged her, through her ringing, aching head. Two. He didn’t know about Patrick.
“Patrick’s dead,” she yelled. “It’s just Ga—” her call broke off in a shriek of pain as Gates dug his fingers into her breast and twisted hard.
“You hear that, Taggart?” Gates yelled. “You show yourself and drop your weapons or there’ll be more than that before I finally kill her.”
Danny hadn’t even thought before he’d killed the other thug, he was so filled with the need to get to Caroline. He was nothing, a human obstacle standing between Danny and the woman he loved and the revenge he craved.
It was only when he heard Caroline call out to him that he could pull himself back. Relief flooded him, so strong it nearly sent him to his knees. She was alive. The shot he’d heard hadn’t been for her.
But he was going to get her killed if he charged in like this. With Alex, Ben, and the police on their way, Gates was screwed, but he still had Caroline. Back up against the wall, he was as dangerous as any cornered animal. Danny needed to tread carefully if he wanted to get them both out of there alive.
Acid ate at his guts when she told him Patrick was already dead. Logically he knew it was better for them. Easier to take out one armed man than two. But his soul burned with the need for revenge, and the thought that it was beyond his reach left a bitter taste in his mouth.
None of that matters. Caroline is all that matters. She was still alive, and Danny was ready to face down the devil himself to make sure she stayed that way.
Danny appeared in the doorway of the stall, his empty hands raised. He was stripped down to a T-shirt, no weapons in sight. “Hear the sirens? They’re on their way, Gates. We got Kaylee to the police, my guys have already released the girls at the main house. You might as well let her go.”
Caroline drank in the sight of him. Huge. Radiating power. Utterly calm as he took in her state of undress and the sight of a gun pressed to her head and Marshall’s dead body on the floor. His quicksilver gaze took in every detail, flickering only when it caught on Patrick Easterbrook’s lifeless form. His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared, and Caroline sensed he was restraining himself from ripping the already dead body limb from limb.
“Lift up your pant legs,” Gates said.
Caroline watched as Danny pulled up the legs of his pants one at a time, showing he had no weapons hidden.
“Come on,” Danny said. “You’re fucked already. How about you let her go and I’ll give you a running start.”
She could feel Gates tense behind her, felt the faint tremble of the hand holding the gun to her head. “Or how about this, asshole? How about I kill both of you for costing me millions of dollars and the loss of my operation?”
When Danny had first seen Caroline, he’d thought his head was going to explode. Bruises marred the creamy skin of her cheeks. She was naked from the waist down and he could see dark smudges on the tender skin of her thighs. Gates pressed the gun to her cheek so hard Danny could see the tip of the barrel leave an indentaton.
He watched Gates’s finger flex against the trigger.
Everything stopped. The rage in his head quieted. The adrenaline pumping through his veins eased off, and everything came into razor sharp focus. He could pick out the individual beads of sweat on Gates’s upper lip, see every single eyelash surrounding Caroline’s scared, dark eyes.
As though in slow motion, he watched the muscles in Gates’s arm and shoulder shift. He knew how Gates was going to move before his arm went into motion.
He was going to shoot Danny first.
Danny eased up on his toes and bunched the muscles in his legs. The second the gun started to pull away from Caroline’s face he made his move.
He sprang, closing the distance in a split second, barely registering the sound of gunshots firing into the air. But he sure as hell registered the impact of one of the bullets slamming into his left side. He heard Caroline shriek as his body slammed into both of them.
He blocked out the pain screaming in his side as he spun himself away from Gates’s gun hand and slipped behind Gates’s body. Before the other man could react, Danny hooked his arm around Gates’s neck and twisted his head sharply with his opposite hand.
A sickeningly loud crunch of bones and tendons rang through the barn and Danny felt Gates fall, deadweight, from his arms.
Danny took one step toward Caroline and faltered, his legs going weak under him. He thought it was relief until he heard her gasp, “Oh, my God,” sounding like she was talking under water. His body felt chilled, the only warmth coming from the sticky liquid pouring down his side.
“Don’t you die on me, Danny. You can’t get me through all of this and die on me now,” she sobbed. Pain lanced through him as she pressed her hands hard against his side.
Somehow through the pain and fog he noticed she was still pantsless. “Go get dressed, baby,” he forced the words through rubbery lips. “I don’t want the cops getting a look at what’s mine.”
Caroline let out a half laugh, half sob as she scrambled to put on her pants. “You have to be okay. You can’t leave me.”
“Won’t leave you.” His field of vision narrowed until all he could see was her face. “Love you too much.” The bright halo of light surrounding her face grew smaller and smaller until she disappeared completely.
CHAPTER 21
Four days later
Caroline sipped a glass of wine and listened silently as the Taggart men spoke in low voices about the shocking discoveries they’d made in the last week and a half. Eighteen girls were rescued from Gates’s rural hideout. Five were pregnant. In addition they found the remains of four bodies buried around the grounds. It was assumed they were the remains of girls who had died in complications from childbirth.
The information they discovered on James’s flash drive told a chilling tale of a veritable baby factory, one of desperate couples willing to pay any price for a healthy baby who resembled them. In exchange, the adoptive families looked the other way, didn’t ask any questions about a process that had to seem not quite kosher.
“I still don’t understand why Mom felt she had to keep her volunteer work a secret from us,” Ethan said. He was pacing around the kitchen, and hadn’t sat still since Caroline had arrived.
“She thought we wouldn’t care,” Derek said. He was propped against an armchair occupied by his fiancée, Alyssa. Caroline still couldn’t quite absorb the idea of serious, analytical Derek being engaged to a woman who up until six months ago had been one of the world’s most notorious party girls. Odd as it was, it worked. The connection between them was so strong it was palpable. “Seriously,” he continued, “that last year, how often did we see her? How often did we talk to her? We were all fed up with the crying and the drinking and who knew what else. Even you,” he said pointedly to Ethan.
Ethan ran an angry hand through his hair and halted his pacing. Caroline remembered that Ethan was closer to Anne than the other two. Or at least he’d tried to be. But like Derek said, even Ethan had given up trying to have a relationship with her when it seemed like all Anne wanted to do was hide i
n her bedroom with a bottle of chardonnay.
“We’ll never know her reasons,” Joe said matter of factly. He still looked tired and gaunt and old beyond his years. But unlike the last time she’d seen him, the aura of utter despair had dissipated. He didn’t strike her as a man at peace, but now that he knew the entire truth about his wife’s fate, he seemed to be on his way there. “The truth is, I failed her. What happened to her was my fault for not listening to her and giving her what she needed.”
Caroline could feel Danny’s arm tense behind her where it was stretched across the back of the loveseat. She was still trying to absorb the reality of being there, with Danny, pressed against his side at a family gathering. His date. His girlfriend.
At least she thought so. They hadn’t talked much about the status of their relationship after his barely audible confession of love. But he’d certainly sounded eager to see her when he told her to come over to his dad’s place for dinner and to pack a bag so she could stay at his place for a few days.
God knew she was eager to see him.
It was his second day home from the hospital and the first time she’d seen him in three days. Once he got to the hospital and through surgery to stop the bleeding and remove his spleen, she’d left him to recover.
Kate and Michael had been staying with her after their ordeal and Caroline had taken a couple of days to clear up her own legal issues. Once the truth about James, Patrick, Marshall, and Gates came out, the police realized they didn’t have a case aganst her. Hector Ramirez, the inmate who had told police Caroline had tried to hire him to kill James, admitted he’d been paid to lie. Yesterday the DA had given a press conference and announced that Caroline Medford was no longer a suspect in her husband’s murder and they would not be pursuing any further charges against her.
That huge victory had been tainted by what was happening to Melody. The press was all over the story of Jennifer’s illegal adoption, and Caroline didn’t know how mother and daughter were ever going to recover.
She’d brightened considerably at the prospect of seeing Danny. Not only did she want to reassure herself that he was well and whole—she would have nightmares of him lying on the floor of that barn in a pool of his own blood for the rest of her life—but now they were finally free.