by Avery Ford
“Are you being held hostage?”
Michael sighed. “Yes. Sort of.”
“You don’t want to be here?” Hale clarified. “They’re holding you against your will?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m going to get you home.”
“You’d be better off going without me.” Michael undid the knots that held his legs to the chair. “I’ll be back in another week, okay? I just… need to suck it up until then.”
“No! If you don’t want to be here, then no one’s going to force you to stay. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s obviously not good, you obviously don’t want it, and I don’t care who’s threatening you—you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Your mom and dad are going to start worrying about you soon.”
“I doubt that,” Michael said softly. “I do shit like this all the time. I bet they don’t even notice I’m gone.”
“They do. They’re not worried yet, but they have noticed. You need to get home to them before they start worrying.”
A new voice joined the conversation. It was froggy from disuse. “You’re not going to convince him he’s wrong. I’ve tried. It always ends in me giving in.”
It was Austin.
“The twerp dragged you into this?” Michael asked. As soon as he was able, Hale twisted around in his chair to find Austin sitting behind him, bound. There was a blindfold over his eyes, and he’d been tied in all the same places Hale had been. “Or did you convince him to come along so you could get dirt on me?”
“Believe it or not, getting dirt on you is very low on my priority list.” Austin exhaled slowly. “I’m here because he begged me for help. He was worried sick about you, and even when I told him that you were off doing something selfish, he pestered me into coming along just in case. Looks like whatever you’re doing isn’t so selfish, is it?”
“Both of you need to stop talking and start getting out of here.” As soon as Michael was done with Hale, he moved on to untie Austin. “I don’t want you suffering because of me. As long as I do what I’m told, no one is going to get hurt. You need to leave before they hurt you for being here. Understand?”
“Absolutely not,” Hale said. He had no idea what was going on with Michael, but there was no way he was leaving him here to suffer. He hadn’t come all this way and risked his life to leave empty handed. “Once you come back with us, we can figure out what to do to keep you safe. You’re suffering and miserable here, and I’m not going to ignore that just because it’s the safer option. If I was concerned about safety, I would have never come looking for you.”
“I told him to do that numerous times,” Austin interjected. “He wouldn’t listen then, and he’s not going to listen now. You’re better off doing what he wants. There’ll be less argument that way.”
“Not if it means he’s going to be in danger,” Michael snapped back.
“I’m not going to be in danger. No one is. Once we get you out, we’re going to figure out how to make this all better.” Hale carefully got up from the chair he’d previously been tied to. He was still a little lightheaded, and the world spun. “Where are the guys holding you hostage?”
“They went to go grab something to eat. They’ll probably be gone for an hour—but don’t let that go to your head. They expect me to be here when they get back, and I’d rather not mess with them.”
“An hour is long enough that we’ll have time to get you back home,” Hale insisted. He looked Michael over, fists clenched with determination. He was almost finished untying Austin. Now that Austin’s hands were untied, he was helping the process along, struggling with one leg’s knot while Michael undid the other. “Family doesn’t leave family behind.”
“You never outgrew your annoying phase, did you?” Michael sighed. “I’m not going to get a word in edgewise, or get it through your head that it’s a bad idea, am I?”
“Nope.” Hale grinned.
Michael finished with his knot and looked up at Hale. He met his eyes. “I’m telling you now that this is a bad idea. If anything happens, you need to remember that you were the one pressuring me into going with you. Is that understood?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll do it. But I’m not going to be held responsible if and when shit goes south.”
“And as long as you tell me what the hell is going on once we get out of here, then we’re not going to have a problem,” Hale said. “You be transparent with me, and I’ll protect you. Deal?”
Michael snorted and shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Protect me?”
“Maybe I don’t, but I’m going to do my best.” Irritation tingled down Hale’s spine. “Now can we please stop talking and get going? I know you said an hour, but I really don’t want to be caught on the way out when they’re on the way in. I have a feeling that wouldn’t go very well.”
“For any of us,” Michael agreed.
“Both of you are insane,” Austin declared. He stood. “Are we getting out of here or what?”
“I guess we are.” Michael shot Hale a lingering look—something between frustration and fear. Hale knew that he had no idea what to expect from his cousin, or why it was that he was involved with such shady dealings, but the look in Michael’s eyes told him that Michael wasn’t a bad person. Whatever was happening here, Michael was doing it against his will. There was too much emotion in his eyes for him to be a cold, detached criminal. Hale didn’t believe for a single second that he was up to no good.
“We need to exit through the doors there.” Michael pointed toward a door by the metal loading bay doors. Hale assumed it was the one they’d been watching the day before—the one Michael had been brought in through. “It locks from the outside, but it’s always open on the inside.”
“Why would they leave you here unguarded?” Austin asked.
“Because they know that I wouldn’t think of leaving.” Michael’s voice was flat, but behind it, Hale thought he heard a note of desperation. Whatever things Michael’s kidnappers had told him had really gotten to him. “Sometimes you don’t need bars to keep a prisoner in check.”
Austin rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Shit. I can’t wait to hear all about the can of worms we just opened. But for now, Hale is right. We need to get going, and we need to do it now. Talking can come later. Right now, we need to prioritize escape.”
“Then let’s go.”
Michael led the way forward. Hale fell in line behind him, walking beside Austin. He crossed his arms over his chest not because he was upset, but because the warehouse was giving him the creeps. Their footsteps echoed through it. The space was wide open and empty, so sounds traveled and echoed. Had Michael been living here for the last three weeks? Hale didn’t see signs of heavy human activity, but he knew that he could be easily mistaken. In the shadows, it was easy to hide things. And besides, there was a chance that Michael was splitting his time between the warehouse and somewhere else. Hale had seen him delivered by car the other day. He’d been somewhere.
Michael pushed open the heavy door by the loading bay. It swung open without issue, revealing a twilit world. Hale had no idea how long he’d been out, but it was of little consequence. Uncle John wasn’t expecting him back at work for at least another week. He had time to get done everything he needed to get done, a fact which was more important than ever now that he had Michael’s problems to sort through.
“Did you walk?” Michael asked.
“No. We’re parked maybe a five minute walk away, hidden from the road. Come on. We’ll show you.” Austin took the lead, but before he did, Hale noticed his lingering gaze. He wasn’t happy with how the day had panned out—Hale saw it in his eyes. He was of the opinion that they should have left Michael behind.
It was tough shit. Now that Michael was rescued, if he didn’t want to be involved anymore, he didn’t have to be. Hale could take care of things on his own… but if that happened, he had to admit that he
’d miss Austin’s company. After the night they’d spent together, Hale wasn’t sure he could move on that easily, and it made him feel stupid, because he knew not to expect anything. Austin was straight-ish. One day, he’d realize that he was making a mistake and that would be the end.
Maybe he’d already figured that out.
Hale tried not to let it get him down, but there was little else to think about as they headed through the forest and back toward the car. It had been undisturbed, and although things were tense, there was no confrontation on the way down the road, or even after they turned onto I-45. Every car they passed, Hale worried over, but no one followed them, and Michael didn’t seem worried.
Maybe everything would be okay.
But there were problems building beneath the surface—problems Hale knew were there, but that he couldn’t see clearly yet. One day, maybe soon, all of them would bubble up to the surface at once and threaten what he knew.
Until then, he had to keep moving.
Being heartbroken over something that hadn’t happened wouldn’t do him any good. With Michael now coming home, he needed to focus on what was most urgent—finding out what the fuck had happened, and making sure that it never happened again.
Chapter Nineteen
Austin
“What the hell were you doing?” Hale demanded. Austin had never seen him so riled before. He was vibrating with anger, and his cheeks were flushed. In another life, he had to have been a hardboiled interrogator. Michael was putting up a good fight, but Austin didn’t think he stood a chance. “I know that you disappear for weeks at a time out of the blue, but whatever antics you got wrapped up in? Whatever people you met who did this to you? That’s not okay.”
“You don’t know the first thing about what happened.”
“Because you won’t tell me!” Hale shot back, furious.
The three of them stood in Michael’s apartment. Austin lingered near the hall leading to the front door, nervous. He kept glancing over his shoulder to see if there was anyone sneaking up behind them. He had a bad feeling coming back here, knowing that Michael had just escaped whatever criminal ring he’d been dragged into. Austin didn’t know who exactly was pulling his strings, but men like that didn’t make pleasant house guests. If Michael got caught…
“I spent three weeks in an abandoned warehouse, Hale,” Michael said. Despite Hale’s hot temper, he managed to keep his tone even. “Three weeks. I know that it’s hard to visualize if you weren’t the one living there, but that’s a fucking long time.”
“I know it is. That’s how long you were gone for. How long you left us all waiting!”
“I slept on a wooden chair or on the floor. The unfinished, damp cement floor.”
“I understand that life sucked for you, but it’s because you let something happen that forced you into a situation like this. What do you want from me? A big hug, some balloons and a condolences card? Forget it.”
If there was one thing the McMillan boys were good for, it was being stubborn. Austin bit the inside of his lip, only half-listening to their argument. His ears were perked for signs of home invasion or any other untoward behavior happening around the apartment. Ever since the crash, he’d been more sensitive to his surroundings than ever before. There was a misguided part of him that believed he could have somehow prevented what had happened to him if only he’d been more astute, and it was back out in full-force now that he’d let himself be taken by surprise by one of the criminals during the stakeout.
“You’re going to try to tell me that you couldn’t have left at any time? The door was unlocked. You could have hitch hiked. You could have flagged someone down and begged to use their phone. Hell, you could have stuck to the tree line and walked back to town. I know that it’s not close, and that it would have taken you awhile, but you had the potential to do it. Don’t try to play up the pity card when you know you could have done better for yourself.”
Hale was small and pretty, but he had fangs. Austin’s gaze darted to him, taking him in. He didn’t give pity easily—not to Austin, and not to Michael. Austin found that he liked that about him.
“I’m done talking to you right now,” Michael said. There was anger in his voice that hadn’t been there before, and it raised the hairs on the back of Austin’s neck and kept him on high alert. He was protective over Hale, he realized. The night they’d shared had done more than provide him with physical relief and a way to vent his frustrations—even if it was only in subtle ways, he’d bonded to Hale. “You’re being unreasonable, and if you keep provoking me, I will snap. I can feel it coming. I haven’t slept well in three weeks, I’m hungry, I’m dirty, and I’m not going to put up with being torn into by you when what I really need is a hot meal, sleep, and some goddamn quiet.”
“You think that you deserve all of that? You were in a shitty situation, yeah, but you put yourself in it. You allowed it to happen, and you allowed yourself to be used like that. If you don’t tell me what the hell is wrong, and what it is you did, what do you think I’m going to do? I need answers, Michael. You’re not going to get away with leaving me hanging forever.”
The bickering was growing worse. Austin had a feeling that Hale was going to keep pushing Michael toward his breaking point until, eventually, Michael snapped. Austin didn’t think that Michael would purposefully hurt Hale, but the more he saw, the more he knew he needed to do something. Both of them were so hardheaded that their dispute could go on for hours. They didn’t have time for that.
While the cousins fought, Austin made his way down the hall and entered the bathroom. There was a small puddle of dried piss on the floor by the toilet. He made a face of disgust, locked the door, turned on the overhead vent, and stepped into the shower. He gave it a second to make sure that no one was coming over to investigate, then he dialed the police. Hale could fight him all he wanted about getting the authorities involved, but the fact of the matter was, Michael was safe now, and there was definitely something evil going on in the warehouse. Hale might have had to text himself the license plate number in order to remember it, but Austin’s memory was better than that. He’d report the car and the location anonymously. Whatever was happening needed to stop, and no matter how much of a crime fighting superhero Hale believed himself to be, Austin knew that the situation was too out of hand for him to ever resolve safely.
“Hidden Creek Police Department. Your call is being recorded for security purposes. Are you presently safe?”
“Yes,” Austin said.
“How may we help you?”
Austin glanced toward the bathroom door. In the far distance, he heard Hale and Michael still going at it. “I’d like to place an anonymous tip about illegal activity within the county. There’s an abandoned warehouse off I-45 South, a little more than five minutes outside of Hidden Creek. Illegal activity has been happening there, possibly gang-related. I know for a fact that there have been hostages held at that location, although I don’t think any are being held there at this time. I have a license plate number for one of the vehicles known to be linked to the criminals.”
“Please share it.”
Austin closed his eyes. He listed off the number of the plate, hoping that he was making the right choice. Hale had counted on him to get Michael out of the warehouse, but now that Michael was free, his responsibility had ended. No one was stopping him from getting the authorities involved, just like it should have been from the beginning. It was the best way to keep everyone safe.
The young woman on the phone repeated the license plate number he’d given her. “Is that correct, sir?”
“Yes.” Austin bit the inside of his lip. He and Hale weren’t together—they’d had sex all night long, but that didn’t mean they were in a relationship. Every kiss, every moan, and every shiver hadn’t meant anything. They’d been using each other to take the edge off—to find the kind of pleasure they couldn’t find alone. But that didn’t stop Austin from caring about him. He wanted to keep Hale safe
. Hale deserved that much from him.
“Is there any other information you have? The number of people involved, any defining characteristics, what’s going on in the area, if there are firearms involved…”
“There are firearms involved.” Austin didn’t have visual confirmation, but the look on Michael’s face when he’d been led into the warehouse spoke for itself. “These men are armed and dangerous, and the activities they’re involved in are criminal. I don’t have any physical characteristics or any set number of people involved to give you. The warehouse is locked from all sides, and the windows are boarded up. The only way in is with a key. One of them had somehow obtained a key.”
“Understood. Is there anything else? No detail is too small.”
“No.” Austin resisted the impulse to let out a slow, deflating breath. “That’s all I can think of. I need to stress how important it is that this gets looked into. There’s real danger here, not only to the potential hostages, but to Hidden Creek as a town. Something isn’t right.”
“I can assure you that we’ll look into it, sir. Our police force investigates every tip they receive. Your concerns have been heard.”
Austin hoped she wasn’t blowing smoke up his ass. There really was something going on in the warehouse, and as far as he was concerned, it was threatening his way of life. The criminal activity needed to be shut down, and the men involved needed to be arrested for their crimes.
“There’s one last thing,” Austin said. He realized that it was important to add on. “The criminals responsible aren’t permanently stationed at the warehouse. They seem to come and go. It might be necessary to survey the place for a few days to figure out what’s really going on.”
“Your concern has been heard,” she said. “If, at any time, you remember additional details, or want to inquire about the status of the investigation, you can reference the following number. Do you have something to write with?”