by Joyee Flynn
“Let’s get one thing straight. I will play this game and role to keep the ones I love safe. I will smile and do the right thing. But when we’re alone, don’t you dare pretend or play me.”
“One day you will love me,” she sneered.
“Hold your breath once we park and wait for it,” I grumbled. She shot me a dirty look but I didn’t care.
We drove for a while longer and pulled off on a back road. Shortly thereafter she turned into a driveway and parked in front of a very large, pre-Civil War house that looked as if it might not have been kept up since then. Fabulous.
I let her lead me into the house, then the basement, and she locked me into her concrete-encrusted cage. She was right, she did it all up so I wouldn’t be bored the next week.
“I even got you an Xbox so you could watch whatever you want. I figured that way you could rent some shows and documentaries on babies and how to raise them.”
“Very thoughtful of you,” I said quietly, realizing this was really going to happen. I sat down on the twin bed after I set my bags down on the floor. “You go back on this and hurt Brad or James and there won’t be any place you can run far enough from me or hide, Hilary. I’m a man of my word and I swear if anything happens to them I will hunt you down and gut you.”
“Your point has been made and as long as you hold up the deal they will not come to any harm at my hands or orders.”
“Good, then get the fuck out of my sight because you make me sick.”
She bared her fangs at me and hissed before leaving, closing the door behind her. I waited until I heard her engage the locks before curling on the bed and breaking down. My life was over and I was going to have the rest of a potentially immortal life trapped… And I didn’t mean in the cage I was in now.
Chapter 8
Brad
“No,” I whispered in horror as I listened to the message Ramses left me. I sank to my knees in grief.
“Brad? What’s up, man?” Ant asked nervously as he tried to catch me in time. I shook my head and hit speakerphone before replaying the message.
“Brad, I’m sorry to leave you a message like this but I’ve made a decision that you’re not going to like. As much as I’ve enjoyed our time together and saw a future with you and James, things have changed. I’m going to have a baby now and I have to be a real father to him or her and that means marrying Hilary.
“I wish things were different, but I’m not leaving you alone. James is a good man and he will love you as I know you do him. Take care of yourself, my sweet little mouse. Always look to Ant for advice and the right way. He’s a good boss and always knows the answers. I will think of you fondly and what we shared. There will always be a special place in my heart for you and I wish you all the best.”
I sobbed wordlessly as I listened, Ant’s eyes going wide in shock. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.
“How could he change his mind over the course of an hour?” Ant asked. “Something’s wrong. No way he just calls and leaves you that message on his own. We need to talk to him.”
“Brad!” James bellowed from the other room and came racing into the media room.
“What the hell is going on?” Gavin shouted, following close on his heels.
“Are you okay, little mouse?” James dove on the ground next to me and wrapped his arms around me. “You got a message too?”
“Yes. He’s gone,” I whispered, ignoring Gavin and Ant talking quietly in the background.
“What did Ramses say to you about Ant?” Gavin asked as he interrupted our moment. “Ant said there was something strange Ramses said in your message and I heard the same in James’s as well.”
“You mean why he brought up Gigi while saying good-bye to a lover,” James said slowly. I wiped my eyes and glanced between the three of them.
“And why bring up Ant? Play them again,” I ordered as I dove and grabbed a piece of paper. “He’s smart, like wicked smart. There has to be a reason if he said something off.”
“What are you thinking?” James asked as he pulled out his phone. I shook my head and he replayed his message. I listened to Ramses’s voice, ignoring the words and focusing on the message.
“Gigi. Gigi will help you always. Why does he keep saying always? When did Gigi help us? She helped with Hilary,” I surmised slowly, working it through in my head. “She told us being pregnant wouldn’t make Hilary crazy and the woman would stop at nothing to get what she wants. What would she have to do to get him to change his mind?”
“Threaten you guys,” Gavin answered easily. We all stared at him and he simply shrugged. “You threaten me and I won’t cave. Someone threatens Ant and I’ll do whatever they want.”
“She threatened us,” I squeaked, the whole thing making sense. Then I thought about my part of the message. “And Ant always has the answers. What did you say we should do to Hilary?”
“Lock the bitch up and make her take the test or admit to what she’s done,” he whispered, his eyes wide. “She threatened you guys so he went with her. He’s sending us a message on what to do next.”
“James, get a team and check out Ramses’s house. I want it combed for any sign of anything off. I’m calling Leader Davis,” Gavin said firmly. “Do we trust Leader Ellison with this yet?”
“I say we leave that up to Ramses’s brother,” I suggested. The man knew how to play the game with vampires better than we did. We all agreed to it and they got to it, leaving Ant and I alone. We stared at each other for a few moments and then I realized what we could do. “We need to track Hilary.”
“Good one, I was thinking we should figure out where she might take Ramses,” Ant added. “Can you hack?”
“Oh yeah,” I answered with an evil smile. We darted out of the media room and to Ant’s office, where there was an extra computer there that I could use. The moment I got logged on, I traced who the Sweeneys’ cell phone carrier was. When I found out, I went back through and got the cell numbers and locked on to the phones. All of them had their GPS enabled much to my joy and luck.
“Shit,” Ant hissed and slammed his fist on the desk. “They’ve got a lot of properties and holdings. This might take a while.”
“I’ve got their locations and they’re all in the area. I’m going to start backtracking their cell tower syncs. There’s got to be something we can map out.”
Gavin walked into the room with a smile on his face. “Leader Davis is on his way. He says if we hear from Ellison, we know nothing, but he’s leaning towards kidnapping Hilary and forcing the test.”
“James?” I asked, realizing the lion I loved could be walking into danger and I didn’t even get to say good-bye.
“I’ve got backup coming in ten minutes,” James answered as he joined us. “I wanted to get a kiss. Don’t worry, okay, little mouse? I’ll be back in a bit and we’ll get Ramses home.”
“Don’t you dare get hurt,” I whispered as I launched myself into his arms. “I can’t lose you.”
“Not going anywhere,” he swore against my lips. I got lost in James’s passion as he kissed me fiercely. I sighed and he stared down at me in question.
“I want more of that and less drama,” I admitted as my cheeks heated up. “We just all started being together and now after finding our way to each other everything seems to try to keep us apart. I just want a day to enjoy it.”
“I promise when we get Ramses back we’ll all take a day off, shut off our phones, and play naked poker.” He gave me a wink.
“Don’t you mean strip poker?” I giggled.
“No, naked poker. I just want an excuse for all of us to be naked together.”
“Deal.” I stole another quick kiss before he let me go and left to check Ramses’s place. When he was gone I sighed, trying not to worry about him while I was already worried about Ramses. One at a time.
Not that it really worked that way considering I loved them both. I’d worry about them always. It just came w
ith the territory. A person couldn’t love someone and not be concerned about what happens to them. That’s not how love worked.
“I’ve found twenty places already,” Ant sighed. “I formatted a program to keep looking through county tax records in the state to find anything with the name ‘Sweeney’ on it but I’ve confirmed these properties.”
“Okay, well I’ve got the computer plotting out where they’ve been and when by their cell phones so I can help you while that’s running. Give me a few of them.” Ant handed me a few sheets of paper while the rest was printing. I looked at the first and immediately ruled it out. “This is a busy strip mall right in the middle of downtown. Last place to keep Ramses.”
“But he went willingly, Brad. I don’t think the normal rules apply,” Ant said gently.
I nodded and thought about that a moment. She might have threatened us to get him to leave with her, but she wouldn’t have relied on just that. She was crazy… But I don’t think she was stupid if she’d tricked Ramses.
I quickly shared this theory with Ant who agreed. “Okay, so we put them in the not likely pile and focus on the others to start with. But if we can’t find him at those, then we move on to the other piles.”
“Good plan.” I flipped to the next one and saw it was a medical building in conjunction with the hospital the Sweeneys owned. “Too public and filled with smart people who would ask questions if there were strangers around.”
We kept working and checking properties until we made a dent in the pile. We had some options including a hunting cabin out in the middle of nowhere and the family estate about twenty minutes outside the city.
“Davis is landing,” Gavin informed us. We grabbed the laptops and piles we made of the property printouts. Once we had everything we made our way into the kitchen, Ant stating that would be our new war room because there was food there.
“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked with a raised brow.
“Even people plotting a rescue and potential kidnapping need to stay fueled,” he answered with a shrug.
He had a point there. I was starving.
Ant pulled out two tubes of ready-bake scones. I turned on the oven and got out the cookie sheet while Ant opened them all up.
“I don’t normally get fresh-baked breakfast when I show up to kidnap something,” Leader Davis joked as he walked in the back door with his people.
“Kidnap people often?” I asked hesitantly.
“Only if they fuck with my baby brother,” he growled, his impressive fangs popping out.
“I love him so I only want him to fuck me,” I blurted out. Everyone went quiet as they stared at me and I wished I could melt into the floor. “I need to duct-tape my mouth closed more often.”
“Nah, your honesty is refreshing,” Davis chuckled. I nodded, trying to squish my embarrassment as I quickly placed the scones on the cookie sheet and popped them in the oven. “So fill me in.”
Gavin and Ant quickly filled Davis in on what we knew. I threw in additions here and there when I could, showing him the property listings. We decided for now, that wasn’t the way to go because we had to act fast. But I was going to keep working on it. I wasn’t a guy they would take in the field, unless they needed someone small and sneaky. Maybe when we narrowed the search where Ramses might be, I could shift and check it out.
Until then, Davis was assembling a team to nab Hilary, stressing she wasn’t to be hurt. As much as the bitch deserved it, she was pregnant after all. No one in our group was so heartless they’d hurt a pregnant woman no matter what she’d done.
It was close though. Personally I wanted to smack her around. That wouldn’t hurt the baby, right?
“I brought the doctor along to perform the paternity test,” Davis explained as we sat down to eat. “He’s going to get a sample from Hilary and compare it to my DNA. I’m Ramses’s brother so the test would show if we’re related.”
“And he’s okay with us kidnapping a pregnant woman?” Gavin asked hesitantly.
“In the general sense?” the doc chuckled, shaking his head. “No, not even remotely. But in this instance? Oh yeah. Ramses is a good man and a friend. I’ll make sure she doesn’t get hurt. I’ve got a sedative the team just needs to inject her with. It won’t harm her or the baby. So yeah, I’m good with it.”
“Good because we’re confident Ramses didn’t just take a trip,” James drawled as he walked into the kitchen.
“How do you know that?” I asked, worried as could be.
“His phone was on the kitchen counter. Who leaves their phone unless they’re instructed to?” he answered gently. “His room was in disarray as if packing quickly, but no phone. Something was definitely up.”
“Alright, where is Hilary now?” Davis asked me. I typed in a few things and tracked her phone.
“At the hospital her parents own,” I answered with a wince. “You can’t nab her from there.”
“No, but we can get her when she comes out.” James flashed a feral grin. “This will work.”
Everyone seemed confident, but I wasn’t so sure. I just wanted Ramses back but if this was how we had to do it, I’d help however I could.
* * * *
James
At first they didn’t want me to come to grab Hilary. Gavin’s point was that I’d be on her target list if she realized the shit was hitting the fan. I countered that I wouldn’t be expected to be there if she called in her people. I thought it was a valid point and I won the argument. They knew I wasn’t going to hurt the pregnant bitch or anything.
“We’ve been waiting two hours already,” Dave grumbled as we sat in the van and watched the front door. We’d found Hilary’s car thanks to Ant’s hacking skills and parked right next to it. “This foreplay is getting tedious.”
“Tell me about it,” I agreed with a sigh. Dave was making his rounds of the building with another guy just in case she tried to slip out the back.
It was another twenty minutes until we spotted her. I quickly called the others back to the front door on the earpieces we were wearing.
“They’re not going to make it,” Dave said quietly as he moved to the back of the van. “Let me know when.”
“You’ve got the injection ready?”
“Yup.”
I watched the raven-haired beauty walk towards us. Talk about false advertising. She might be good looking outside, but she was ugly inside and a horrid person. Right as she got to the back of the van, I gave Dave the signal.
“What the fuck?” she snarled as he jumped out the back. “Get your hands off of me.” I saw Dave stick the needle in her neck and hit the plunger. She glanced over at me and her eyebrows shot up to her forehead before she went limp from passing out.
Just as Dave got her loaded in the van, our other two partners in crime showed up and jumped in as well. I carefully pulled out of the parking spot, not wanting to draw any extra attention to us.
“We got her,” Mark said into his phone, probably calling Davis. “Yeah, everything’s fine. We’ll be there in ten.”
I’d never been so scared to drive in my life. I was sure the police were going to find us and take us to jail for kidnapping. Then we’d never get Ramses back and Brad would be all alone. By the time we got back to Ramses’s house I was soaked with sweat.
At first we hadn’t wanted to change locations from Gavin’s house. Then Davis brought up a good point that Ellison wouldn’t demand entry into Ramses’s house with him there. He knew how much shit would go down if Ellison pushed it.
“I got her,” Dave said, lifting Hilary up after I parked. They could handle that… All I wanted was Brad.
He was standing in the front doorway, nervously hopping from one foot to another. I didn’t even slow down, racing right up the front stairs and lifting him into my arms.
“Miss me?” he giggled.
“Always,” I whispered as I buried my face in his neck and took a deep breath. I really loved him. It hit me like a ton of bricks
. “I love you.”
“I love you too, James,” he sniffled.
“We should mate as soon as we get Ramses back. That way no one can ever break us up ever again.”
“Isn’t that a little fast?” His eyes were wide with shock but I saw the desire in them as well.
“Gavin and Ant mated right when they met and look how happy they are. We’ve known each much longer than that. I know how I feel and I’m falling for Ramses as well. Why wait?”
He bit his plump lower lip, thinking about it before smiling. “I can’t think of a single reason why we should.”
“Awesome,” I purred as I squeezed his perfect ass just for good measure.
“Doc, you’re up,” Davis said as Dave brought Hilary in. Everyone else rushed off but he stayed staring at us. “I bless your mating with my whole heart. I couldn’t have prayed or dreamed up better mates for my brother.”
“Thank you. That means a lot to us,” Brad said shyly.
“Let’s go see if the bitch was lying.” Davis held the door open for us and then closed it against the cold winter weather once we were inside. We headed down to the basement where the doc set up a makeshift lab. The doc was doing his thing and the rest of us paced out in the hallway. It was exhausting. Not like physically exhausting, just the mental kind where I felt I could nap for a month.
The doctor came out into the hall sometime later with a smile on his face. “Congratulations, Leader Davis, you’re not going to be an uncle.”
“It’s not Ramses’s?” I gasped, feeling as if I was going to fall over. I plopped down on the stone floor, leaning against the wall, and pulled Brad against me.
“Nope, I’m sure of it. There were no markers that said the fetus was related to Reginald in any way which means it couldn’t be Ramses’s baby.”
“What do we do now?” Brad asked hesitantly. I glanced at Davis as well because I didn’t have a clue.
“We find my brother and have a sit-down with Ellison. The shit is about to hit the fan and if he doesn’t play ball I’ll be taking over the Indianapolis coven.” Davis flashed us fang. “And he knows I can.”