“Who did you contact, you bitch?” he yelled. I could see two men in front of the SUV, but it was too dark to see their faces. I looked behind me and there were two men getting out the car behind me. Had my princes found me?
Jake wasn’t going down without a fight. He scrambled into the backseat of the SUV and yanked me out by my hair. His gun was back in his hands and now it was aimed at my head. I breathed out a sigh of relief when I noticed the two men in front of the SUV were Gareth and Andre. Andre recovered from being tased and he looked furious. Gareth had a gun trained on Jake and Andre looked ready to kill him with his bare hands.
Jake yanked my hair enough to pull a few clumps out as he whirled around to see who was behind him. Casey had a gun on him and Aiden was there with his fists clenched.
“I’ll shoot her!” Jake yelled. Jake noticed Casey’s uniform right away. “You can arrest me all you want, but Misty is going to die for everything she did to me. I could probably take out a few of you on the way down too.”
I needed to do something about this. Jake was bigger than me and he had a death grip on my hair. Jake had a huge weakness right now he wasn’t even thinking about because he thought I wouldn’t fight back. My back was to Jake and he had a clump of my hair in his fist. I knew this was going to hurt like hell, but it would hurt less than Jake shooting me or one of the boys. I twisted quickly, feeling clumps of my hair rip out, and brought my taped together hands down as hard as I could on his injured groin.
Jake howled and fell to his knees. He let go of my hair and he even dropped the gun. I kicked it as far away from him as I could.
“Bitch!” Jake yelled.
Jake tried to recover and scramble for his gun. He marched me out of the house barefoot and didn’t seem to care he was going to have to deal with having to explain why I had no shoes when we got to Arkansas. I could hear the shouts of all four men as they came running at us, but I needed to stop Jake. I smashed the heel of my bare foot down on his hand as it reached for the gun. I was glad to see Gareth snatch the gun off the ground because I was running out of tricks. Jake was bigger than me and I’d never been in any type of fight before.
I felt two strong arms encircle my waist. I knew it was Aiden from his smell. I leaned back into his chest just as Andre’s fist connected with Jake’s jaw.
“That’s for tasing me and everything you did to Misty, mother fucker!”
Casey nudged Jake with his foot. He was out cold in the middle of the road and I could see a circle of blood growing on the crotch of his pants where I hit him. Good. I hoped it hurt.
Casey looked down in disgust and spat on him. “He doesn’t even take a punch like a real cop. Misty, thank god. I’m so glad he didn’t notice you had your phone and you thought to call me. I just want to get you home, but I have to bring you to the station for a statement.”
I just nodded. I knew what I had to do. Dillion had to pay for hurting Andre. It wasn’t just that he helped Jake get to me. He betrayed Casey and he physically hurt Andre. No one hurt my boys. I was going to nail his ass to the wall with everything I knew.
Chapter 18
Gareth had a pocket knife he was able to get that fucking duct tape off my wrists. Dillion wrapped it too tight and my fingers had long gone numb. Casey wanted me to ride with him, but told me I couldn’t because he would have Jake in the back of his squad car. He thought it would be a bad idea and he didn’t want me to hear what Jake would say to me if he woke up.
Casey radioed it in so someone would collect Jake’s SUV and took off with Jake handcuffed in the back seat of his car. I left in Gareth’s SUV with Andre and Aiden. They both insisted on sitting in the backseat and holding me. I started shaking as soon as the car started. When I was sitting in the back of Jake’s car with my hands bound, I was mostly trying to figure out my escape.
Now that I was safe, I had all these horrible scenarios in my head about what could have happened to me. Jake could have just shot me and Andre on the spot. My money was too important to him. I knew what he had planned for me to get my money. I would have rather him just have killed me than raping me until he got tired of me. I didn’t understand why he wanted that too in addition to my money.
Andre squeezed me. “Do you know how we give you so much trouble because you keep your phone in your pocket and you’re always butt dialing us?”
I knew. They told me they would get excited thinking I was calling them, then they would hear background noise and realize my phone was in my pocket again. They liked to tease me that they’d like to hear my voice over the phone other than through my pocket. I thought he was just going to mention the phone call I made to Casey.
“Your butt dialing is what let us find you quicker.”
“What?” I didn’t butt dial anyone in the car. I snuck my phone out and called Casey.
“When you must have been shifting to get the phone out to call Casey, you inadvertently connected to the car’s Bluetooth,” Andre said, kissing the top of my head. “I used the connection to get into the cars navigation system. We knew exactly where you were. I hacked into the entire car’s systems and we could even tell how fast you were going. The phone call to Casey let us know you had your phone and were with Jake. You gave us all the tools we needed to find you.”
Aiden’s squeezed my arm. “You’re so strong, Misty. Anyone else would have panicked, but you were strong and fought back so we could find you. I don’t think you heard me cheering you on when you smashed his nuts again.”
“You broke his hand, you know,” Gareth said.
“I did?” I had no idea. I was barefoot and I was just trying to stop him from getting the gun.
“Yeah,” Gareth said, grinning in the rearview mirror. “His hand is broken and whatever you started with the gun, his nuts are probably worse now.”
“There’s a man at Casey’s station that helped him. Is Casey going to be in danger when he gets back to the station with Jake?” I asked, my panic starting to rise again. Dillion didn’t seem like the type of man that would go quietly when exposed.
Andre squeezed me again. “Our cameras outside also film the front door. Our security system doesn’t just go to an outside company. If it gets triggered, we all get an alert on our phones and can log in and watch the camera. Casey was sitting waiting for Jake for the drop when his phone started screaming. Dillion wore a mask as he was scaling the fence, but he took it off in the doorway. Casey saw everything. He saw Dillion let Jake in. A swat team may have already grabbed Dillion.”
Jake and Dillion were handled. That just left my mother. “Jake said he left my mother on the side of the road in Arizona. Has anyone found her?”
“No, Misty,” Gareth said. “We thought we would find your mother when we found Jake. Do you think she’ll come for you?”
“I have no idea,” I said, slumping in my seat. “I don’t think I ever knew anything about her.”
“We’ll find her. She won’t be able to hurt you again.”
“Can you just sit here and hold me until we get to the station? It’s been a shitty night and I’m going to have to talk about all of this with strangers. Can you all be there with me when I do have to talk about it?”
“We’ll always be there for you, Misty,” Andre said.
Andre and Aiden kept me in this warm cocoon of their arms until we pulled up to the station. Gareth realized I didn’t have any shoes when we started walking to the station.
“No shoes? Really?” he growled. He scooped me up and carried me into the station like a baby. “Can we get this girl some shoes?” he yelled to the entire station.
I looked around for Casey. I wouldn’t feel totally safe until it was the five of us together again. I didn’t see Casey. An older, hardened man approached me, but there was a kindness behind his eyes.
“Are you able to give a statement now? We can wait until tomorrow.”
I straightened my shoulders and looked him straight in the eye. “No. Dillion put a Taser to Andre and Jake threat
ened to shoot him while he was out. I’m going to tell you everything I know so that they never get out of jail.”
“That’s my girl,” Aiden said, squeezing my arms.
“I want them with me and I want Casey there too,” I said, stating my terms. “And I don’t know your name.”
“You can call me Bishop like everyone else does. If I didn’t think Casey would kill me, I’d be recruiting you for managing to escape a corrupt cop twice.”
“Where is Casey?” I demanded. I needed to know he was safe and I needed him here with me.
“I imagine he’ll come when he knows you’re here. He’s been arguing for fifteen minutes alone with Dillion with the cameras off because he’s lost control, but I’m not losing a good cop because of a bad seed.”
“I’ll take ten minutes alone with him with the camera off. I’m not one of your men,” Gareth growled.
“Oh, shut it, Marshall. You’ve had a standing offer to work for me for years and you know it,” Bishop snapped. “You too, Hayes,” he shot at Andre.
Someone apparently overheard us and Casey came barreling through the room and swung me up in a hug. There were tears in his eyes when he set me down. “I’m sorry, Misty. I tried to protect you, but it was my fault Jake found you.”
“Casey, no,” I said, touching his cheek. “It’s Dillion’s fault and I heard a little of Jake and Dillion’s conversation. I can give Bishop a little more ammo on Dillion. Can we do this now?”
Bishop led me back to a small room with a camera. Extra chairs were brought in for the boys and someone thought to bring us coffee and leftover pastries someone must have brought in. I gratefully took the coffee, but had no appetite at all for food.
“If you didn’t find it, Dillion has the drugs stolen from the LA station and given to Jake. It was Dillion's terms to help Jake. The drugs and after Jake had my money, he was supposed to give Dillion some sort of payout. I heard it was a good bit of heroin and cocaine.”
“How did Jake plan on getting your money? When the law was after you, apparently they couldn’t find you that way. You covered your tracks like a professional. You’d make a hell of a cop,” Bishop said.
“No,” Casey growled. “Misty isn’t putting herself in danger every day as a cop. Now that she’s in the clear, Misty can do what makes her happy.”
“Jake intended to force me to marry him at gunpoint. He didn’t want to kill me after the wedding. He intended to—he was going to—” I couldn’t say it in front of them. If I couldn’t think about it, I didn’t want them picturing it either. I didn’t want them to hate me or do something stupid because of it.
“You don’t have to say it out loud, Misty,” Andre said, stroking my hand. “We get the idea. Bishop, can you still charge him with anything related to that, even though we got to her in time?”
“Just false imprisonment, but it will come out at his trial. Misty will probably have to testify. If we ever find your mother, you may have to testify at her trial too.”
All four men were looking like they wanted to argue with Bishop about me taking the stand in either trial. I held up my hand.
“I want to take the stand. If it means temporarily going back to LA, I want to look the jury in the eye, tell them exactly what it was like growing up with him, and nail his ass to the wall. I want to tell them exactly what he did to me killing my father.”
The boys never stopped me from doing anything I wanted and they didn’t argue with me today. They all looked at me proudly and told me if I had to go to LA and I wanted to be there to testify, they’d all be there right along with me.
Chapter 19
I wanted to just crash on the sectional with all four boys when we finally got back to the house. They’d been too perfect this entire time sharing me, but they must have been tired of it. I would have been if I was fighting over the affections of one person. Casey stormed off to his bedroom and slammed the door. I didn’t even get a chance to find out if he was mad at me because Gareth and Aiden started fighting because they wanted to sleep with me alone that night.
They were always so attuned to my needs without me having to ask, but I didn’t need this tonight. I didn’t need Andre joining in on the yelling too. I knew this would happen. It was just a matter of time before they would start fighting and pressure me to choose. I don’t think they even noticed when I slipped out of the room when they started shoving each other.
I still had no shoes. I was in the clothes I was wearing when Jake and Dillon grabbed me. I didn’t even change. I crawled into bed and pulled the covers over my head. I could feel it building up. I was going to cry and I didn’t want it to be heard. A scream was building in my throat and they would all come running if they heard it. I’d locked the door and they would kick it down knowing them.
I buried my face in the pillow and just let it take my screams. My screams built to hysterical sobbing. They’d tried to talk me up at the station, say it was me that got myself saved, but that wasn’t true. It was a total accident that my phone connected to the Bluetooth in Jake’s car. If it hadn’t, I could be in Arkansas right now with Jake having god knows what being done to me.
Bishop tried to make me feel better by telling me Jake and Dillon wouldn’t have a good go of it in jail being former cops. I knew better. Jake would have a plan. With him, it could be anything. He’d use someone to get what he wanted. He probably knew damned well Dillion was going to get caught. In fact, he was probably hoping for it so he didn’t have to send him any of my money. Jake intended to have me as far away from Louisiana as possible when Dillion got caught.
I heard a crash from the living room. They were probably beating the shit out of each other over me in there. I tried to make myself smaller in this huge bed. I didn’t go out there and try to stop them. This was my fault. If I went out there, they’d ask me who I wanted next to me tonight and if I said I wanted whose day it was like we had been doing, they would hate me because I hadn’t picked yet.
I heard a soft knock on my door. I heard Aiden call my name and I ignored him. If I let Aiden in, the rest of them would think I picked him and I didn’t want to pick one just yet.
“Misty, are you okay?” Gareth called.
“Are you hungry? I can cook,” Andre said.
“You should eat, Misty,” Aiden called. “You probably haven’t since breakfast.”
What the ever loving hell? They went to blows over me, now they wanted me to go sit at the breakfast bar and eat with them like the decision I had to make and their fight didn’t have me hiding in my bed clutching my pillow. I just ignored them.
The next knock was a little more insistent. “Misty, you shouldn’t be alone right now,” Andre said.
And I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be with all four of them, but Casey was mad at me and it was now time for me to choose. I was wondering if Casey had gotten into trouble at work because of me and that was why he stormed off like that. He was angry and brooding at the station, but I thought he was on my side. I’d already alienated Casey with my drama, so I might as well do it with the other three. I’d never be able to pick tonight, so I just ignored them.
They were pleading with me through the door for about forty-five minutes. They never talked about their fight. They never said they wouldn’t fight again if I came out. They wanted me to come out to eat and talk.
I couldn’t. If they were fighting, the time had come for me to stop being selfish with them and pick. I wasn’t just going to be breaking three hearts when I did. I was going to be breaking mine too.
Chapter 20
The boys eventually gave up knocking on my door. I’d barricaded myself in my bedroom beating myself up about who I was supposed to pick. I didn’t even come out to eat. I was keeping the delivery services of New Orleans in business getting delivery when I actually got hungry. I was so stressed, I was eating maybe once a day and not tasting a thing. All I could think about when the boys dropped the bag at my door and left was about my first date with Andre and
the elaborate meal he cooked. I was ordering from the best restaurants in New Orleans and all I could think about was how I missed Andre’s cooking.
I tried making lists. Pros and cons for who I would choose. The problem was that I had a list of pros for four men and no cons. My list of pros was drastically different for all of them, but I loved everything on the list for all of them.
I could hear them arguing outside my door. They were fighting every night and I knew it was about me. I didn’t hear crashes again like it came to blows, but I could hear muffled, heating yelling at all hours of the day. I was doing exactly what I didn’t want to do. Ruin their friendship.
After two weeks of hiding in my bedroom and listening to yelling, I decided there was only one logical way for this to end. They were fighting over a girl who was just dumped into their life. For things to go back to the way they were for them, that girl needed to disappear the same way she entered. I was going to have to run again. It was going to hurt this time way more than any other time I’d run, but it had to be done.
I was a coward. I couldn’t pick and I couldn’t tell them I was leaving. I was planning on sneaking out in the middle of the night and just hope I didn’t trigger the elaborate security system Andre had. I knew what night I was leaving and I hadn’t bothered packing yet. I didn’t really want to leave.
Oddly, the night I planned to leave, there was no screaming in the living room that night. Did they all hate each other so much they weren’t even speaking to each other now? As much as I wanted to stay, if I left, they would talk things out and go back to being friends without me here. I knew they had been friends since kindergarten and I was ruining that now.
I waited until midnight before I even bothered to start packing. I hadn’t even gotten dressed. I was throwing clothes in bags in a lace camisole and boy shorts, which was what I had been living in since I locked myself in the bedroom. I left the light off. I didn’t want them to see it on this late and wonder what I was up to. I wanted them all asleep as I snuck out so I didn’t have to look at their faces when they found out I was leaving.
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