Laying my baby down, I cuddle up beside her. Thoughts tumble through my mind like boulders in an avalanche.
Can I take the kidnappers at their word? Will they leave us alone if we don’t cause any trouble?
Maybe.
We’re just pawns in the war between Ax and Brent. If Ax does what Brent says, maybe Brent will let us go. We were already leaving town. Maybe he’ll let us keep going, far away from Cape Craven.
And if Ax doesn’t do what Brent wants?
If Ax causes trouble?
My stomach ties itself into knots. I know Ax only wants to protect us, to keep us safe, but with things being so heated between Ax and his brother, how long could he go without losing his temper and blowing up?
Reason would go right out the window. I couldn’t predict what might happen then.
I fight back tears, gnawing on my lip. Brent really is one smart asshole. He knows how to push Ax’s buttons. He knows his brother will respond with overprotectiveness. Ax will be totally distracted by this little ploy. And while he is—what exactly will Brent be doing?
I can’t believe I let myself get caught between two Cravens. I’m an idiot for letting my guard down, for thinking anything to do with that family could ever turn out right.
Still, none of his is my daughter’s fault. They can grind me down, but they’ll never get to her. Not with me here to protect her.
Brent thinks he needs to worry about an overprotective Ax. Maybe he needs to consider a mother who’s backed into a corner.
Give me a chance, Brent, and I’ll show you my claws.
I have to convince myself that Ax will see reason and that Brent will finish whatever evil plot he’s got in mind, and then they’ll let us go. And my daughter and I will finally be free. I don’t care if I have to go to the ends of the earth. I won’t let the Cravens ruin my daughter’s life.
And that includes her father.
I’m so angry with Ax. If he didn’t insist on pushing his way in, on making me love him, making me fucking need him, then none of this would have happened.
I should have been stronger, should have resisted him.
But I could never resist Ax. Not since I was doodling hearts around his name on my notebook back in school.
Not this time. This is the last time Ax breaks my heart.
He may not be responsible for whatever fucked up things his brother is doing, but he isn’t entirely blameless. He’s thrown himself headlong into whatever machinations his family is embroiled in, not caring about who it effects. Who it destroys. Until it’s too late.
I can’t put my trust in him, not when I know he can’t give up the hold his fucking family has on him. He could have walked away, but he keeps coming back, keeps marching on the same old battlefield.
Well, I’m deserting this battle, because there are no winners.
And if I have to leave my heart on the field, torn to pieces, then so be it. As long as my daughter is safe, nothing else matters.
My stomach rumbles after a couple hours, and I ignore it, but when Lex wakes up and says that she’s hungry, I stand and move to the door. Knocking a few times, I call through the wood. “My daughter needs food and water. Please.” I figure it pays to use your manners when being kidnapped. Hostages can’t be choosers.
I keep knocking, and then the door opens. It’s the dark-haired one, and he looks me up and down, licking his lips. “What do you want?”
“Food, please. For my daughter.”
“Food for your daughter,” he mimics, then narrows his eyes. “And what do you got to trade?”
“Trade?”
“For the food. What you gonna give me?”
I frown. “My eternal gratitude?”
“How about a piece of this?” he asks, then grabs me by my ass and pulls me close. I pull away, taking several steps back.
“We’re keeping up our end of the deal. Being quiet and not trying to escape. But you can’t keep us here and not feed us.”
“I’ll take care of your daughter,” he says, nodding. “And you’ll take care of me.”
“Get out,” I growl, covering Lex’s ears. “She’s a child, and you’re being disgusting.”
Our captor sneers, laughing at me until he hears footsteps behind him. “What do they want?” comes the giant’s voice.
“Food,” the dark-haired one responds, then heads back down the hall.
The giant leans up against the door frame but doesn’t say anything. A minute passes, and his companion returns, tossing a couple boxes of packaged lunch boxes at us and two juice boxes. “Lunch is served, ladies.”
“Thank you,” I say, then sit on the bed and begin to the open the packages. The giant continues to hold up the door frame, but his friend lets out a breath, then heads back down the hall. A few minutes later, the giant follows him, locking the door behind him.
“Here you go,” I say, holding out a cracker decorated with cheese and ham, then picking up a juice box to stab it with a straw. “Eat up.”
We chew in silence. I try not to think about what the dark one said. What he did. And what he might do tonight when the giant is asleep.
I try not to think about it, but it’s like the elephant in the room. The more I don’t think about it, the more it’s there, behind my eyelids, dominating my thoughts.
I wish Ax were here. I want to feel safe.
Then I remind myself that Ax is the reason I’m here, afraid of what might happen to my daughter and me.
I turn away from my daughter and blink back tears. “I should drink apple juice more often,” I say in a voice full of false cheer. I look back at her.
Lex doesn’t smile.
43
Ax
I find myself back outside The Office, perched on Delilah across the street from the news crews. More are descending, and I’m scrolling through my phone, watching feeds as they appear. Two stations have hooked up to the national affiliates.
I hear too big to fail and freefall crisis thrown around. The security crew at the front door has doubled, but the crowd around Craven Industries has quadrupled. Local residents surround the news crews. It’s unsurprising since the town stakes its livelihood on the vagaries of my family’s business.
All this is my fucking brother’s fault. It kind of dwarfs my own personal bullshit. The only thing Brent did to me was throw me in jail. Now, he’s about to take away the livelihood of thousands.
Still, revenge is the only thing on my mind. He stole my family from me, put them in danger. I’ll have my vengeance before the town mob pulls him apart. But before I get that vengeance, I need to find him.
I hate being paralyzed by inaction, forced to wait. My muscles vibrate with nervous energy, anxious to pound Brent and his goons into the pavement. But my brother is the only way I can get to Sabrina and Lex. He knows where his men took her, and I need that information.
But where the fuck is Brent?
It’s past noon when a man in an even more expensive suit than the one this morning wore walks out to address the crowd. Reporters rush forward to shove microphones in his face, and I listen as he makes a short statement.
“Craven Industries has experienced a setback regarding our share price, but we expect to come out of this period stronger than before. The Board of Directors is currently reviewing possible new directions in leadership, and we’ve called a major shareholder meeting two days from now. Until that time, we have no further comment.”
“Where is your former CEO, Brent Craven?” a portly reporter calls out. “Does he have any comment on his ousting?”
“Brent will have to speak for himself,” the polished PR gentleman replies. “And as for his whereabouts, his assistant says he boarded a plane for Europe early this morning.”
“How do you think the shareholders will feel about Craven Industries no longer being run by a Craven?”
“I can’t venture a guess to what’s in the mind of the shareholders, but I do believe we made the right decision regarding Br
ent Craven. He’s made too many mistakes, and our obligation is to our shareholders. With our stock prices plummeting, we had no choice. I wish we hadn’t waited so long to pull the trigger.”
I start Delilah, having heard enough. Brent’s not here, and he’s not expected back. I have to accept that he’s left town. But why? What’s his gambit?
He’s got to know that I’d be looking for him. How can he mastermind a kidnapping if he isn’t around to see how things shake out?
There’s something else going on here, something I’m missing. But I can’t think straight, not while Sabrina and Lex are out there somewhere, in the clutches of dangerous men.
If I can’t get to Brent, I’m going to have to figure out where he’s holding them on my own. And that means I need to find whatever clues I can.
I steer Delilah a few blocks away, this time not bothering to sneak up on the residence. I pull up in the driveway of the Hampstead place and walk up to the door, slamming my fist against it.
No one answers. I don’t expect anyone to.
I kick open the front door and let myself in.
The house is empty, no trace of the mercenaries who were here besides a few bags of trash and some dirty dishes left in the sink. I open closets, search drawers, and even empty the trash bags to sift through them, but there are no clues to the men’s current location.
I consider smashing every piece of furniture left in the old house, but there’s no reason to. I fall into a chair at the kitchen table and hold my head in my hands.
Where the fuck did these assholes take my family? Where are Sabrina and Lex? Are they safe? Are they scared?
I hear a noise, the tiny squeak of a floorboard, and the gun is out of my waistband, safety off and bullet in the chamber, in seconds. “Who’s there?”
A figure steps around the corner, hands in the air. “Don’t shoot.”
It’s Luke, the third mercenary. He’s still dressed in dark jeans and a black t-shirt. His face is carved of stone.
“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you with your fellow assholes?”
“I don’t fuck with women and children.”
I hold the gun on him, considering his response. “You know where they are?”
Luke nods. “Yeah.”
I stand. “Tell me,” I say, moving close to hold my pistol to his skull. “Right now.”
“I’ll do you one better. I’ll show you.”
My eyes narrow. “You want to lead me into a trap.”
“No,” he says, attempting to shake his head but stopping when he bumps against the barrel of my gun.
“Why the fuck are you here? Where is my family?”
“I told you. We were told to prepare to grab your girlfriend, and her daughter if necessary. We were to wait for the signal, then take her into custody. Last night we got orders to set up shop on the old highway west of town and catch her when she comes around. When it was time to go, I split instead.”
“Why should I believe you?” Even as I ask the question, I consider his words. They sound sincere. I know Brent’s been keeping tabs on us. If he had a bug in my house, chances are there’s something at Sabrina’s too. My brother knew exactly where she was headed and set his dogs on us.
Luke shrugs. “Because it’s the truth.”
“Take me to them.”
“I can,” he says. “I know the safe house we planned to use. But you can’t go in there without a plan.”
“I don’t have time for this bullshit,” I snarl, crowding him. “Tell me where it is, and I’ll worry about a plan.”
“You’ll never find it without me. It’s not on any maps.” Luke speaks calmly without a hint of fear. I have to admit to a grudging admiration for his coolness.
And then I remember he’s one of the men who took my child and her mother.
“You had my daughter in your car. Why didn’t you take her then? Why wait until the next day?”
“I told you, I don’t do women or children. I was going to take her back to her town, but you showed up and started making threats before I got a chance.”
A convenient answer, one I have no way of verifying. There is no way I can trust this man, but he has one use. He knows where they are.
But if I’m going to keep this guy at the point of a gun while I recover what’s mine, I’m not going to be able to do so on the back of a bike. I need alternate wheels.
Without moving the gun from his head, I pull out my phone and call Jim. It doesn’t take long for him to agree to what I want. After I hang up, we stand there in silence.
Jim’s shop is only a few minutes away, and it isn’t long before I hear the sound of a car in the driveway. When a knock sounds at the door, I shout for Jim to put the keys through the mail slot. I hear them clatter to the floor.
I wait a few minutes to make sure Jim has time to hoof it down the block in the direction of his shop, then explain how things are going to happen.
“We’re going to walk over to that door and grab the keys. Then you’re going to walk in front of me to the vehicle. As long as you behave yourself, I won’t have to take you out.”
Luke lifts his hands, palms out. “I came here to help.”
We walk calmly from the empty house to the vehicle Jim brought. It’s a beat-to-shit pickup truck, and I wonder if it will hold together long enough to get us to where they’re holding Sabrina and Lex.
I drive with the pistol on my knee, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. But Luke gives me no reason to. I still expect to be ambushed, still expect Luke to be a part of some elaborate double-cross, but at the moment I’m grasping at straws. Brent’s gone, and I’ve got no other clues to find the kidnappers and my fledgling family.
Luke is my only option. It would be a shame if I had to shoot the guy.
“Turn here,” he says about ten minutes after we pass the place where Sabrina’s car was pushed off into the forest. And so we start down a labyrinth of back roads, pavement giving way to gravel and then plain old dirt.
“You have no reason to trust me,” Luke says after another spell of silence. “But I came here of my own free will to help you.”
“So you’re the type that betrays his friends, who skips out on the job he’s been paid for, and I’m supposed to believe you’re the honorable type?”
“Believe what you want,” he replies with a shrug. “I wouldn’t call myself honorable, nor would I call those two assholes my friends. And when I took the job, it was with the understanding that I didn’t fuck with innocent bystanders. Those two mercenary fucks don’t care who gets hurt. I won’t be a part of endangering a helpless woman and her child.”
“I wonder where this moral code comes from,” I muse out loud. “Mercenaries aren’t the type to give a shit. I’ve dealt with my share in the military. Security contractors who are little more than dogs on a short leash, trained to heel, to obey. And when the leash comes off, they don’t care whose throat they rip out.”
“I need the money,” he says, “but not that bad. I hooked up with those two to make a quick buck, but before long I realized they were even greedier than I was. Either that or they just like to make people suffer.”
He needs the money. But he draws the line at women and children. Luke is turning out to be more of a puzzle than expected. “What do you need the money for?”
“That’s none of your business.” His steely tone is a contrast to his former calmness.
“Fair enough.” I don’t need to know why he’s gone to work for my brother. All I need to know is where my family is.
“We still need a plan,” he says after a few minutes. “Something to catch them off guard. Diego is too fond of his weapons, and he’s a fast motherfucker. We need to disarm him quick, or he won’t go down without taking one of us with him.”
“And the bigger one?” I ask. “What’s his kryptonite?”
“Ash doesn’t have a weakness. Our best bet is to knock him out and restrain him before he can get his hands on us. He’s stronger
than anyone I’ve seen, and I’ve seen my fair share of fighters.”
“You ex-military?” I ask, but I feel like I already know the answer.
“No. I don’t like taking orders for a living.”
“That’s funny, considering your current profession.”
“I needed the money.”
“Ah yes, for something that’s none of my business. So if you weren’t trained by Uncle Sam, just how exactly did you learn your way around a gun?”
“There are plenty of ways for violence to enter a man’s life. I learned at a young age that might makes right. So I figured out how to become mighty.”
It’s an unsettling answer. I wonder what Luke’s seen in his life to make him this jaded. Then I remember he’s talking to an ex-convict, ex-warrior who’s embroiled in a fight with his own family. “Jaded” doesn’t begin to cover it.
“We have the element of surprise on our side,” I remind him, bringing the conversation back to our plan. “We’ll stop the car far enough away to not be heard, then we’ll walk in. We’ll find a way to sneak in, then use stealth to take them down before they even realize we’re there.”
“That would be a decent plan,” Luke says, “if there were any other entrances to the place.”
“What?”
“It’s a small cabin in the middle of the woods. They used to run moonshine out of it in the old days, but now it’s mostly abandoned. The windows are nailed shut, and the only door is the front one. You can bet your ass someone will be covering that entrance at all times.”
“Shit.” I don’t like the sound of that. “So, any way you slice it, we’re looking at a bum rush?” I’m not a fan of running straight into the face of danger if I can avoid it.
“Not necessarily. I think we should do as you suggested, walk in, but we need to do some recon before we bust in, guns blazing. We need to figure out the precise moment to enter and take out the targets.”
I nod my head. He’s talking sense.
Luke frowns. “I know you’re agreeing with me now, but when you get there, I can’t have you going off half-cocked when you see your woman and child restrained. You have to keep a cool head, or you’re going to get all of us killed. Do you understand me?”
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