Which meant the woman I loved had given them the wrong information or hadn’t given them anything at all. Probably at great risk to herself, given they’d already threatened her family because of our involvement. Damn it, I really didn’t want to be a hero. Each time I disentangled from my feelings with Natalia we became more deeply meshed. Even if neither of us wanted it. Though I couldn’t say whether she’d ever felt that way.
My hatred for her kin brought us together in screwed up ways. Just like right now. Unable to leave each other alone, my nightmare had become my destiny. Natalia had seen past the monster inside me. She had shown me so much more of myself than I ever thought possible. I could live free of the experience. I didn’t have to become someone else. I was in control.
“…still there?” Chuck’s voice jolted me from my thoughts, and I shook my head to clear it staring back at the screens.
“Yeah, sorry. I was thinking.”
Chuck grunted, and there was some rustling on the other end of the line. “Tanner says we should probably get in there. They’re fucking agitated and likely to take it out on anything in the room. Whoever’s in the lead already threw their fucking phone across the room, and now they can’t seem to find it.”
“Temper, temper. Yeah, give me five to meet you in the basement and we’ll use the servant stairs to surprise them. By the time they hear us, we’ll be ready and can take them with the element of surprise. You think they’d learn to leave me alone by now.”
“Sounds like a good plan, boss.”
“You only say that because I pay you.”
“Right you are, fucking boss man,” Tanner shouted and I realized Chuck must have me on speaker. “See you in a few.”
I rolled my shoulders unable to ignore the tightness as if my clothes stuck to my skin in awkward patches. Why couldn’t they leave well enough alone? A low rumble of frustration leaked from my mouth, and I got up from my chair nearly pushing it across the room while I paced the small control room floor. With Natalia, I could ignore her association with them. After a while she shined so brightly her attachment to the kidnapping became a lost memory. These men? They were the shadows in my nightmares, the stalkers in my panic attacks, and they never left my mind for a single second.
“Malicious fuckers,” I swore trying to swallow past the tightness in my throat while my fingers worked quickly to undo the buttons of my shirt.
The room suddenly grew smaller. Icy tingles washed over my skin, but I couldn’t get undressed fast enough. My fingers fumbled, shaking as I swore, closing my eyes so I wouldn’t have to watch the black and white spots dance across my vision. A panic attack was closing in so fast I didn’t know if I could avoid it by trying to relax, but it was worth a shot. A million thoughts drowned me at once as I scrambled for a deep breath.
The cage was closing in on me. No place to stretch, no place to move.
“No, there’s no cage. You’re not there anymore,” I whispered to myself, fingers cramping as I gripped my thighs, bent over double, while the world swam behind my closed eyelids. “Christ, get a hold of yourself!”
A vague awareness of my phone vibrating in the pocket of my slacks on the floor. Kick3 Sports, waiting for me. I knew they’d do it without me if I didn’t show up. It was their job. Allowing me to help was merely a courtesy. I was mad and impatient, ready to lash out as I winced from the pain trapped inside my body. The shock of it brought me back to myself. Enough that I could let go and let the anger inside me have its way, give him an outlet for all the helplessness as I charged through the house, until I got to the basement stairs.
“A little early, don’t you think?” Chuck glanced up in my eyes.
“What?” I grunted.
“He pays the bills.” Tanner pointed a thumb in my direction.
Chuck shrugged. Two seconds later, we were facing two massive men, both ready to attack us. One of them canted his head to the side. Right, we’d follow their lead. The world faded into a sensory overload as we made a large racket coming up the stairs into the sitting room where my attackers had made camp. They must have heard us. Luckily, surprise wasn’t a factor we were going for as we kicked the door open and got prepared for what was on the other side.
“Shit! What the fuck, you said the place would be empty!” One of my attackers took a step backward, blinking at the three sons of bitches that had emerged from the unguarded door. “The bastard was supposed to be out at some shindig!”
He was right. I was supposed to be at a charity event, but after this morning, I couldn’t bring myself to paste on a smile. I’d sent a rather large check in my absence. What I wanted to know was how he’d gotten that information. We took a step closer as the sons of bitches closed ranks, carrying on like madmen. None of them made a move, otherwise we’d all be caught in a small space to fight and defend ourselves.
None of them knew it was me. A nice advantage to wearing a mask. Unfortunately, there was also no way to communicate. Speaking would have given me away. While we’d made our point, no one had hopped out of windows yet or even darted closer to an escape route, which was odd. Caught in the act, my attackers simply stood there behind their leader as if waiting for a signal of some kind. Clearly, my plan of ripping out their throats wasn’t in the cards. No one was aggressive, and we couldn’t be seen to attack first, it would give the Kick3 guys a bad name at a time where they needed to keep a low profile.
If my attackers sprung on us? It would be more leverage for making a deal.
“Who the fuck are you?” Obviously, the leader of the gang, a huge ox of a man from their party stepped forward and crossed his arms over his chest. “If either one of you are the man of the house, it’s best if you show yourself. We’ve got to have a bit of a conversation.”
Chuck folded his arms, and Tanner tapped his toes on the carpet, obviously anxious to get whatever was going to happen over with so they could go back to their place and get down to drinking. Why would this guy want me to show myself? Suspicion rooted me to the spot before I started circling the room, drawing a close ring around my attackers as they closed ranks. An easy enough way to show myself without succumbing to the other emotions attached to my kidnapping. The last thing I needed was to be a shaking ball curled up on the carpet at their feet.
“Look, we came here to make a deal—”
I let out a breath that blew back my stray strands of hair. I may have inadvertently let unsightly bits of spittle fly from my mouth, due to my frustration. They couldn’t think that I would buy their need to break into my house to make a deal with me. I got closer until I was only a couple inches away from the lead man. His nose twitched, and I narrowed my eyes, ready to unfurl. When that move wasn’t enough to make him respond, I shoved my head into his abdomen and pushed until he fell to the floor, taking a few of his men down with him like dominos. They fell and scrambled up in a flurry of curses, guns trained on us.
That hit the spot. It was satisfying as hell.
The leader glared at me, and I gave him a level stare.
“Calm the fuck down, or we never let your girlfriend out of her cage. Your choice.”
His hand gripped his lowered gun hard to his side.
I was too out of control to be intimidated. I took a step closer, tightening my jaw and taking a swing that caught him in the middle of his t-shirt, probably right at his sternum. The raw aggression left me seeing red, with blood pounding at my ear and complete tunnel vision. I overturned every piece of furniture my hands could grip. Creating chaos in the room felt good, until I couldn’t catch my breath, and my sides slathered with thick sweat.
“I don’t think he’s happy about your choices,” Chuck’s voice came from my right.
My head swiveled around to see Chuck and Tanner both gripping guns of their own—though where they got them from, I had no idea.
Though they were right about one thing, if they had Natalia in a cage, I wasn’t close to happy at all. My hand pounded on the floorboards for no good reason. Sharp splint
ers of wood shot up around my face. I wrestled with my need to chew my attackers up and spit them out. Fuck any deal in place. This mean streak set me on edge. While my logical side knew that I needed to get a grip if I wanted to find out what they’d done to Natalia, and how to get her safely back.
After what they’d done to me, there was no promise that they hadn’t been just as harsh with one of their own. There were no guarantees. The idea of subjecting her to the horrors I’d endured made me take two menacing steps forward until I had my forearm gripped around the lead man’s neck. Except now, someone’s gun was pressed against the side of my head. My eyes flicked around. Fuck. This wasn’t good.
“Be careful, kid,” Tanner rumbled from behind me. “Don’t do anything stupid. We got your six, but you’re being reckless.”
“That’s a lot coming from that bastard, Liam.” Chuck chimed in his voice low and steady as his trigger finger. “Can’t do anything for the girl with your brains splattered on the floor.”
My arm tightened just a fraction. Enough to watch him flinch and sense the other man’s gun wavering against my temple. No verbal communication was needed as I relished the power I had to end his life, never mind that I’d probably be dead too from the next bullet sitting in the gun’s chamber. A chill shivered through me. I let the fucker go slowly, and the prick with the gun backed off. Tanner and Chuck came to either side of me so I wouldn’t add to the tense moment with another dumb move. With every bit of willpower I still possessed, I clung to the last shred of rational thought.
“Tell me. Now.”
Chapter 29 - Liam
I swigged down the handful of vitamins with a thick protein shake and scrambled through the bag of beef jerky Chuck had shoved into my chest before we got in the car. Tanner had rummaged in my drawers in my bedroom. Who the hell knew what he’d come up with in the way of clothes, but I gave a sigh of relief when all he came back with was a pair of gray jeans and a plain black t-shirt. At least it wasn’t gym shorts and a hoodie. That was last way I wanted to present myself as I walked into the den of my enemy to get the girl. Because there wasn’t a question I was going after Natalia, the only thing that swirled around in my brain was the question of what I’d do afterward.
There were probably bound to be a few awkward silences in my future. Obviously, she’d want to be saved, but by me? After what I’d said to her this morning, I was skeptical about whether she would want to see me again at all. Hero or no hero, I’d spoken from a place of logic, and she’d bared her soul to me, as always, and I’d trampled on it. If I were in her place, I’d probably spit in my face. Still I closed my eyes, tried to focus, and took another swig of protein shake.
“We’ve got your back all the way, kid. They won’t fuck with you.”
“Thanks, Tanner.”
“How’s the care package treating your stomach?”
“I’m still conscious, which is new and different,” I smiled, and Chuck patted me on the back hard enough that I nearly spilled off my half-broken settee in the sitting room. “And I didn’t break everything.”
Chuck laughed hard, and they both turned their backs as I lumbered up to stand with some effort and threw on some dry clothes.
“Since when do you care about modesty?” I grumbled, relieved to sit back down again despite the healthy cocktail they’d practically forced down my throat that helped my ability not to pass out that very second.
“Not so much an issue of modesty as fucking pride, brother. If you fell on your fucking ass, we would have laughed, but at least we wouldn’t be staring at your jiggly balls while you did it, right?”
A bark of laughter escaped my throat and seemed foreign. Out of place, given the circumstances. My lips tightened as if I could take it back before I cleared my throat straightening my t-shirt as if I was going to prom and not going to save a woman from her crime family. If there wasn’t any indication that my life had significantly changed since the incident, that thought flowing through my mind clenched it.
“You ready, boss?”
“Yeah, mind if I make a call while we’re in the car?”
“Call the damn Queen of England, I don’t give a fuck after that mighty fine standoff you had with the enemy. Just be ready when the car stops, got it?” Chuck threw me an extra gun and both men led the way out of my mansion keeping any eye out for any stragglers who may have had ideas about ambushing us after calling for peace so I could see Natalia—and presumably pay the price for getting the privilege.
One way or another they’d get their blood money. Whether it was enough to keep her and her family safe from being excommunicated was another story. When we got to the car without incident, most of the way was a blur. I pressed one on my speed dial pressing the phone tightly to my ear hoping my best friend would pick up her phone this late at night. If she was with Graham, there was a small chance she was up already even if tomorrow was a workday. I’d seen them together, and their contentment was nearly sickening—which is why I desperately needed Rosalee’s advice.
“Hello? What time is it?” A muffled mutter caught over the line and I could hardly hear her, but she’d picked up the phone.
“Hey Rosalee, I need your help. You’ve known me forever, and this is the kind of thing that calls for that sort of thing, so be honest with me, okay?”
“Liam? Aren’t you normally asleep by now?”
“It’s been a long couple of days…”
“Give me…a second…” she muttered. After a moment, there was static on the other line. “I’m moving to another room. Uh, this sounds oddly serious, and I don’t know that I’m conscious enough for this conversation.”
“We have a limited amount of time, if that helps you wake up,” I replied dryly idly glancing up at the ceiling of the Jeep that Tanner and Chuck had driven to the mansion.
The men were both in front pretending they weren’t listening to my conversation. The fact that they were quiet as church mice didn’t help their acting one little bit, they could have at least pretended to be having a low-voiced conversation.
“What’s going on? You sound…funny.”
How to even put into words what had happened over the past handful of days? Despite the whiplash from my feelings, I knew the stories were true. When you knew, you knew, and I was that way about Natalia. Absolutely. I just needed to figure out how to make things right between us, so I could make my relationship right and do right by my girl. As quick as I could I provided a summary of the past few days, a brief bit about my feelings, and my dilemma now.
“You did what, exactly?” Rosalee had woken up considerably during my story, and judging by her voice steam was leaking out of her ears. “That woman put her heart in your hands, shoved her life aside for you—twice, Liam, twice—risking everything and you fell back on the logic of the situation? Are you out of your damn mind?! What the fuck is the matter with you, boy?”
I winced, Rosalee rarely swore. This was serious. I also knew her last question was entirely rhetorical, so I didn’t read her the alphabetical list of my sins. Although given how badly I screwed up, the atonement was a nice thought.
“You can see it from my point of view, you’ve been there. All the odds were stacked against us, and she was saying she’d lose everything if she were with me. What was I supposed to do, tell her to throw it all away for me?”
“No, but you could have found a compromise. There’s always a compromise, especially with a potential deal on the horizon. You could use it to your advantage, don’t you think?”
I paused in my mental scrambling, wondering if it would be enough.
“There are so many factors…”
“Stop thinking like a business man and think like a man who wants his woman, Liam. You’re being a dumbass. Do what you’ve got to do to make it work, end of story. Nothing is more important than the way you feel when you’re with her, right?”
I nodded before I realized she couldn’t see me.
“It’s…enlightening…amazing…str
ange.”
“Welcome to love, idiot. You’re doing the right thing. Pay whatever amount they want and we can use it as leverage for them to make a deal. I don’t care if they need money to help them along. As long as they don’t touch Natalia, okay? That way, their hands are safely tied, and you get to ride off into the sunset with the girl.”
“You make things sound so simple.”
“If you’d get out of your head for once, you’d see that most things are damn easy. You’re the one who complicates everything.” She muttered a few other things that were incoherent, and then she addressed me again. “Make it clear how you feel about her, don’t leave her hanging this time and for the love of God, tell her you know how badly you screwed up. Grovel on your hands and knees if you have to because after what the girl went through she damn well deserves the royal treatment, got it?”
“Understood. Thanks, Rosalee.”
“Tomorrow morning. Coffee. You owe me.”
“The usual place.”
When I went to say something else I was talking into dead air, she’d already hung up.
“Feel better now?” Tanner teased from the driver’s seat with a snicker.
“Yes, actually. Now that I got my ass handed to me.”
“Won’t be the first time,” Chuck chimed him in looking at me from the passenger seat. “Whoever it is will have your balls in a vice for the rest of your life so be prepared to treat her like a queen twenty-four seven, three sixty-five or beware the consequences. When women get angry, and they have other female friends, it’s nasty. They will set their sights on you like they’re hunting, until you get on your knees and force you to do what’s right. So just do it right the first time, okay?”
“Brilliant advice,” I said dryly.
“I try.” Chuck laughed and turned back around to glancing out the window scanning the area for threats. “We’re almost there, boss. I hope you wore good jeans; your knees are going to hurt after you’re done on them.”
Two Cowboys Next Door Page 27