The American Soldier Collection 8: She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  “I didn’t like Paul from the start. You were too good for him. Too beautiful and innocent. He corrupted you, and I’m afraid that these men will do even worse.”

  “Unc, how could you say that? You met Seno and Hunter. You said you liked them.”

  “What was I to say? Hunter isn’t even whole. He’s not even a real man. Seno, shit, he didn’t even give me a hard time about taking you to lunch. How does he know that I don’t have feelings for you? What if I did? He’d let just any guy take you to lunch? You know why he didn’t care, don’t you, Ellie?” he asked her, sounding very different than the Unc she knew.

  “Why?” she whispered.

  “Because they already had sex with you. They can get it any time they want.”

  She gasped. “Stop the truck!” she yelled at him and reached for the door.

  “That’s not the plan, Ellie. I’ve worked too hard all these years. I waited all this time to have you, and now these four fuck heads that don’t deserve you show up and whisk you away? Not fucking happening.”

  “Oh God, are you out of your mind? What would Uncle Brian say? You were his best friend. Why would you say such hurtful things to me right now?”

  “Hurtful? You think this is hurtful?” he yelled at her as he pulled the truck off to the side of the road.

  He grabbed her hair and yanked her closer.

  “Hurtful is watching other men fuck you when you belong to me. You’re never going to see them again. They’re finished. The plan is in motion. I’m going to prove to you once and for all that I’m the man for you. I’m the one who has stood by your side all these years. I was there when Paul attacked you. I did everything in my power to protect you until you would finally realize that you and I belong together.”

  She shook her head and tried to get out of the truck. “You’re sick. You lost your mind.” She grabbed for the handle of the door just as the needle stuck her neck. She covered her neck where he stuck her.

  “Sorry, sweetie, but I can’t lose you. Everything I did, I did for you, for us.”

  She instantly started to feel the effects. Whatever he gave her, it was strong. She saw double of him, triple, and he smiled as he cupped her cheek.

  “I’m going to take good care of you, Ellie. Like always. We’re going to finally be together tonight.” He held her against his side and cupped her breast as he kissed her until darkness overtook her vision.

  * * * *

  “Oh God, are you seeing this?” Sam asked Vin as they looked over the information Gunner was sending them from the Feds.

  Vin looked at Sam. “Ellie.”

  “I know. Holy shit.”

  “What’s going on?” Justice asked as he walked into the room, closing up his cell phone.

  “Justice, Gunner just sent us this information. You know how the investigation was leading the Feds to believe that law enforcement or government employees may have been aiding in the prostitution ring?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, turns out that a report was filed, unofficially with the police department. It never made it past the lieutenant in charge because that lieutenant is one of the names on the list the Feds have as possible suspects. Now as they dug further, and the Feds were able to pull the prints from Sentinel’s office, they came back as matching a retired cop’s”

  “Who is it?”

  “A guy by the name Ray Wallace.”

  “Ray Wallace? I don’t know anyone by that name.”

  “He works at a local bar, Ray Ray’s.”

  “Ray Ray’s?” Justice asked.

  “Justice, the Feds are there now, it’s Unc. Ellie’s family friend,” Vin stated.

  “Oh shit,” Justice said and then pulled out his cell phone.

  “What is it?”

  “I just got off the phone with Seno. Unc called him to let him know he was taking Ellie to lunch. He has Ellie with him.”

  * * * *

  “I’m not understanding any of this,” Seno stated, and Justice drove the truck as they listened to what he had to tell them.

  “Okay, so this whole prostitution thing has been going on for over ten years. Gunner and the team of Feds have been pulling in people, questioning them, and getting confessions for lesser charges. It seems that Phillips and Sentinel were the masterminds behind this. But they needed help from law enforcement, border patrol, and others in order to get these shipments across borders and through checkpoints. They greased a lot of hands including some law enforcement. Ellie’s friend Unc worked under that Lieutenant and a few others who have now confessed to helping in this smuggling trade all along. As the Feds uncovered in the last twenty-four hours, Unc had been playing a major role in this process. He’s our main killer. It has to be him.”

  “How do you know, Justice?” Seno asked.

  “He used his old police revolver to kill Phillips. They were able to trace the bullet to the type of gun used. That gun was confiscated from Unc’s desk drawer by the Feds when they went to arrest him. I’m waiting for more details and evidence, but he definitely seems to fit the bill.”

  “Shit, and I let him have her. What does he want with Ellie?” Seno asked.

  “She’s the only family he has, maybe he knows he’s about to get busted and he’s trying to take off and wants her with him,” Hunter said.

  “Ellie wouldn’t go. When Ellie realizes that Unc is the killer we’ve been searching for, she’s going to lose it,” Justice told them.

  “Unless he means to do her harm, too,” Mace told them.

  “What do you mean? Why would he want to hurt her?” Seno asked. “She means so much to him.”

  “I never met the guy, but you two did. You said he threatened you.”

  “That was typical parental talk. He was there after Paul assaulted her. He was there long before that when her uncle was alive,” Hunter added.

  “Her uncle? You mean the Uncle Brian she told us a little about?” Justice asked as they pulled into the parking lot. They were meeting everyone there. The Feds and all local police departments put out a description of Ellie and Unc as well as Unc’s vehicle. Gunner had someone looking at property ownership or any other homes, condos or even cabins around the state that Unc might have owned or stayed at. The Feds already notified the airports, train stations, and bus lines, and the media was posting Ellie’s picture during all broadcasts.

  “What are you thinking, Justice? You don’t believe that her uncle Brian had anything to do with this, too, do ya?” Hunter asked.

  They all got out of the truck and made their way across the media line, dodging questions, and then ducked under the yellow danger tape.

  “Justice, the Feds have a team at Ray Wallace’s place. You’re not going to believe what we they found on his computer in his basement. He had a hidden room in the back cellar. The K-9 sniffed it out and the Feds broke in and gathered everything. It’s all right there. The entire operation, details, schedules of deliveries, and—”

  Sam looked at Vin and then at Justice and his brothers. One of the Federal agents was standing there as well.

  “What else? What is it?” Justice asked.

  “There were pictures of Ellie, Justice.”

  “Okay, so he was her family, why wouldn’t he have pictures?” Hunter asked.

  “Not those kind of pictures. Some were of her in her bikini by some pool, others were her walking into work, hanging out with friends, and then there were ones he superimposed into other bodies.”

  “What does that mean?” Mace asked.

  “Oh shit, and I let him have her. I handed her right over to a man obsessed with her in that way. Oh God, he’s going to hurt her. He’s going to kill her. Fuck!” Seno yelled out.

  Mace and Hunter placed hands on his shoulder.

  “How about a location of a hideaway? Anything come up?” Justice asked Vin and Sam.

  “They’re going over everything in the room. He’s obsessed with her, so maybe he won’t actually hurt her. As long as she cooperates with
him, it will buy us the time to locate her,” Vin added.

  “If he’s obsessed with her, has been stalking her, and he knows about the four of us, he may just punish her for that and then kill her,” Seno stated.

  “We can’t think that way. They have a lot of documentation to go over. More help is headed to Wallace’s place. They’ll find something.”

  “Oh, how about looking into Ellie’s Uncle Brian? He died in a robbery or something over a year ago. He was a cop, too,” Justice told Sam.

  “Brian? Brian what?” Sam asked,

  “Brian Morrison, just like Ellie. He was her father’s brother.”

  Sam pulled out his cell phone.

  “Yeah, listen, on that list of the murders you were making a connection to, was there a Brian Morrison?”

  “Okay, if you don’t mind looking into that it would be great. Thanks.”

  Sam disconnected the call.

  “I have someone checking into that. Do you think her uncle could have been part of this and just had bad luck to get killed in the robbery?” Sam asked.

  “Not sure. It may have nothing to do with this case. The only reason Ellie is in the middle of it is because her uncle’s best friend, our killer, is obsessed with her. We have to find her quickly,” Justice added.

  “We will. Someone was bound to see them before sundown,” Vin added.

  * * * *

  Unc walked around the bed and watched her sleeping. He had undressed her, and placed her in a very special negligee he had picked out for her in yellow. It had pretty little daisies along the bodice and one more on the sheer pale yellow panties. She looked so beautiful. Her body was perfect, her breasts full and round. He had waited so long for this moment that he hardly could concentrate on anything else.

  He had made a mistake in the amount of drugs he had injected her with. So she slept all night, which made it easy to dress her and to get the room ready. The cabin was small, and he had to hide her presents in the other tiny bedroom, but he would bring them to her, and show her how much he cared.

  He ran a hand along the white comforter and then walked over toward the window. No one would find them out here. It was miles into the woods out in the middle of nowhere. There were no small towns to drive through, so no one had seen him arrive late last night. It wasn’t registered under him, but under Brian with Ellie as the sole owner. She didn’t even know. Out here they could expand this house, and do anything to it that she wanted to do. Anything that would make her happy.

  “Sleep, my little lover. When you wake, we have some celebrating to do.”

  * * * *

  “We got something!” Sam yelled out and everyone looked up from their laptops and waited.

  “Gunner is on the line. They located a cabin four hours from here that was listed under Brian’s name with Ellie as a co-owner. It has to be the location he took her.”

  “Do they have a plan? It’s fucking three o’clock in the morning, how are we going to find it and get to her in time?” Justice asked.

  Sam held up his finger. “Okay. Yes, they’ll be ready. Thanks.”

  He disconnected the call.

  “The Feds have satellite images of the place. They’re working on getting details of how many people may be inside and where they can land a couple of choppers at a far enough distance to not tip Wallace off that we’re coming,” Sam told them.

  Justice looked at his brothers. They were all exhausted, scared, and thinking the worse.

  “Can we go, too?” Seno asked.

  “Gunner said the terrain is difficult, so he’s getting gear ready. Let’s go wait for our ride,” Sam said, and they all headed out of the building.

  * * * *

  “She loves me, she loves me not. She loves me, she loves me not.”

  Ellie heard the muffled voice, and felt something tickling her skin. She was sore and felt dizzy. As she tried to open her eyes, the sunlight coming from the window was blinding her. She moved her arms but they wouldn’t budge. She was tied to a bed. Then Unc was there, smiling. He was holding daisies in his hand and pulling the petals one at a time. He would drop the petals on her skin. They landed on her belly. She felt the chills and saw what she was wearing. A very skimpy, see-through yellow teddy. She gasped and tried again to get up from the bed.

  “She loves me, she loves me not,” Unc said as the last petal from the flower landed on her.

  She looked at his eyes. The man was long gone. He wasn’t sane. She knew that now, a bit too late, but she knew it.

  “Unc?”

  “Shhhhh. I need more flowers. They’re wrong,” he stated firmly and stood up.

  She moved her legs side to side and tried to lift herself higher up the bed to gain leverage. She didn’t want to be lying down with him next to her on a bed. But then, he must have seen her naked. He undressed her and put her in this thing.

  “Did you touch me? You didn’t, did you?” she asked him, feeling the tears well up in her eyes. He just went about his business as if she weren’t even there. Then he came back, sat right next to her, and clutched her thigh. She gasped and tried to pull away, but he dug his fingers into her flesh.

  “You need to behave. There’s a lot to explain. But first, I have to find the right flower. The one that tells the truth.”

  He picked up another flower. She saw a whole bunch lying at the bottom of the bed.

  “She loves me, she loves me not. She loves me, she loves me not.” He just kept pulling the petals, and he must have been at it for a while, because looking down, she saw that the comforter around her frame was covered.

  “Unc, why are you doing this? Why?”

  He was getting to the final petals. She could see that there were four left. He was going to get the same result again.

  “She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not.” He slammed the stem onto the ground, stood up and stomped on it.

  “No! It’s wrong. They’re all wrong.”

  She heard a noise coming from the other room. She looked that way, and he gave her an angry expression and then a smile.

  “You think I wouldn’t do anything for you, Ellie? I’ll show you, and then you’ll love me, petals or not.”

  He started rambling on to her about a prostitution ring, illegal art, and being part of a business venture that made him millions.

  “Do you mean you worked for Renaldo?” she asked and he became angry.

  “Renaldo is a pussy. He had the world by the balls but he made a huge mistake. His worst mistake ever.”

  “What was that?”

  “He wanted you, and you belong to me.”

  He opened the bedroom door and dragged what sounded like a chair closer.

  She was shocked to see Renaldo. He looked like hell, was bleeding from his shoulder, and could hardly breathe.

  “Tell me again that she is mine, not yours. Tell her so she knows what I would do if any other man tries to fuck her.”

  “Yours. Yours,” Renaldo said and then coughed.

  She felt the tears roll down her cheeks. Unc was a madman, and she was now tied to a bed and at his command.

  “He needs a hospital,” she told Unc.

  “He’s going to die. Just like Paul.”

  “Paul?” she asked. Unc smiled. He walked back toward the bed and she tried unsuccessfully to get away from him. He grabbed her throat and then held her face as he knelt up onto the bed. His bloodshot eyes trailed over her body.

  “He took away your innocence, an innocence that belonged to me, and no one else.”

  He moved his hand down her throat and cupped her breast.

  “Don’t, Unc. Please don’t do this. Don’t hurt me.”

  His eyes widened. “But I need to hurt you. I need to get them out of your system and make you see only me and what I have done to prove my love. They cannot compare. I have money, I have power, I’ve killed for you. I even got rid of that pain in the ass uncle of yours.”

  “What?” she asked, tears flowing an
d then anger filled her gut.

  “You killed him? You killed Uncle Brian?”

  He jumped up onto the bed and straddled her waist. He gripped her throat, applying just enough pressure to make her cough and shiver in fear that he could strangle her and kill her.

  “He had to die. He stood in the way of my plans.”

  He released one hand from her throat but kept her in place with the other hand. He slowly moved one palm down between her breasts. He cupped one, and gently ran his thumb over her nipple.

  “Oh God, Unc, please don’t do this to me,” she cried out.

  “Brian found out that I was helping Sentinel, so I had to stage that robbery and get him killed. Too many people and families would have suffered. I was just getting ready to retire from all that. I saved a lot of money for us. We could go anywhere you’d like, Ellie. All you have to do is tell me that you love me the way I love you.”

  “I can’t do that. If you loved me, then you wouldn’t have killed Uncle Brian.”

  He jumped up off of her. “That’s not true. I told you that he stood in the way of us. Renaldo stood in the way, too. I just wanted him to see us together and realize that you belong to me.”

  “I don’t belong to you.”

  “Yes, you do. I killed for you. Paul can never hurt you again because of me.” He stomped toward the bedroom, disappeared behind the door, and then came back dragging Paul across the floor. There was blood everywhere.

  “No! Oh God, no!” she screamed.

  Unc dropped the body and headed straight for her. He jumped up onto the bed straddling her body and placing his face right against hers.

  “You are mine. I killed for you and you will love me like I love you in return. If you don’t, and if the petals are right, then we both die, right here, today.”

  She couldn’t believe that this was happening to her. She was so scared. She was shaking and didn’t know what to do to get out of this. She had to stall him. She had to get him to think she was okay with this.

  She sniffled as he leaned forward and licked her neck. His hands were groping her.

  “Unc?” she whispered, voice quivering as he ran his hands up and down her arms that were tied to the top of the headboard.