“We’ll save her,” Alex said, offering his hand. “Then we’ll crush him.”
“Deal,” Hazard agreed, shaking his agent’s hand.
Phalen came over, respectfully avoiding the computer screen. “Any hint as to where she is?”
“Not yet,” Hazard said.
“Ryan, were you friendly with your neighbor…Vivian?” Morgan headed straight for the apartment.
“Vivian Albright lives across the hall and down one apartment,” Ryan answered. “When Alex and I lived here, we kept an eye on her.”
“She knocked on the door,” Morgan said. “She asked about you.”
Hazard kept his attention on the computer screen. If he could, he’d switch places with Avery.
“I’m not great with computers, but I know enough to think whoever’s filming Avery can make the video go viral. What he plans to do with her on cam scares me.”
“When Avery was growing up she had the reputation of a levelheaded good girl. Kentucky press liked when she consented to interviews because she came across as someone of strong moral character.”
“She’s still that way, Alex,” Hazard assured.
“No matter what happens, make sure you remember that.”
“Avery restored my faith in commitment. She is the kind of woman I want to spend my life with.”
“Are you talking marriage already? The two of you spent a week together,” Alex reminded. “A little soon for that, don’t you think?”
“We’re still new together. But eventually, yes, I’d marry Avery if it’s what she wanted. That’s a decision I’ll make with her, when the time’s right.”
“Alex, I’m going with Morgan and Ethan to check on Mrs. Albright,” Ryan interrupted.
“Be right there,” Alex said. “Keep an eye on her.”
“I am,” Hazard vowed.
He couldn’t look away. As much as it killed him to be staring at Avery tied with ropes to a bed draped in gaudy faux fur and topped with a heavy canopy, he tried to gauge where she was being held or spy a glimpse of who was filming her.
The cameraman walked in a half-circle around the bed, zooming in close to get a full view of Avery’s cleavage and mistakenly revealing himself in the mirror hanging on the wall above the head of the bed.
“Phalen?” Hazard shouted.
“Right here,” Phalen answered.
“Redman’s not the only one who has Avery. I just spied his boyfriend, Billy Grainger. He’s the cameraman.”
“We should have dug deeper into the baseball player’s past.”
Ryan returned to the apartment, followed close by his friends and Alex. “Mrs. Albright wasn’t next door. I still had an emergency door key on my key ring and used it.”
“What did you find in the apartment?” Hazard asked.
“Cookie pans drying beside the kitchen sink,” Alex answered. “The whole place smells like Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies.”
Morgan came right up to Hazard, refusing to look anywhere but at him.
“Avery’s somewhere in this apartment complex, Hazard. Someone’s moved in recently, a baseball player in trouble with the law. I fear that the older woman next door is hurt. Hurry, where the cookies are, that’s where you’ll find them.”
Incredibly, she sounded calm and reasonable, however the second she said her piece she went white as a ghost. Ethan moved faster than a wide receiver and caught her before she fainted, carefully lowering her to the floor.
“If my wife says the women are in this complex, they’re here,” Ethan stated, remaining close to Morgan. “Phalen, call the manager and find out who rented a unit here recently.”
Ethan kept tending to his wife while his older brother used his smartphone. “The rental manager has a voicemail message saying his office is closed until Monday. I’ll try the superintendent in charge of apartment maintenance,” Phalen said after completing his call.
“Doc and I can go knock on some doors,” Alex suggested.
“Hazard, I know you don’t want me to see what’s on that computer screen,” Phalen said. “Morgan mentioned a spy. I might be able to get into the hacker’s system and shut it down.”
“Are you that good with computers?” Hazard asked.
“Good enough to find Avery. Trust me.”
“I’m going with Alex and Ryan,” he said, handing the MacBook to his friend.
“You like being called Hazard. I like Doc,” Ryan told him, waiting at the door for Hazard.
“You three get started on the door to door,” Ethan advised. “If Phalen and I find something, we’ll get to you ASAP.”
* * * * *
The sleek metallic gun held to Mrs. Albright’s temple kept Avery from putting up the fight of her life. Her older neighbor was still bleeding from where Billy Grainger clobbered her with the gun butt to the back of the head over two hours ago.
Mrs. Albright’s confusion was as frightening as the two men holding them against their will. Bound and gagged, Avery could barely move, much less scream, which she would if given the chance.
Helplessly reliving the last couple of hours, she wished to God she had left for the airport earlier or hadn’t taken the extra minute to research tequila drinks on her Mac. Instead of leaving when she intended, she’d met Vivian in the hallway and offered to walk with her to building four.
It all happened so fast. One minute, Avery knocked on the basement apartment’s door to welcome their new neighbor. The next, the door opened, Vivian stepped inside and a platter of chocolate chip cookies went splattering to the floor, the glass shattering.
Rushing to help her older friend when she’d collapsed, Avery hadn’t realized someone was waiting for her. Impossibly strong arms had caught her from behind.
“Step into my parlor said the spider to the fly,” John Redman invited evilly. “Move, fight or call out for help, the old lady’s going to need a casket.”
“Let my neighbor go,” she’d said, trying in vain to be free.
“She’s sort of our neighbor now. Have you any idea how gratifying it was for us to watch you limp in and out of your apartment, totally unaware that we’d moved in. Distraction, you see, was your downfall. It was easy to track you, especially at night when you were cyber-sexing with your linebacker.”
“You had no right.”
“Maybe not, but your boyfriend has the perfect body for one of my adult films. If he blows out a knee or gets concussed too often, he’s welcome to work for me.”
“You’re insane if you think Hazard would have anything to do with you. What do you want from me?”
“To kneel at my feet and apologize for being Alexander Grant’s sister.”
“My brother is a hero. You mess with him, I’ll make you pay.”
“A hero, you say?”
“That’s right.”
“Are you aware that your heroic brother fucked me over, literally, figuratively and turned me homo? Have you any idea what I endured in jail because of him?”
“Alexander’s not the reason you’re gay. Only you are responsible for the decisions that sent you to jail.”
John had made a weird clicking sound that made her skin crawl. “Now you see I’d not have had to debase myself for money if Alexander had bothered to come down off his throne to lend a struggling friend a hand.”
“You weren’t his friend. Alexander was right to kick you to the curb.”
John pulled on her arms so harshly that she’d cried out. “I kicked your brother’s ugly ass out of my bed. He wasn’t worth my time.”
“If that’s so, why blame him for everything that’s wrong with your life? Let me go, Mr. Redman. Let me help my neighbor. She’s bleeding.”
John had granted one concession. “Billy, help the lady.”
Avery wasn’t given the chance to wrestle for freedom. John Redman was deceptively strong, easily overpowering her and forcing her deep into the heart of an apartment painted in stark, pristine white.
Everything was white. Furniture
, rugs, appliances, everything but the bedroom that was set up with video cameras, lights and a frighteningly out-of-date fur-covered waterbed had been white.
“Ms. Grant, I want you to know up front that this really has little do to with you,” John mentioned as if she really didn’t matter in the scheme of things. “But now that you’re in our lair, it’s time you become our bait.”
“Bait?”
“What do you think your brother’s going to do when video feed of the two of us fucking you goes live online? You know how much perverts will pay to see us sandwich you…a bound victim?”
“I’m not going to let either of you touch me.”
“Let me tell you why you won’t fight.”
“Strike me, kick me, whatever, I’ll fight back.”
“What about Mrs. Albright? Fail to cooperate with anything we say or do, she’s dead.”
He’d been so serious that she knew Mrs. Albright’s life was in danger. “Don’t touch her!”
John didn’t listen. He’d dragged her to the bed, gagged her and tied her to the bedframe even as Billy Grainger brought Vivian into the room.
Once Avery was bound, John took the gun, instructing his partner to take Avery’s keys and get rid of her car. Billy left for about fifteen minutes. He couldn’t have dumped her car far from the apartment complex if he returned that fast.
Concerned more for Mrs. Albright, she tried to keep an eye on her elderly neighbor. It was all she could do. The helplessness made her furious. Her solace came from the knowledge that Hazard was expecting her at the airport. When she didn’t show, he’d know something was wrong and get help.
John Redman continued holding the gun on Vivian, who was tied to a chair, while Billy Grainger repeatedly filmed Avery. Billy didn’t really touch her. He didn’t seem interested.
Anytime he glanced over at his boyfriend, it was evident that the dominant of the two was John. The awkwardness John had portrayed in Dare was gone. This John was a smooth operator, one who could lie as easily as he could sway the loyalty of a steroid-addicted athlete.
“Billy, remove Ms. Grant’s gag,” John instructed.
Billy lowered his expensive video camera, placing it on the bed. Across the room was a panel of computers and monitors. Her image on the monitors disappeared as he untied the gag.
“You don’t have to do everything he says,” Avery said to Billy, holding his eyes. “He’s using you. Don’t be fooled by a devil in angel’s clothing.”
That’s what had been scary about John Redman all along. On the surface, he looked like a decent guy. He dressed nicely. He had a pleasant face and came across as the kind of man someone could show off to their mother.
“Don’t talk to her,” John warned. “Think for yourself.”
“Do the right thing,” Avery said to Billy. “Untie me, help Mrs. Albright.”
“What’s right in your eyes is different than ours,” John stated. “One thing I’ve learned in rehab. Confront that which we blame for our struggles, circumstances, people, family, history.”
“Look in the mirror,” Avery advised. “See who is to blame and start attending a real twelve step program.”
“Spoken like the dutiful daughter to Senator Charles Grant. You must have been so proud of your brother for swooping in to save Daddy Dearest’s life. What a story for the presses. What an excellent way to make a saint out of scum.”
“You know nothing about my brother.”
“I meant your father. He was a politician. He lied to the American public on a daily basis, putting forth a stance on God and family values, while all along he kept mistresses in diamonds, apartments and luxury cars.”
“How do you know anything about my dad?”
“When you’re in a minimum-security facility for years and forced to report to a probation officer regularly simply because you owned an adult film company and certain people objected to extortion, you wait, you plan and you find your enemy’s weaknesses. At first, I thought of exposing your father.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because you are Alex’s weakness,” John said. “If I hurt you, it’ll destroy him.”
“Because he cares for his family, that’s a weakness?”
“Yes. Be at ease, Ms. Grant, at least I decided not to stalk your sister. She’s a little too young, even for my eclectic taste.”
He may have said Charlotte was safe, but the innuendo was there. If he changed his mind, her little sister would be his next target.
“Don’t mention my sister’s name.”
“Very well,” he agreed. “Billy, come on over here and watch over our insurance policy.”
Avery turned her eyes to Mrs. Albright. Her neighbor remained disoriented and agitated over her bindings. Head wounds were nasty. She needed to see a doctor.
“Billy, Mrs. Albright needs a doctor. Let her go.”
“The blue hair is fine, Billy. Do your job, watch her.” Redman ordered. “The faster Ms. Grant and I start, the sooner you’ll be rewarded by topping me when we’re done with her.”
Billy obeyed his master like a puppet on a string. He stopped partway across the room when a knock came at the front door. It was loud enough and hard enough to be heard from the bedroom.
“The two of you are about to go down,” Avery warned. “That’s my cavalry.”
“Impossible. Alex can’t know I have you yet.”
The knock came louder. “Take care of it.” John waved Billy off with the gun, which he trained on Avery. “You stay quiet.”
Billy was a brawny, barrel-chested guy with steroid-induced muscles. Avery could only guess, but she’d say the ballplayer was addicted to more than steroids to get an edge on other athletes. His face showed warning signs of meth use, which would get uglier if he kept using.
He left, returning after a minute. “It was the apartment super checking in to see that the move-in went okay.”
“Wasn’t that nice of him? I love the fact that Grant has had his cronies working overtime tracking my activities in Louisville and here I’ve been all along.”
“Guess her cavalry got caught in traffic,” Billy remarked.
John laughed distractedly, mistakenly aiming the gun at the floor. Avery screamed, taking the chance that the superintendent would hear her.
Billy swung around, rushing forward like a hippo trying to imitate a gazelle. John’s gun popped twice and the big man slumped to the floor.
“Shit, shot me in the ass,” Billy groveled, crying in pain.
John saw what he’d done and flung the weapon aside, rushing to Billy’s side. “I didn’t mean it, Billy. I’m sorry.”
Preoccupied with Billy, John failed to hear the sound of wood splintering.
Avery held her breath. Seconds later, Ryan Hathaway charged into the room, going straight for John Redman.
Nothing would have stopped the beat-down Ryan gave to Redman. Nothing! In the matter of seconds, John Redman looked like the poster child for Jim Croce’s Bad, Bad Leroy Brown after the jealous husband took him to task.
“You rotten sonofabitch, for touching my sister, I’ll send you to the ICU. For threatening to hurt my husband, I might pull the plug instead of wasting taxpayer money on keeping you in prison,” Ryan warned, drawing back his fist yet again.
“Billy, help me,” John muttered through fattened lips.
“You might think you got away with hacking Avery’s computer. Phalen Maddox tracked everything you’ve been doing. We now know what you intended to do to her and what you planned for Alex.” Ryan struck with a strength that would rival Hercules. A bone snapped. It was a good chance Redman’s jaw broke.
A heartbeat later, Ethan Maddox charged through the door, heading straight for the gun John had abandoned. “Don’t move, asshole,” he commanded, training the gun on Billy.
Billy grunted and wailed in discomfort, trying to find a way to alleviate his pain. Phalen joined the fray, going right up to the ballplayer, planting his combat-booted foot on the other m
an’s bloody ass and keeping him still.
“Ethan told you not to move. I’d obey. He’s a hairsbreadth away from adding to the bullet count in your ass. I’m a hairsbreadth away from letting him.”
Avery didn’t see much after that. All of a sudden, Hazard was in the doorway, his handsome face etched in relief when he saw her. Without hesitation, he came to her side, freeing her.
“Are you hurt, Avery? An ambulance is on its way, cops too.”
“I don’t need an ambulance. All I need is you.”
Hazard’s arms came around her, holding her close, protecting her from everything. More bashing and fist-smashing resounded through the room.
Ryan Hathaway wasn’t messing around. If someone didn’t stop him, he was going to end Redman.
“Doc, stop,” Alexander called out in a voice that calmed the chaos without having to shout. “Avery’s safe. We need to help Mrs. Albright.”
Hazard moved in such a way that Avery was able to look over his broad shoulder. Ryan stood motionless. John was eerily still. A painful groan indicated he breathed.
“Alex, if you want him dead, I’ll dig the grave when I’m done,” Ryan promised.
In that moment, Ryan wasn’t a surgeon known for his ability to piece together broken warriors or athletes or ability to heal teenaged girls stricken with bone cancer.
He was a husband defending the one he loved.
“We don’t need to bury anyone. Avery’s got Hazard taking care of her. I need you.”
“Ethan?” Doc called out. “Do you have Grainger under control?”
“Got him,” Ethan answered.
“Crying like a baby,” Phalen added. “Whichever one of you fuckers was the hacker, you suck at it. Never leave a trail for a better hacker to follow.”
Ryan backed away from the bloodied man on the floor, strode to Alexander’s side and swallowed him up in his arms. The two stayed locked together, whispering something between them, holding on to what mattered.
Once Alexander moved back, Ryan headed over to care for Mrs. Albright. Off in the distance, sirens went off, getting louder with every second that passed.
“This is not the way I imagined this night would go,” Avery said in Hazard’s ear.
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