by Janie Crouch
“Hamilton and his men are going to be here soon. He wants to see her conscious, coherent. And I want to get out of here as soon as possible.” Nicholas looked around. “The whole cabin-in-the-woods thing is not our style.”
“What are you doing?” Lexi said. The words felt thick and garbled in her mouth. She forced herself to sit all the way up.
“See?” Cheryl said. “She’s awake. I told you she would be fine.”
“Where are we?”
“Where are we?” Nicholas mocked her tone, then walked over and pinched her chin while he looked into her eyes. “We’re in this shitty state you made us track you to, you little bitch.”
She pulled her chin back from his fingers and looked around. She didn’t recognize anything in the small room. Glancing at the window let her know it was night outside.
“You’ve been hard to find, Alexandra,” Cheryl chimed in.
Lexi breathed through the dizziness. Forced herself to look at her aunt. “I thought I had a stalker, so I was hiding.”
Nicholas chuckled. “Craig Isaacson got a little overzealous.”
“My stunt director Craig Isaacson?” Lexi blinked at them, trying to make sense of everything. “What does he have to do with this?”
“That’s who we hired when you first got out of jail. He was supposed to follow you around, scare you, and then send you running back to us when we stepped in to help out.”
“He punched me. Threw me into a wall.”
Nicholas shrugged. “I guess he was a little angry over losing his livelihood. When they brought someone in to replace you on the show, she had her own stunt coordinator, so Isaacson lost his job. You screwed over a lot of people when you decided to cry wolf, Alexandra.”
Lexi gritted her teeth. They’d killed Mac, kidnapped her, tied her up, forced her to publicly say horrible things about people and places she cared about, but it was hearing them call her Alexandra that had her wanting to break through the rest of this ice and rip their eyes out.
It made no sense, but it was something to latch on to. To fight the pull of the numbness.
Because fuck them. She might be alone and in emotional agony for the rest of her life, but she was not going to give her aunt and uncle anything.
“I don’t know what you want from me, but you can forget it. Even if I could get a job in the entertainment industry, I have no interest in going back there. And as soon as I get out of here, I’m going to tell them what you’ve done. That you killed Mac.”
Nicholas and Cheryl looked at each other, then laughed. Nicholas sat down at the table. “The great thing about you, Alexandra, is that you’ve destroyed your own credibility without us having to use any of the stopgaps we put in place over the years in case you tried to get rid of us.”
“What?”
“We’ve got years’ worth of doctors’ notes, psychologists’ reports, toxicology screens, release letters from drug treatment facilities, all proving you’re a danger to yourself,” he continued.
“I never went to any drug treatment facilities.”
Cheryl sat down at the table with him. “None of the documents are real, that’s why we never attempted to use them—because if you argued their authenticity, we’d have a difficult time getting anyone to believe us. But now, we don’t have that problem. You’ve made sure no one will ever believe you again.”
“You can’t make me work. You can’t make me get in front of cameras. I won’t do it.”
She fought the dizzying fog harder as they smiled. Smiling wasn’t good.
“Of course not.” Cheryl shifted closer to Nicholas. “It’s too soon anyway. Everyone still hates you. So you’ll go away for a couple of years, then you’ll come back repentant and contrite. Everyone will be much more likely to forgive you then.”
“Are you going to keep me in this cabin for a year? You think I’m going to cooperate?”
“Oh no.” Cheryl made a tsking noise. “We found Dr. Hamilton, someone who specializes in . . . keeping people. Training them, so to speak. He was very interested in you. Paid a premium that will allow us to live the way we’re accustomed to until you return to your career. A lifestyle you ripped away from us with your lies and arrest two years ago.”
Lexi sat up straighter, ignoring the dizziness. “You sold me?”
Cheryl made a sour face, as if she found the word distasteful. “More like rented. He gave us his assurance that you wouldn’t be scarred.”
“Physically, at least,” Nicholas muttered.
“I need water.” She needed to dilute whatever was in her system. She’d thought they’d brought her here to talk her into going back into the business. Not to sell her to someone.
She had to get out of here. Had to find a way out herself because no one was coming to help her. Even if Gavin or any of the Linear Tactical guys had been willing to help her, what she’d said to the press today would put an end to that.
She was on her own.
Cheryl walked over and dropped a bottle of water in her lap. “I did hear Dr. Hamilton likes keeping his subjects caged. But honestly, I don’t think he’s in it for the kink. He’s a scientist—working on chemical compounds that will allow some sort of mind control.”
Lexi nearly spewed the water. “What?”
“Yes. He and his organization need test subjects—people who’ve shown an aptitude for chemical dependence and who wouldn’t be missed.”
Nicholas smiled. “And thanks to your announcement earlier today, that’s you, my dear.”
Cheryl smiled. “We get two million dollars, and they get their guinea pig. They even cleaned up our clumsy attempts to get you back in the public eye with a ‘real’ stalker. All police reports gone. The man you bought your ID from . . . also gone.”
Her aunt and uncle—the only family she had left—didn’t care about anyone but themselves. They had killed to buy themselves financial freedom, and were selling her to further ensure it.
She had to get out of here. Now, while it was just her and them. Her head was still dizzy, her body sluggish—not to mention the shape of her feet. But this might be her only chance.
Because she definitely wasn’t going to allow herself to be used for human experimentation—in a fucking cage. She’d rather die.
She stood up. Her feet still hurt, but the drugs were making that pain bearable. She’d have to find a way to run on them. “I have to go to the bathroom. Whatever you gave me is making me sick.”
Cheryl pointed at a door in the back corner of the cabin. Lexi stumbled toward it, partly because of the pills and her feet, but mostly to keep up the appearance of being much more under the influence than she really was. She needed them to underestimate her.
As soon as she saw the window in the bathroom, she knew it was her ticket to escape. Evidently Nicholas and Cheryl were so confident that the drugs would keep Lexi passive that they didn’t think to require her to keep the door open.
And why should they? For a decade, she’d been passive. Stupid. Had done whatever they wanted her to.
She made a retching noise to cover the sound of her opening the window, then moaned and poured a little water into the toilet to make it sound even more gross. She needed to buy as much time as she could.
Climbing up onto the sink was treacherous. She could barely keep her balance as she hoisted herself up and through the small opening. She landed with a thump on the cold ground.
Nothing outside provided any clear indication of where she should go. It was dark. It was cold. All she could see were trees and wilderness.
She had a jacket on, but not the new, heavy coat she’d bought. She was dressed for San Amado, not for running through Wyoming in the middle of February. She wanted the hat and scarf and gloves Gavin had given her.
She pushed all thoughts of him away. She couldn’t think of him right now, not if she had any chance of surviving this. She would have to deal with her shattered heart later.
The sound of approaching vehicles caused her to sta
rt running—away from them. They were in the middle of nowhere. Anyone approaching wouldn’t be here to help her.
And it wouldn’t take her aunt and uncle long to figure out she wasn’t still in that bathroom.
She wanted to sprint, but her feet only allowed her to hobble. And she had to stop every few seconds against a tree to combat the dizziness from the drugs.
She wasn’t going to make it. She knew a few moments later when she heard people—at least three men with deep, scary voices—outside yelling. They’d already discovered she was gone, and she hadn’t made it far enough.
She kept going, swallowing a sob when she heard someone yell that they’d spotted her footprints.
Damn it, she hadn’t thought about covering her tracks at all. And now it was too late. There was no way she was going to be able to outrun them. Not in her condition.
She kept going anyway.
Water rushed somewhere nearby, and she headed for it. She could follow the river and lose them since they wouldn’t be able to track her footsteps along it. Maybe this was her chance to get away. Her chance to set the record straight about what she’d said. Her chance to let the cops know what had really happened to Mac.
But as she broke out from the line of trees and rushed forward, she realized she wasn’t at the same level as the rushing water she’d heard. The river was in a ravine at least thirty feet down. She stopped at its edge, her sobbing breaths filling her ears. There was no way for her to get down to it without jumping.
And there was no way she’d survive the jump.
The men were still behind her. She glanced over her shoulder as Cheryl and Nicholas shouted her name farther back.
They were going to catch her.
They were going to cage her.
The worst part was, in the end, no one would miss her. No one would look for her. Everyone would assume she was off doing her normal selfish stuff. She’d be some human experiment, and when she did come back, she wouldn’t be herself.
Lexi stared down into the dark, rushing water, barely discernible in the moonlight.
She stopped fighting the drugs swirling through her system like the waters below. Let the numbness pull her.
It would be over quickly if she jumped. Painful for a second, then nothing.
She’d gotten Nadine scarred. Gotten Mac killed. Lied to everyone who’d cared about her.
She could end it all right here and never do anyone else any damage.
“If you move, we shoot you.”
The voice was maybe twenty or thirty feet behind her, right where the trees ended. She didn’t look. Whether they shot her or she jumped, the result was going to be the same. She took another step toward the ledge.
She wished she could’ve gotten one more message to Gavin. Not trying to excuse anything, just to say she was sorry. Sorry for the lies. Sorry that she’d disrupted his life.
And then her brain broke. Her mind snapped. The drugs took over. She knew they had because Gavin stepped out from around a tree on the other side of the ravine and walked toward her.
“I’m going to need you to take a step back from that ledge, Green Eyes. I can’t take a chance on anything happening to you.”
She shook her head. “You’re not here.”
He reached a hand out toward her. “I am here. I should’ve been here sooner. You should’ve never been on that plane without me. I should’ve listened instead of running my mouth.”
“Boss.” That came from one of the men behind her. “We’ve got an unknown subject across the ravine. What do you want us to do?”
She couldn’t hear the answer—the guy was talking into some sort of communication unit—but she knew they weren’t going to let Gavin walk away from here. These people had already killed and would kill again.
Would kill Gavin.
“Get down!” she screamed at him, wishing the ravine weren’t so wide so she could throw herself across it. Protect him. Save him.
“No!” She closed her eyes and threw her hands over her ears as a gun fired. She was terrified at what she would see when she opened her eyes but forced herself to do it anyway.
Gavin was still standing there. Still watching her. Still had an arm stretched out to her. “Step back from that ledge, Green Eyes, and I promise I’ll come around and get you.”
She forced herself to breathe. “But . . . How . . .”
He smiled. That smile he only ever used with her. “I’m not here by myself. There are a lot of people who want to make sure you make it back safely.”
Gavin pointed to either side behind her, and she looked.
Finn was dragging out one unconscious guy. Gabe was restraining a second guy on the other side of her.
She looked back at Gavin. “The rest of the team have your aunt and uncle subdued. Kendrick got us all the info we needed to know you were here.”
“But how . . . All that stuff I said to the press . . .”
“Anybody who knew you knew immediately that wasn’t how you really felt. Including me. Especially me. Take a step back from that ledge, Lexi Johnson. I can’t take a chance on losing the most important person in my life. I love you.”
She took a step back, then another one.
“It took me way too long to get here, but stay right there. I’m coming over to your side.”
Less than a minute later, she was in his arms, his fingers trailing down her cheeks as he kissed her. “And I’m not leaving you again.”
37
The next month was the best of Gavin’s life.
For nearly a week after they’d rescued her at the cabin, he wouldn’t let Lexi out of his bed.
He tended to the wounds on her feet. He helped her as her body rebelled and then craved the drugs that had been reintroduced to her—a mini withdrawal, complete with muscle pain, nausea, and clammy skin.
Once she made it through that, he made love to her as many times and ways as she felt up for.
He held her as she cried when she saw Mac was alive—and grumpy as ever. Held her as she cried some more as she realized she had no stalker. No more reason to be afraid. Her aunt and uncle would be going to jail for attempted murder. Law enforcement was still trying to find Dr. Hamilton and any other members of Mosaic—hopefully, the men Gavin’s team had tranquilized would provide more information.
But mostly, they talked. They talked about all the things she hadn’t been able to tell him before. He listened as she explained her reasoning behind what had happened two years ago. And although he would never be able to condone that behavior, he was very well aware that the person who’d made those decisions wasn’t the woman he was in love with now.
And when it came to making poor choices, he certainly had apologizing of his own to do.
They talked about her past, about his. She still fell asleep every time he started telling her stories about being in the army.
And he loved it.
They talked about the future. His. Hers. Theirs. Because there was no way he was letting her out of his sight without her realizing that as long as she wanted it, they had a future together.
But he also wanted to give her choices. For the first time, she had a lot of options in front of her. No one out to hurt her. No one out to control her. No one else getting the two million dollars that Kendrick had shown her was in her accounts. The money Nicholas and Cheryl had gotten for attempting to sell Lexi to Dr. Hamilton and Mosaic.
For the first time, maybe since her parents had died, Lexi had the freedom to do what she wanted, to be who she wanted to be.
He only wanted her to know that he would be honored to be among those options.
She was no longer trying to hide her appearance, and Oak Creek had accepted Lexi into its arms with no problems as she went back to work at the Eagle’s Nest. That was the great thing about small-town gossip—everyone had seen the interview she’d given, but before they could be offended, the rumor mill had provided all the details about what had really happened.
The
town wasn’t a stranger to protecting its own—even when its own was a celebrity—and everyone had been very careful about honoring Lexi’s need for privacy. Since the press thought she was off the grid for a while, nobody had come looking for her.
Good, because Gavin wanted her all to himself. She’d basically moved in with him. Well, more like he’d gone and gotten all her stuff that first week and hadn’t let her move it back out again. He wanted her with him, where she belonged.
Their closeness was why he’d realized she was keeping something from him again. Another secret had cropped up the past couple of days, and he wasn’t sure what it was she wasn’t telling him. Only knew it was something.
A huge chunk mourned that they were back to secrets.
And then she’d decided to sleep at her house last night, because she had things she needed to do all day today.
He wasn’t going to let them revert back to old patterns and behaviors that would drive a wedge between them. He’d gone to the Eagle’s Nest this afternoon to have it out with her.
But it had been closed. Neither she nor Mac had been there. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened on a Friday.
So when he’d gotten her text this evening—from the phone Mac had given her, the phone she still carried with her—asking him to meet her at the Eagle’s Nest, he’d jumped into his SUV immediately.
He hadn’t seen her in nearly twenty-four hours. That was too long. He didn’t want her cutting him out of her life even for a day. And he planned to make sure she knew that.
Surprise hit him as he arrived in the bar’s parking lot—it was nearly full with vehicles he recognized, including Lexi’s. Evidently, when the sign had said closed earlier, that had only been temporary, because there were lights shining brightly and noise coming from inside.
He walked inside and found nearly everyone he knew there—drinking, talking, laughing. Like any given Friday night here. His eyes sought Lexi and found her, serving drinks as usual.
He didn’t hesitate. He walked over, slipped an arm around her waist, and yanked her against him. And kissed her.