I hung up and went to stand behind the tech monitoring the garage. Cars flashed by on the screen, too fast for me to identify.
“How will you know if you find it?” I asked, trying to distract myself. I’d feel more solid once I knew where Leigha was. Without looking up at me, the tech said,
“We built it off the facial recognition program. I entered the vehicle specs we had on file for the car, and the computer does the rest.”
“You have the specs for all those cars on file?” I asked.
“No.” The tech shook his head without taking his eyes from the screen. “But we have just enough to cut the time it takes to scan the garage. Too much data to parse would slow it down.”
“You guys build this in-house?”
“Yes, sir. More secure that way.”
“Very cool,” I said, studying the cars speeding across the screen. I’d invested a lot into my security team. Between the high rollers visiting the Delecta and the amount of cash that came in and out, it was imperative to have the best watching over the place. I rolled my shoulders back, trying to relax. I had my team here watching for her. Axel was on the case. We would find her. And I’d either solve her problem, whatever it was, or spank her ass for trying to run out on me again. Likely both.
Sometime in the last day and a half, I’d decided I was keeping Leigha. She was everything I’d been looking for in a woman, and I didn’t see the point in playing games. I’d always been like this. Decisive. Once I knew what I wanted, I never questioned it. I’d met Axel in college and in the time it took to get through our first Biology Lab, I’d known we’d be friends for life.
When I’d decided to move to Nevada and open a casino, I’d spent over a year gathering intel and researching the market. But once I’d come out to find a building site, I’d chosen it the first day. One look at the aging casino in the Delecta’s current location, and I’d known this was the place. I could see it in my mind, cleared of the original building, my beautiful Delecta rising in its place. I’d made an aggressive offer on the property, done my due diligence and made a solid investment. But all that was to keep the spreadsheets looking good. I’d already known I’d found my new home.
I barely knew Leigha. What I did know left me wanting more. Beautiful. Un-fucking-believable in bed. Smart. Sweet. Funny. Just touching her calmed me and set me on fire at the same time. I had no idea why she’d left. Maybe I was wrong, and she wasn’t in trouble. Maybe she’d gotten another wild idea and decided she had to go. If that was it, I’d change her mind.
I was Dylan-fucking-Kane. I could get her back. Thinking over the possibilities, I hoped that was it. The other option, that she was in trouble, was too terrifying to contemplate. At least, it would be terrifying until I got her back. Once she was safely with me, I was going to unleash holy hell on whoever had upset her.
“Sir, we’ve got the car.” I turned to see Randall and the tech leaning over the tech’s monitor. It was stopped on her sedan, the license plate clearly in view.
“Keep an eye on it,” I ordered. “It’s possible she may come back to pick it up.”
“Yes, sir.”
We waited, all three of us watching Leigha’s car, sitting alone and untouched in the quiet parking garage. Until Axel called with a report from Leigha’s house, or she showed back up in the casino, there was nothing I could do. I was all about action. Sitting and waiting while Leigha might be in trouble was not my idea of fun.
It felt like an eternity of nothing, the same view on the screen of Leigha’s boring, brown car. I was buying her a new one. That one wasn’t her. She thought she was a sensible beige sedan, but after the way she’d looked that evening, I think it was safe to say Leigha was a rare bloom. She needed something exciting, not sensible. An Audi TT. I pulled up the website on my phone while I waited. In the middle of choosing between silver and grey, Randall said,
“We’ve got movement.”
Jerking my head up, I saw a blond male approach the car with a single key in his hand. I heard Randall say,
“Track him back to where he entered the Delecta.” Somewhere off to the left a voice answered, “Yes, sir.”
“Do you know him?” Randall asked, zooming in on the man’s face. I didn’t. I called Axel, who picked up immediately.
“I’ve got a guy getting in Leigha’s car. He had a key. Does your guy at the Delecta have the make and model?”
“Yes. Hold on.”
I heard Axel pick up another phone and relay orders to his man outside the casino. Before he came back on the line, there was a beep on his end, then the sound of a muffled voice. Our call was muted on his end for less than a minute, then Axel was back.
“My guy at Leigha’s house checked in. She was there, just left to get in a cab. He’s in his car following the cab.”
“Where’s she going?” I asked.
“We’re not sure yet,” Axel said, “He’s on her. But Dylan, there’s something else.”
“What,” I barked, not liking the hesitant tone of Axel’s voice.
“My guy was there with a partner. When they saw Leigha leaving, he stayed with her and the partner checked the house. The back door was unlocked, and he went in. There was a bloody knife on an armchair by the door and blood on the kitchen table and floor. Duct tape was stuck to a chair. The best he can tell, she was injured and restrained. Hard to say what came first. Our best guess is that her cab is headed to the hospital.”
Mind numb, I hung up the phone and shoved it in my pocket. Turning to Randall, I said, “Email a screenshot of the man in Leigha’s car to Axel. I’m headed out. If anything comes up, call.”
I saw the doubt in Randall’s eyes. He wanted to stop me from leaving. If I looked half as frantic as I felt, he had good reason for his concern. I didn’t care, the only thing on my mind was Leigha. Injured and restrained. The words echoed in my head. Who would hurt Leigha? Why? I paced through the security room, headed for the elevator when the door opened. Axel stood there, his phone to his ear. Reaching out, he grabbed my arm and pulled me into the elevator.
“I’m driving,” he said, “You look like shit.”
I scowled at him, but said nothing, my entire being focused on getting to Leigha.
6
Leigha
The shot of local anesthetic for the stitches didn’t hurt that badly, but seeing the needle poke through the open cut on my wrist was revolting. I knew I shouldn’t have watched. I tried not to. It was like passing an accident on the freeway. You mean to look away, but at the last second, your eyes swerve to the ravaged car, dreading to see the destruction and unable to stop yourself.
Aside from my wrist, my jaw was bruised, the skin hot and tight with swelling. The ER nurse had given me an ice pack for it. It helped, but I was getting tired of holding it in place. And it looked like I was going to have at least six stitches when this was over. Strike that, seven. Or more. Steven’s careless slash of the knife had done more damage than I thought.
Working my way across the kitchen while taped to a chair hadn’t helped. Neither had getting the tape loose enough to free my wrists. I’d maneuvered myself to the side of the kitchen cabinets where a former owner had screwed in a set of metal hooks for dishtowels. They didn’t do much to tear through the duct tape, but I was able to catch one of the hooks under the edge of the tape and pull on it, dragging it down my arm to my wrist where it was looser.
It sounds easy after the fact, but at the time, bleeding and freaked out, it felt like it took forever. Every tug on the hook had moved the tape a fraction of an inch and pulled at the open wound on the side of my wrist. Steven’s knife alone probably hadn’t cut me that much. By the time my wrists were free, I’d done more damage than he did.
Once I got the tape loose, it hadn’t been that hard to get my uninjured arm free. Painful, since it involved more yanking against my bleeding wrist, but not difficult. Cutting the tape around my torso was easy enough once I had my hands back. I hadn’t bothered to unwrap and check m
y arm. I’d grabbed my phone, called a cab and wrapped another towel around it.
Waiting for the cab had been terrifying. I was sure Steven had left. He was an asshole, but not a complete idiot. He would have gone straight for my car in case I had second thoughts. But what if he hadn’t? What if he was going to come back? I’d huddled in an armchair by my front window, hidden from the street by thin curtains, gripping the bloody knife from the sink in my good hand. If Steven did come back, I’d be prepared. When the cab finally showed, I dropped the knife, threw a jacket over my arm so the cab driver wouldn’t see the blood, and ran out the front door, not bothering to lock it behind me.
The hospital was having a slow night - my only bit of good luck so far. Even without my ID or insurance card, it wasn’t long before I was sitting behind a curtain, wearing a hospital gown over my jeans, and watching the doctor in green scrubs sew up my arm. Another bonus; he was a plastic surgeon they’d called down and I wouldn’t have much of a scar. Even a day as bad as this one had a few minor bright sides. They hadn’t given me anything for the pain, aside from the local anesthetic for the stitches, but I felt drugged. Maybe it was the adrenaline crash. I didn’t know. Now that I was safe in the hospital, I couldn’t seem to get it together.
My thoughts spun in sluggish circles. What if Steven came back? What if he decided to release the video anyway? What if he told the guys he owed money that I was responsible for it and they came after me? Hadn’t I seen that in some movie? The guy gets in debt with the mob and he tells them his brother is responsible for him so they went after the brother? Or maybe that was because the brother vouched for him? No, it wasn’t his brother; it was his best friend. Wasn’t it? I stared at the lights on the ceiling, trying to make sense of what was happening. Exhaustion dragged at me, slowing my mind and weakening my body.
I had to figure out what to do. I had no car, no wallet, and I didn’t want to go back to my house. It didn’t feel safe anymore. Not since Steven had been there, touching my things and taping me to my own kitchen chair, his hand on my breast, his eyes ugly and angry. I couldn’t go back there. Not tonight.
They’d asked if I had someone who could come get me. I’d said I did. I guess it wasn’t a lie. I could call my mother. Somehow I’d convince her not to take me back to the Delecta. I couldn’t go there either. Ever. If Steven caught me anywhere near Dylan, he’d release the video and all this would have been for nothing. Tears pricked at my eyes.
I gritted my teeth and sucked in a breath through my nose. No crying. Not here, where everyone could see. Later, when I’d figured out what to do and where to go. I’d cry later. A scuffle at the curtain caught my attention. I heard an aggravated voice say, “Sir! You can’t just -” The curtain was thrown back.
Dylan stood there, glaring at me, his friend Axel just behind him. Relief at seeing him flooded through me. Dylan was safe. Dylan wouldn’t hurt me. Then I remembered the video. Dylan couldn’t be anywhere near me. I wanted to jump up and demand he leave, to scream that he had to go. I didn’t move. For one thing, the doctor was still stitching up my arm. And for another, I was frozen in shock. How had he known where I was?
The nurse looked my way and said, “He insisted on seeing you. Do you want me to call security?” I shook my head. Dylan didn’t speak either, his eyes flipping between me and the doctor working on my arm. A minute later, the doctor tied off the last stitch and wrapped my arm in a protective bandage. Standing, he patted my shoulder.
“Someone will be in to discharge you and give you instructions on caring for the stitches. You were lucky.” Glancing over his shoulder at Dylan and Axel, he whispered, “You’re safe here. Are you sure you don’t want to make a police report?” His eyes grazed over the bruises on my face. I hadn’t offered much of an explanation of what happened. I shook my head again.
“No. They didn’t hurt me. I promise. I’m safe with them.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. I swear.”
“Okay. I’ll get a nurse in to discharge you.” He stood, patted my shoulder once more, and left, sending a suspicious glare at Dylan and Axel as he went.
When we were alone, I said, “You have to go. You can’t be near me.”
Dylan ignored me, striding across the room to take my face in his hand. His body vibrated with fury, but his touch on my bruised cheek was gentle.
“What the fuck happened to you?” He asked, his voice quiet, but hard. “Who fucking did this to you?”
“Dylan, I mean it. You have to go. Please. Just go. I can’t help you if you won’t go.” I heard my voice rising in hysteria. He couldn’t be here. All of this was for nothing if Steven found out we were together and released the video. “You have to go. Please, Dylan, just go. Please.”
He didn’t go. Instead, he sat beside me on the hospital bed and pulled me into his arms, pressing my unbruised cheek into his shoulder. I didn’t struggle. I should have. I should have jumped off the bed and run to get away from him. But he was so strong, and he smelled comfortingly familiar, warm and clean and male. Somewhere deep in my head, I knew I was panicked and irrational.
Steven wasn’t at the hospital. He couldn’t be watching me. But logic wasn’t getting through at that moment. I was scared, in pain, and only just registering how much worse things could have been with Steven. Flashes of the bloody knife and the way he’d touched me played across the insides of my closed eyelids. I felt myself begin to tremble. I tried to stop it, but it was as if my body was no longer under my own control.
Shaking, tears warm on my cheeks, I burrowed into Dylan. I’d always thought I was a strong woman. Most of the time I was. With everything that had happened that night, my inner strength had deserted me.
“Can you tell me what happened?” he asked in a low, soothing voice. “Why do I need to leave you?”
I drew in a ragged breath. I needed to tell him. He needed to know why it was dangerous to be near me.
“Steven took a video of us.” Another ragged, tear filled breath. “In the hall. The other night. It’s -” I cut off, unable to go on. I’d brought this down on Dylan. Me. It was my fault this was happening. “You can see everything.”
“Okay,” he said, voice still gentle. “We can deal with that. That doesn’t explain your face. And your arm.”
He rubbed his hand up and down my back as if I was a child woken from a nightmare.
“He said if I didn’t meet him at my house he’d release it everywhere. It’s bad. You can see our faces. I was afraid -” I stopped and dragged in a breath. “Your board. Stockholders. It was bad, Dylan.”
I felt him sigh against me. His hand on my back continued its rhythmic, soothing strokes. The worst out in the open, I relaxed into him. Now he knew. Everything he’d worked for was at risk because of me. Fresh tears spilled over my cheeks. I was so tired. Cold, aching, and tired.
“Why didn’t you wake me? Why did you just leave, sweetheart?”
“Not enough time,” I whispered. “He said I had to meet him at my house in twenty minutes or he’d send the video out. There wasn’t enough time. And he said if I saw you again, he’d send it out.”
Footsteps sounded beside the bed. “The ex,” Axel said in a low voice. “He took off with her car.”
“It was Steven?” Dylan asked, tucking a stray hair behind my ear. “He’s the one who did this to you?”
“You can’t go after him, Dylan. He’ll use the video. Please.”
“I can take care of the video, Leigha.”
I forced myself to pull out of his embrace and sit up. Meeting his eyes was harder. When he’d come in, he’d been glaring. Now his eyes were soft. Concerned. Not angry.
“What if you can’t? What if he sends it out to YouTube and all the other sites. You’ll never be able to get it back. And your company - the board. They could -”
He cut me off with a finger to my lips. Before I could think of something else to say, he looked over his shoulder at Axel, who was talking into his phone in
a clear violation of hospital’s no cell phone policy. Seeing the grave expression on his face, I didn’t think Axel cared about hospital policy. Gone was the serious but relaxed guy I’d met earlier that evening. This man was all deadly focus as he gave quiet orders into the phone and hung up. His eyes met Dylan’s in a promise.
“I’m on it,” he said.
“You heard all that?”
Axel nodded. “We’ll pick him up. Get the car back. Don’t worry about the video. I’m out. I’ll have your people send a car.”
He disappeared to the other side of the curtain. Dylan reached for me, and I leaned back.
“Dylan, this is too dangerous. What if -”
“Do you trust me?” he asked, eyes on mine.
I wanted to look away. I couldn’t. It felt like he was asking for more than just trust, like he was asking me for everything. I couldn’t lie to him. I was scared. For him. For myself. My head spun, I hurt all over, and I desperately wanted to lie down and sleep. I’m not sure I could have lied to him under normal circumstances. But sitting on that hospital bed, exhausted and my emotions a mess, I was helpless to resist the force of his will.
“Do you trust me?” he repeated.
I told him the truth.
“I do.”
“That’s all I needed to hear.”
Dylan pulled me into his chest and resumed his gentle strokes on my back. I must have drifted to sleep, because the next thing I knew, a nurse came in and Dylan was gently sitting me up so she could give me my discharge papers. She said something about my not having my insurance.
Dylan pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to her, saying, “Have billing call my office on Monday, we’ll take care of it.”
The next thing I knew, he was carrying me, over the nurse’s protests, out of the hospital and to the black car waiting outside. I zoned out again on the way back to the Delecta. I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep until I opened my eyes to see Dylan’s soft sheets as he lowered me into his bed. A moment later, he joined me, pulling my body into his until my head rested on his shoulder, my injured arm on top of his chest. The last thing I felt before I passed out completely was the thump of Dylan’s heart beneath my ear, strong and reassuring.
The Wedding Rescue, Book Four (An Alpha Billionaire Club BBW Romance) Page 3