I had to move, do something, get the hell out of there. I tried to ease my arms free, and realized they were tied together, tight. Oh dear God. My leg had some wiggle room, so I reached out with my foot for the edge of the bed. He still hadn’t moved, so when I felt the lip of the mattress, I hooked my heel over the side and tried to drag myself out from under my kidnapper.
I managed to get my right hip and half of my torso out from under him, but my hair pulled painfully when I tried to move my head. He was lying on it. Shit. Shit. Shit. I winced, then lightly and carefully tried to yank it free. As soon as I did this, his arm over my belly tightened. Hard fingers curled into my side.
I froze, lungs seizing, heart hammering so hard I could barely hear anything except the blood rushing through my ears.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
I recognized the voice instantly. Pierce.
I jerked back, arms and legs flailing in my renewed effort to get away. “You’re dead,” the words exploded from me, loud and raw as I bucked and fought.
He rolled fully on top of me, forcing the wind from my lungs. His fingers wrapped around my tied wrists and he shoved them above my head, pushing them into the mattress. “Stop,” he hissed. “Now.”
My muscles locked up. The depth of ice in his voice sent fear through my blood, enough to render me completely helpless. I blinked into the oppressing darkness, my eyes aching from the strain. Not a single shard of light penetrated. The room was a complete blackout. It felt like the walls were closing in. It was me and him and the bed beneath us. Like Pierce and I were the only people left on the planet. This time there would be no one to save me. No Hunter barging in to drag me home. No escape.
“How?” I rasped. How was he here and not buried in some shallow grave somewhere?
He forced my legs apart with his thigh, grinding his hips into mine, his erection pressing into me. Then his fingers slid down the side of my face.
“That’s it. Nice and still, there’s my good girl,” he crooned, ignoring my question. “Don’t be afraid. I forgive you for what you did. I’ve had time to calm down, to think about it. I know you were just scared. But Hunter’s not here. You don’t need to be afraid anymore.”
I shuddered at his touch, at the words he was saying that made absolutely no sense. How unhinged he sounded.
He chuckled. “You can’t hide your reaction to me, to how much you like my hands on you.”
The psycho had mistaken my disgust for something else entirely. I shuddered again. “People will be looking for me. . . . they . . .”
“They won’t find you.”
The certainty in his voice hit like a physical blow. Like a thousand volts firing through my body, again, but this time I was awake to feel it. I didn’t want to be awake. I wanted to sleep through it all. My mind seemed to scramble. No words would come, like it was closing down, anything not to think about what was about to happen.
“I’ve been waiting for my shot at you. I knew that fucker would mess up eventually. I fooled him. I fooled all of you. I knew Tomas wouldn’t call in the cops if I left the body in his territory, that there’d be no way to confirm who was wearing the ring. The rest was a little harder, beating someone to the point that they’re unrecognizable takes strength and stamina.” He was close, so close I could feel his lips move against the corner of my mouth. I fought not to gag. “But it was worth it. And once you tell me where the painting is we can get the fuck out of this city and cash in.”
Oh my God. “I don’t . . . I don’t know where it is . . .”
He stroked my hair back from my face, fingers digging in hard. “I don’t believe you. Maybe you’re still upset that I got a little rough with you, hmm? I only did it because you were holding out on me. Being a little cock tease. You know that right? It’s you I’ve always wanted, you I was thinking about when I was with your mother. She’s gone now. We can be together like we always should have been.”
Vomit tried to crawl up my throat. The last time I’d seen him, he’d hurt me, beaten me black and blue, had attempted to rape me. He was living in some sick, twisted fantasy world. I tried to think, think past the fear.
This might be my only chance.
“What are you going to do, Pierce?” I said his name softly, did my best to relax my muscles so my body wasn’t so tense beneath him.
He ran his nose along my temple, drawing in a deep breath. “I’m going to sell the painting and then take you away, somewhere hot, maybe near a beach. You can sit around in a bikini all day. Would you like that, sweetheart?”
He was delusional, but I wasn’t stupid enough to contradict him. I had to play along until I got my chance to escape. “I-I like the beach.”
“I know you do.” He kissed a trail along my throat, dragging the neck of my shirt down as he went, pressing his lips to the bare skin he revealed. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to freak-out, tried not to scream and shove him off. “We just need some cash so we can get out of here. The money from the painting won’t be enough, and it could take time to find a buyer. But now I have you, I’ve got a plan, a way out.”
His hand moved down over my stomach, to the waistband of my jeans. I held my breath, but his hand didn’t go to the zipper, it went to my pocket—and pulled something out. A bright light assaulted my eyes, so blinding I had to squint against it, followed by the little tune that said my phone had just been turned on.
My phone.
I had it the whole time? I thought I might actually break at that point. I could have used it while he was out cold. Before I could finish that thought, my phone blew up with alerts, missed calls, and messages. I twisted to look a Pierce. He was smiling at the screen, obviously pleased he had everyone worried about me.
He pushed a couple buttons then held it to his ear. I heard Hunter answer. His voice sounded muffled.
“Shut the fuck up,” Pierce said. “This is how it’s going to work. You have one hour to get me five-hundred thousand dollars. Once you have it, text this number and I’ll tell you where we’ll do the exchange. You come alone. Any sign of your brother or anyone else, I’ll blow Lucinda’s brains out. Understand?”
There was silence, then I heard Hunter’s deep response—no I didn’t hear it, I felt it. That deep, furious rumble reached me through the phone.
Pierce disconnected, but all I could think about was what he’d said to Hunter, the word exchange ringing through my mind. For the first time since I’d woken in this room, I felt a tiny shred of hope. “You’re going to let me go?”
He dropped his weight back down on me and chuckled. “No. You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll never let you go. When King brings the money, I’ll kill him and we can head to Mexico.”
No. Oh God. I opened my mouth to protest, but he pressed his lips against mine, tongue spiking out, forcing its way past my lips. I kept my mouth clamped shut and turned away.
He stilled, lifted his head. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy.”
He sounded confused, but he also sounded angry. The man was full-on insane. The knot in my stomach got bigger, so big it felt like it was restricting my lungs, making it impossible to breathe. “I-I am happy,” I forced out. “I’m just scared, I guess. That something will happen, and we’ll be separated again.”
“I won’t let that happen,” he said darkly.
His hand moved down, cupping my breast through my shirt. He squeezed hard and I whimpered.
“You want me, don’t you, Lulu?”
I couldn’t make myself say it. I couldn’t get the words past my throat.
His breathing got heavier, rougher. “Answer me,” he growled. “Fucking say it.”
“I—I . . .” My skin was crawling, and everything in me was screaming to fight, to push him off me. I tried to tell myself to lay there and take it, that I’d survived this before and I could do it again—that Hunter would be waiting on the other side, that Pierce wouldn’t get a chance to hurt him at the drop off point. But I di
dn’t know that for sure. How could I know that for sure?
I had no idea what I was going to do, until it happened. He grabbed my wrists and I knew he was going to shove them above my head again. No! My mind screamed. I reacted instantly, slamming my head forward blindly. My forehead connected with what I thought was his nose. He released me suddenly, jerking back, howling in pain. I rolled, landing on the floor hard. I couldn’t see anything, but I shot to my feet and half shuffled, half ran with my hands out in front of me, stumbling and tripping over whatever was on the floor. I collided with a wall after taking only a half a dozen steps and used my tied, numb hands to feel for a door or window.
A sound came from behind me. He was moving, cursing loudly. I tried to move faster, hands groping frantically for something, anything.
A light came on suddenly, washing the room in a muted glow. I spun around. Pierce stood in front of the door on the other side of the room. The only door I could see. He was holding one of those lanterns people used when they were camping. Blood dripped from his nose, over his lips and onto his grubby shirt. He did not look happy.
“Why are you running from me?”
“I wasn’t . . . I . . .”
“Why were you running from me, Lulu?” he yelled.
“I was scared, I-I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I . . . I just . . . I. . . .”
He stared at me, eyes black in the dim light, head tilted to the side. I could see the wound on the side of his face, the one I’d made when I shoved a pen through his cheek. It looked angry and infected. He shook his head. “You’re lying.”
My stomach dropped, goose bumps breaking out across my skin. “I’m not . . . I . . .”
“You fucking whore,” he rasped, then he put the lantern on the ground and came at me. I had nowhere to go. The room was small and the only way to the door was through him.
Pierce roared as I tried to scramble away, catching me easily. His arms went around my waist, lifting me off the floor and dumping me on the dirty mattress. “You want to play these games, I’ll play these fucking games.” He shoved my hands over my head and grabbed for the rope already dangling from the old tube-steel headboard.
I arched my back, struggled, tried to yank my hands away. “Don’t . . . please, don’t . . .”
It was like he didn’t hear me. His eyes were crazed as he secured my hands and climbed onto the bed, straddling me. Blood from his nose dripped down, its warmth hitting the fabric of my top, soaking through to my skin and leaving dark spots. He gripped it in his fists and tore it down the front.
“After everything I’ve been through for you, everything I’ve done? Everything I’ve lost!” he roared in my face. “I’ll fucking show you, show you what you’ve been missing. You need a man who knows what he’s doing. You need a man who knows how to take what he wants. You need me to guide you like I used to, isn’t that right, Lucinda?”
He pulled a switchblade from his pocket and flicked it open. I stilled, going completely motionless as he slid the flat side of it down between my breasts, then under the lace of my bra.
“No,” I cried out the word, but it came out unrecognizable.
He didn’t seem to hear me and with a flick of his wrist, sliced through, freeing my breasts to his wild stare.
I sucked in a sharp painful breath. “God, no, please . . .”
He bent his head and put his mouth on me.
A sob burst past my lips. I was helpless, and so fucking angry, angry that this was happening to me again, that I was powerless to do anything to stop it. The voice in my head screamed, and I opened my mouth, the same anguished sound tearing from my throat. I let it go, with everything that I had. So loud that it took the noise of shattering glass a moment later to penetrate.
Pierce stilled on top of me, and I opened my eyes. His head twisted to the boarded window a second before it was kicked in. It had been covered by scrap, odd pieces of wood and cardboard, all different sizes and shapes, and it collapsed completely.
Hunter jumped through a second later, gun in hand, aimed at Pierce. I noted absently that the sun was coming up. I’d been here all night. Pierce was still on top of me, hadn’t moved at all, except to press something hard against my temple. Every muscle in Hunter’s body went rigid, the veins along his bare forearms bulging.
“Drop the gun or I blow her brains all over the wall,” Pierce said in an eerily calm voice.
Hunter didn’t look at me, kept his entire focus was on Pierce. “If you pull that trigger, I’ll kill you.”
Pierce chuckled like the lunatic he was. “Put the gun down and kick it toward me.”
Hunter’s face was expressionless, but I saw how the muscle in his cheek jumped, his only outward sign of emotion. He slowly pointed the end of the gun down, then lowered it to the floor and slid it toward us with his boot. “You hurt her, you won’t get out of here alive. That’s a promise.”
Hunter’s voice was quiet, terrifyingly so. It wasn’t a threat; it was a fact. But Pierce was too far gone to realize it.
“You’re just in time to watch, King.” His hand moved down my belly and he tugged at the button of my jeans. “You like to watch, don’t you?” The mocking laughter in his unhinged voice died, turned cold, terrifying. “Don’t you?”
“Take your hands off her. Last warning,” Hunter growled.
Pierce’s answer was to slide down my zipper and shove his hand down the front of my underwear.
I whimpered and Hunter’s eyes shifted to mine, and God, the expression on his face slayed me. “Look at me, baby,” he rasped. “Keep your eyes on me.”
I did. I locked eyes with Hunter and didn’t look away, desperately trying to keep that contact, even as my eyes grew blurry, even as hot tears slid down my temples and into my hair. I didn’t know what would happen next, but he was the only thing stopping me from shattering apart, breaking into a million tiny pieces. Pierce roared, screamed at me to look at him and not Hunter, so loud it hurt my ears. The gun he’d been holding against my temple, moved way, pressing it into the mattress beside my head, so he could lean in close, still screaming at me.
Hunter moved so fast, I barely followed with my eyes. He pulled another gun from his back, aimed, and fired.
Pierce jerked back, making the bed rock, his outraged screams cutting off abruptly. Hunter strode toward me. Pierce wasn’t moving, his body heavy on mine. Then Hunter was there, shoving Pierce away. He pulled a knife from his pocket and sawed through the ropes around my wrists, freeing me, then lifted me into his arms.
He pressed his mouth to the top of my head. “I’ve got you,” he said against my hair.
I glanced back at Pierce, afraid he’d spring back up, gun in hand. But that wasn’t going to happen. There was a perfect hole through the center of his forehead. I shivered.
Then everyone was there. Van, Jude, Neco, Zeke—they all crowded in. Jude was on his phone and I could hear police sirens in the distance. Van and Neco were looking down at Pierce’s lifeless body like they wanted to bring him back to life so they could kill him all over again. And Hunter held on to me tight, kept me plastered to his front, covering my bare chest. I clung to him, buried my face against his throat. “Get me out of here,” I whispered.
Without a word, he carried me out of the room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Lulu
The police finished with their questions and Hunter walked them to the door. I watched him, the way he moved, the expression on his face. He was struggling.
“You’re angry,” I said gently when he shut the door, stating the obvious.
“Yeah, I’m fucking angry.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I ran . . . I’m sorry . . .”
He shoved his fingers in his hair. “I’m not angry at you, Lulu. Shit, I’m angry at myself for letting you go. I’m angry that I started a fight with you about something so goddamn stupid. I’m angry that fucker got his fucking hands on you. And I’m angry he got off so damn light.”
I didn’t
think getting shot in the head was getting off light. “He’s dead,” I said, again stating the obvious.
He stared at me across the room, face stony, eyes scary as hell. “He died easy.”
In other words, Hunter would have made sure his death wasn’t quite so . . . fast . . . or clean. “Are you going to get into trouble?”
He shook his head. “Self-defense. I have five witnesses to back up that story. One of them an ex-cop.”
I swallowed hard. “They’d do that for you . . . for me?”
“Babe, they’ve done it.”
I was at a loss for words. I didn’t know how I would ever repay them. God, Hunter had shot a man for me.
I stared down at the shirt of Hunter’s I’d put on after my shower. It was plain black and soft, and smelled like him, too. I’d stripped off the minute we walked through the door, desperate to wash off Pierce’s blood, his touch, and climbed into the shower, the hot spray almost scalding my skin. Hunter had climbed in with me, fully clothed, and silently washed the blood from my body.
We still hadn’t properly talked. Before the police came, I’d had calls from Sara and Ruby. They’d been out of their minds with worry, and told me they were coming over as soon as Hunter gave the word. Sara had offered to have Josh for the night, and I was thankful for it. I didn’t want him around for this latest drama. As much as I wanted to kiss and cuddle my little boy, I needed some time alone with Hunter. I needed to find a way to explain why I’d left.
“We need to talk.”
“What we both need is sleep.” He came to me, pulled me to my feet, and led me to the side of his bed.
“Hang on . . .”
“We’re sleeping, Lulu. That’s all. I just . . . I need you beside me, okay? When I found out you’d been taken . . . who’d taken you . . .” He sat heavily on the side of the bed and shoved a hand through his hair, then bent down and got to work on his boots, pulling them off. He stood, dragged his shirt over his head, and turned to me. “Please.”
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