Hell, everything about Eagle impressed her. At one point, she’d told him he was a good man, and she could tell that he’d been uncomfortable with her assessment. He had changed the subject. She vowed that, one way or another, she would get him to see himself in a different light.
As she watched Eagle sleep, she studied him closely.
It was hard for her to pick out specific features on other people’s faces. They all tended to blur together. She’d never understood when people described someone as having a strong jaw or a distinctive nose. When she looked at people, she simply saw a nose, a mouth, and two eyes.
Looking at Eagle, she could see he had a five-o’clock shadow. She bet if he didn’t shave every day, he could grow a pretty impressive beard in a very short amount of time. His hair was short, and she thought his lips looked full, but she could just be imagining that.
Taylor didn’t want to go to sleep. She wanted this day to go on forever. She’d never been invited to any sleepovers growing up. Had never been close to any of the girls in her classes. But eventually, her eyes drooped, and sleep overcame her.
Brett Williams sat in his car in the parking lot outside Taylor’s apartment and scowled. He knew she wasn’t home, as there were no lights on in her apartment.
“Where are you?” he asked out loud, tapping his thumb on the steering wheel.
He’d been watching his target for two weeks and had gotten a pretty good idea of her routine. She didn’t go out much, but he’d been able to slip in behind her at the post office and talk with her a little bit. He’d wanted to test her condition—and he hadn’t been disappointed.
He’d seen absolutely no recognition in her eyes, even though they’d exchanged a few words in the parking lot of the grocery store. He’d been positively gleeful.
Brett couldn’t stop thinking about all the ways he could torture her when he got Taylor into his basement lair. He could pretend to be different people, maybe tell her that she’d been captured by a cult. And every one of the members was going to interrogate her. She’d think she was being hurt by a dozen different people. He couldn’t wait to fuck with her head . . . and mark her body as well.
She had fair skin, which would welt up and bruise easily. Brett knew how to hurt someone without killing them. Yes, Taylor was going to be the most fun victim he’d played with yet.
But he wasn’t ready for that yet. He wanted to know more about her. And the only way he could do that was to talk to her. Intercept her as she was going about her daily life.
Which he couldn’t do if he didn’t know where she was.
She hadn’t come home tonight. That pissed him off. In the two weeks he’d been following her, she hadn’t met with any men . . . or women, for that matter. She worked from home; she’d told him as much when they’d been in the post office. Where the hell could she be?
If she had a boyfriend, that would make his life more difficult. At one point, he’d toyed with the idea of trying to get her to fall in love with him, but decided he didn’t have it in him to act like a loving boyfriend. No, he’d have to be a stranger until he made his move.
Looking at his watch and seeing it was three in the morning, Brett swore in frustration. He needed to get home. His mother had been locked in her room for eight hours. She’d probably already made a mess that he’d have to clean up. It would just get worse if he stayed away any longer.
“You can’t hide from me,” Brett whispered. “I’ll always find you. Soon you’ll be mine to do with as I please—and I can’t wait to hear you scream.”
And with that, Brett started up his car and drove out of the parking lot.
Chapter Five
Taylor jerked awake and blinked in confusion as she looked around. She quickly remembered. She was at Silverstone Towing. Her eyes went to the chair across from her, where she’d last seen Eagle sleeping, and saw it was empty. She was alone in the basement, which made her very nervous. She had no idea who was in the building, and even if she’d met someone the night before, she wouldn’t know who they were this morning.
Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was seven thirty. She’d only been asleep for around four hours, and she was still exhausted. But she forced herself to get up anyway. It wasn’t like she could sleep the day away. Eagle and his friends might need to use the safe room down here.
She went into the bathroom with the single shower and did her best to make herself look presentable. Her shirt was wrinkled and her hair a mess, but she finger combed it and decided it would have to do.
Taking a deep breath, she headed out of the bathroom and up the stairs. She figured Eagle wouldn’t have left, since he’d driven her the night before, but she really had no idea. He might’ve been called out on a job.
When she stepped into the great room and looked around, Taylor froze.
There were five men sitting at the counter, and they all turned to look at her when they noticed her enter the room.
She remembered that Eagle had been wearing jeans and a dark-blue polo shirt the night before, but none of the men at the counter were wearing anything she recognized. If Eagle was there, he must’ve had a change of clothes here.
One man hopped off the stool he’d been sitting on and made a beeline for her.
Taylor stiffened and did her best not to panic. She racked her brain, trying to see anything about him that looked familiar, but came up blank.
When the man was still about ten feet away, he said softly, “Good morning, Flower.”
And just like that, all the tension drained from her.
“Hi, Eagle,” she said softly.
Eagle closed the distance, leaned in, and kissed her lightly on the temple, and Taylor inhaled deeply. He smelled clean, as if he’d showered recently. Looking into her eyes, he tilted her chin up with a finger and asked, “You sleep okay?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Like a baby,” he said.
Something felt different between them this morning, but Taylor couldn’t put her finger on it. Her eyes glanced around nervously, and she finally noticed he was wearing the name tag Skylar had brought over the night before. She’d been so panicked trying to figure out who he was as he’d been walking toward her, she’d forgotten about the name tags altogether.
“Come on, breakfast is ready. It’s Saturday, and Archer doesn’t work on the weekends, but he made an egg casserole for us to heat up. It’s amazing,” Eagle told her.
He grabbed her hand and led her over to where the other men were sitting.
Knowing she wasn’t being subtle about it in the least, but unable to care even a little, Taylor checked out the name tags the men were wearing.
Smoke, Gramps, Shane, and Robert.
It felt really good to be able to put names to the men without having to ask them who they were. No one would comprehend the relief she felt.
“Good morning,” she said a little shyly.
“Hear you beat Eagle in pinball last night,” Smoke said with a grin. “Good job. Someone needs to put the asshole in his place. His head has gotten too big. No one else will play him, because when he wins, he throws his arms in the air like he’s ten years old and does a ridiculous winner’s dance.”
Taylor giggled. “Oh, was that what that was?” she teased. “I thought he was having convulsions from the blinking lights or something.”