Tears begin to fall from Reese’s eyes. She couldn’t help it. She was outnumbered and at the mercy of whatever the men wanted to do with her.
“Please, let me go. Por favor,” she begged.
But she was ignored. The hand on her neck kept pressing down and her arms were still held behind her back in an iron-tight grip. All she could do was sit there, stare at the carpet under her feet, and pray someone had seen something. Heard something. That they’d called the police and even now a rescue mission was being organized to come after her.
Because if it wasn’t? She was in big trouble.
Spike wiped his brow with his arm and arched his back. The work that morning had been tough, but it was extremely satisfying to see the trail now clear of debris and branches from the storm the other day.
“It looks good,” Pipe said, the pride easy to hear in his voice.
“It does,” Stone agreed.
“Not sayin’ I love clearing trails, but it needed to be done. If we waited for the incoming storm to blow through, clearing things out would’ve been even harder,” Brick added.
Living in the mountains, it was a fact of life, and a part of having their business here, that they needed to do regular maintenance of this particular trail. It was the easiest and therefore the most popular with their guests. So keeping it clear of downed trees and other debris was important.
“Any word on a wedding date?” Pipe asked Brick.
The satisfied smile on his friend’s face made Spike think about Reese, and how they’d spent their previous evening.
“As a matter of fact, yes. Three weeks from now.”
“Holy shit!”
“That soon? Awesome!”
“Wow!”
“It seems Al is impatient to get a ring on my finger,” Brick said with a grin.
“As if you aren’t just as eager to publicly claim her,” Stone said with an eye roll.
“I am. But here’s the thing, she’s mine, just as I’m hers. I don’t need to marry her, but I want to. I feel as if I missed out on so much by not realizing for so many years that we were meant to be with each other. I should’ve known when I found so much inspiration and comfort from that cross-stitch she made me as a high school graduation present. If I hadn’t been so focused on my job, maybe I would’ve seen what was right in front of my face. I’m done waiting for the perfect time. No time will ever be perfect. We’re going to be busy around here for the foreseeable future, so we decided last night to just go ahead and slip our ceremony in between all the other stuff going on.”
“Smart man. Tie her down before she realizes she could do better and changes her mind,” Pipe joked.
Everyone laughed, except for Spike. Pipe had just verbalized his greatest fear when it came to Reese. He still had no idea why she was with him. Why she loved him. She could be with a literal rocket scientist or nuclear engineer. All he had was a small cabin in the woods, a brain that saw trouble where there wasn’t any, and a possessive, protective streak that an independent woman like her probably thought was nice now, but would eventually turn stifling.
“Uh-oh, Spike’s thinking too hard over there,” Stone quipped. They were almost back at The Refuge now, and Spike opened his mouth to tell his friend to fuck off because he wasn’t nearly ready to talk about his insecurities when it came to Reese, but he was interrupted by the ringing of his phone.
And just like that, his mood lifted. It had to be Reese, because he very rarely received calls, especially when three of the six other people who might contact him by phone were with him at that moment.
But it wasn’t Reese. It was Woody.
Thinking it was odd that the man was calling him the morning after he’d gotten married, Spike unconsciously braced as he answered.
“Spike here. What’s up, Woody?”
“Have you seen Reese?”
Spike stopped walking, and his three friends all did the same, instantly staring at him with varying degrees of curiosity and concern in their expressions. “This morning when I left, she was still sleeping. Why?”
“I can’t get a hold of her.”
Spike relaxed a little. “I think I saw her phone on the kitchen counter this morning, so she probably just isn’t hearing it ring from the bedroom.”
“Angelo isn’t answering his phone either. Isabella’s worried, because it’s not as if he really goes anywhere. I called Reese to see if she’d go check on him, since I was enjoying spending the first morning with my wife. But she didn’t answer…and I’ve got a bad feeling.”
Spike tried to relax. Woody didn’t know something was wrong, he was just being cautious and trying to appease his new wife. But he knew damn well that when he or Woody or any of their teammates got bad feelings while on missions, no one ever dismissed them.
“I’m headed over to Tiny’s cabin to check on Angelo now,” Woody said. “But, Spike, it’s not like Reese not to answer when I call. I know what you said, that her phone isn’t in the room with her, but it’s late. She’s a morning person. Even if she slept in, she should be up and about by now.”
“She could’ve forgotten her phone when she went up to the lodge,” Spike suggested, not believing his own words.
“Something’s wrong,” Woody said in a low tone.
“I’m headed to my cabin now. I’ll check on Reese and call you back when I find her. Pipe, Stone, and Brick are with me. I’ll send them to meet you at Tiny’s cabin,” Spike said, even as he started walking again.
“Thanks.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” Spike told his friend. “I’m marrying her. She means everything to me.”
“So we’ll be brothers for real…I couldn’t ask for a better man for my sister,” Woody told him.
His pleasure felt good, but Spike was having a hard time thinking about anything other than getting back to his cabin and setting eyes on Reese. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Thanks.”
They both clicked off the connection and Spike quickly explained the situation to the others.
“I’ll go with you to find Reese,” Pipe said.
“And Stone and I will meet Woody. I’m sure Angelo is here somewhere. The kid doesn’t usually leave the property,” Brick said.
They branched off when they got closer to The Refuge, with Spike and Pipe headed in one direction and their friends going another.
The second Spike unlocked the door to his cabin, he knew Reese wasn’t there. It felt…empty. He jogged to the bedroom anyway and looked inside. The covers on the bed were mussed, but she wasn’t there. The bathroom door was standing open so she wasn’t in the shower either. He went back to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. The iced coffee and cinnamon roll he’d prepared for her were gone.
“She’s not here,” Spike said.
“She didn’t leave in a huge hurry though, since she took the time to lock the door behind her,” Pipe observed.
Spike nodded and looked around. “Her purse and phone aren’t here either. Which means she probably didn’t just go to the lodge. She usually doesn’t take her purse to go visit Alaska or to eat.”