“Feisty, I see,” she taunted from just out of reach. “Exactly the way he likes ’em. I’ll enjoy watching him fuck that fight out of you.”
I’d never wanted to scratch a woman’s eyes out as badly as I did right now. Until this moment, I hadn’t understood the rage that had sent Luke to prison, but now I did.
She forced a length of tape over my mouth and pulled the hood down again, tying it tightly around my neck, almost too tight to breathe. “Quiet now,” she said as I heard her ascend the stairs.
If I didn’t find a way out of this, she’d just made it clear I’d die down here, but not before Scarface made me wish I was dead.
A few minutes later, the sound of motorcycles grew loud—lots of them, based on the roar that came through the little window.
Luke
As soon as the roar of the approaching bikes was loud enough, Cliff disappeared from the back window. I made my move and ran toward the back of the house.
I could hear the group rumbling down the drive in front as I peeked inside the back window. The coast was clear. I cut the screen with my pocket knife and climbed through before the bikers out front cut their engines.
Gus had served me a beer the last time I’d been here to pick up his broken bike, so I knew the layout. Peeking down the hallway toward the front, I could see Cindy looking out the window, and I guessed that Cliff was outside. She held a gun behind her.
I slowly opened the door beside the pantry that I thought led to the basement.
Yelling came from the front. Cliff was about to get a surprise of the unpleasant variety.
Downstairs, I found my girl bound on a mattress in the corner with a hood over her head.
I reached her in a few strides, and as soon as I touched her, I was rewarded with a kick to the shin as I bent over. “It’s me,” I hissed as I worked at the rope around her neck to get the hood off.
Only after I got the hood loose did I see the tape on her mouth. I yanked it loose.
“Luke,” she exclaimed, way too loudly for my taste.
“Shhh…” I cut the zip ties that bound her wrists and ankles to the chains around the pipes.
“You came.”
“I couldn’t very well leave my woman, now could I?”
“Stop and put your hands up, Luke,” Cindy said from behind me.
I dropped the knife into Debbie’s hand and turned around slowly, raising my empty hands as I did.
More yelling came from above.
Cindy waved the gun to the side as she approached. “Step away from her.”
I did.
Debbie held her wrists together like she was still bound.
Cindy’s focus followed me.
In a flash, Debbie lunged with the knife and caught Cindy in the side.
Cindy screamed and swung the gun toward my girl.
I lunged and came down hard on her arm.
The gun flew loose, and I wrestled Cindy to the floor, putting my hand over her mouth to silence the scream. “Get the tape.”
In a minute, we had her mouth taped shut and her hands zip-tied where Debbie had been.
I took the gun and had Debbie follow me upstairs as we heard the rumble of the Howlers’ bikes starting up to leave. We were out of time.
We raced out the back and headed for the trees.
I called the address in to Adam and told him Debbie was safe as I held my shaking girl tight.
Chapter 50
Debbie
He’d saved me, and I wrapped myself around my man as tightly as I could manage.
I wore his helmet and the leather jacket he’d pulled from the saddlebag. With no intercom, I had to yell. “Did you mean what you said?”
“What did I say?”
I punched him in the ribs. “In the basement.”
“You’ll have to spell it out, Red. I’m not as smart as you rich kids.”
I grabbed for his crotch. “Am I your woman?”
He laughed. “You never stopped being the only one for me.”
I hugged him as he sped up on the way home. We were going to his place, the house that had become home for me. California wasn’t my home. Uncle Lloyd’s mansion was like another planet to me now.
“I have another tattoo to show you later.” I’d have to be naked for him to read it.
“Okay,” he said. “You know your family thought I took you,” he added.
I cringed.
The knock on the door came roughly an hour after we got home. It hadn’t been enough time for me to show Luke just how much I’d missed him, but it had been a start. I’d turned off the lights and hadn’t let him take my bra off. That needed to wait until I had time to explain the tattoo.
Luke struggled back into his shirt as I got the door with one of his tees over my jeans.
Adam was the first one through and took me instantly into a hug. “You’re all right.” It was half statement, half question.
“Thanks to Luke,” I told him.
“This is my partner, Rylie Brolin.”
“We talked on the phone earlier,” she said as we shook.
“You’re that Rylie?”
She nodded. “The same.” She’d been the one to field my first call to the FBI, the one that ended up leading to Josh.
My uncle rounded out the group. “Your aunt and I were so worried,” he said when I moved to hug him.
Luke encouraged the group to come inside.
“We found only a woman restrained in the basement of the address you gave us,” Adam said. “The man you mentioned wasn’t there.”
“There were two of them,” I told him. “I saw them both—the waitress and Scarface.”
“His name is Cliff Butner,” Luke explained. “He was there when we left.”
“Well, he’s in the wind for now,” Rylie said. “We’re going to need you to come in to make a statement.”
“Not just yet,” Luke told them.
“It’s important,” Rylie tried to explain.
“Can’t we deal with that after we get her home?” my uncle asked. I’d been relegated to her in his sentence.
Adam and Rylie nodded before I could speak up.
“I am home,” I told them.
My uncle turned a steely eye to me. “I meant back to California where you belong.”
If he wanted to have this fight here and now, I was ready. Luke had been right when he said I had to face my problems instead of run away.
I straightened. “Adam, you told…him…” I pointed at my uncle. “…that you considered my Luke a triple threat and unworthy of me?”
Adam’s face fell.
Luke and his super ears had been right.
“Didn’t you?” I demanded.
“I only meant that his background, as I knew it at the time—”
I put my hand up to stop him. “You accused Luke of being the one to take me just a little while ago.” I turned to Uncle Lloyd. “And didn’t you say you intended to keep us apart?”
The tick in Uncle Lloyd’s jaw gave him away.
I crossed my arms. “You have no right to run my life. Either of you.”
“We were just looking out for family,” Uncle Lloyd said.