Best Man (9 page)

“What’s so funny?” Cardarrio asked as Paulie quickly busied himself somewhere in the back of the cabin.

“The accent,” I replied, shrugging.

“You think it’s funny, huh?”

“No,” I said a little breathy, “I like it.”

Cardarrio’s fingers fidgeted in between his knees again.

It was hard as fuck to act sexy when you’re scared as shit
.

His elbows pressed down on his knees and he slowly leaned forward before he stood tall. Fingers pulled at his goatee again and moved back to rub at the back of his neck. “How well do you know that piece of shit mother fucker?”

Oh, God, I wasn’t ready for this. I wasn’t actually ready for him to come closer; the plastic was still holding me against the pipes. I felt it loosening and melting, but it was too slow to do me any good.

“You mean Luke?”

He blinked his eyes really slow and took a step closer to me, nodding.

“He’s the best man in my brother’s wedding,” I said hoarsely.

“Best man?” he laughed. “He’s gonna be a dead man.” He covered the rest of the distance between us with quick steps and crouched down in front of me.

Shit. Shit. Shit
.

Piercing spikes of adrenaline stabbed across my chest and sizzled like electric down my arms. My heart raced wildly just under my rib cage and a small whimper slipped past my lips.

One of his hands instantly fisted my hair and yanked my head to the side, pulling my wrists hard against the hot pole. All I thought
was good; I hope it melted through the plastic faster
. The smell of it started to burn my nostrils. He pulled out my phone and snapped a picture of what must have been a frantic expression on my face. I pulled at the wires, but they still didn’t give.

With him that close to me, Cardarrio’s face was beet red, and he was breathing hard. He jerked my head back further, and his eyes dropped down to my chest. The hand holding the phone reached for my tank top and pulled it down over both my breasts. He brought the phone up, aimed it again at me, and snapped another picture.

And another.

And another.

He tossed the phone down, leaned back on his heals, and looked at me.

That’s when I felt the plastic that bound my hands to the pipe slip free.

Cold sweat burst out above my eyebrows. I needed him closer. I couldn’t let him see my hands moving. “That’s all you want? Is pictures of me?” I said in a low shaky voice. Hesitantly, I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth then slowly wet my lips—a soft innocent move that his eyes followed hungrily. “Do you…like the pictures?” I breathed.

“You’re a firecracker, ain’t you?” His smile widened as he dragged his eyes all over me. “You’re fucking beautiful too,” he said under his breath. “You shouldn’t be wasting your time with that asshole.”

I made a small breathy sigh as he shifted closer.

“Finding him with another girl here was a surprise,” he smirked.

I didn’t have time to decipher the meaning of what he said—I needed him near me, closer to me, almost on me. “Make me forget him,” I whispered.

He glanced back over his shoulder into the hallway. Paulie was inside my bedroom with the door closed. I could hear him going through my drawers and throwing my things around.

Slowly, Cardarrio lifted a finger and laid it gently against the skin at my collarbone before sliding it down between my breasts, over my trembling belly, and stopping at the edge of my panties.

“I can smell your pussy from here,” he said.

Ew, that was gross. All I could smell was burning plastic
.

His knees hit the floor in front of me, and his hands fumbled wildly with his belt. Frantic fingers slid the leather out of the buckle and unzipped his pants. “I’m going to fuck that pussy raw. Then, I’m going to come all over your face and send that picture to that asshole too.”

He pulled out his dick with his right hand. It looked angry and discolored, making me gag loudly. His eyes flew up to mine when he heard the sound, and I instantly moaned and smiled. “You’re so big,” I whispered, widening my eyes and acting amazed.
If that thing went anywhere near me I would have to douche with bleach and gasoline
.

He leaned closer to me and his breath reeked of mustard and sweat. His fingers grabbed between my legs and hooked into the edge of my panties, trying to drag them down. I watched his face as he yanked the material—his expression hard—primal. I shifted myself toward the pipes and lifted my ass for him to pull my underwear from where I rested on them. It gave me the perfect angle to slip the nail file from the side of them and grasp it in my hand. My stomach cramped and knotted with fear. I had one chance to get it right or he would kill me.

“Bring that pussy closer to me, you dirty whore,” he growled, grabbing at my thighs and waist.

I sprang up and with a huge arc of my hands and brought the nail file down into the inside of his thigh where his femoral artery was. All my life I’d wanted to be a nurse. I knew exactly where that artery was and how much time he had if it was severed. I jerked down on the file and Cardarrio screeched out in pain. I jerked the other way and wrenched it out of his flesh. It made an awful sound and blood spurted up from the gash like a fountain. Cardarrio clawed at his thigh, eyes wide and body quaking. I bolted past him and ran, trying to pull up my panties at the same time. I dove into the first open door and looked for a bigger weapon.

CHAPTER 17

LUKE

T  
ravis tried to climb into the passenger side of the Jeep but tumbled back down. “Stop moving the car,” he mumbled, even though I hadn’t yet put the key in the ignition. He reached his hand out across the front seat. “Here, don’t drive yet. Hold my drink,” he slurred, handing me a half empty bottle of whatever he was drinking.

“Get that out of my car and get in,” I yelled, smacking his hand away.

Travis lunged forward and grabbed onto the gearshift to pull himself through the door. He hung there, slack jawed and slumped over, for a few seconds before Ava came up behind him and shoved his feet inside. “Fucking drunk asshole,” she growled, slamming the door closed.

She opened the back door and pulled herself in. “I’m comin’ too.
Thas-my-bes-friend
,” she slurred from behind me. “Where we goin’ first?”

“Back to her cabin,” I said, not knowing at all where she was. All she sent me was a picture of herself, topless somewhere, and she looked terrified like she didn’t want to be there. It looked like whoever was taking the picture was above her. Maybe she was in some club, maybe she was in some bar, or maybe she was home. I had no clue. I called her back but she didn’t answer. Maybe she was so drunk she couldn’t even hear it. The odd thing about the picture was the lighting. It was bright like she was in someone’s house—not dark like a bar. My gut hardened. Why the fuck would she pull a stunt like this? If she didn’t want to start anything with me why didn’t she just say so?

I pulled out of the parking lot and sped away while Travis flailed around next to me because of the momentum of the Jeep. “Ima get sick soon,” he mumbled.

I clenched my jaw and opened his window. All I needed was that idiot puking all over the car. “Aim out the window,” I said.

He hung his head out the window like a dog.

Ava pulled on the back of my seat and bent her body forward to talk to me, “Sheesh not like that,” she yelled in my ear.

“Sit back down!” I snapped at her, nudging her back with my elbow. I already had visions of us speeding through town and weaving all over the place, I didn’t want her going through the windshield if I had to stop short.

She fell back into the seat and yelped, “Well, she isn’t. Sheesh a good person.”

“Whatever the fuck is going on, I’m finding out now,” I said, pulling off the main road and driving toward her property. My fists gripped the steering wheel tightly as the tires bumped over the little wobbly bridge, which wasn’t a bridge at all, but a bunch of fucking sticks holding up a flat piece of wood to drive over.

Before I pulled into her driveway, I could see that all the lights in the cabin were on. The brightness spilled out against the long shadows across the grass. Relief loosened my shoulders. She must be home. Whatever she was up to, at least she was safe.

I killed the engine a little way from the house. I didn’t want to pull the Jeep any closer. I would walk the rest of the way to see if I could peek in at what was really going on.

That’s about the time the
what the fuck
set in. She skipped out on a party for her brother’s future wife to be with someone here and send half naked pictures to me. It didn’t make any sense.

I crossed the distance between the Jeep, and the house quickly. Travis staggered after me. About halfway in between, he dropped to his knees and
loudly
threw up.

Ava patted him on the back and laughed.

I ignored the both of them and scanned the front of the cabin. On the right hand side, a window was fully open and two panels of a lacy curtain waved like ghostly hands up against the outside of the house.
Why? Why was the window open, and the curtains pulled out?

A thick, dark shadow moved in front of the window. I gulped down a breath to try to stay quiet. Something didn’t feel right.

I crept around to the side of the house, bypassing the front porch. From this angle, I could see a dark car parked in back. Something was familiar about it—and it was way too fancy for anyone in this town.

I was reaching my arms out and running my fingers along the edge of the window when I heard a man scream out in agony. I pulled myself up to look through the window and terror nearly paralyzed me. My eyes caught the back end of a barely dressed woman running into the hallway. Just below the window where I stood was a bloody Anthony Cardarrio clutching at a wound in his upper thigh.

I didn’t have time to think.

No time for questions.

I pulled out my gun and ran to the other side of the house. I needed Maddie safe. I turned away and collided with Ava, who stumbled back and fell straight down onto her ass and yelped. I hovered over her and smacked a hand over her mouth. “Shut up and call the police. Now!”

“Wha?” she blinked up at me.

Travis toppled over Ava and used her head for leverage to stand up again.

“Ouch, you-stupid-dick,” she hissed, smacking him in the legs.

“Shut the hell up, both of you!” I yanked out my phone and pressed the emergency button and handed it to Ava. “Get the sheriff here right now. Tell him there’s been a break in and someone is in trouble. Then get back into the Jeep.”

Travis straightened up and scratched at the vomit that was smashed all over his cheek. “But you’re the cops.”

I rushed past him. “And I need more of me. Right now! Call them. Maddie’s in trouble.”

He laughed loudly. “Maddie’s always in trouble.”

I spun on him wildly. “Not with the men inside her house. They’re going to kill her if I don’t stop them. Call the fucking police.”

Thank God Ava was already on my phone and telling someone the address. Fear gripped my insides thinking she might be ordering a damned pizza—but there wasn’t time to make sure. I needed to get to Maddie.

Travis wavered next to her as I ran to the other side of the house. His bottle of liquor slid from his grip and plunked onto the grass in front of him.

I ran along the side of the house until I got to the back and the first open window I could find. Punching a hole in the screen, I yanked at it until it ripped into a big enough hole for me to climb through. I pulled myself up and through and dropped to the floor hard.

I looked up and saw Maddie holding a lamp in her hands, ready to bean anyone who came in the door. “Get out of here,” she said, waving me away. “They want to kill you!”

Just outside the door we could hear Cardarrio and someone else trying to stop the bleeding.

“Do you hear me?” she whispered. “They want to kill you!”

“So?” I smirked, “I’m here to save you.”

She ripped the shade off the lamp and threw it at me. “I’ve been holding my own here.”

I pulled in a deep breath and smiled at her. She
was
holding her own, wasn’t she? “Yeah, I’ve noticed. Are you hurt?”

“Nope. Just a little pissed that he got to see my boobs,” she growled. Then, her lips pulled up into a smile. “But I made sure he couldn’t hurt me.”

“Yeah, now I’m going to kill him,” I said, moving toward the door to open it. Sirens wailed somewhere along the road. For a few seconds, I had worried that Ava would call the wrong place. Thank God, it wasn’t the pizza guy.

“Trust me, he only has twenty more minutes to live. Who the fuck are they?” she asked, smacking my hand away from the doorknob.

“Those are the bad guys,” I smirked. “Did you notice if they had guns?”

“Yeah, both of them did,” she whispered.

The sirens got closer.

“I need you out of this house right now,” I said, grabbing onto her waist and dragging her to the window. “My Jeep is at the opening of your driveway. Travis and Ava are outside somewhere, drunk.”

Tires crunched over gravel and red and blue lights flashed outside. Car doors opened and closed, and I knew the cabin was being surrounded. She dropped the lamp to the floor, leaned against the sill of the window just about to climb out. Then, she stopped.

“Climb out the window. Now!” I snapped.

“Are you coming?” she asked.

“No!”

“Then I’m staying with you,” she said, picking up the lamp again and standing back up.

“Are you insane? Get out the window,” I said, shoving her against it. She slipped out of my grasp and scrambled over the bed and next to the door again.

Quick footsteps thundered down the hallway on the other side of the door. She had no vest on, she had no protective gear, and standing just on the other side of that door was a man with a gun and a fucked up vendetta against me. “Get down flat,” I hissed as I threw myself toward her.

Before I could reach her, I watched as the door splintered open with one strong kick. It swung inward and slammed against the wall at the same time Maddie swung the lamp directly into Paulie Galutto’s face. Slow motion blood splattered out of his nose, and the sound of crushed cartilage and bone slammed into my ears. He dropped to the floor instantly, and the gun he was holding clunked down next to him.