Fearless (Broken Love Book 5) (18 page)

“We’re here,” he singsonged.

“I’m being kidnapped,” I reminded dryly. “I don’t need a running commentary.” My head kept replaying the sight of Dash lying there so still. The agony of not knowing had consumed me since I was forced to leave him.

“You have a lot of mouth. I wonder how your little boyfriend shuts you up. I bet he sticks his cock in that pretty little mouth of yours. Keep it up, little girl, and I’ll do the same.”

The last thing I wanted was for him to touch me again. Unfortunately, he had to in order to get me from the car. He walked me up short steps, and then I heard a door open followed by another. I guessed he took me to a house and I prayed it wasn’t his. If I got out of this alive, I’d be scrubbing my skin nonstop for at least a week. 

The bag was suddenly snatched from my head, and I immediately looked around for an exit. He had me in a room that was surprisingly clean. “Sit,” he ordered and remembering his threat, I didn’t hesitate. “She obeys. He’s trained you well.”

Trained me? Am I a dog?

I decided to keep the retort to myself and held still as he removed the zip tie. I was surprised he was taking chances. Maybe he wasn’t used to kidnapping. Either way, I intended to use my freedom of movement to get away first chance I got. With as much subtlety as I could muster, I looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon.

“Don’t think about it, or I’ll kill you as soon as I have what I want from your boyfriend.”

“Aren’t you anyway?”

“Maybe. Or maybe I’d hate to see a pretty thing like you go to waste. I always thought you were sexy. I wanted you in the worst way.”

“We’ve only met once.”

“I’m sure your boyfriend knew,” he said, ignoring my response. “I’m sure it’s the real reason he tried to bash my head in with a chair. He probably couldn’t care less about his precious niece.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. He wouldn’t kill you because I wouldn’t want him to, but he’d chop your heart into little pieces for her.”

“That’s touching but enough stalling. We have a job to do.”

“He’s not going to confess to a murder he didn’t do. You won’t intimidate him.”

“But I can persuade him.”

“How could you possibly persuade him to—
Oh…
”

“Yes, little lady. Oh.”

KEIRAN

I needed out.
I thought I’d be okay knowing Lake was out and safe, but now I needed to see for myself that she was okay. She looked off during the hearing and not because she was concerned about me. I needed to know what caused this new fear I sensed.

I never wanted to be back here. Never thought I would be. In a way, Lake had screwed me. I cared for my future and no longer ran from my past. Consequently, I lost what it took to survive this place. Prison would be worse. I’d need to fight—possibly kill—to survive but I’d never get her out of my head. She was a permanent part of me.

My cell door opening provided me escape from my inner turmoil. “You have a visitor.”

I smiled at the thought of Lake fulfilling my need to see her. Only a few hours had passed since she’d been released. I gave Dash strict instructions not to let her leave Nevada for any reason, not that she could. I figured she’d be back to tell me how stupid I was for being okay with all this.

I made my way to the visitor room and tried to hide my disappointment at the sight of my brother sitting at the table instead. His hands were fisted, covering the bottom half of his face. His head was down so he didn’t see me approach.

“What’s going on?”

When his head lifted at the sound of my voice, and I got the first glance at his teary gaze, I nearly lost it. Keenan was known to be overly emotional but there were only two times I remember seeing him like this—the day he found out I killed our mother and the day he almost lost Sheldon in a car crash.

“I—there was—fuck.” He stumbled over words even as his eyes filled with more tears.

“Spit. It. Out.” His undoing was provoking mine. I knew this was bad, and I wasn’t all that sure anymore that I wanted to know.

“Dash, man. He was shot after the hearing.”

Every fiber of my being crumbled into a questionable existence. My mind couldn’t quite piece together all he was telling me. It was probably why I didn’t move or speak for far too long.

Dash had been shot after the hearing.

I didn’t need to ask if his injuries were serious. The emotional state of my brother was enough to go on, but then it clicked.

Lake had been with Dash. He was supposed to take her somewhere safe, but something happened to him. I could have very well lost my best friend, but my mind was now stuck on one thing.

“Where’s Lake?”

“We don’t know. We do know she was with him when he was shot. She sent a message to the group just before he was shot.”

“What did it say?”

“Summit County Hospital. It’s where Dash was found shot in the parking garage.”

“That doesn’t make sense. Why would she be at the hospital in Summit?” I knew Keenan wouldn’t have these answers with Dash injured and Lake missing, but the questions that tormented my mind spilled out anyway.

Guilt was already chipping away at what remained of it. I was given a family to care about with the same in return. I was supposed to keep them safe. Instead, my best friend was probably dying, and the girl who fearlessly chased away my monsters was missing.

I finally realized they were safer when I walked among the monsters, so I stopped running away from the inevitable. I knew what I had to do.

“Find whoever touched them, and I’ll kill them. I’ll do it. I don’t care if I have to destroy my goddamn soul in the process.”

There was no turning back.

I let the monsters back in.

* * *

Keenan had looked
on in disappointment before he silently stood up from the table and left. I waited for the guard to come for me and led me back to my cell. When the bars loudly shut behind me, I embraced the darkness of my heart once again and melded with the shadows of the cell. I leaned my forearms against the concrete wall and hid my face. I willed myself to breathe when all I wanted was to kill.

I was useless behind bars and as helpless as Lake and Dash, but if I had to keep the motherfucker who tried to take them from me on ice for twenty years, I’d welcome the anticipation.

“Inmate!” The nightstick hitting my cell door caught my attention and pulled me back to temporary sanity. “You’re popular today. You have another visitor.”

I ran through the list of people it could be and came up short. Thompson had to return to Seattle to wrap up a case. I was led back to the visiting room I had left only an hour ago. When I walked inside, I stopped short, taken aback once again.

I might have been staring at a ghost. She sat ramrod straight with her attention on a man sitting next to her. I blinked hard to clear my vision of the reddening haze. I recognized him instantly as the PI behind Kennedy’s kidnapping and John’s death. I still wasn’t sure whether to believe the latter considering the source it had come from.

He looked up at the same time she did. I knew she sensed me. Her body tensed when she found me standing there, but my attention wasn’t on her. It was focused on the grinning fucker who also stared back at me. When he reached up to twirl a lock of her hair, I lost it.

I rushed forward, intending to kill him here and now. Turns out, I wouldn’t have to wait twenty years after all.

No one saw me make my move. They were all oblivious. It was the perfect window of opportunity. I could practically smell his blood, but then Lake stood up, her chair scraping the floor as it slid backward. The plea held within in her blue-green eyes won me over.

Damn her.

“Why?” I growled at her—or rather, the monsters did. They smelled blood and retribution.

“This isn’t you anymore,” she reminded.

I snarled at her and watched her shrink back. “You’re wrong. It is me. It always has been.” She knew what her disappearance had done to me. What if Dash didn’t make it?

“I hate to break up this moment, but I’m not here for this shit. Sit.”

“Fuck you.” I’d be damned if I obeyed and took the commands given to a dog.

“No, I don’t think so, but you will sit.” He gripped Lake tighter than necessary, and she stifled a cry. I picked up on his subtle threat to use her against me. I gritted my teeth and sat after noticing a nearby guard’s attention was focused on our table.

“Let her go.” My hands itched to get his hands off her. He had to be six shades of stupid to touch what’s mine.

“I will as soon as you give me what I want.”

“Which is?”

“I want you to plead guilty to the murder of your father.”

“What do you know about his murder?”

“I killed him, son. Isn’t it obvious?” he scoffed as if he were truly affronted.

“What’s not obvious is why you think I’d plead guilty to his murder?”

He nodded his head at Lake who wisely remained silent the entire time. I knew the shock of my backward slide into darkness was what had her nearly catatonic. “Because I’ll make her suffer to the very last moment. I’ll fuck her, too. I’m curious to know what kind of treasure lies underneath her tight clothing. She might as well be wearing nothing. She’s just as sexy in or out.”

“You’re not going to touch her.”

“I beg to differ. Maybe I’ll touch her anyway as a bargaining chip not to kill her.”

“You touch her, then you might as well kill her. She’ll be useless to me.” I heard her intake of breath and willed myself not to look at her. One look would give everything away.

“That’s funny you say that. She seemed confident in your love for her just hours ago.”

I knew men like Greg. He was going to kill her, and possibly rape her, whether I pled guilty or not. It was in his eyes. As soon as he left here and got her alone, he’d rape and kill her. I hated what I had to do but Lake was alone. I was stuck in here and everyone was preoccupied with Dash’s shooting. No one would be able to save her, including me.

“She a fucking chick. I take good care of my toys, and she’s a decent fuck. Her virginity was a bonus and kept me around. I’m a killer, motherfucker, not a lover.”

I did look at her then and tried to convey the reality of her situation. I just hoped she didn’t wait until the last minute to realize just how alone she was. She was going to have to save herself.

I held Greg’s stare, but my next words were for her. “I’m stuck behind bars. I can’t fight, so you do what you have to do. You’ll win.”

LAKE

In the face
of fear once more, I battled with the natural instinct to falter and the foreign need to fight. Keiran had sat and watched us go with a grave look in his eyes. When Greg’s back was turned, I pushed aside the hurt and took one last look at him. He smiled a sad smile that didn’t reach his eyes and mouthed, ‘I love you.’

My mouth fell open with the realization that it had all been bullshit.

An act.

I was too wrapped up in the hurtful words he spoke to see the truth. I replayed the conversation between him and Greg and the look he gave me just before Greg snatched me away from the table.

What had he really been trying to say?

Greg ended the visit before he could say more. I knew he was going to kill me, and there was nothing I could do about it. 

“I’m stuck behind bars. I can’t fight so you do what you have to do. You’ll win.”

It clicked.

It all fucking clicked.

He wanted me to fight back.

I had to win—for him, me and for what may be our future. I absently slid my hand across my belly, temporarily forgetting the detachment I had forced myself to feel.

“Your boyfriend fucked up bad. Either that was complete bullshit or you are one deluded chick to believe he is in love with you. I almost felt sorry for you.” I was brought back to reality by his gruff voice and rough handling as he pulled us across the street.

This was my cue.

My first stand for survival.

“I—I just don’t understand. I thought he loved me.”

“Chick’s always think it’s love.”

I sniffled to showcase my woe while silently wondering if he knew he was too old to still refer to women as chicks.

“All those years wasted thinking we had something special. I’d never been anything more than his whore.”

“Maybe killing you will be doing you a favor,” he stated as he pushed me against the car and yanked my hands behind me. With them hidden, he secured the zip tie once more and shoved me inside his musty car, but not before pushing his groin against my ass. I revolted at the feel of him harden.

Keep it together.

Be distraught.

“Please let me go. I’m not important to him. Can’t you see I’ve suffered enough?”

“I’m sorry, darling, but I have to be sure he’s not trying to pull the wool over my eyes.” He didn’t put the bag back over my head and when he started the car and drove off, he pulled out his gun and rested it on his thigh closest to the door. I eyed it and wondered at my chances of getting to it and not killing us both in the process.

He drove us nearly an hour out of town and into the middle of nowhere. I wasn’t familiar with the area, but I did recognize the terror pooling in my stomach. He made a sudden right when the blood flow from my veins to my head ceased. After only a short distance, he finally stopped.

“This is the end of the line, girly.” He reached for his gun, and I searched my brain for a way out.

“Wait!” I held out my hands to ward him off.

“No stalling,” he grinned and pointed the gun at my head.

“He has money!” The hammer clicked.

“You’re lying.”

“You know who his father is. Their family has money.”

“Mitch was broke. He couldn’t pay for the hit on his brother so…”

“But their family isn’t. Keiran and his brother inherited a large fortune when they turned twenty-one. His brother keeps a safe and I know the code.”

“How much are we talking about?”

“A hundred grand.” I let the lie roll off my tongue and hoped he believed me.

He whistled and chortled, “That’s a lot of cash. Do you think I’m stupid?”

Not only are you stupid but you’re greedy, too. “N—no of course not. It’s true, and if it’s not, you can kill me on the spot.” He didn’t reply and the silence unnerved me, but when he pulled the gun away, I released the breath I’d been holding.

“If you’re lying, I intend to do just that.”

* * *

He didn’t drive
straight to Six Forks, cutting my victory celebration at not dying sooner than later short. It wasn’t until we arrived at a small, white two-story house that I realized why.

A little boy with dark hair was angrily yanking on the chain of his bike with a scowl as Greg pulled me from the car. I watched him curiously. Something about him seemed familiar. He didn’t look up, but I knew he was aware of us because he stopped yanking on the chain. He kept his head low but his breathing deepened with short angry breaths.

Greg ignored him completely, pulling me to the front door and knocking. I looked around for neighbors or anyone who could help.

“Don’t try anything or I will shoot you on the spot.”

The door opened and an older man with a rough looking mustache and bald head answered. He searched my face with disinterest before turning drunken eyes to my kidnapper.

“This her?” he slurred. He was definitely drunk.

“Yeah.” He shoved me inside without warning causing me to stumble to the floor. “She says there’s money and a shit ton of it.”

“How much?”

“Hundred grand. What do you think?”

“She’s lying.” My heart felt as if it were thrown into overdrive at his answer. I could feel them both watching me. “Laurie says he paid her fifty just to lie in court. I think we can get more.”

He must have been Robert, Laurie’s husband.

“Shit. You might be right.” I didn’t have time to process the new information. I felt a boot on my ribs that he used to shove me off my knees and gain my attention. He looked down at me with clenched teeth when I looked up. “I want everything that’s in that safe.”

“It’s not as if I can stop you,” I retorted.

“She’s got a mouth on her. Reminds me of Laurie before I beat it out of her.” My fists clenched at the hidden threat, but it wasn’t only me upset by it. Greg’s nostrils flared at the mention of Laurie and the abuse she had suffered. I almost snorted. It wasn’t as if he was a crusader against women’s abuse.

“Uncle Greg?” The soft, familiar voice of the little girl standing at the bottom of the staircase brought us all out of the moment.

Cassie.

She looked terrified as she faced her father who drunkenly scowled down at her. “I thought I told you to stay in the room.”

“I heard voices.”

“That’s because grown-ups are talking, now get,” he ordered too viciously to be speaking to a ten-year-old.

She turned to go, but then her gaze landed on me, sealing her fate. Recognition brought hope, moving her forward while I wished her away.

“Lake? Did you come to take us home now?”

“I said get,” her father roared and slapped her. She cried out as she fell to the floor, but she never even looked at him. Her gaze remained fixed on me as she silently pled for help just before she ran to the back.

“What the fuck, brother? She’s a kid—
your
kid. You shouldn’t be hurting them.”

Robert turned angry eyes on his brother. Resentment and distrust burned brightly in his dark brown eyes. “I can do whatever the fuck I want to them. They’re mine.” He paused and I could practically see the evil glow through his eyes. “That goes for their mother, too.”

“Until you kill her,” Greg shot back with equal disdain. The wheels in my head started turning as they prepared for battle.

“Maybe then you’ll stop believing she’ll ever be yours. She’ll never be yours. I’ll kill her first. “

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Robert poked him in his chest and drunkenly swayed. “I’m talking about you believing that Laurie is yours. She doesn’t love you, little brother, and she never will. She’s mine.”

“Really? Have you asked her lately how she feels or have you just been beating her so you can scare her into staying.”

That was an opening. I inhaled, released, and decided to take it.

“I think I can answer that.” They both redirected their attention to me.

“What do you know about it?”

“It’s simple. She’s in love with Greg and has been for at least four years.” I looked between them, waiting for the blow to settle.

“She said that?” Greg asked.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Robert spat.

I decided to focus on Robert. He would be the one to save my life. “I know that Maddie isn’t yours.” I turned on the younger brother and challenged him with my stare. “Is she, Greg?”

“You little bitch. I will kill you right here. Money be damn—”

A drunken fist thrown across his jaw stopped him from finishing. The force sent him to the floor with a hard thud. “Is that true?” Robert roared.

“You don’t deserve her. She loves me,” Greg yelled back. I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. The scene was like two little boys fighting over a toy. If this played well, neither of them would see her again anyway.

They squared off again, allowing me to rise to my feet unnoticed. Greg still had a surprisingly steady grip on his gun, which he held by his side.

“She’s a whore fucking two brothers and you believed she’s in love with you?”

“What you and she had died a long time ago when you couldn’t consume anything that didn’t come in a liquor bottle.”

“No. It died the day you shoved your cock inside my wife.” They charged again and clashed, toppling the furniture and breaking anything in their path. It was the perfect opening I needed to run, but then I heard the faint sound of crying travel down the stairs and reminded myself that this was for them, too. I couldn’t leave them.

Robert sent another blow to Greg’s face, surprisingly holding his own in his drunken state. I looked around and realized I was close to the kitchen entrance. The kitchen had knives. A knife meant protection. I inched into the kitchen and tore open every drawer I could reach until I located the jackpot. Finding the biggest one, I snatched it and returned in time to see Robert gain control and snatch the gun from his brother who looked badly beaten.

Yes.
I silently pleaded with him to let the rage consume him. When he hesitated too long, I hid the knife under my shirt and searched for the perfect catalyst until the evil thought formulated.

“Robert,” I called softly to avoid spooking him. “You need to do it. He’ll just take the money, the girls… Laurie. He’ll steal it all and leave you behind. He even gloated about it when I told him about the money.”

“She’s not going anywhere.”

I schooled my face and lowered my voice further until I oozed sympathy. “But she has to.” He watched and waited for the answer. After I survived this, I would question how far I’d gone and probably even mourn the lost part of my conscience, but right now, I was in survival mode. “He plans to kill you once you help him get the money. Why do you think he came here instead of straight to the money? I’m one girl. He didn’t need help.” I may have possessed half their strength making me no match physically, but I had the ability to mind fuck them until they defeated each other.

“That’s a lie,” Greg shouted.

“When you’re dead, they are planning to elope so they can spend the rest of their lives together living with all the riches you ever wanted. Isn’t that why you turned to alcohol?” I baited, remembering what Keiran had told me about him. “Laurie told me so when she told me she’s pregnant…with
Greg’s
baby.” I lowered my gaze with sympathy and said, “I’m sorry, Robert, but I’m afraid you’re already out of the picture.”

Just shoot him already.

“Not if he’s dead.” He pulled the trigger, sending a bullet into Greg’s prone body.

I worked for it, but I hadn’t prepared for it.

The shock of what I’d done paralyzed me, but then the girl’s scream echoed from the upper level so I made my move.

His back was turned, so I plunged the knife straight down the back of his neck and because I wasn’t taking chances, I stabbed him deep a second time. He was dead before he hit the floor. The knife fell from my hands as I took a step back and studied him for signs of life. What disturbed me the most was that I didn’t feel any different.

Movement from a few feet away snatched my attention from the guy I
knew
was dead to the guy I
thought
was dead.

“I need a hospital,” he groaned while clutching his stomach.

“Why would I do that?”

“You’re not a killer,” he seethed.

“Your dead brother a few feet away regrettably argues.”

“That was a clever move, bitch. Now take me to the hospital.”

“I didn’t have reason to kill him, but I have more than enough reasons to kill you.” I stepped over his dead brother and picked up the gun. Pointing it at him, I cocked my head. “So why wouldn’t I?”

“Because I can help your boyfriend.”

“How?”

“I’ll turn myself in and confess to his father’s murder.”