Leaving Las Vegas (Entangled Ignite) (18 page)

They were so close to Beaux she could almost taste it, the warm cinnamon rolls she sold down at the diner, the clean scent of fresh-cut grass, and the sweet perfume that rolled off the lake.

Underneath it all there was a scent she was only beginning to recognize as Luke’s, more than the crisp bouquet of laundry detergent and clean soap. His scent was an earthy, masculine presence that had her salivating.

“Talk to me.” A murmur in her ear.

Talk to him? She bit her lip, trying to concentrate on anything other than the way his voice made her heart pound and her knees knock. If she’d thought sleeping with him the night before would take the edge off her lust, then she’d been wrong. It was more than just simple lust. After a few days together, she knew that the man was a good listener, quiet and thoughtful. He would listen to anything she had to say—whether it was a story about winning the apple pie competition at the county fair or the way she’d cried in the shower after telling him they were over. “About what?”

“I don’t know. What did you say friends talk about?” He paused for a long moment. “Stuff? Tell me stuff.”

“Um…sure.” She tightened her grip on the handlebars. “
Stuff
. I’m thinking of making buffalo chili for tomorrow’s lunch special. It’s not in my usual rotation—chili’s labor-intensive—but I’ll need something to keep my hands busy. After you leave.”

They’d passed the old oak and she’d slowed down, ready for the sharp turns ahead. Concentrating on the road in front of her, she almost didn’t see the black SUV tucked in among some bushes when they came around a corner. Oh God
.
Tiffanette.

Luke’s hired muscle was supposed to be guarding every road into town, but apparently they’d missed the old fire road. The motorcycle was going too fast for her to brake. To turn tail and race off. In an instant, they’d passed the SUV. She heard the rev of a motor, then the SUV veered into the middle of the road behind her, a dark blotch in the rearview mirror. The bike should have been faster than the car, but shock had stolen Glory’s confidence.

There was no way to stop. No way she could shake it off her tail. Nerves had her hands moving right and her body moving left.

The bike skidded out of control.

A horrendous screech filled her ears, and then silence.

The last thing she saw before the lights went out was Luke, tumbling over the side of the road, falling straight down the steep embankment.

Chapter Twenty-one

Luke’s head ached. A lot.

“Your sister won’t like this.” A man’s voice.

“My sister’s not here. That’s the point,” a female voice responded.

For a moment Luke thought Glory was standing beside him, the woman’s voice was so recognizable. Then he realized that the woman who’d just spoken had a slight lisp—not enough to make her hard to understand, but definitely noticeable. His eyes flickered open, blinking against the bright light. If there was a roof above him, then he couldn’t see it. His head throbbed and his arm felt like it was going to fall off.

The surface he was laid out spread-eagle on was hard. It dug into his back. He turned over on his side, letting out a soft groan when his bare arm brushed against hot metal. At least now he could tell where he was. No hospital bed, no pretty nurses bringing him fancy drugs. Just the scarred bed of an elderly pickup truck. He tried to take a deep breath and ended up coughing instead.

“I think he’s waking up.” A third voice. Another man. This one closer.

“Don’t be insane.” The woman might not be Glory, but they had similar speech patterns. “That was a major-league fall. There’s no way he recovered this quickly.”

“He’s moving around, making noise.”

“That’s not right. I want him to stay unconscious.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen, Ashley. Not unless you want me to knock him out.”

A shadow moved overhead and then a man was there in front of Luke, crouching down to take a closer look at him. “How are you doing?” Dark hair and a friendly expression. The man extended a hand. “Benji Allen. Nice to meet you.”

Luke didn’t shake hands. He was finding it hard to stay awake, but he’d be damned if he gave Ashley the satisfaction of his drifting back into unconsciousness. He had yet to officially meet the eldest Allen sister, but if she was planning on doing something that her sister wouldn’t like, then he was going to stay awake long enough to stop her.

“Glory.” He’d finally managed to force his lips apart. A soft wheeze. “Where’s Glory?”

“A woman has her,” Benji said. “Someone from out of town.”

Luke waited a beat, but that was all the man had to say. It was all he needed to say. If Glory’s kidnapper had been from Beaux then the townsfolk wouldn’t be gathered around him, arguing about what Glory would or wouldn’t want them to do. They’d be riding out, ready to make war on whatever foul fiend had dared to disturb the peace.

No one from Beaux would ever want to kidnap Glory. The town loved her.

“Tiffanette.”

The black SUV had been waiting for them on the road into town. His security team was good, but apparently they hadn’t accounted for fire roads and secret shortcuts. He forced himself into a sitting position, then put a hand to his head to try to stop the spinning. Dozens of men and women—of every age, race, and dress—were gathered around the truck, blocking the streets in every direction.

“Tiffanette,” he repeated, in case they hadn’t heard the first time. “She wants the money.” His throat was dry. There was a dull throb coming from his left leg, but otherwise he felt surprisingly good for a man who’d just been tossed off the side of a cliff.

“You’re not completely wrong,” The blonde near the front of the truck said.

He blinked, working to make his vision not go all blurry.

Ashley Allen was a cupcake in a frothy pink sundress. Her hair was the color of spun sunlight, her perfectly pursed lips a deep cherry, and her cheeks a soft blush that made her look innocent. All in all, she had the appearance of a child’s doll. His mother would love her, but to him, Ashley lacked her sister’s vibrant expression and raw appeal. But he knew better than to be fooled by the sweet exterior—this woman had a spine of steel.

It took everything Luke had to climb out of the truck bed. He couldn’t be sitting down while he talked to Ashley, trying to explain how he’d let her younger sister get taken. Ashley might be the mayor, but Glory was—

Glory was everything. She was sweetness and light with the primal beauty of a goddess and the temperament of a red-hot firecracker. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.

“But she wants more than money,” Ashley said. “She wants you. And I’m of a mind to give you to her.”

“Knock it off, Ashley.” A sharp reprimand from the man at Ashley’s side. A tall man in a well-tailored suit. He had blue eyes too, but they were a pale color. He extended a hand. “Hank Monroe.”

Great. The ex-fiancé. The world was spinning, but Luke refused to fall down. He took a deep breath, forcing air into his lungs. “How did I get here?”

“I found you.” Benji lifted a hand, waving merrily. “I was…uh…walking in the woods…uh, minding my own business…definitely
not
looking for a place to test sparklers. You come rolling on down the mountainside. Landed right next to my truck. Un-freaking-believable. Of course we didn’t know who you were until that woman called—”

“She called my house,” Ashley said. “She said she had my sister, and she offered to ransom her for a man named Luke Morrison. I explained reasonably—”

Snorts from the crowd said exactly how reasonable everyone thought she had been.

“I explained that I didn’t know anyone named Luke Morrison, and she was kind enough to give me your particulars. When Benji showed up with some fool in the back of his truck, I figured you were the one she was after. I told him to take you straight over to this Tiffanette woman. Unfortunately, he’s a
moron
.” Another sniff. Apparently she didn’t think much of Benji’s ability to follow orders.

Comments from the peanut gallery. Everyone had something to say about that pronouncement. Some of them agreed, others said that Benji had done the right thing by bringing Luke down into town.

Benji jumped down from the side of the truck, landing spritely on the ground. “Glory wouldn’t agree to this. She’d never allow herself to be traded for another person.”

“Glory’s not here. She doesn’t get a vote.” Ashley wasn’t just sniffing anymore, she was outright snarling. “I’m the one who’s going to decide what we’re doing. I am the
mayor
.” Apparently, being mayor wasn’t that big of a deal because no one seemed to be paying much attention. Her nostrils flared. “I can do this.”

“What about Hallie?” Benji asked. “Did you call Hallie to see what she thinks?”

“No!”

Staring at her, Luke was surprised by how delicate the oldest Allen sister looked. Fragile. Breakable. Ashley might be the mayor, but Luke realized she was also a woman in a strange situation. Unable to handle being responsible for her sister’s welfare.

“Hallie would probably strap a bomb to her chest and get everyone killed,” Ashley said. “I am not Hallie. I am not Glory. I am not my grandmother.” Her cheeks flushed a deep red. “I am making this decision.”

Somewhere in the distance, Luke could hear dogs barking and birds singing. The street they were standing on was not a residential area. It looked like something out of a picture book, with bright goods packed into brick storefronts. Small-town living at its finest.

He could see why a developer would want to turn it into a resort area. The place was too cute for words. People would pay a lot of money to experience this kind of charm. Of course, if that happened, then Kaylie’s Klothing and The Hungry Bear: Bread, Wine, and Bait would be replaced by a Banana Republic and a Starbucks. As a casino owner and a hotel developer, he knew that development was a good thing; it brought people and employment to an area.

Not this area. Not this town. Not in a place that Glory loved, in a place where everyone in town stopped whatever they were doing when they heard that she was in trouble.

His entire life he’d been so careful, always treading the line to stay out of danger. He wasn’t the one in danger. Glory was. He couldn’t imagine a world without her smile.

No. That wasn’t quite true. He couldn’t imagine
his
world without Glory in it.

“I’ll go.” He stared down Ashley. “I’ll trade myself for Glory.”

Another round of shouting. Everyone in town seemed to have something to say about that. Peering through a parent’s legs, a tow-haired boy took his thumb out of his mouth. “I want Miss Glory back. She gives me free brownies.”

“You know why Tiffanette’s doing all this?” Ashley asked him.

“She’s working with someone.” The fact that he still didn’t know who it was gnawed at him. His jaw clenched. His gaze narrowed. “Someone who doesn’t care if she brings me in dead or alive.”

Turning himself over to Tiffanette at the poker game had been the smart thing to do. He thought she’d ransom him quickly. Now he knew better. Walking into whatever dank pit Tiffanette and her men had holed up in would mean striding straight toward certain death. Shot in the head just like his father…over greed and foolishness.

He’d read the book, seen the movie. He knew how the story ended. No one was going to save him.

Growing up, he’d always known that people were out to get him. It wasn’t paranoia if it was true, and in Las Vegas there was always a hungry gambler on the street eager to make a buck. There’d been threats starting the day he was born, desperate men who’d do anything to get their markers paid off. Underneath it all had been the darkness of violence and possible oblivion.

Not everything was about money. That’s what Glory had told him a few hours earlier.

She’d also said something else.

Sometimes people get ideas stuck in their head, and it makes them blind to what’s really important.

An image formed in the back of his mind. A face, puffed up and red, angry at having lost one too many times.

Chester
.

Luke’s stepfather didn’t need the money, but he’d been pissed as hell when he lost the auction for Cleopatra’s Asp. He wanted to be one of the biggest casino owners in Las Vegas, and his plans to increase his holdings had started with Cleopatra’s Asp. The man had placed all his chips on black and lost. Chester had lived in the shadow of Luke’s father for too long. He was desperate to make his own spotlight.

The man wasn’t exactly Michael Corleone, but a clever man who’d managed to last a long time in the moral wasteland of Las Vegas business. A man with the resources to finance a complicated kidnapping scenario.

A desperate man whose plans had fallen to pieces in front of him.

Desperate men were unpredictable, dangerous.

And that was the man who had
Glory
.

“I’m going after her,” Luke stated. “Alone.”

That sparked another round of debate. All over the street, heads were shaking and tongues were wagging.

“No,” Hank said. “Not happening.”

Ashley was more on point. “I’ll be damned if I leave my sister’s fate in the hands of some lily-livered, soft-handed, fancy-pants man. Someone whose name I didn’t even know until today.” Her hands clenched into fists. “He’s probably as culpable as the people who took her. This is all part of some harebrained scheme to get my sister and our town.”

He took a deep breath, struggling to remain in control of his emotions. To keep all the emotions raging within him from erupting in so much storm and thunder. “I met Glory three days ago. I thought she was loudmouthed, proud, and reckless.”

Snickers from the gathered townsfolk. Glory might be their hero, but they had no illusions.

“I knew she cheated at cards.”

That got a genuine laugh from a clown near the back, stifled a moment later by the people standing near him. The action-packed days that he’d spent in Glory’s company—something new happening every minute—had been like a fantasy. The kind of thing he’d only ever read about in adventure novels or seen in James Bond movies. Action, violence, and red-hot lust that was like fire in his veins.

The best parts had been sitting in the car next to Glory, listening to the radio and talking about nothing in particular. He could talk to her about nothing for days on end.

He couldn’t leave her in Chester’s grasping hands.

Luke faced Ashley head-on. “That’s just some of what I love about her—” Realization broke over him in waves. “I love Glory.” The truth was easy to say. “I’m
in love
with Glory, and I’ll do anything for her. If that means turning myself over to a crazy woman or catching the next ship to the moon!”

He shoved his hands in pockets, suddenly aware that he’d been shouting. Displaying emotion was a sign of weakness. If people knew what he cared about, then they’d take advantage, they’d use it against him.

Only these people cared about the same thing.

Glory.

Suddenly, he realized what she’d been trying to tell him all along. Friendship. Community. No matter how good hired security was, they didn’t have the kind of local knowledge necessary to protect a country town. When the chips were down, these were the people he could trust.

“On the other hand.” He took a deep breath. “Just because I’m going to do something stupid doesn’t mean that I have to do it stupidly. I think I have an idea.”