by Becca Van
The moment she stepped out onto the porch and saw her sister sitting in the truck, the panic surged up until she was so frightened she felt as if she was about to pass out, pee her pants, or vomit.
“Get away! Save yourself,” Kat screamed and shook her head, but of course with the cloth in and over her mouth, all that came out was muffled noises.
Niki took a stumbling step forward and then another and another until she was standing at the bottom of the steps leading to the rickety porch.
“So nice of you to join us, Nikita,” Carter said affably. “Won’t you come in?”
Kat began to struggle, but that just earned her more pain when Carter tapped the butt of his gun to the back of her head. She gagged as excruciating pain caused her stomach to heave, but luckily she was able to control the urge to spew. If she was sick, she was going to drown in her own vomit. She wasn’t about to give the sick fuck the satisfaction of dying unless it was by his hand.
Niki met her gaze with a steady one of her own and in that moment, Kat knew her sister was armed. The only question she wanted answered was, would her sister be fast enough so that neither of them ended up getting shot and killed?
All of her father’s men had been trained to shoot whatever they aimed at.
Carter stepped back from the doorway, keeping Kat in front of him to use her as a human shield. Kat kept her gaze locked onto her sister, ready for Niki to make her move. It didn’t matter that she was cuffed and had rope around her ankles. She had a brain and a body, and if necessary, she’d dive on the bastard holding her hostage to keep Niki safe.
With his arm still locked around her waist so hard he was hurting her, Carter walked her into the cabin and kicked the door closed behind him. The slamming door startled Kat, and she couldn’t help flinching. Niki had walked across the room and was standing with her back to the hardwood wall. She had her palms pressed against the timber and the certainty that Niki had a gun and was waiting for the right moment to make her move coursed through her.
“What do you want?” Niki asked in a cold voice.
“First of all, you can slowly reach to the small of your back and remove the gun you have in your pants,” Carter ordered. “If you so much as aim it at me, I’ll shoot your sister.” He pressed the muzzle of the gun under her swollen chin, and Kat groaned as pain shot up into her head. She had the headache from hell, and every time the asshole did something to her, it just got worse and worse. It was so bad now that her vision was blurry. She was cold and sweaty at the same time and wondered if she’d ever be warm again.
It took her a couple of seconds to comprehend what Carter had said, and she blinked up at him with surprise. Gone was the dumb blank look he used to wear whenever she’d seen him about her father’s mansion. In its place was a cold, calculating intelligence she’d never expected to see.
Her fear rose when she realized that Darren Carter wasn’t as stupid as he’d made out. Goosebumps raced over her flesh, and a frisson of alarm skated up her spine. Kat had a feeling he was far more dangerous than Vinnie Ramos, Thaddeus Simmonds, and Matteo Russo put together.
* * * *
Niki glanced at Kat with desperate fear. She didn’t want to give Carter the gun, but she saw no other option. She’d been so sure that she’d be able to take the fucker down before he was even aware she was armed, but he was a lot smarter than she’d given him credit for.
She wished with all her heart that her men were here, but there was still hope since Hes had called her and she’d told him where she was. What she hadn’t had time to tell him was who had kidnapped her sister in broad daylight. How the fucker had managed that without anyone seeing was anyone’s guess.
“Now, Nikita!” Carter commanded in a deadly voice.
Her heart was pounding and she was breathing way too fast, but no matter what she did to slow them down, it didn’t work. Kat had a gun to her head, and she would do anything and everything she was told to keep her sister alive.
With slow, cautious movements, Niki gripped the gun, pulled it from her pants, then dropped her arm to her side.
“Put it on the floor and kick it toward me,” Carter ordered.
Without taking her eyes from him and her sister, Niki bent, carefully, put the gun on the floor, and nudged it toward him with her foot. She hadn’t meant to shove it so far away from her, hoping she’d be able to get to it and take Carter down, but her trembling leg had jerked and now the gun was too far away.
“Move a few steps away from the wall and kneel.”
Niki took a couple of shuffling steps closer and began to kneel. She ended up falling onto her knees when her shaking legs buckled, but she bit her tongue to keep from gasping when pain shot up her legs.
Carter reached behind him and tossed a pair of handcuffs at her. He laughed when the cold hard metal hit her in the face and she flinched, but again, she didn’t make a sound.
“Put the cuffs on, Niki.”
Niki glanced at Kat, and when her sister nodded at her, she picked up the cuffs and tethered one around her left wrist. As she did so, she glanced at the watch Hes had given her for her birthday. She couldn’t believe only five minutes had passed since she’d spoken to Hes and gotten out of the truck.
Now that she had no weapon, she needed to stall.
She had no doubt that Hes, Brent, and Rig were on their way to her, or that they’d contacted the sheriff’s department and Kat’s men. All she needed to do was bide her time until the loves of her life came to the rescue.
* * * *
“There it is,” Jalen shouted. “Stop!”
Dante stepped on the brake, making sure not to lock the wheels up and make the tires squeal. He had no intention of driving along the dirt track to alert the bastard who had his woman and her sister that they were on the scene.
Damon had contacted them on the radio with an update and told them that Niki was in danger, too. This time he was going to make sure that Kat and Niki would never have to worry about anyone coming after them again.
When, not if, he got his hands on the bastard who’d abducted Kat, he was going to torture him to find out if any more of Matteo Russo’s henchmen were alive or had escaped arrest.
As soon as Dante pulled over to the side of the road, he turned the vehicle off and got out. He and his brothers jogged down the dirt track highly alert and keeping watch on the cabin in case someone came out. They made sure to keep out of sight of the window. If the bastard spotted them coming, there was going to be a Mexican standoff because there was nowhere for them to duck from sight and hide.
He sighed with relief when he saw a couple of straggly shrubs closer to the building and headed for one of those. Jalen swerved to the left to another bush, and Mica to the right.
From what he could see, there was only one entrance and exit other than the dust-coated window.
They had the fucker surrounded. There was no way he could escape without him and his brothers seeing him.
* * * *
Kat sucked in breath after breath as soon as the asshole untied the cloth around her head and removed the rag from her mouth. She coughed a few times and tried to swallow, but her mouth was so dry she had no saliva.
Carter wrapped her hair around his fist, dragged her across the room to one of the crates, shoved her to her knees, and pressed her face hard into the dry, splintered wood. She cried out when a thin sliver of wood dug into her cheek and seconds later warm, sticky blood trickled over her skin. “Sign the fucking paper,” he demanded angrily.
Kat gazed to her left and tried to read what it was he was ordering her to sign, but it was too far away for her to read it. After Niki had attached the cuff-like-shackles to her wrist, the fucker had made Kat tether her sister to the floor so that she couldn’t try to take the prick out while he dealt with her.
Since her arms and hands were still behind her back, she had no idea how she was supposed to comply with the crazy bastard’s directive. All of a sudden, her fear and anger waned and was rep
laced by a calmness she’d never felt before. When goosebumps erupted over her skin and her insides heated, she had the strangest feeling that her men were close.
“I can’t sign it with my hands behind me,” Kat stated calmly. He yanked her head back, tilting her neck at a painful, awkward angle, and when she saw the malevolent evil in his gaze, Kat wondered if he was going to snap her neck.
“Stay on your knees where you belong, cunt,” he snarled as he shoved her head away from him. Kat had been having trouble with her sight for a while, now with his last efforts everything had become blurrier.
Kat held her breath when Carter fumbled with the hard shackles around her wrists and then first one and then the other was removed. Before she could pounce, he had her by the hair again and the gun pressed to her back. “Take the pen and sign the fucking document,” he yelled.
Kat reached out with shaking hands, grasped the pen, and pulled the sheaf of papers toward her. When she scanned the words on the page and saw what it was, she gasped. The thought of her father’s assets and any cash he may have had never even entered her mind. She’d just been glad that she and Niki had been able to escape and get out from under his and his goon’s thumbs.
She must have stared too long for Carter’s liking, because he cursed and then tapped her on the top of her head with the butt of his pistol. Pain exploded into her already drumming head and her vision went from blurry to total darkness. Bile rushed up her throat, and she bent her head to the side and puked.
Kat was vaguely aware of the fucker yelling at her, but she was too busy emptying her stomach to take much notice.
Niki began screaming, and then all hell broke loose.
* * * *
Jalen and his brothers slowly moved closer and closer to the cabin. He pressed his back to the side of the building right next to the window, and after making sure the fucker wasn’t nearby, he peeked inside.
What he saw had his heart thumping hard against his sternum. Darren Carter had Kat on her knees with her face pushed so hard into a wooden crate, her cheek was all squished. While he tried to find Niki, there was no sight of her, and he hoped that she was still alive.
Ducking away from the window, he drew in a deep breath and cleared his heart and mind of all emotion.
His brothers should have had ample time to get to the front door and the only way out of the building. They were waiting for him to create a distraction and go in with guns blazing.
Taking another quick look to see where Kat was, he was about to break the window but hesitated when he saw the fucker had his hand near the middle of her back, and he had no doubt he was holding a gun on the love of his life.
Jalen thanked his lucky stars that the window was covered with thick layers of dirt, which helped hide his presence but it also made it difficult for him to see much. However, he could see Kat’s kneeling outline and the asshole standing over her.
All of a sudden, Carter shouted something and hit Kat on the head with the end of his gun. Kat leaned to the side to throw up, and Niki started screaming.
Jalen knew it was do or die time.
He slammed the hilt of his gun into the window, shattering the glass, and dropped down to a knee, his gun now aimed at the opening.
His brothers broke the door down, and then all was quiet.
Moving stealthily, he got his other foot back under him and peered around the edge of the window frame.
His heart stopped beating when he saw that Carter had his back to the wall and was using Kat as a shield, his hand gripping the front of her neck. He was also holding the gun pressed tightly against her head.
Although he was itching to take the shot, his pathway wasn’t clear, and he figured his brothers didn’t have a clear bead on the fucker, either, otherwise there was no way in hell he’d still be standing.
Jalen just hoped that Carter hadn’t and didn’t see him and take the element of surprise away.
Right now, he was the only one standing between Kat and death.
* * * *
Kat was having trouble staying on her feet. Her legs were wobbly and felt so weak she was amazed she was even upright. Even though the blackness from her vision had waned, she was still having trouble seeing.
“Put the weapon down and let the woman go,” Dante ordered.
Kat sobbed as fear and relief warred inside of her. Though she was having trouble seeing, she knew exactly where her three men were. None of them had a clear shot and couldn’t take out Carter without hitting her. The reprobate had bent his legs and made himself shorter to hide most of his body. Even his head was partially obscured by hers. She could feel his breath on the back of her neck. It made her skin crawl.
The only way she was getting out of this was if she did something, but what?
Kat knew a couple of self-defense moves but not enough to take a bigger, stronger man down to his knees.
Yes, you do. Go for his balls.
She had no idea where that thought came from but as soon as it coalesced, she felt the rightness of it. The only way she’d be able to get to his groin without giving herself away was with her back to him. He had even somehow inadvertently managed to protect himself from the window where Jalen was waiting for an opportunity to take Darren down. Kat had no idea if the fucker knew her man was standing outside the gaping hole, but figured he probably had since he was keeping her body between the window and her other two men standing just inside the door.
She’d have to move fast and hard and do as much damage to him as possible. While the thought of touching him there made her feel physically ill—or maybe she was feeling sick to her stomach because her head, chin, and jaw were killing her—she shoved her misgivings aside and drew on her resolve.
Kat knew this was an all or nothing moment.
If she failed…she was sure to die.
* * * *
Something in the air shifted, and from the way his brothers tensed, they felt it, too. Mica flexed his fingers around his gun, ready to move within a second’s notice. Even though Kat kept blinking as if she was having trouble seeing, suddenly she relaxed, but her chin lifted in that stubborn way she had. She was going to do something, and while he silently cheered her on, he was also scared she would end up even more hurt than she was, or worse.
With a slow, fluid stealth he hadn’t realized she possessed, she lifted her right arm, bending her elbow.
And then she struck.
Carter howled with agony, his hand dropping away from Kat’s throat. She dove to the side and landed with a hard thud and an oomph of pain.
The second she’d leapt out of the way, Mica, Dante, and Jalen aimed their weapons and fired, but instead of killing the fucker, they all shot him in different parts of his body. Mica put a bullet through his gun hand, effectively making him drop his gun. Dante put one in his right shoulder, and Jalen put one in the back of his right knee.
As soon as Carter hit the deck, Mica rushed over and kicked the gun on the floor across to the other side of the room. Dante went to Kat, dropping down onto his knees as he ran his hands over her body, and moments later, Jalen burst in through the door and ran to Niki.
A few seconds later, Luke, Damon, and a few other deputies appeared.
Once he secured Carter in handcuffs and read him his rights, he nudged the bastard over onto his back. The prick bellowed in pain at the movement, but Mica didn’t give a shit. The fucker deserved everything he’d gotten and more.
“Is there anyone left?” Mica asked Carter. When the bastard didn’t answer him, Mica placed his foot on his injured thigh. The bullet had gone through, and the exit wound was bloody and gaping. He applied pressure and knew that asshole had to be in agony, but Carter clenched his jaw tight and stared into his eyes. “Are there any more mobsters left to come after my woman?” Mica asked again, this time he put more weight onto the fucker’s wound until he screamed, “No!” He sighed with relief, removed his foot from the dick’s thigh, turned his back, and hurried toward Kat.
&nbs
p; “She’s unconscious,” Dante’s voice cracked on the last word.
“Kat!” Niki called her sisters name and was kneeling beside her in seconds.
“An ambulance is on the way,” Luke said as he hauled a barely conscious Carter to his feet.
“It’s already here,” Damon said.
The right side of her face from beneath her chin up to just beneath her eye was bruised and swollen. Dante, who was running his fingers over her head, cursed when he found a good-sized goose egg on her scalp. There was also a bruise in the shape of a circle on her temple where Carter had pushed his gun hard into her flesh and another in the soft skin beneath her chin.
If the fucker hadn’t been in handcuffs and already gone, he would have drawn his gun and shot the asshole right between his eyes. Mica was killing mad at the condition Kat was in.
Mica clutched Kat’s cold hand and prayed that she didn’t have any permanent damage from her injuries.
Epilogue
One month later
Kat had spent a full week in the hospital recovering from her wounds. The swelling and bruising in her face had been almost gone by the time her men took her back to their home.
The knock to the head had been another story. She now got migraines as a result of the brain trauma she’d suffered, but she’d rather deal with those since she was still alive.
She hadn’t been back to work at the library since Carter had abducted her, and while she missed Shyann and being surrounded by books, she’d been happy enough convalescing at her men’s home. One of the Donnybrook brothers was with her at all times, and in the beginning she’d appreciated their care since she’d had to deal with dizziness and the headaches, but now she felt fully recovered and she was getting antsy to get back to a normal life.
