by Susan Stoker
Standing and spinning so quickly he would’ve easily won a shoot-out in the old west, Blake had his pistol out and pointed toward the road in seconds. He wouldn’t let anyone get near Alexis again. No fucking way.
As soon as he recognized the truck, Blake relaxed, shoving his pistol back into the holster at the waistband of his jeans. Logan jumped out of his vehicle and ran toward Blake, not even bothering to cut the engine. “What the motherfucking hell?” he bit out as he got close enough to see exactly what Blake was doing.
“Hi, Logan,” Alexis singsonged. “Good of you to join the party.”
Without another word Logan immediately dropped to his knees and joined Blake in digging. He raised an eyebrow at his brother in question.
Blake gritted his teeth and nodded.
The silent communication between the brothers would’ve made no sense to anyone else, but because the two men had been around each other enough growing up, and also in the last few months, they had no problem understanding what the other was suggesting.
“SWAT team has the other three at the entrance to Route Six. Your car is fucked, though. They slammed right into it as they came around the corner.”
“Oh, your poor Mustang,” Alexis cried. “We didn’t even get to make love in the backseat.”
Logan looked surprised at both her words and the fact that she was slurring them . . . again. He turned toward Blake for an explanation.
“Fuckers forced her to drink,” Blake said, motioning toward the now-empty bottle of vodka lying nearby.
Logan nodded. He continued with his explanation of what went down between the gangbangers and the cops. “Chuck’s in bad shape. Between the gunshot in his shoulder and the fact he flew out the front window into your windshield . . .” Logan shrugged.
“And the other two?” Blake asked.
“Damian decided he’d shoot his way out.”
“And?” Blake demanded, still digging.
“It didn’t work,” Logan deadpanned. “He’s not going to be a problem anymore. He has a couple dozen holes in his body, and his brother didn’t fare much better as he was sitting right next to him when the bullets started flying. I take it Kelly threatened Alexis?” Logan asked, tilting his head toward the obviously dead woman on the ground.
“Yup,” Blake answered, without elaborating.
“Well, that’s four gangbangers we don’t have to worry about anymore,” Logan said, telling his brother something that he already knew.
“You got any handcuff keys on you?” Blake asked his brother, concentrating on removing the last of the dirt from Alexis’s almost tomb.
He knew Logan was looking over at him sharply, but Blake didn’t take his gaze from what he was doing.
“No, but SWAT’ll be here before too long,” Logan told him.
Blake nodded and scooped out a large bit of dirt, uncovering Alexis’s ankles . . . and her hands, which were cuffed to them.
“I can’t feel my hands or feet. Dominic tightened the cuffs as much as he could,” Alexis told them, sounding sleepy. “Are they still there?”
Blake immediately took her head in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Don’t pass out, Lex. Stay with me.”
She nodded, moving her head only a fraction of an inch.
“Help will be here soon. Can you tell me what they did to you?”
She shook her head, and her eyes pleaded with his. “I will. But not here. Not now. Please, just get me home.”
“I’ll get you back to your apartment as soon as I can, sweetheart, but first we’ll be stopping at the hospital so the doctors can make sure you’re all right,” Blake reassured her.
But she shook her head more forcefully now. “No. I want to go home. Your home. I don’t want to be sick in a hospital’s toilet. It’s bad enough to barf in my own!”
Blake’s heart filled with love for the amazing woman in front of him. She was coated in dirt and mud—it literally covered her from head to toe. She’d obviously been beaten and emotionally tortured and was plastered to boot. Blake had no idea what else she’d been through, but she hadn’t given up. Had obviously fought her captors to the end, forcing them to immobilize her to get her into the damn hole. And now here she sat, joking about her rescue, hands numb, feet too, and all she asked for was to go home. With him.
“I’ll get you to our house as soon as I can, sweetheart,” Blake reassured her.
“’Kay. Logan?”
“Yeah, Alexis?” Logan asked absently, trying to figure out the best way to get her out of the hole. They’d uncovered her, but with her wrists attached to her ankles, it would be extremely awkward to move her. She couldn’t exactly lie on her back once they got her out, and there wasn’t anywhere for her to sit. As much as he hated it, she was probably better off staying right where she was until they could get the cuffs off.
“Do you think Grace will go shopping with me soon?”
“What?” Logan blinked down at Alexis, surprised at her totally out-of-the-blue question.
“She has great taste in clothes, and I thought it would be fun.”
“I’m sure she’d love that,” Logan told Alexis honestly. “Maybe when you’re back on your feet and not drunk as a skunk.”
“Okay. Oh, and will you do me a favor?”
“Anything,” Logan said immediately, impressed more with each passing second that the woman his brother loved was so calm.
“Tell Nathan her name is Bailey.”
“Whose name is Bailey?” Logan asked, confused, looking at Blake for clarification.
Blake answered for Alexis. “Donovan’s ex-girlfriend. He and Alexis have been trying to find out more about her. Kelly lost her shit and ranted about a chick named Bailey and how Donovan wanted her back.”
Logan turned back to Alexis and said, “I will. But, Alexis, you can tell him exactly what Kelly said when he comes to see you in the hospital.”
Alexis wrinkled her nose, then moaned a small sound, as it hurt her. “I don’t like hospitals.”
“No one does, sweetheart,” Blake reassured her, running his hand over her hair in a gentle caress. He probably should’ve refrained, as all he was doing was smearing more dirt on her poor hair, but he needed to touch her. Reassure her.
“Am I gonna wake up puking again? I didn’t like it last time. I think I’ll like it even less, now that every part of me hurts.”
Blake rubbed his thumbs ever so lightly against her bruised cheeks and tried to reassure her. “They’ll do what they can to help you through the worst of the hangover, sweetheart. Try not to worry.”
“Blake?”
“Yeah, Lex?”
“Will you make sure my parents know I’m all right?”
“Of course I will.”
“Blake?”
He bit back the chuckle. “I’m still right here, sweetheart.”
“I knew you were coming. I did what you and Logan taught me. It would’ve worked too, if there weren’t three of them.”
Lord, she was killing him. He didn’t even know what had happened to her, but he knew without a doubt that she’d done her absolute best to stall and give him the time he needed to get to her. “I know you did. I bet you shocked the shit out of them when you tried to claw their eyes out.”
She smiled as if remembering, then said in a low, confident tone, “Yeah. They weren’t expecting me to fight back.”
Blake opened his mouth to respond, but the sound of vehicles coming up the road interrupted him.
“The cavalry arrives,” Alexis murmured. “It’s about time. I could use a cheeseburger.”
The men chuckled but kept a wary eye on the road, just in case it wasn’t the SWAT members arriving.
But it was. Within ten minutes, Alexis was uncuffed, removed from the hole, and on her way back to Denver. She finally lost her battle with unconsciousness when she was laid flat on a backboard.
Logan stayed on the mountain with the rest of the police team and said he’d make sure Blake’s vehicle,
what was left of it, got towed back to the city.
Blake sat beside Alexis, his hand on her forehead, not willing to lose his connection with her. They were both filthy, but he didn’t even notice. He was glad she wasn’t conscious, as the ride in the back of the SWAT Humvee wasn’t exactly smooth.
Two of the SWAT members were paramedics, and they’d done their best to clean some of the dirt from her and had gotten an IV with fluids into her vein. Blake had told them why Alexis smelled like a distillery, and they’d been reluctant to give her any painkillers, as they didn’t want them to react badly with the alcohol that had been forced into her body.
They mentioned that the doctors might want to pump her stomach to try to get rid of any alcohol before it made its way into her bloodstream. Blake winced, knowing the next few hours weren’t going to be fun for his woman.
Halfway down the mountain, Blake’s phone vibrated with an incoming text . . . surprisingly, from Alexis. It was the last text she’d sent after losing connection earlier. They’d driven back into cell-tower range, and the text finally went through.
Alexis: no matter what ill hold on until you get to me ily
Blake didn’t even realize he was crying until one of the SWAT members handed him a tissue, without a word. The faith Alexis had in him was almost frightening, but he silently made a vow to never let her doubt his love and devotion to her. Not ever. He’d spend the rest of his life making sure she knew how much she meant to him.
Chapter Seventeen
Twenty-four hours later Blake sat next to Alexis, in a hospital bed, holding her hand, while she spoke quietly to her parents. Nathan had called Brian and Betty Grant to let them know what was happening to their daughter. They’d known she was working with Ace Security, but not that she’d been doing undercover work to try to shut down the gang that had been involved in their son’s drugging and blackmail attempt. At first they’d been upset, but then, obviously knowing their daughter, had simply been relieved she was all right, if not a bit proud of her role in taking down part of the gang.
Blake tuned out their conversation, instead concentrating on the feel of Lex’s warm hand in his hand and the way she clung to him, even as she insisted her parents tell Bradford not to take a trip back to Colorado, that she was fine.
She’d had her stomach pumped, preventing her from experiencing the harsh aftereffects of too much alcohol. She still had a headache, but that was the least of her injuries.
She had bruises all over her, and she complained that just about every muscle in her body hurt. Her shoulders from having her arms wrenched up behind her, her head from smacking the brick wall when she’d first been taken, her ribs from where she’d been kicked, the muscles in her arms and legs from when she’d fought against the three men, and of course her wrists and ankles where the handcuffs had bitten into her skin.
Her face was puffy and swollen from the hits she’d taken, and she looked pretty horrifying, but she was alive. For Blake it was a gift, and as much as he wanted to hunt down Dominic, Damian, Chuck, and Kelly and kill them all over again for what they’d done to Alexis, he was content at the moment to have her back and relatively unscathed. He knew it could’ve been a lot worse.
The police, and Ross, were coming by so she could give her official statement. He and Logan had already told the cops what had happened from their perspective. At first they wanted to take Blake to the station for questioning because of Kelly’s death, but luckily the SWAT officers had backed him up, explaining the cuts on Alexis’s neck had come from the knife still in Kelly’s cold grip. He’d still probably have to be questioned, but for now he was satisfied that his military reputation and the jobs Ace Security had done with the police department would work in his favor.
Alexis’s pain was being managed by strong narcotics, and Blake was keeping an eye on her. He would be sure to press another round on her the second it seemed as if the other pills were wearing off. She’d experienced enough pain at the hands of the Inca Boyz; he’d be damned if she suffered needlessly now. No matter how tough she was trying to be. On the surface she seemed to be fine, but he could tell she was holding on by a thread. He didn’t want her to have to relive what had happened to her, but he needed to know so he could help her get past it.
“Mom, Dad, I’m fine. Seriously. Blake is here and his brothers too. As soon as I’m released, I’m going back down to Castle Rock to stay with Blake for a while. He’ll take care of me.”
Mr. Grant eyed Blake for a long moment before commenting dryly, “So I guess you two are a couple then?”
Alexis rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Yeah, Dad. We’re together.”
The older man kept his intense gaze on Blake’s for a long moment before he told him, “I don’t expect to be woken up in the middle of the night again by a phone call telling us we need to get to the hospital to see our daughter.”
Blake could more than read between the lines of the older man’s words. In some ways, Lex’s dad reminded him of his own. Ace Anderson had been gruff and not very demonstrative, but in his own way, he always let his sons know that he loved them.
“No, sir. Not if I have anything to say about it. Lex’s brush with the gangs of Denver is over. I swear I’ll keep her safe from here on out.”
“Hey,” Alexis protested. “What is this? Colonial America? Dad, I’m fine. Seriously.”
Brian Grant held Blake’s eyes for another moment, ignoring his daughter, then finally stuck out his hand. “Welcome to the family, son.”
Blake shook Alexis’s father’s hand, without loosening his grip on Lex’s own smaller hand, and nodded at the older man. Brian Grant’s eyes flicked down to where Blake was still holding his daughter’s hand, then back up. He nodded and finally smiled.
“Come on, Betty, we’ve been here long enough,” he told his wife.
“But, Brian, we just got here.”
He chuckled. “Honey, we’ve been here for over an hour. You need to call Bradford and tell him his sister is fine and not to make the trip back home, and I need to get into work.”
“Okay, fine,” Betty grumbled, standing up and leaning over Alexis. She kissed her on the cheek and stated, “Call me when you get to Castle Rock and get settled.”
“I will, Mom. Thanks.”
Blake heard Lex’s huge sigh of relief when her parents finally left. She relaxed back onto the pillows and looked at him. “Thank you for not leaving when they got here. They can be a bit overwhelming, but it’s just because they love me so much.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead and said, “I know, sweetheart. It’s obvious how worried they were for you. You did good with them. Told them enough to let them know what happened, but not enough to worry them needlessly.”
She nodded, then looked away from him toward the door and bit her lip nervously.
“You ready for this?” Blake asked quietly, running his thumb over the back of her hand.
“Honestly? No. But I know I need to get it done. The sooner I get it over with, the sooner I can get out of here and we can go home.”
Blake loved that she so easily called his house home. “You don’t mind Logan and Nathan being here when you give your statement to the cops?”
Alexis shook her head and looked back up at Blake and answered without hesitation. “No. Those assholes didn’t do anything I’m embarrassed to talk about . . . per se. I’m not thrilled to relive it, but if anything that happened can help put the rest of the Inca Boyz down, I’m all for it. I’d rather only go through it all once, rather than have to tell the cops, then also tell your brothers. You know?”
“I do know,” Blake reassured her with an easy smile. “Have I told you today how proud I am of you?”
Alexis smiled back at him. “Yeah, about three times already.”
“How that I think you’re amazing and beautiful and that I’m the luckiest man alive?”
She chuckled out loud at that. “Well, no, you haven’t told me that today.”
�
�Well, I think you’re amazing and beautiful, and I’m the luckiest man alive.”
“Whatever,” she said with a small huff of laughter while rolling her eyes.
Blake was happy to see some of the pain recede from her eyes at his teasing. Miraculously, it seemed as if Damian and the others hadn’t broken her spirit. Lex was still the innocent, passionate woman he’d come to know and love.
“Are you in any pain? Do you need a pain pill before the others get here?”
Alexis shook her head. “No, I think I’m okay. I’m just thankful I didn’t wake up puking my guts out this time.”
Blake didn’t even smile. Lex knew the doctors had indeed pumped her stomach, but she’d been mostly out of it, so she didn’t remember much of it. But Blake couldn’t forget. He’d been able to stay by her side for most of her time in the emergency room, for everything but the physical exam she’d been given to make sure she hadn’t been sexually assaulted. She’d been highly intoxicated, but luckily they’d been able to get enough liquor out of her so she didn’t go into organ failure. They’d given her drugs to counter any nausea she might have when she finally awoke.
The amount of pain she’d been in when she had finally woken up had been hard to witness, but it had eased when the amount of alcohol in her blood was low enough for them to be able to safely give her pain medication.
“I’m glad too, sweetheart. As much as I didn’t mind holding your hair back when you were sick before, I don’t think I’d like to make a habit of it.” Blake smiled down at her, teasingly, and was surprised at the serious look in her eyes.
“Thank you for staying with me, Blake. I know you probably have a ton of work to do at the office because of everything, not to mention dealing with the cops and all. I’m sorry you had to shoot Kelly. Not because I’m sad she’s gone, but for you. It can’t be an easy thing.”
Blake moved so he was sitting on the mattress next to her. He braced his hands on either side of her shoulders and leaned in until his mouth hovered over hers, and he was staring into her blackened eyes. “I wish I could say that I feel remorse about taking another person’s life, but I don’t. You know why?” He didn’t give her a chance to respond before he continued. “Because she was going to kill you. I didn’t give a shit about anything but saving your life. Don’t give it a second thought, Lex, because I’m not. Okay?”
