“Let me hold him in case he wakes up.” Zane sat down and lifted Harper into his arms.
“He’s really sound asleep.” Jenna brushed his hair back, then stuck him and watched the tube fill.
“Probably the first time he’s felt safe enough to sleep in a long time, if ever,” Doc said.
As soon as Jenna handed Doc the vials of blood, he put them in his case. “When he wakes, see if you can get a urine sample for me. I’m going to run these to the lab at the hospital. If I find anything that needs urgent treatment, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, I’ll be out to see him tomorrow. In the meantime, lots of fluids and small meals every two to three hours. Jenna, you know the list of foods for him.”
“I do, and I’ve already been to the store to get the food he needs, including a children’s vitamin.”
“Good girl.” Doc shut his bag.
“Doc, do you think Harper needs to talk to a child psychologist?” Zane asked.
“That’s up to you, Zane, but I’d say it couldn’t hurt.” Doc put on his jacket, then left.
“There’s food in the kitchen, Zane,” Logan said. “I’ll stay with Harper while you eat. Thor may be calling any moment and you’ll need to go after Ravyn.”
Zane nodded, then placed Harper in Logan’s arms. “If he wakes up, call me.”
“Will do,” Logan said.
Chapter Ten
The sound of a man yelling somewhere down the corridor woke Ravyn and she sat up on the side of the cot. Yesterday she’d been fingerprinted, had her picture taken, and then she’d been searched. That had been the most embarrassing and humiliating experience of her life. She understood why they’d had to do it, but it still left her nerves shattered and she’d been in tears by the time it ended.
Afterward, she’d been given an orange, knee-length, shapeless sack to wear, then she’d been locked in this small, windowless room. The walls were a flat beige color with pewter-gray trim on the metal frame of the metal door. It held a cot with a thin, but clean, mattress, and a sink and a toilet tucked away in the corner. There was a slot in the door that was used to deliver food trays to a prisoner, to her, she thought. She was the prisoner now. The room smelled strongly of cleansers with a tiny hint of the food someone slid through the slot on a regular basis.
McCabe had said she’d have to stay a couple days. If it turned out to be longer than that, she thought she’d go insane. There wasn’t anything in the small cell to stimulate her mind. No pictures and no sounds other than the sharp clanging sound of a metal door slamming somewhere in the distance. The only other contact she’d had was one of the guards banging on her door, demanding she push the tray through to him. She’d done that, then returned to the cot where she’d passed the time by tracing the grooves between the concrete blocks and counting the imperfections she found. She was up to sixty-nine when she’d fallen asleep.
The dream that number had inspired had left her panting and aroused. It was a position she and Zane had never gotten around to trying in reality. The knowledge that they never would now made her bottom lip tremble as tears flooded her eyes.
She pulled her feet up onto the edge of the bed and hugged her knees to her chest then rocked back and forth, comforting herself. One of her hands touched her neck, searching again for the collar he’d given her. She wondered if he knew the truth now, and if he did, would he forgive her?
The sound of her door being opened drew her attention. A hard-faced guard stood in the opening and summoned her with his hand. Ravyn hesitated for a moment, then stood up and slipped her feet into the soft shoes they’d given her.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
He frowned. “FBI is here to question you.”
“Johnson and Lake?” she asked, scared, as she took a step back.
He took a threatening step toward her and pulled out a nightstick. “You can come with me or I can put chains on you and take you. It’s up to you.”
Ravyn didn’t know what she could tell him. She wanted to say that the two special agents were dirty, but if the guard was involved with them then that would alert them. She couldn’t take the chance on them doing anything to harm Harper.
The guard held up a pair of cuffs and she approached him then held out her wrists. He snapped them on her then took hold of her arm and led her down the corridor to the elevator. Once inside, he kept her in front of him and her gut instinct kicked in and told her something was wrong. She watched the numbers flash by until the elevator stopped at the basement level. When the doors opened, she saw a black limousine waiting for them with its back door open. The guard shoved her ahead of him, then threw her into the vehicle. She banged her head on the opposite door and fell to the floor.
Ravyn groaned and raised her cuffed hands to rub her forehead. When she looked up, she looked into the smirking face of Mendez. Before she could sit up, a large foot landed on her back and held her down.
Mendez leaned toward her. “Señora, you are going to tell me everything that you have told the authorities.”
Ravyn trembled with fear as her stomach rolled. She swallowed the bile that filled her mouth and fought to keep from puking. “I didn’t tell them anything. I confessed. That’s all.”
Mendez tutted, then laughed and pulled out his phone. “With one call, I can have your young friend taken care of,” he said. “Now, tell me everything you have told the authorities.”
“Nothing, only what you told me to tell them.” She struggled to get up and saw Mendez nod at someone behind her. The foot on her back slid away and she rolled over and sat up. Johnson and Lake sat on the seat across from Mendez. “Ask them,” she said, nodding toward the two agents. “They were present when that other man questioned me.”
“What about on the drive to Dallas?”
Ravyn shook her head. “I was alone in the backseat of the car. Crying.”
“Ah, Señora, I’m afraid the thought of you in tears only excites me,” Mendez said, then indicated the guard with his hand. “This is Dolor. Do you know what his name means?”
Ravyn shook her head, even as she knew it couldn’t be anything good.
“It means sorrow,” Mendez said, “because he brings sorrow to my enemies.”
Before Ravyn could absorb the word, a hand connected with her left cheek. She fell sideways and her face hit Mendez’ knee. The inside of her cheek split and blood filled her mouth as she cried out. Before she could catch her breath, Mendez buried his fist in her hair and jerked her head back.
“Now, Señora, I ask you one last time. What did you tell the authorities?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Ravyn mumbled as tears of pain and fear rolled down her cheeks. She licked her lip and realized it was cut as well. “I swear.”
Mendez shook his head. “You have disappointed me. I ask you to do one thing for me and you betray me.” He turned to Dolor. “Get the truth from her, but do not kill her. She will bring a high price in the auction, and, Dolor, no sampling the goods. Understand.”
Johnson sat forward. “Let’s just get this over with. They’ve got the kid and from what I saw at the ranch, they don’t give a shit about her.”
Lake nodded. “We did everything you told us to do. We need our money so we can get out of the country.”
“Gentlemen, the game is not yet over. The Ramseys are men of honor,” he said the last word with contempt, “and they will come after her. Then, I will have my revenge.” He rubbed his chest. “I owe Cade Ramsey a bullet to the chest, but I’m afraid mine will be fatal.” He laughed.
Ravyn shivered with terror. Mendez had always scared her, but now he seemed even more evil, as if something putrid had taken over his soul. Dolor smiled and Ravyn looked down. She was going to die or at least wish she was dead, but that was okay because now she knew Harper was safe with Zane. She looked back up just in time to see a fist flying toward her face.
* * * *
The room she woke in was quiet and smelled old and damp. Ravyn rolled her eyes while she w
ondered why kidnap victims always ended up in places like this. She smiled around the gag in her mouth and the cut on her lip stung. Apparently, all bad guys followed a similar pattern. Kidnap a person, beat them up, take them to an old smelly house and—she tugged on her hands, then tried to laugh. True to form, she was tied to a bed and had been left to wake up alone and scared. She snorted. Surely, her death should be more interesting than this after all she’d sacrificed.
She rolled over, then groaned when her cheek rubbed on the bed and she realized her left eye was swollen shut. She looked across the room and screamed around the gag when she saw what was left of Johnson and Lake. They were dead, but they hadn’t gone easy, and she knew this was the work of Dolor and that he’d be coming for her soon.
She raised her head and looked around the room. She had no idea where she was or what time it was, and only a little moonlight was coming through a small window high up on the wall. The window was wider than it was high, and she figured if she could reach it, she could wiggle through it. The door was the only other option and Dolor was probably on the other side of it so that route was out. She moved, then froze when the bed squeaked. When she didn’t hear the sound of footsteps approaching the room she relaxed and looked at her wrists.
The handcuffs were gone and she was tied with rope. A mistake on their part. Slowly, without moving and causing more squeaks, she began to twist her wrists. A few minutes later, her skin was rubbed raw and bleeding. She bit down on the gag and forced herself to continue. Eventually the blood acted as a lubricant and her wrist slipped free. She grimaced with pain then removed the gag, and quickly untied the other one. She eased up and the bed gave another tiny squeak. She moved as slowly as she could and managed to reach her right foot and undo the rope. She eased her foot to the floor, then stood up with the other ankle still tied to the bed.
Only then did she notice she was naked. “Bastards,” she whispered, then untied her left foot as she did a mental survey of her body and decided she hadn’t been raped. Apparently Dolor followed Mendez’s orders a lot better than she did. She looked around for her orange dress and didn’t see it, or her shoes. She could wrap herself in the blanket, but it would be bulky and impede her if she had to run. Ravyn looked at Lake. He was small and about her height.
She tiptoed over to his body, then carefully removed his shoes. His socks were stiff with dried blood but she took them anyway. She undid his pants, then slipped them off him and stepped into them. They had wet spots of blood on them and she gagged. After several deep breaths, she looked around for his shirt and found his and Johnson’s shirts piled in the corner. Lake’s was white but Johnson’s was a checkered green-and-black pattern. She chose it and put it on, then tucked it into the pants she was wearing. They were too loose, so she used Lake’s belt to hold them up. A second later, she had the socks on and carried the shoes over to the window.
Ravyn reached up and realized she was about a foot short of touching it. The only furniture in the room was the bed and she didn’t dare try to drag it over to the window. For a moment she felt defeated then straightened her shoulders and thought, hell no, she wasn’t giving into despair. There had to be something she could do.
She looked at Johnson and Lake. God, could she? Determined to escape she grabbed Johnson and pulled his body over to the wall. The smear of blood she left on the floor gagged her and she swallowed, then grabbed Lake. She pulled him over next to Johnson, then stacked him on top of Johnson. The smell of blood in the room was strong and she gagged again, then forced herself to step onto Lake’s back.
She reached up and unlatched the window, then pushed on it. A whispered curse left her lips when she realized it was stuck. She pushed again and Lake shifted beneath her feet. She caught her balance, then took a deep breath and pushed again, and the window broke loose and slid up a few inches. She pushed again and it opened all the way. Satisfied, she got down, grabbed the shoes, and dropped them outside the window, then held her breath and hoped they didn’t make a sound. When she didn’t hear anything, she grabbed the ledge, then began to pull herself up with a soft grunt. Little by little, she lifted herself until her belly was resting on the bottom ledge. She wiggled and looked around. There was nothing to hold onto and only the ground below her.
Nothing for it, she thought, and grasped the ledge and tried to bend her leg and force it through the window and couldn’t. She hung from the window, then let go and dropped toward the ground. Her hands hit first and she managed to tuck herself into a ball and roll onto the ground. After she caught her breath, she searched for the shoes and found one nearby but had to pat around the ground for the second one. Once she found it she slipped them on and stood up.
She looked around and saw that she was at some kind of old farmhouse. She could see fields around her and, off in the distance, a line of trees. She listened for a moment and thought she could hear the sound of cars in the distance. She asked herself what Cassie would do, realized she didn’t know and decided when she got back to the ranch, she was going to have Cassie begin training her.
If Dolor discovered she’d escaped he’d think she headed for the trees and the sound of cars on a highway so she decided she would go that way but then change direction and go either left or right. She’d decide when she got that far, if she didn’t get caught in the meantime. She stuck to the shadows as she moved past the house and heard snoring coming from one of the rooms as she slipped away into the darkness. When she ran into a barbed wire fence and the barbs stabbed into her belly and hands, she bit her lip to keep from crying out. The wire was sagging, so she held one strand up and slipped through it, then hurried across the field.
* * * *
“We have movement on the east side of the house,” Jackson said into the mic as he scoped the house in the distance.
“It’s Ravyn,” Luc said from his position. “She’s going to walk right into you, Zane.”
“I see her,” Zane said. “As soon as I have her secured, we’ll move in. I want that bastard Mendez alive, if he’s here.” A series of clicks was his only answer.
* * * *
Ravyn scrambled across the open field. Ahead of her, she saw what she thought was a ditch and she ran toward it. Just as her foot hit the edge, a dark shadow rose up and grabbed her around the waist as one hand covered her mouth, muffling her scream. She kicked and dug her nails into the arm around her waist, then heard a cursed grunt. A moment later she was on the ground with a heavy body on top of her.
“It’s me, Ravyn. We’re here to rescue you.” Zane kept his hand over her mouth. “Do you understand?”
Ravyn nipped his hand and Zane removed it. ”This isn’t a rescue. It’s an escape. You scared the crap out of me when you grabbed me. Couldn’t you have just said something like, ‘Psst, over here’ or something?”
“For someone who’s been kidnapped, you seem pretty relaxed.”
“So what are you going to accuse me of doing now?” Before he could answer her, she asked, “How’d you find me anyway?”
“Nate found you.” He hushed her, then said, “I’ve got her.”
Ravyn looked and didn’t see anyone else with them. “Who are you talking to?”
“Jackson, Luc, Thor, Ben, Mac, and Nate. How many men are in the house?”
“Dead or alive?”
“There are dead people in the house?”
“Johnson and Lake.”
“Are you sure they’re dead?”
“Well, when I dragged them over to the wall and stacked Lake on top of Johnson so I could stand on them and reach the window, they didn’t protest. So I’d say yeah, they’re dead.”
Zane froze and looked down at her. “I am going to beat your ass if you don’t stop with the smartass remarks.”
Ravyn rolled her one good eye and snorted.
“Who hit you?”
“A guy named Dolor. I think he killed the agents. I think he’s in the house asleep. I heard snoring coming from the back window of the house when I e
scaped.”
“Anybody else in the house?”
“I don’t know. There was only Mendez and Dolor and the two agents in the limousine when Dolor hit me and knocked me out. When I woke up, Johnson and Lake were dead and I was tied to the bed.”
Zane hugged her. “It will be okay. Trust me.”
“Like hell. You didn’t trust me. You wouldn’t even listen.”
“You confessed to loving another man.”
“Harper’s seven years old, Zane.” Ravyn realized she hadn’t even asked about her little brother. She tried to push Zane away but didn’t even manage to budge him. “Get off me.”
“No.”
“Did you rescue Harper?”
“Yes.”
“Good. As soon as I get out of here, I’ll go get him and we’ll get out of your way.”
“You can’t. I’ve told him I’m his papa. He belongs to me now.”
“You can’t just claim him.”
“Too late. He belongs to me and so do you.”
Before she could stop him, she felt the collar slide around her neck and lock into place.
Ravyn reached up and tugged on it. “You Ramsey men think you can do as you please, but I’m here to tell you I refuse to be claimed like…like lost baggage.”
“I didn’t lose yo—”
“Uh, could you two lovebirds bitch at each other later?” Thor asked as he slid into the ditch next to them with Nate beside him. “Right now we need to play ‘let’s catch a bad guy.’”
“There’s nothing more to talk about.” Ravyn pushed at Zane again.
“You’ve got that right, pet.” Zane slid off her. “I want you to stay here with Nate and keep your head down until I come back for you. No running off. Do you understand?”
Ravyn snorted. “Really, Zane. I’m wearing the bloody clothes of a dead man. Where do you think I’d go? Shopping? Out to dinner?”
Maxwell, Mardi - Zane's Choice [The Doms of Club Mystique 4] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 19
