Elise shrugged. “If that’s what you choose to believe.”
“It’s what I know,” he sneered. “But that backfired, didn’t it, bitch? My partner got a good fuck, and you haven’t gone anywhere.”
“It wasn’t like that,” she claimed, doubting every word. In the moment, she’d have sworn there was more to it than just sex—a connection—but now she wasn’t so sure.
“Wasn’t it? Tell me,” Driver said, the floorboards creaking as he crept closer. Elise stiffened, bracing for anything. “Where is he now? If my partner was so into you, why isn’t he here now to protect you?”
Elise swallowed tightly. “Do I need protecting?”
His next words were spoken so close to her face, Elise could smell the coffee on his breath. “You bet your ass, buttercup.”
Elise launched herself sideways, rolling across the bed and away from Driver before the thought had a chance to be fully realized. All she knew was the threat inherent in his voice, and some part of her decided then and there that there was no more waiting around. If he was going to kill her, she would not be complicit in her own demise. While she might not stand much of a chance, Elise was determined to go down fighting.
She hit the floor hard, cursing, but she kept moving. Rolling onto her side, using all the strength she had in her legs to lift her to her feet without the benefit of her arms.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” Driver laughed at her, cruel intentions ringing in his voice. “You can’t even see where you’re at.”
Elise faced the direction of his voice. “I know my way around better than you think,” she snarled. “Marcus was kind enough to help me with that.”
“Fuck!” Driver shouted.
Elise smirked. She’d known that would get to him, realizing she knew his partner’s name. He was probably wondering what else Marcus had told her.
“What else did he fucking tell you? Do you know my name too?” He was furious.
Elise figured she had a matter of minutes before she met her maker. It should terrify her. Instead, she felt invigorated. Bold. “Oh, I know a whole lot about you two. And as soon as I get out of here, I’m going to tell everyone!”
“Newsflash: You’re not getting out of here. I’m going to twist your pretty little neck until it snaps.” She heard his boots scuff the floor as he skirted to her left. Elise edged right. Behind her back, she twisted her wrists, working on her restraints. “I’ll even be nice and take off the blindfold so you can watch the light fade.” He laughed again. “I’m going to enjoy watching you die.”
“You’re sick. No wonder Marcus wanted to turn you in,” she lied.
“What did you just say?”
“Oh, yeah, he probably didn’t tell you that part,” she continued. Her thigh bumped the edge of the bed and she grabbed hold of the footrail to steady herself. “Didn’t you wonder what was taking him so long? It didn’t take this much time for you to finish the run. I figure he’s probably turned state’s evidence by now.”
“Marcus wouldn’t do that,” Driver asserted. “He wouldn’t risk going to prison, and he sure as hell wouldn’t send me there.”
“Oh, well, I guess he wasn’t as pissed about you screwing up the plan as he said then. Of course, you know him better than me.” Elise prayed like hell that the bluff was working. She was using what little scraps of information she’d gleaned from their many late night chats as she could to fashion the lie. To her relief, it seemed to be affecting him.
There was a pregnant pause in which Elise held her breath, unsure which way this was going to go—nowhere good, if she had to guess.
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?”
“I…” He didn’t finish that thought, and he didn’t have to. At that moment, the front door eked open. The tension in the room tripled.
“Honey, I’m home!” Marcus called out. Bags rustled and floorboards protested as he moved about the cabin. “They were out of two percent, so you’re going to have to live with skim. And I’m warning you now, they only had the crunchy peanut butter, so don’t go being a prima donna. Hey, where are you?”
Elise’s heart pounded painfully as she waited for the inevitable. Marcus would come in to see her and his partner engaged in a standoff. It would go one of two ways: Either he would defend her, or he would help Driver dispose of her body.
Elise wasn’t very confident that she would come out on top of this. She had, after all, told some lies designed to drive a wedge between the men. They probably wouldn’t appreciate her efforts. Hey, it was just a joke! No harm done, right?
Somehow, she didn’t think they’d find it funny.
“What’s going on in here?” Marcus asked, and for just brief moment, Elise breathed a sigh of relief. His voice had an inexplicable ability to sooth her nerves, but she wasn’t stupid. Elise wouldn’t allow her emotions to cloud her judgment.
“You tell me,” his partner demanded. “Your little buttercup has had some interesting things to say about you.”
“Interesting how?”
Elise could feel Marcus’s suspicious stare focus on her, and she struggled not to cower from it. Instead, she stood resolute. She’d play this out and hope for the best. “I told him about our plan, Marcus.”
“What plan?” he asked, confused.
“I hope you told them everything,” she continued with an air of false bravado. “They’re coming right? Or are they already outside waiting? Because I need to get out of these,” she said, twisting sideways to flash him her wrists. “I’m starting to chafe.”
“So you did go to the cops!”
“What the fuck?” Marcus shouted. “No! Why would you even think that? What the fuck have you been filling his head with?” That last part was directed at Elise, and she could feel the power of his anger like a storm directed solely at her.
“The truth, sounds like,” Driver said, the sound of hurt, anger, and betrayal rife in his tone. “I knew I couldn’t trust you. All the complaining and arguing, then going all alpha with her.”
“Alpha? What the… You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I think I know just fine. I should have trusted my gut from the get-go. I should have left you two high and dry when I had the chance.”
“Wait, what?”
“Oh, yeah. When I went into town that day? I was going to leave. I had the opportunity. I could have just rode off and left your ass behind. I almost did, but then you might have turned me in just to spite me.”
“You were going to leave?”
“You seriously think I wouldn’t have considered it? Shit! You’re dead-fucking-weight, man. Always have been, always will be. It’s that fucking conscience. Holds you back.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this right now,” Marcus said in disbelief.
Elise almost felt sorry for him. She was more relieved that her plan was actually working, though. Now if she could just find a way to get out unnoticed…
“Then you went and got the feels for some pussy,” Driver continued. “Weak, man. Fucking weak. I shoulda known then that I couldn’t trust you any farther than I could throw you. I shoulda cut out right then, but naw. I let your lies get in my head, and now I find out you’re nothin’ but a backstabbing lil’ bitch!”
Elise screamed, startled when the two men collided and began body slamming each other around the room. The bed screeched across the floor as they fell into it, and one of the lamps shattered soon thereafter. Blindly, she ran in the direction she thought the door was located, only slamming her shoulder into the jamb once. She ricocheted into the walls as she careened down the hallway in what she assumed was the direction of the front door, as she scraped the side of her face across her shoulder repeatedly in an attempt to remove the blindfold.
It was working, thank God! A sliver of light appeared at the base of her vision, just enough to see the aged, wood plank floors and avoid tripping over furniture. The fight was still going hot behind her. Elise w
as certain she could escape. She just needed enough time…
The door was exactly where she’d envisioned it. Frantically, Elise rubbed her face against her shoulder until the blindfold reached past her temple, then she shook her head until it fell to the floor. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision. The light was almost too bright after having been in the dark for so long, but it was welcome.
The door—a heavy, solid wood—stood in front of her, a beacon of freedom…that was just beyond her grasp.
Literally.
Elise cried out, struggling against her bonds. The rope was thick and strong, knotted tightly and with expert precision. She hadn’t made any headway at all in that bedroom, and she couldn’t open that door without use of her hands.
Turning around, Elise pushed her back up against the door and lifted to her tiptoes and, despite her limited movement, grabbed at the knob. With only her fingertips, she twisted and turned it, jiggling the piece of metal and begging it to release her.
“She’s getting away!”
Elise’s head snapped up, her gaze jerking toward the narrow hallway. “No,” she mumbled, and worked faster at the knob. She needed more time!
“Elise!”
Marcus’s bellow sent Elise into a tizzy, and doubling her effort, she latched onto the handle for all she was worth. As if it understood her plight, the latch suddenly released, and Elise cried out again.
She didn’t waste time looking back. Elise spun around and, using her foot to catch the edge of it, flung the door open wide and bolted outside.
Chapter Ten
Blue, white, and red lights flashed across the landscape. At first, Elise wasn’t sure what she was seeing. Then, as the panic began to recede, it slowly filtered in.
“Stop where you are and put your hands in the air!”
Elise couldn’t stop. Her legs carried her faster than ever before. Rescued. She was rescued! “Help me!” she yelled. “I’ve been kidnapped!” A single police cruiser sat parked in a gravel drive beside the van that’d been used to abduct her from the grocery store parking lot…how many days ago? She’d lost track.
“Stop where you are!” the middle-aged male officer called out, gun drawn and trained on her.
Still, Elise ran. She’d see too many horror movies end where she was standing now. More than anything, she was terrified that Marcus and his partner would appear in the doorway and shoot the man dead before he could get her to safety.
“I’ve been kidnapped!” she repeated, and as she ran, twisted her torso so he could see her hands still bound behind her back.
His eyes widening, the officer lowered the weapon and waved her to his side. He was on his radio the next second, but Elise was too frantic to understand much of what he was saying. She just wanted to get the hell out of there.
“Ma’am, backup is on the way. Are you in need of medical attention?”
“No, no, just get me out of here!”
He didn’t seem to be listening. “Is there anyone else inside?”
“Yes! The men on the news. They kidnapped me and they have guns.” Couldn’t they save the interrogation for back at the precinct? Elise’s gaze flashed to the open door. “Look, we have to get out of here.”
“Ma’am, we have to wait for backup.”
“You don’t understand—”
The officer’s dark, steady gaze grabbed onto her and held tight. “Ma’am, I need you to wait in the back of the vehicle. Everything is going to be okay.”
She didn’t believe him. Not for a second. There were too many ways this could go, and all of them were bad, as far as she was concerned. “But, wait—I—”
But he didn’t wait. And he wasn’t listening. The officer merely grabbed her above her elbow, opened the cruiser’s door, and shoved her into the backseat like a common criminal.
Was he arresting her? Elise was floored. Angry. Fearful. Damn men! They never listened!
She watched the officer take a stance at the front of the car and drop to one knee, his gun once again drawn. He had his head turned, his eyes fixed on the cabin, as he spoke into the walkie strapped to his shoulder. Elise couldn’t hear a damn thing outside of her rapid breathing and thundering heartbeat.
What if Marcus or his partner—or both—barreled out that door, guns blazing? She wasn’t certain about Marcus, but Driver struck her as the take-no-prisoners type. No way wouldn’t he go down without a fight.
She was plotting another grand escape that involved kicking out the window and shimmying through the opening, when she heard sirens blazing in the background and growing louder by the second.
Turning in her seat, Elise watched as a flood of cop cars zoomed up the long and winding drive, appearing out of the wood as if from nowhere. And it felt wonderful.
For the first time all day, she felt like she could breathe again.
Police burst from their vehicles and surrounded the place. Soon, a helicopter’s spotlight shown through the trees overhead, the loud beat of its blades joining the chaos. A spectator, Elise watched as they encroached on the old house and called to the men inside to come out.
Soon, a few disappeared inside, and she held her breath then, waiting to hear gunshots. How would she feel seeing Marcus carried out in a body bag? She hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
It didn’t.
Sometime later, a number of the officers that’d gone in came back out, followed by Marcus, who had hold of one side of Driver, and an officer who had hold of the other. The remaining officers pulled up the rear.
Everyone seemed to be in good spirits.
Except for Marcus.
Elise’s jaw hung open, puzzled over why his partner was in handcuffs but Marcus wasn’t. “He’s one of them! He kidnapped me too!” she shouted, but no one was listening. They probably couldn’t even hear her, considering all the noise. She was drown out completely. “Hey! Listen to me!”
Marcus and the officer shoved his partner into the back of a paddy wagon and slammed the doors behind him. Elise was horrified to see a couple of the officers then pat him on the back as if they were pals. They were even smiling!
“What kind of seventh hell is this?” she asked no one in particular. Just like that, she’d become an island unto herself, watching as her abductor walked right past the people who were supposed to be protecting her as if he weren’t a violent criminal.
It was then, as Marcus broke away from the group, that he looked up…and straight into her eyes.
Elise had spent days keeping a stiff upper lip. She hadn’t backed down, even in her darkest hour.
But she did now.
Elise was all but trembling in the backseat as he marched up to the car and opened the door. “Elise…”
She was already sliding across the bench to the opposite side, as far away as she could get, all things considered. “Don’t come near me,” she warned.
Crouching down, Marcus held his hands up in front of him. “I’m not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you.”
“Why aren’t they arresting you? What lies did you tell them?” Her eyes widened. “Are they working for you?” Were the police in on it? Did he work for some organization that had people on the inside, like the mob?
Oh, my God, Elise, what have you gotten yourself into?
“You’re not far off,” Marcus said, his expression strained. “Can I sit?” He pointed to the seat beside her, but he didn’t wait for her to tell him to take a long jump off a short bridge. Standing, he folded himself into the backseat.
“I’m going to tell them everything,” Elise threatened. But she was now painfully aware that, if he did have people on the inside, she could easily find herself in another sticky situation. It was quickly becoming a lose-lose. Who could she trust?
“Good, I expect you to,” Marcus said with surprising force. “Make sure you don’t leave out any detail.”
“Wait, why?” she asked, confused.
“Why? Because even though it might seem like it now, I’m not the b
ad guy here.”
“Right, because you’ve done such nice and law-abiding things.” She rolled her eyes.
Marcus stared her down, those denim blues burning her soul. “I know how it seems right now, but I’m not a bad person. You’ll see. Once we get back to the precinct, everything will make sense.”
She didn’t believe him for a second. The proof, as they said, was in the pudding.
***
Elise couldn’t believe what she had just heard.
There she sat, in some office with legal papers stacked everywhere and fluorescent lighting buzzing overhead, the scent of bitter, poorly made coffee filling her nostrils, and her head was spinning.
“Undercover?” she asked again. She just couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“I’ve been with PD for two years working this case. Wallis is cutthroat, and he had connections that run deep in the underground organized crime syndicate, so it took time to work my way inside.”
Marcus was explaining, once again, about how he’d managed to weave his way into the criminal world, doing just about all manner of things that he wouldn’t elaborate on to get where he was now. All of it leading up to Wallis, A.K.A. Driver’s, arrest.
“So, if I have this right, you were playing a role the whole time. You’re not a real criminal?”
“It’s all part of the job.”
She rubbed her temples where an ache was beginning to set in. “And how do I play into this again?”
“Wrong place, wrong time.”
Just as she’d suspected. Elise pinched the bridge of her nose next. She just couldn’t believe the roller coaster of emotion she’d experienced. To say she’d been put through the wringer was an understatement. All of it had left her weary.
“Am I free to leave? I want to go home.”
“As soon as you sign your statement, I’ll take you home.” Marcus slid the freshly-typed statement she’d provided toward her and held out a pen.
Elise quickly signed and passed both back. Standing, she said, “Thanks, but I’d prefer to call a cab.”
Taken: A Romance Novella Page 6
