She couldn’t move an inch, he tied her up so tight. She was shaking and very scared. She thought about her men and how they had warned her, trained her for this and she resisted. She hadn’t wanted to believe that she would ever need to defend herself and here she was fighting for her life. She failed. She let him tie her up and now she was helpless. She continued to cry, not knowing what was going on and hoping that her men knew and would come save her.
Chapter 13
“Three fucking days. She could be anywhere and we’re getting nowhere. Molokai won’t talk. The motherfucker took a fucking beating until the cops stopped us. Fuck,” Slade yelled as they stood in the living room of their house. Their friends were there, all working on finding any leads.
“She must be so scared. Or fucking dead because of us. Fuck, we never should have let her out of our sight,” Rome stated.
“We’ve interviewed everyone we can. No one knows shit,” Remo whispered.
“Where’s Mercury?” Cooper asked them.
“In the cottage, I think,” Rylan told him.
“The Feds are involved now, too. They confiscated everything they can on Molokai and all his assets are frozen, with some friends’ help they were able to track down overseas accounts and freeze those too,” Graham added.
“None of it matters if Rose is dead,” Falco said and then stood up and walked over to the window. He stared at the cottage. Mercury was there a while.
“Mercury is taking this so hard. He called Nicolai again.”
“Maybe Nicolai will do what none of us can and locate her,” Rylan said and then covered his face with his hands.
“I’m going to go talk with Mercury,” Rome told them and moved toward the kitchen and side door that led toward the cottage.
* * * *
Mercury stared at the painting Rose had been working on. She hadn’t wanted them to see it until it was complete and apparently it was. The setting was at Torenzi’s, where they shared their first date. The colors were so authentic the scene looked almost as clear as a photograph and was exactly like the rooftop setting. She was so talented, so beautiful inside and out. They destroyed her life, her future by putting her in danger and not foreseeing the potential for danger she was in because of them.
He sensed someone coming and cleared his throat.
“That’s incredible,” Rome said, joining him.
“I know we weren’t supposed to look at it but I couldn’t resist. I needed to feel close to her somehow.”
“We’ll find her. We have to. It can’t end like this and we can’t give up.”
“I’m not giving up, but it’s looking pretty fucking grim, Rome. I fucked up. I didn’t protect her when I promised her I would.”
“We all fucked up. We never had a woman that we shared, that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with and love. We’ve been stubborn and hard, and she makes us feel vulnerable and human. We got caught up in the happiness, in that love spell she says we put on her when really she put it on us. We love her and she loves us.”
“What if she’s dead because we didn’t put her first?”
“She isn’t dead. She can’t be dead and you can’t think like that. None of us can.”
“Rome.”
“No. I survived and got to live so I could meet her and fall in love with her. We all did. It’s our time for happiness and to give and provide and care for our woman. She is alive and we’re going to find her.” He raised his voice and Mercury stared at the painting.
* * * *
Rose felt her body aching as Cuppa untied her hands and legs and then removed the tape from her mouth.
“Don’t give me a hard time. You’re a little late and you need to change. Put this on.” He threw a dress at her. Something slinky and silky in red. She stretched her hands and fingers.
“What is this?”
“Just do it,” he said to her and he stared at her like she would change in front of him.
“No.”
He stomped toward her and grabbed her by her sweater.
“You’re going to be sold to the highest bidder in ten minutes. Get the fucking dress on. It took extra time to get here. Molokai wants his money.”
Her eyes widened and she felt like crying. Was he serious? Auctioned off, like human trafficking auctioned off. No way. She was not going to let this happen.
“No. I’m not putting it on and I’m not going out there.”
He struck her across the mouth and she countered and hit him in the nose. She stunned him a moment and she kicked him in the balls and then slugged him in the jaw. He went to grab her and she was so scared of him but more scared about being sold for her body to God knew who and she used the moves her men had taught her and then grabbed for the gun at his waist. She pulled back, fell to the ground, and as he smirked and went toward her she pulled the trigger. He paused but grabbed her and she shot two more times and it scared the hell out of her. He fell to the floor and she stood up and went to run when the door burst open and two other men came running toward her. She shot again and again and then there were no more bullets. She was shaking so hard and turned around, wondering what to do and ran toward the two men who had been armed and bent down to take the gun when she felt the strike to the back of her head. She grabbed her neck and head and her eyes widened in shock. Hagan. Taavi Walderman’s guard.
* * * *
Mercury’s cell phone rang and he saw it was Mulgoff. He answered it on speaker.
“Mulgoff.”
“I found her.”
Mercury stood up. “Where? Where the fuck is she?”
“You have to hurry. She’ll be auctioned off in less than an hour.”
“Auctioned off?” Rome asked, teeth clenched and his fists by his sides.
“I’ll give you the address. It’s heavily guarded. You’ll need a password to get into the back door. It’s Clover. When I say heavily guarded I mean heavily guarded.”
“Explain,” he said as they hurried out of the cottage and up to the house. Rome told everyone to listen up. As Mulgoff explained about the procedure and location Rome could see his brothers and their friends all had the same reaction.
“Whoever gets her will have her in their possession and under heavy guards. It will be very difficult to get to her. You need to be smart about this.” Mulgoff gave them as many details as he could and then Mercury disconnected the call.
“What’s the plan?” Graham asked him.
“We need good men. Men we can trust. Call Zane, Ace, Titan, Rocco, and have Darius and Steel know we still need them so they can take down this operation once we have Rose in our possession. Graham, gather your brothers and put security on Louisa and the other women as a precaution. Clark, Dane, and Knox, I need you to do recon with Ace and his brothers. We go in in four teams. No one is kept alive. Have them ready in fifteen.”
* * * *
Rose was unsteady on her feet. She felt high as someone walked her down a hallway. She nearly tripped. She was wearing high heels and couldn’t remember why.
Her head was all over the place, her mind fuzzy, her vision unclear. She pulled at her top, feeling the smooth silky material and also a draft between her legs. She was wearing hardly anything and her breasts hung from the top. She tried pulling it up but the motion had her losing her balance. She heard muffled voices, could see a large group of men smiling, licking their lips and holding out money. Her eyes landed on someone she thought she recognized.
“She is very beautiful but resistant. We needed to drug her to get her to cooperate but she is strong. Has six lovers so she is up for anything. Let’s get the starting price of a hundred thousand. Who would like to start?” She heard them talking and her mind couldn’t process it. She got the gist of drugging her, resistant, and selling her. She shoved the hands away from her and went to run but then strong arms pulled her back.
She heard them cheering and then she slapped the man holding her and another man struck her across the mouth. He had a gun and
she grabbed for it despite the dizziness she felt. She was determined to fight the drugs and she started shooting everywhere. There was chaos and then the gun was kicked from her hands and something stuck into her neck. She fell to the ground. The man locked gazes with her.
“She comes with a supply of sedatives to keep her ready, willing, and pliant,” he said and left her on the ground. Then she heard gunfire. People yelling. She tried crawling away. She was crying and felt the whole place was spinning.
“Rose. Rose, baby. Come on, honey, we need to move.”
She shoved at the hands. “No. No, don’t touch me, I’ll kill you,” she yelled.
Strong arms gripped her. “Rose, it’s Falco, baby. You’re safe, baby. We got to you. We’re all here,” she heard Falco say and she gripped onto him and tried to focus.
“What the fuck did they give her?” Remo yelled.
“Jesus, look what they did. She’s beaten up,” Slade stated and she couldn’t focus but she felt their presence and knew it was them.
Falco lifted her up into his arms. She didn’t know what was going on, just that her men were around her. She heard more yelling, a few more gunshots, and then the cold air hit her skin. She thought she saw lights and heard sirens but wasn’t sure. She was covered with something warm and she shivered and shook.
“Rose. You’re safe now,” Rome said to her and then she saw Mercury, but he was to the side and not getting close to her.
“I shot them, Rome. I killed them, Rome, like you showed me.”
“I know, baby. You did so good,” he said and she thought his voice cracked. She just kept rambling and rambling and then she felt like she was in a vehicle and it was moving and then there were bright lights and Niall was there.
He used something to look into her eyes. “I suck at fighting. I couldn’t stop Cuppa.” She raised her arm up and Rylan gently took it.
“I want you to just rest, Rose. I’m going to give you something to help get this crap out of your system. You’re going to get sick but it will get better,” Niall explained but she couldn’t focus on him or his words.
She rolled to the right and carried on. “Make it stop. Don’t let them sell me. I want to go home. I have to finish my painting. I don’t want to be here. I’m cold. So cold. Make it stop.”
* * * *
Mercury rubbed his face and then slammed his fist against the wall. She was a mess. High on drugs, beaten, forced to kill to stay alive, and then nearly sold to a bunch of sick foreign assholes. It was all his fault. He fucking failed her and now she was suffering and would continue to suffer for hours with sickness and forever with emotional turmoil.
“We got to her in time. That’s what you need to focus on,” Graham said to him. Their friends were all there. All in shock, all pissed off and still fired up with what they came upon. Multiple women being auctioned off like fucking cattle. All those men were going to jail. Except for the ones they shot and killed who tried to stand in the way of them getting to their woman.
“Be strong for her, Mercury. She’s going to need all of you to be here for her and to help her get through this and to heal. You love her and she loves you, remember that,” Graham said to him. He nodded his head and watched his brothers staying close and watching over her. He would never fail her again. She was probably going to get mad, but he was going to be even more protective now and he didn’t care what she said about that.
Epilogue
“You need to do this. You’re more than ready for it. It’s been six months,” Slade said to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her shoulder. She stared at him in the reflection of the mirror. He looked so handsome and sexy. He got dressed up in his tuxedo and she was in a gorgeous green gown that her men chose for her to wear to the gallery event. She was nervous. Didn’t like crowds or even being around other people except her friends and her men. Even her birthday had been a small celebration with friends and her men but she hadn’t been emotionally stable yet and it nearly turned into a disaster.
She took a deep breath and gripped his hand. “You’ll all stay close, right?” she asked.
“Of course we will. You won’t be out of our sight or out of our reach,” he added. She gave him a smile and then turned around and kissed his cheek. She took his hand and he led her out of the back room of the gallery. When she saw the others they each came to her quickly, kissing her cheek and telling her how beautiful she looked. Her friends were all there and Mulgoff too, who greeted her with kisses and a hug. If it weren’t for him, her men would have never found her in time.
As she walked through the gallery people greeted her and praised her work, and she found out almost all the paintings were sold and for exorbitant amounts of money. She was thrilled and felt like she was finally a successful painter, but surprised that it hadn’t felt as special or as wonderful as falling in love with her six wealthy, sexy men. She reached for Mercury’s hand and pulled him closer. She grabbed his arm and helped him to wrap it around her waist and she kissed his neck. “I love you so much. None of this means more than having you and your brothers in my life.”
“Is that so?” he asked her.
“Well, it’s either your love, or you’ve been slipping some love potion into my drinks all this time,” she teased.
“Maybe it’s the lovemaking that puts you under our spell?”
“Hmmm, I think further research is necessary to come to a concrete conclusion. If you’re up for it tonight?” she teased and then felt his hand tap her ass.
“Be careful, little painter, or they’ll be some punishments coming your way and you may not be ready to handle them.”
“Bring them on, Merk,” she said and he widened his eyes at her use of the nickname only his brothers and close friends called him.
He chuckled and she was shocked.
“I love you so much, woman, and tonight my brothers and I are going to show you just how much.”
He kissed her tenderly and then the others gathered around her, walking her through the gallery, remaining by her side, protecting her like she knew they would always do. It would take time to not be afraid and to get over the fear of being a victim, but she also had the knowledge that she fought when she needed to. That her men were right and that their training, teaching her to shoot, had saved her life and bought them the time they needed to rescue her from harm.
As they walked around the corner a special setup was on display of Rose’s work, including the painting of her first picture and a few others she did. It was the one on the right that grabbed her attention immediately. She hurried toward it and smiled wide. “Oh my God, how did this get here?” she asked, knowing that it was the painting from months ago that sold in a silent auction at the museum and art school.
Her men smiled at her.
“Seems you had a fan or two from the start, Rose,” Rome said and looked at Mercury.
“You bought my painting? We hardly knew one another, Mercury.”
“Like I said, Rose, maybe you had the love potion from the start.”
She felt the tears reach her eyes as she hugged him tight and then hugged the others, knowing that they believed in her art, her craft from the start. That they were silently supporting her and then fate stepped in and they fell in love. She was never so happy in her entire life and her men were right. She was a survivor in more ways than one, but she fought hard and pulled through and with them in her corner anything was possible.
THE END
WWW.DIXIELYNNDWYER.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
People seem to be more interested in my name than where I get my ideas for my stories from. So I might as well share the story behind my name with all my readers.
My momma was born and raised in New Orleans. At the age of twenty, she met and fell in love with an Irishman named Patrick Riley Dwyer. Needless to say, the family was a bit taken aback by this as they hoped she would marry a family friend. It was a modern day arranged marriage kind of thing and my momma downrigh
t refused.
Being that my momma’s families were descendants of the original English speaking Southerners, they wanted the family blood line to stay pure. They were wealthy and my father’s family was poor.
Despite attempts by my grandpapa to make Patrick leave and destroy the love between them, my parents married. They recently celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary.
I am one of six children born to Patrick and Lynn Dwyer. I am a combination of both Irish and a true Southern belle. With a name like Dixie Lynn Dwyer it’s no wonder why people are curious about my name.
Just as my parents had a love story of their own, I grew up intrigued by the lifestyles of others. My imagination as well as my need to stray from the straight and narrow made me into the woman I am today.
Enjoy A Shot of Love Potion and allow your imagination to soar freely.
For all titles by Dixie Lynn Dwyer, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/dixie-lynn-dwyer

Siren Publishing, Inc.
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A Shot of Love Potion [Love on the Rocks 5] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Page 19
