by Robyn Reigns
She remembered the near argument and the lovemaking with Ryker. It pulled at her heartstrings and sent a painful ache through her heart and soul. She forced herself to push her feelings for her men aside for now and focused on what happened after heading downstairs. Breakfast was quickly eaten in the kitchen, and she decided to clean up everyone’s mess before calling Robin to talk to her more about buying the property in town to open her own practice. When she walked past the main entrance into the living room, she noticed the florist box sitting on the side table by the main door. Not thinking anything of it, she walked into the living room as she dialed her friend’s number.
Robin answered the phone, and they had a brief discussion. She did her best to get her friend’s opinion on the property and avoided answering any questions about her men. All she could remember right now was that by the end of the conversation she had her mind set on opening her own small animal practice on the outskirts of Lush Valley. She made her way back to the kitchen to grab another cup of coffee. This time she stopped by the florist box, curiosity as usual got the best of her. A thrill went through her body thinking that maybe one or both of the twins sent her flowers.
The box was addressed to her. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. She was excited someone got her a gift. Images of her men’s loving and caring raced through her mind. Not being able to contain the emotions anymore, she quickly opened the box. All the happy and positive feelings crashed down as she gazed down at the gift. Disgust and anger took over as she saw the dead roses tied with a red ribbon. A note was nestled between the browned and decaying stems and leaves. She already knew it was from Monty. Holding his message in her hands made her feel invaded and soiled. Anger assailed her as she read his vile, threatening words.
She was so focused on his words she never saw or heard the man quietly sneak up behind her and inject her with what must have been a monster cocktail, judging by her still pounding head. Monty’s message was loud and clear. He would continue to make her life miserable until she surrendered to him. The twins were number one on his to-do list. He watched her enough over the past couple weeks to know that hurting the twins in any way would be worse than Verdria giving up her own life. She would live in a world of pain and unhappiness if it meant keeping the men that had become the center of her being alive and well.
Anger started to consume her fear and confusion. She was tired of letting someone control and shadow her every move through life. Monty needed to understand that she would not belong to him. She was not his possession. She would rather die than continue to live under his callous, psychotic thumb. Determined to find a way out of this predicament and make plans, Verdria focused her mind on her surroundings. She finally opened her eyes.
Darkness encompassed the back of the vehicle. It looked like she was laid out in the back of a fast-moving van. There were no windows. She could barely see her hands and feet, but it looked like they were bound with plastic zip ties. Trying to look toward the front of the van, she tried shifting her body to her side without making noise. It was too dark to see, but she could tell there wasn’t a window or door to look into the back of the van. It seemed like she was totally alone and isolated.
Verdria struggled against the ties around her wrists. She could feel the plastic slicing into her skin as small amounts of blood started oozing from the cuts. They were too tight. There was no way out of the constraints. She tried pushing her body around the van floor, looking for a weapon or even a tool to help cut the bonds. Verdria was not going to allow herself to feel defeat when she came up empty. She would find a way out of this. It wasn’t until she felt the van come to a stop that she realized she’d lost track of time. She wasn’t sure how long she had been missing already. The drugs completely played havoc with her mind. It sounded like a garage door was opening, and then the van slowly rolled to another stop. Doors started opening and closing loudly. When the van door was pulled open, the bright light stung her sensitive eyes. She was just barely able to make out the tall, thin figure of Monty. He used the opportunity to quickly pull her out of the van and carry her further into what looked like an oversized warehouse.
He carried her into a well-contained room with a bed. Placing her on the bed, he quickly placed a cuff and chain around her leg before cutting through the ties. The man moved so quickly and efficiently she didn’t even have a chance to retaliate. No attempt was made to speak to her until he had her well restrained. By the time he was done, both ankles and wrists had leather cuffs around them. Each cuff had its own chain, and a second smaller chain that hooked up to a single main chain. Verdria was confused by the setup. When he stepped back to look at his handy work, he finally looked her in the eyes and decided to speak.
“I told you, Verdria, you would be mine. You’re no one else’s. You’re mine, mine, mine.”
As Verdria looked into Monty’s eyes, waves of fear and pity washed through her. His eyes were no longer that of a calm calculating man. He reminded her more of an angry, crazed animal. It was like there was no humanity left. When he started speaking, she knew this man lived in his own world and there would be no reasoning with him. “Why are you doing this, Monty?”
“You’re mine, Verdria. Those men can’t have you. If I can’t have you, then no one will.”
Before she could reply, he pulled the main central chain tight. However he concocted this mechanism, it pulled her arms in front of her body and prevented movement of both her arms and legs. She could barely move the, restraints were pulled so taut. He took out another syringe and injected her. As she felt the drug take effect, her last thoughts were that she would rather die than give in to this man.
* * * *
Ryker followed as Owen stormed into the house, looking for signs of Verdria. They split up and checked every room. No signs of their woman were present. Robin and Simon had no idea where she could have gone. When they last spoke to her, she was in the house. As fear for their woman continued to take root, he spotted the florist box on the floor in the entryway, hidden behind the door. Anger overcame him as he saw the dead wilted flowers and the attached note. He handed the evidence over to Owen to examine. Monty had their woman, but they have yet been able to track and locate any of his hideouts.
Mack and Sully came in from investigating the perimeter. Cold, hard anger surrounded the men as they entered the house. They found some of their men unconscious and were pissed that their men let the assailant get the better of them. It appeared that they were sedated with some sort of tranquilizer cocktail.
Ryker went on one hell of a tirade when he was updated by Sully. “It’s the middle of the day. How did that asshole breach our perimeters and get to the main house without anyone noticing?”
“From the looks of it, he or a hired lackey pretended he was delivering the flowers. Some of the men noted a van with a florist logo. We traced the name and plates”—Mack shrugged—“but came to a dead end. The plates were from a stolen car, and the florist doesn’t even exist.”
Before Ryker could start another excessive stream of cursing, Sully cut in. “We still have one wild card though. You said you wanted someone shadowing her at all times, so when Mack and I were indisposed, we always had someone hiding and watching for her protection.” He looked over at Mack as if seeking permission to continue. Sully heard him take a large sigh as he nodded with a resigned look on his face. “Mack and I didn’t tell you, but we gave the job to Ghost.”
“Now don’t get your hopes up,” Mack interjected. “Ghost hasn’t checked in yet, and we haven’t found him outside with the unconscious men.”
Ryker and Owen looked at each other and then looked at Sully and Mack and broke into relieved smiles. “Yeah, but we all know Ghost is the best of the best at what he does.” Ryker laughed as hope started to take root. “If anyone can follow Monty and his goons and stay undetected, it’s our man Ghost.”
“Well, Mack and I have tried to get ahold of him, but his cell phone is off.” Sully moved further into the hou
se. “How about we have a drink while we wait for him to check in?”
“I guess we don’t have much of a choice.” Ryker rubbed his hands over his face. Now that the adrenaline rush was over, his shoulder was starting to ache. “Let’s head over to the den, and we’ll grab some drinks. I thought Ghost was going to quit the business, Mack.”
“He changed his mind at the last minute. Life would be boring without us is basically what he said.”
“He needs to settle down somewhere and stop hiding.” Sully’s face took on a wistful look as he spoke. “A lot of us need to settle down somewhere.”
“Hiding is all the man knows.” Walking over to the decanter on the bar, Mack poured himself two fingers of whiskey and took a sip before checking if anyone else wanted the same. “The guy has so many aliases sometimes I wonder if he even remembers what his real name is.”
Ryker moved to sit on the large couch, trying to push his worry over Verdria down. It was not like he had much of a choice. He hoped his brother wasn’t going to harass him about seeing a doctor for his shoulder. Their hands were tied until their friend could check in. “That’s what makes him so good at what he does though. He can become whoever or whatever he wants.” Neither one of them would be leaving Mack and Sully’s side for now.
Mack nodded his head as he responded. “Partly, yes. I think he’s so good at what he does because it allows him to keep burying his past. It’s his way of running away from the demons on his back.” As he was talking, he felt his cell phone vibrating in his pocket. He looked at the screen. “Yep, Ghost is on their tail. He said he would give us the stats of the place when they get to the final destination. I’m going to call the troops in and get everyone briefed and ready.”
* * * *
Verdria was trying to swim out of the darkness toward the light. Her head felt like it was going to explode because the headache was becoming unbearable. When she opened her eyes, the lights in the room made her sensitive eyes water. It was difficult to bring everything into focus. She lifted her hand to rub her eyes, and the chains got caught on the bedding. Feeling the leather bands around her wrists and the chains extending from them brought back the nightmare that was really reality. She was kidnapped and captured by Monty. It looked like the bastard also stripped off her clothes after knocking her out for a second time. At least she still had her underwear on.
As she moved to a sitting position, she groaned, holding her head. A fierce wave of nausea drove through her stomach. She stilled her body, hoping the nauseous feeling would pass. After a few minutes she was finally able to fully sit up and assess the room. It was very sparse. It only contained the bed, and there looked to be a bathroom off to the side. When she got up to move, the chains were long enough for her to reach the bathroom but not the main door. In her weakened state from the two consecutive sedations, she practically had no strength to walk to the bathroom, let alone try tugging at her chains to see how strong they were.
Her sense of time was nonexistent. She didn’t know if only hours had passed or if it had been a day or two now. The shambles of her mind were too tangled to sort. All she could think of was the here and now. She was still very angry and confused when she thought of Monty. Fear was also about to push her over the edge. She was holding on to her sanity by a mere thread. The man had truly gone psycho. Never had she thought he would take her against her will. As long as her men and friends were safe, that was all she cared about. Verdria would protect them from this maniac with her life if necessary.
Footsteps sounded outside the room. The person must have been moving toward her because they were getting louder. Fear made her move back to the bed, curl into a ball, close her eyes, and pretend sleep. It felt like minutes passed with complete silence. Just as she was about to open her eyes, the door creaked open.
“I know you’re not sleeping, Verdria.” His voice was low and tinged with a menacing quality. The evilness she felt emanating from him made her tremble. “It’s time to get up. I need to make you mine.” She could hear him move toward her. She felt the vibrations of his loud and heavy footsteps resonate through her. She knew he had stopped at the edge of the bed. She could feel his large body hovering over her. Warm air from his loud, deep breaths kept hitting the back of her neck. She could feel his head bend low over her body, as if he tried to breathe in her scent. As she tried to huddle into an even smaller ball, his large hand came around her neck to pull her up and around, straightening out her body. Now she had no choice but to face him as she strained against the tight grip around her neck. Until this moment, she never realized Monty’s size and strength.
“It took me quite a while to figure out what I wanted to do with you, Verdria. My beautiful, beautiful Verdria.” She didn’t know if it was the remnants of the tranquilizers in her system or whether it was his natural voice, but he sounded like a mad scientist. Maybe he was Jekyll and Hyde’s reincarnate. The black doctor’s bag by his side would give it some credibility. His fingertips ran across her cheekbones, down and over her jawline. Nausea again ran through her body at the vile feeling his touch instilled. “I promise you, my beautiful one. I will have you submitting to me in no time. If you don’t agree to be mine, the consequences will be grave.”
He used her neck to pull her to the center of the room. She had no choice but to follow to try and relieve the painful pressure on her larynx. Using the leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles, he chained her to what looked like some kind of harness. The restraints made her stand straight, but she was hanging suspended by her arms. Her feet could barely touch the floor. All movement was limited. Fear continued to heighten and spiral through her body. Uncontrollable tears started running down her cheeks nonstop. “Why, Monty? Why are you doing this?”
“Because you’re mine and only mine. I won’t let anyone else have you, Verdria. I can’t live without you. You were supposed to love me, marry me, and continue to work with me. All those other men shouldn’t have been in your life. That’s why I had to get rid of them. If you won’t be mine, then no one else can have you.”
When he was done restraining and positioning her, she could hear him walk away from her. He stayed behind her, and it irked her that she couldn’t see him. Verdria assumed he was opening the black medical bag. “Remember that sweet little mutt you loved?” It sounded like he was rummaging in the bag. “I had loads of fun slicing him to pieces. It made my heart feel better knowing he wouldn’t be around for you to love and care for anymore.”
He finally moved to stand in front of her. The sight of him in this state had her becoming filled with dread and panic. She did her best to rein in her fears and control her emotions. Verdria didn’t want this man to see how terrified he made her. His expressions made him look sadistic, his loss of sanity evident in his eyes. The scalpel blade he held up in his right hand made breathing difficult as her panic started to rise further.
Thoughts kept running through her mind. This can’t be real. It’s just a nightmare. It’s not really happening. She forced her mind to center. Olivia, the closest woman she ever had to being a sister. She was the one who told her how to separate her mind from her body. Remembering some of those conversations about Olivia’s past reminded her so much of her current situation. “Verdria, I would close my eyes.” She could somehow clearly remember her friend as if she were whispering in her ear. “And imagine my body and mind were somewhere else. Finally it came to the point where if I concentrated hard enough, it felt like both entities were on my utopian plane. Sometimes, instead of feeling hands only offering pain or drops of my own blood on my lips, it felt like I could feel the imaginary waterfall crashing over my body as the sweet, salty water splashed in my mouth. Pretending I really wasn’t there, denying what was happening to me was sometimes the only way I could survive to make it to another day.” This reminiscence seemed to be her only escape to maintain her sanity.
Her main focus was her men. Thinking of Owen and Ryker helped her to calm down and bring some peace to the whirli
ng chaotic thoughts. Eventually she was able to concentrate on all the time she spent with the twin brothers. Just thinking of them brought her to a quiet place in her head where she was able to disassociate from the here and now. The pain in her shoulders from being practically suspended from the ceiling was gone. She no longer felt the tight leather cuffs strangling her wrists and ankles. Monty’s cold sociopathic voice was replaced by the memory of Ryker’s disapproving voice. She thought she felt the scalpel bite into her skin and Monty’s fingers over her body, but her men were more important. She imagined Owen’s fingers tracing over skin and Ryker’s lips on her face. Her salty tears on her lips running into her mouth were really ones from pleasurable happiness, not from painful torment. She even did her best to imagine the hard, cold restraints were the warm protective arms of her men. Only in their arms and their touch was she ever able to find peacefulness and contentment. It saddened her that they probably didn’t know where she was. All she could hope was that they were safe and sound. No, wait, as long as she believed they were here with her, touching her, supporting her, keeping her sheltered, she knew her denial may just help her get through this horrifying moment.
* * * *
Ryker and Owen were glad they had their old friends and ex-coworkers here to aid them in getting their woman back. The brothers had been through hell and back on work assignments with these men. Their trust and loyalty had no bounds. Both brothers knew these men would lay themselves on the line to find Verdria and get her to safety. They continued sipping whiskey to steady their nerves, hoping Ghost checked in soon. If he didn’t know Verdria’s location and her current situation, the two brothers would need to be restrained and sedated because they would tear apart the state, if necessary, to find their woman.
They couldn’t even bring themselves to think about what she was going through. Hoping Monty wasn’t hurting her was the only thing keeping them partially reasonable at the moment. Every noise, every buzz had them jumping, hoping it was Ghost. The only reason they agreed to wait was because they knew how good he was. His ability to blend in to any environment and recon practically any situation surpassed most special ops, military-trained personnel. The man was a chameleon, but the nickname Ghost suited him better. For him it was more than blending into the environment if he had to. It almost seemed like he was able to disappear.
