by Marla Monroe
“You broke my fucking nose,” he yelled in a muffled voice. “I’ll kill you!”
“I thought that was already a given,” she taunted him.
At least if she managed to kill him or at the least, knock him out, it would buy her some time. Dying of thirst was much preferred to having him pawing all over her. Once again, he lost his temper and lunged at her. She couldn’t see him, but she heard him and braced herself to kick out with both feet.
As her feet made contact with something soft, her momentum jerked her arms against the bars and blinding pain had her ears ringing even as she lost he hold on consciousness. The last thing she thought was that if she hadn’t killed him, he would surely kill her while she was out.
Chapter Seventeen
“Calm down, Sedona. We’re here. Show us what you were saying on the phone,” Thorne said, rubbing his hands up and down her arms.
Rollan wanted to hit something. They should have already checked on her. Why had they waited? He couldn’t believe they’d let something happen to her.
“Her bedroom. When I got home this morning, the back door was open. I was out with friends and didn’t come in till four. Oh, God. Dexter has her. I just know it.” She led up the stairs and down the hall.
“What did you do when you found the door open?” Rollan asked her.
“I figured she’d gone out to check on the chickens or the barn. Sometimes coyotes will stir the chickens or the cow up and she’ll take the gun out and check on them. Sometimes she gets a shot out before they run off.” She pushed open her sister’s room and stood back.
“When she didn’t come back, I started to worry. I don’t know why, but I came up here to check her room instead of going out to look for her. I guess I was hoping she was asleep in here, but she wasn’t. Look.” She pointed into the room.
Rollan grinded his teeth as Thorne cursed. Her bed was a mess, the sheets all tangled and on the floor. A lamp looked to have been thrown toward the door since it lay shattered on the floor. The alarm clock lay broken not far from it. He and Thorne eased carefully into the room to keep from messing up anything for the sheriff when they called him.
“Hell, Thorne. That’s blood, isn’t it?” Rollan said, pointing to something red on the floor next to the bed.
Thorne knelt down and looked but didn’t touch it. “Yeah. It’s not a lot. She’s okay. We’ve got to find her though.”
They all stepped back into the hall. Rollan pulled out his phone and dialed the sheriff’s number and told the dispatcher who answered what had happened. He was assured that someone would be there directly.
“What do we do now?” he asked Thorne. “I can’t just sit here and wait. We need to find her before that bastard really does hurt her. He has nothing to lose.”
“They will check his house, but I doubt he would have taken her there. It would be the first place anyone would look,” Thorne pointed out.
“We don’t know enough about this place to know where to look,” Rollan snarled.
“He’d take her somewhere away from anyone where they wouldn’t be seen or heard. If he has a cabin somewhere close by, that would be somewhere to start,” Thorne said.
“I don’t think there are any cabins like that anywhere close by. Most people have their vacation or hunting cabins farther north,” Sedona said.
“What about abandoned ranches or houses close by?” Rollan suggested.
“Good idea,” Thorne said and turned to Sedona. “Do you know of any close by?”
“The only empty place anywhere close was the ranch you bought. There aren’t even any empty houses near here that I know of,” she said through her tears. “I shouldn’t have gone out last night. I’d been gone all week to Dallas shopping with my friend.”
“Shh, Sedona. You wouldn’t have been able to do anything. If you’d gotten in the way, he’d have killed you. He wants Sierra alive for now. He wants to punish her for screwing up his life. You would have just been in his way.” Thorne looked over at Rollan with a helpless expression.
Rollan didn’t know what to do either. He wanted to find Sierra, not stand there comforting Sedona no matter how bad he felt for her. Sierra needed help first.
“What about an old ghost town? There would be plenty of places there, and no one around to notice him bringing someone there,” Sedona said looking up at them. “Would that work?”
“That’s perfect. How far is it from here?” Thorne asked.
“About an hour.”
“You need to stay here to talk to the sheriff when he arrives. Can you give us good directions? I don’t want to wait on them to finally get around to looking there if that’s where he has her,” Thorne told her.
Sedona told them exactly how to find the place. It was really pretty simple with only two turns. As soon as they had the location, Rollan reminded Sedona what all to tell the sheriff when he got there before he and Thorne raced down the stairs and out to their truck. Rollan let Thorne drive. He had a better handle on driving down roads they weren’t familiar with. Plus, right then, Rollan wasn’t certain he could concentrate on driving. His stomach churned with worry.
“Remember. We’ll park a few yards away once we see if there is a vehicle parked near one of the buildings. Then we’ll head there on foot. We don’t want to give ourselves away,” Thorne said.
“If he’s hurt her, I’m going to kill him,” Rollan snarled.
“Don’t kill him. Hurt him all you want, but don’t end up in jail. Sierra will need both of us to take care of her after this. I need you, man. Hold it together.”
Rollan growled but nodded. He’d get his pound of flesh, that was for damn sure. No one hurt their woman. Even if she hadn’t officially agreed to be theirs, they had claimed her. She could fuss about it all she wanted after they had her safely tucked in their bed between them.
The road seemed to go on forever as ten minutes turned to twenty and twenty to forty-five. Each mile after that had his heart pounding loud enough he had trouble hearing over it. When the buildings appeared in front of them, Thorne slowed down and stopped. A dark sedan sat in front of one of the boarded-up buildings. Most of them were barely standing but the one next to the car looked in better shape than the others.
“Okay. We’re on foot from here. We’ll come in from behind and see if there is a back entrance. If not, we’ll circle to the front and go in fast,” Thorne told him.
Together they inched their way around the row of dilapidated buildings and found that the one the car was parked in front of didn’t have a back door since it seemed to be what was left of the old jail house. They converged on either side of the door and ran in at full speed.
Rollan stopped, with Thorne running into his back with a curse.
“What the fuck?” he yelled. Then he saw what Rollan did.
* * * *
Sierra heard the stomp of boots running in her direction. She prayed it was help but couldn’t get anything to come out of her mouth. She’d lost her voice from yelling for help over the last hour or more. The clomping stopped just in front of her and someone cursed. It sounded like Thorne, but she didn’t dare hope.
“Get her out of here,” another voice yelled. It sounded like Rollan.
The next thing she knew, someone was pulling the blindfold off of her eyes. She blinked against the dull glare as Thorne pulled a knife and cut at the rope that had her hands tied to the bars of the cell, just as she’d surmised. When the pressure released, she screamed despite not having much of a voice left. Her shoulders burned with the left one feeling like someone had a knife twisting in the joint.
“Fuck, Rollan. We’ve got to get her to a hospital. I think her shoulder is dislocated,” Thorne said.
“Motherfucker!” Rollan kicked the man laying curled on the floor. There was already quite a bit of blood on the floor around him. He didn’t want to stop until there was more than blood covering the floor.
“Rollan! Get it together, man. Sierra needs help. Tie him to the bar and
let’s go. The sheriff can see about him later.” Thorne shoved past him with Sierra in his arms.
Seeing her limp like that got through to him. He quickly used the rest of the rope that had been left on the floor and tied the bastard’s hands to the bars just like he’d had Sierra’s. Then he ran to catch up with Thorne and Sierra. Her left arm hung at an odd angle as Thorne tried to keep from jarring her as he walked over the rocky terrain.
“I’ll run ahead and drive the truck up to meet you,” he told the other man.
Thorn nodded with a grunt and continued walking slowly toward their truck. Rollan ran as fast as he could and climbed into the cab. He reached them before they’d gotten much closer. Thorne climbed up into the passenger seat with Sierra in his arms. His face grim.
“Call Sedona to find out where the nearest hospital is. Tell her to let the sheriff know we left him a present at the jailhouse,” Thorne said.
Rollan made the call and found that they were only twenty minutes from the closest hospital. As he filled the sheriff in when he took the phone from Sedona, he drove toward the little town where they could get first aid for Sierra.
By the time they’d pulled up at the emergency room, Sierra had woken enough to tell them what happened to Dexter.
“I know I broke his nose because I heard it crunch, but I’m not sure what other kind of damage I did. I just kept kicking out over and over until there wasn’t anything in front of me anymore,” she rasped out.
“You did good, baby. He was unconscious and looked pretty beat up. Didn’t move a bit when we came in and cut you loose. He didn’t even grunt when Rollan kicked him a few times for good measure,” Thorne told her.
“I wanted to do more than that, but we needed to get you some help.” Rollan was glad to see some people in green scrubs wheel out a gurney to meet them.
It took all of his restraint not to knock some heads together when they put Sierra’s shoulder back in place. At least they’d well medicated her beforehand. They should have medicated him as well. Even if she didn’t feel it, he had.
By the time the sheriff had come and asked his questions then left, they were all exhausted. Sedona stayed even when all of them, including Sierra had insisted she go home and get some rest.
“I’m not leaving until she goes home,” she said.
“I’m fine, honey. Go home where you can rest better,” Sierra told her.
Sedona’s phone rang as they waited for the doctor to come by later that day to discharge her. She answered it and talked to someone for a few seconds before handing the phone to Sierra. She frowned but took it with her right hand. From the first hello, Rollan could tell it was her brother calling. Sedona looked pleased with herself. She’d obviously had a talk with Buddy and explained what had happened. They’d almost lost their sister. It was time to put things right again.
Rollan watched the tears shine her eyes as she talked with the young man. He loved seeing the smile on her face. He wanted to see it there when they talked about moving her in with them. He wasn’t taking no for an answer any longer. If she’d been with them, it was highly doubtful the bastard would have tried to mess with her.
By the time they made it back to their house, it was nearly six that night. He’d wanted to take her back to their house, but she insisted she needed her things. She didn’t say no when they talked about packing it all up anyway to take to their ranch. Rollan was keeping his fingers crossed that she wasn’t going to fight with them about it. They had already informed Sedona that until she went to college, she was staying with them as well. She didn’t fuss about it either.
By the time they tucked Sierra into the guest bed, everyone was exhausted. Sedona thanked them again for helping find her sister and taking care of her before she left them to go to her room. Rollan wanted nothing more than to crawl in the bed with Sierra and curl around her. He knew Thorne felt the same way, but he worried that he might hurt her.
“What are you guys waiting on, an engraved invitation? I’m cold. I could use some body heat,” Sierra said with a raspy voice.
Both men climbed into bed to cuddle carefully around her. The feel of her skin close to his had Rollan in heaven. He could stay there next to her forever.
“I’m sorry I pushed you away, guys. I thought I needed to figure out who I was and what I wanted before I could fully commit to you. I was afraid that I might wake up one day and realize I’d made a mistake. The only mistake I was making was putting you off. I’m so sorry,” Sierra said, looking from one to the other of them.
“You don’t have to say anything, baby. We were pushing you too fast. Like you said, we only knew each other for a short time before we talked you into bed with us. We are the ones who be saying we’re sorry,” Thorne said.
“I love you, Sierra. I want to be sure you know that before we go any further. You mean everything to me. I want you happy and safe more than I want anything else in this life, including the ranches,” Rollan told her. He wanted to be sure she knew how much he cared about her.
“I love you both, too. I wish I wasn’t so screwed up inside. I don’t want to wait. I want to move in and be with you both. Will you let me try again?” she asked.
“You bet we will. We’ll be right there with you, trying to get it right, too,” Thorne told her.
She smiled and drifted off to sleep while they continued to watch over her. Rollan was afraid to close his eyes in case he woke to find her gone again.
“I don’t want to ever go through that again,” Thorne said. “She’s ours and I want to make sure everyone knows it.”
“I agree. What did you have in mind?” Rollan asked.
“We marry her so she wears a ring on her finger for everyone to see.”
“How soon do you think we can get her to do it?”
Thorne winced. “I don’t know. We’ll start working on her as soon as she wakes up again.”
“I’m awake. What are you fussing about?”
“We’re not fussing,” Rollan told her, kissing her nose. “We’re discussing how to ask you to marry us.”
“Marry you? Both of you? Are you sure? Because I know I’m sure,” she said with a huge smile.
“Really? You want to marry us?” Thorne asked. “That’s great! We’ll work on the paperwork as soon as we get home.”
“Just like that? You’re fine with being with both of us for the rest of your life? Because I’m going to warn you, Sierra. There will be no divorce. No going back. Once you belong to us, you’re ours forever,” Rollan told her.
“Shut up and kiss me to seal the deal. Yes, I love you and I’ll marry you and it sure as hell better be forever. I’m not having any second thoughts from you two. You cheat on me and I’ll make sure you won’t have a reason to stray again. Think Bobbitt,” she told them.
Both of them crossed their legs and groaned. Neither of them wanted to make her angry enough to even mention that again. Rollan pulled her carefully into his arms. He felt good again. She completed him and those days without her had been a living nightmare. Then to nearly lose her had just about signed his death certificate.
Knowing that Dexter would be in prison for a long time helped settle him some, but Rollan would have felt better if the bastard disappeared entirely. Between the mess he’d made at the bank and the kidnapping, assault, and attempted murder charges being added, according to the sheriff, Dexter would be an old man before he saw the light of day again.
“I can’t wait until you’re well again,” Thorne told her.
“I’m fine now. Why?” she asked with a knowing smile.
“Because we want to bury our cocks so deep inside of you that you never doubt who you belong to,” Rollan finished for Thorne.
“That goes both ways, guys. You belong to me. I want to feel you inside of me, making me feel good. I want you to fill me up so that I always know you’re near me,” she said.
Rollan kissed her and fell asleep with those words in his head. It was the best any of them had slept sinc
e she’d left to find herself. He thought it was appropriate that they’d found her instead.
Chapter Eighteen
“I’m fine. I’m tired of being treated like a damn invalid. It’s been a week and I’m horny as hell. You have no idea what it’s like sleeping between you guys and not being able to do anything about it.” Sierra was beyond tired of waiting for them to make love to her. They acted like she’d break or something.
“Baby, your shoulder isn’t completely healed yet. We don’t want to do anything that might hurt it again,” Thorne told her.
“Fine. I won’t do anything. You guys can do all the work, but I’m telling you if you don’t take care of me now, I’ll risk my shoulder to take care of myself,” she threatened them.
“Ah, honey. Don’t tease us with thoughts like that. Watching you play with that pretty pussy would be so fucking hot,” Rollan said.
“It would be so much hotter if you did it for me,” she cooed back to him.
“Are you sure, Sierra?” Thorne asked.
“Yes! Yes, yes. I’ve never been so sure of something in my life. Fuck me already.” She dropped the towel they’d wrapped around her after her bath. It did her a world of good to watch how both men zeroed in on her naked body.
Rollan stared at her tits while Thorne looked down at her pussy. She loved how they had favorite areas. It just so happened those areas turned her on, too. Now all she had to do was manipulate them into screwing the hell out of her. One more night sleeping instead of making love was going to send her off the deep end. A woman could only stand so much sleep without a little extra now and then to break it all up.
Rollan stepped behind her and nipped her neck just below her ear. She groaned. The wet heat of his tongue as he traced a path down the side of her neck to her shoulder had her shivering in anticipation of what was to come.
“God, you’re sexy with that flush on your face from the shower.” Thorne told her as he stepped closer.
