by Sophia Gray
“Can you blame me?” She crossed her arms, and her eyes flashed. “Yes, I was crying. Yes, I was scared. You were scared, too. You’re still scared. That’s why we’re still here! The money won’t change anything. Us…” She grabbed his hands. “We’re all that matters. Not Mom. Not Grant. Not any of them. Let’s just go—”
“Damn it, Sage. You know we can’t.”
“We can! We—”
I cleared my throat. I’d heard enough. “I can write you a check for one hundred thousand. That enough for you to start over somewhere?”
Trenton gripped Sage to his side. “We’d be followed, and we’d be killed. We gotta pay them off.”
“We,” I repeated. “They know about Sage?”
I wasn’t quite sure who the they were, and I had a feeling I didn’t want to know.
“Don’t worry about it. Just stop talking about money. Stop talking about leaving. We’re staying put, and that’s final.” He released Sage and walked over to me, squeezing my chin so hard it hurt. “I would stop putting ideas into your daughter’s head if I were you.”
“But—”
“But nothing.” He released his hold on me so fast my head jerked to the side.
“Trenton,” Sage started.
“Don’t Trenton me. This will all work out. I swear it will. Just let me do what I gotta do, all right? Then we won’t have to worry about a thing. We won’t be followed, and we can get married, and we can be free to do whatever we want.”
I swallowed hard. He wasn’t getting Sage. He wasn’t going to get his way. He was desperate enough to kidnapping and ransom. What would he be capable of once he realized Sage was playing him?
“Let’s watch some—” His cell rang, cutting him off. Trenton mumbled a curse and left the room, banging he door shut behind him.
“Go to the window,” I instructed. “See if he’s out front or if you can make a break for it.”
Sage shook her head. “Don’t you think I would’ve left earlier if I could’ve? This place is a dump. It’s so old that it doesn’t have electronic keycard access. He locks the door from the outside. He switched the lock around when we got here.”
What a psycho.
“Well, not right when we got here. Once he couldn’t handle my…” Sage sniffed. “My crying. Oh God, Mom, I’m so sorry. I should’ve…I should’ve listened to you. I should’ve realized…I just thought he loved me, and I loved him and…”
“It’s all right,” I murmured. “It’s all right.”
It took me some time to console her. Once she finally stopped crying, I could hear footsteps outside and a mumbled voice. Trenton wasn’t leaving anything to chance. He was right outside.
“You don’t have your cell on you, right?” I asked.
She shook her head. “He took it away once he realized I made contact with you. I thought he hadn’t realized I took it, but he knew. He knows. Mom, what are we gonna do?”
Good question. Not that I had an answer for her.
I glanced around the room, desperate for anything that my help, and my gaze fell onto the room phone. “Does that work?”
“Nope.”
“Of course not,” I mumbled. “Did he rig it?”
“I think so.”
We were locked in without a phone. No way to call for help. No way to warn Grant that Trenton was desperate, so desperate that he couldn’t be trusted. No way to let Grant know Trenton had a gun. No way for me to get free. No way to talk our way out of this mess.
What were we gonna do? And would we survive whatever was to come next?
Grant, if you’re coming, be safe. Be smart. I don’t want anything to happen to you. Don’t you dare play the fucking hero and come here by yourself. We have to play our cards right. We have to be smart. We can’t become like Trenton. We can’t be desperate.
I cleared my throat. “We’ve gotta have a plan…”
Chapter 17
Grant
There was one quick detour I had to take before I could go after Victoria and Sage, and it wasn’t the bank. Trenton wasn’t going to get one cent from me. It wasn’t that I wasn’t willing to pay up. I had the money, and I would pay double that to get Victoria back if that was the only way to get her back.
But it wasn’t the only way.
Courtesy of the men in the car, I now knew for a fact that Trenton’s problem laid with the brutes at Cowboy’s Lasso. Trenton was only a symptom. The root of the problem lay there. It was always best to go after the problem at its root.
By now, my phone had died, but it wasn’t as if I needed to call Victoria again. I knew where she was. True, Trenton might call back, but he could leave a message. I wasn’t too concerned about that right now.
It was just after noon when I arrived at the bar. I strolled inside, and I couldn’t help feeling like I had walked into an old saloon, the kind where people would have shootouts. Well, I was carrying my gun, so if it came to it, I could draw.
“We’re not open yet,” a waitress said as she buzzed around tables, fixing the salts and peppers.
“I’m not here for food.”
She gave me a second glance and slowly smiled. “What are you looking for?” she flirted.
I grimaced. “Your boss.”
Her lips tugged into a pout. “He’s not—”
“He is.” I took a step toward her.
She backed away, slamming into another table. “He’s not here,” she insisted.
“Then where is he?” I growled.
“I’m right here.” I glanced over to see a man who looked like he had once weighed a decent amount but had lost it really fast so he had excess skin. He was short, with beady eyes, and he kept sniffing, his nose red. He’d come out from the back and walked around the bar to where the seating area began. “What do you want?” he asked.
“You the owner?” I demanded.
“So what if I am?” He lifted his chin. “Dolores, take five.”
“You sure?” The waitress scampered out of there faster than a jackrabbit.
“We gonna have a problem?” the owner asked.
“Depends.” I glowered at him. “You gonna cooperate?”
“Only with friends.” He crossed his arms. Despite the weight issue, he had some muscle on him, but I could take him. I spent an hour at the gym five days a week.
“I’ll be your friend.”
His lips twisted into a sneer. “It’ll cost ya.”
What the fuck was it with him and Trenton wanting my money?
“I’ll buy you a beer.” That was all I would offer him.
He laughed, the sound deep and echoing in the empty bar. “I prefer something else to be honest with ya.”
“Oh, a fruity drink?”
Again, the owner laughed, but this time it sounded a little cold. “A wise guy, huh?”
“Or wise ass. Take your pick.” I shrugged.
Now the laugh seemed more genuine.
“You prefer the hard stuff,” I surmised.
He nodded.
“Cocaine or heroin?”
His eyes clouded over. “Get the fuck out of here before I—”
“What? Call the cops?” I stalked around the tables and booths and only halted when I stood directly in front of him. “You and I both know that’s not gonna happen.”
He reached for his side.
I reached for mine.
The owner slowly moved his hand, lifting it. “Now, now. Take it easy, there.”
“I’ll take it easy once I got what I came for.”
His eyes narrowed so much I could hardly see them. “What exactly is it you want?”
“Nothing really.” I kept my hand on the handle of my gun but didn’t put it out. I didn’t want to fire it any more than he wanted to be shot. When it came to threats against myself, I tended to not react with violence, but if you came after my family, well, that was another story. I would use violence if pushed enough. I wasn’t quite pushed enough at the second, but that could change in an i
nstant, and I would be ready if this guy crossed the line.
“My stuff is the best there is, but if you think you can just come in here and threaten me and—”
“I don’t want your shit,” I snapped.
His eyes widened, and he backpedaled a step. “I don’t need a business partner trying to cut into my profits.”
“I’m not a fucking dealer. I’m not a user either.”
“So what the fuck do you want?”
My hand released my gun, and I gripped his shirt into my tight fist. “You listen here, and you listen good. I want to know everything you know about Trenton.”
“Who?”
I slammed my other hand on the back of a chair. “I’m not fucking around. Trenton Young. You know him, I know you do.”
The guy’s face twisted into disgust at the name, but he shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t—”
“You do know.”
“The name doesn’t ring a bell. Sorry.” He tried to loosen my hold on his shirt.
I kept my hand on shirt while my other hand brought out my gun. I made a show of putting it on the table next to us. “You were saying?”
“The fuck you want that shithead for?” the owner snapped. “He’s nothing but a shithead, a thorn in my side. If I catch him, I swear to God, I’d bury him myself. Bury him alive.”
Just then, the guards who threatened Victoria came toward us from the back. “What’s going on here?” the one asked.
“Nothing.” The owner grimaced at me. “Just leave us be.”
“You sure?” the other asked.
“Sure. Just two fellas talking.” The owner glanced over his shoulder and waited until they left. “I need a fucking drink,” he muttered. “You look like you could use one, too.”
My nostrils flared. “Fine, but only if it comes with—”
“A side of info.” The owner nodded. “Yeah. For fuck’s sake,” he grumbled when I released him. I might’ve shoved him a little, but I made sure he saw that I put my gun away. He knew I meant business, and since I wasn’t going after his drugs or his money, he hopefully felt the need to tell me what I wanted to know.
He poured two stout beers and drained his.
I nursed mine, eyeing him.
After he poured himself another one—a great pour, by the way, the bar must not just be a cover for him and his drug side business—he sighed. “What do ya wanna know?”
“Let’s just say he crossed me, and I wanna know who else he crossed.”
The man snarled a laugh, the sound dark and twisted. “That boy’s gonna end up dead twenty different ways, and I’m gonna spit on his grave.”
“What did he do?” I grumbled. I wanted to know just how fucked up the situation was for Trenton. I needed to know and understand his mindset. I didn’t think he would do anything to hurt the girls, but when a man crossed over into being a desperate animal, all bets were off. Just look at what Trenton’s father had been capable of.
“I saw the kid. He came in a lot. Him and his girl. He loved her. Wanted to do right by her.” The owner snorted.
Mixing with this guy wasn’t the way to do right by anyone, not your girl and not yourself.
Why the fuck didn’t you come to me, Trenton? Was it money? Was that why you got messed with this waste of life?
“So I gave him a job. Thought I would help him out. He scratched my back, I scratched his, ya know?”
“I know.” I drained my glass.
The owner drank half of his and belched. “Gah. It burns.” He tapped his chest. “Anyway, he did good at first. Better than I expected. So I trusted him with more jobs.”
“What exactly did he do for you?”
“Sold my goods.” The guy flashed a smile that slowly died. “Up until he didn’t.”
“What happened?”
“The lousy fucking kid. He’d been working for me for months, so I trusted him. Fucking trusted him. Gave him a huge drug stash. Huge. I’m talking a lot.” The man drank the rest of his, filled it a third time, and drained it again before continuing with his story. He didn’t seem to notice that my glass was empty, not that I wanted a refill. “Well, the fucker couldn’t keep it. And I don’t mean he sold it. No. The fucking kid had it stolen. All of it. Every last gram.”
So that was why Trenton had kidnapped Victoria. He somehow figured out that Victoria meant something to me, and he expected me to solve all his problems. If I paid him, he would pay the owner. And then what? What did Trenton think would come next? Sage couldn’t be stupid enough to want to be with him after all this, right?
And Victoria…she meant something to me. She was an amazing woman, and I didn’t just mean in the bedroom. Her drive and determination had gotten her so far in life, between her job and being able to adopt a girl as a single woman. Her family meant as much to her as my family meant to me.
And the thing was, I considered her part of my family. Did I mean the same to her? I couldn’t be sure. I liked to think that, and honestly, it didn’t matter. I would do everything for her and for Sage. That was all there was to it. We had plenty of time yet to sort everything out together.
So long as nothing happened to either of us. So long as there was a together.
I shook my thoughts away. “So he had the huge stash stolen, huh?”
“Yeah. That rat ass kid owes me the money for it. I don’t care who pays me, but someone’s gonna give me what I want.”
I cleared my throat. “You threatening me?”
“Nah, man. But I’m gonna get paid. One way or another.” He appraised me. “How do you know the kid anyhow? You said he crossed ya, right?”
“Damn straight he did,” I growled.
A sudden thought occurred to me. I swore I wasn’t trying to make an excuse for Trenton and his deplorable actions, but I never would’ve thought him capable of kidnapping and ransom before, but if the idea had been planted…
Someone’s gonna give me what I want.
I leveled the owner a stare that had him grabbing my cup and filling it, not that I took it back or drank it. “Gonna get paid one way or another, huh? You tell Trenton that?”
“I made it clear he better pay up if he knew what was good for ’im, yeah. Why? What’s the big deal?”
“You tell him a few ways to come up with the dough?”
The man screwed up his brow. “Not sure I’m followin’ ya.”
The guy wasn’t a moron, and that he was playing dumb aggravated more than I could say.
“I’m talking about extortion,” I said through gritted teeth. “Kidnapping.”
“Oh, hey, man. You got me all wrong.” The owner backed up a few steps, his hands raised in a defenseless manner. “I would never—”
“Yeah, I doubt that. You made it quite clear that you want your money, and you know Trenton doesn’t have it just sitting in a bank, waiting to be withdrawn.”
“I never—”
My gun made a reappearance.
The guy’s face whitened. “Look. I might’ve said—”
“You remember Victoria?” I demanded.
“Victoria?” His confusion seemed genuine.
“Your goons stopped her when she wanted to find out about her daughter.” I gestured with my chin toward the back entrance.
“Oh. Yeah. I might remember being told about an incidence. She was asking for trouble, snooping around and—”
“And she knew her daughter frequented here with Trenton.”
“Daughter? Look, man—” He was sweating bullets.
I lined up the gun so it was level with his chest. “Because of you and your threats, Trenton nabbed Victoria and Sage. If anything happens to them, you’re dead.”
“Hey, man, I swear I have nothing to do with it!”
I stalked toward him and tossed him against a wall. “That better stay the case. If you come near Victoria or Sage, I’ll kill you myself.”
He gulped nervously. His goons came back. Seriously, didn’t they listen to their boss? “Is
something wrong?” the owner snapped.
“We were gonna ask you that.” The taller one glared at me.
If looks could kill, I’d be dead.
