Smolder Road (Scorch Series Romance Thriller Book 6)

by Toby Neal

  I can’t see anything. Am I blind?

  No, it’s dark in here. Really, really dark. They must have taken any light source with them.

  My eyes begin to adjust. A dull grey light glows on the other side of the metal gate I heard. I scoot over to it, my hands still useless by my sides except for pain shooting through them with every movement.

  Pressing my face through the bars, I try to see out. To the left is another door, a bar of light leaking under it. To my right is total darkness. Across from me, condensation glistens on the metal bars of two other cells.

  My arms are going back to normal, the pain subsiding. I wait a few more minutes to let the pins and needles fully abate before grabbing onto the gate and pulling myself up to stand.

  “Is there anyone out there?” I call. My voice is sucked into the darkness. This cave doesn’t echo, it soaks up sound. I get no response.

  I’m all alone here, in the dark.

  Fear slides over me like a silk dress, clingy and seductive, whispering to give into it.

  No! I’ve got to keep thinking, keep moving, stay angry and motivated to help myself.

  I run my hand along the wall, trying to determine where I am. Wet stone down a long aisle and a lot of steps… I must be in a cave. The wall is rough and has bumps and hollows, like it was blasted out. I reach a rounded corner and keep going until I’m back at the gate.

  The cell is small, probably about twelve by twelve.

  I strike out toward the adjacent corner, my hands out in front of me, trying to find if there is any bedding or anything else in the middle of the space.

  Please let me find a toilet.

  My shins hit something hard. Feeling with my hands, I discover a wooden chair with a high back. The arms have leather straps on them. Why would the armrests have straps?

  To restrain me for torture.

  “Holy Mary full of grace, be with me in my hour of need,” I whisper. Mama’s Catholicism, drummed into me at a young age and rejected when I was old enough to do so, whispers out through my numb lips as I tiptoe along the edge of terror.

  Maybe they’ll want information about the Haven. These men will want to take out my family’s compound. I can’t let them get anything from me.

  I need to escape or die trying.

  Feeling down the legs of the chair I find heavy screws holding them in place. One is loose! If I can unscrew the leg, I’ll be able to use it as a club. I squat down and begin trying to work the screw out, but footsteps draw my attention to the hall. I scuttle away from the chair and push into the furthest corner, my back against the slimy, rough wall.

  A flashlight sways out of the dark as the footsteps approach. First striking the stone floor outside my cell, then shining in at me so brightly it hurts my eyes so that I hold up my hand, blocking the blinding beam.

  “Well, well, well.” A deep male voice. “You boys did real good. Caught us a fine bargaining chip.”

  “I told ya.” I recognize the voice of the man whose eye I stabbed. “She was a real hellcat. Almost took out my eye, like I told you. But Jackson said you’d be happy we brought her in.”

  “I sure am happy, Joe Bob,” Boss answers him. “Lucy, right? That’s what they call you.”

  My mind flashes to movies where prisoners of war just repeat their dog tag numbers over and over again—because there used to be rules about how to treat POWs in the time before the Scorching. But not now. I need to talk my way out of this if at all possible.

  “Lucy?” I say, sounding confused. “You’ve got the wrong girl. I’m Sasha.” As in Sasha Fierce, bitches, Beyonce’s alter ego. I’m channeling me some fierce! Biting my fat lip and feeling the nip of pain helps me get stronger.

  “She’s lying!” Joe Bob yells. “Jackson recognized her from the photos you have of all those dagos in the compound!”

  Boss Man pays no attention to Joe Bob. I’m still blinded by the flashlight in my eyes, but I can see his silhouette, menacing and dark, behind it. “If you’re not Lucy Luciano then you’re useless to me. I’ll let Joe Bob and the rest of the boys have their fun, and then we’ll dump your body in the woods for the wolves.” His voice is even, calm, like he’s discussing the weather.

  The silk dress of fear has a corset and it’s squeezing the breath out of me.

  “So, honey, what’s your name?”

  I need to buy more time. Get that chair leg. Figure a way out of here—and if I’m a bargaining chip, then they will keep me alive until I can get away. It’s my only hope. I stand up and lower my hand, letting the light hit me full in the face as I stare at the darkness above the beam. “Fine. I’m Lucille Luciano.” My voice is steady, but fear is tightening around my chest.

  “That’s what I—”

  I interrupt Joe Bob. “I wasn’t finished, asshole.” I keep going, raising my voice, strong and sure “My name is Lucille Luciano. And you’ll regret this day for the rest of your life. My family will destroy you.”

  Thick silence, vibrating with angry tension, fills the cell.

  “We’ll see about that, sweetheart.” Boss Man’s voice is as sharp as the blade that cut my ankle.

  He throws something in, and I flinch back. Joe Bob laughs, sounding like a chipmunk in heat. A water bottle rolls to my feet. It’s probably drugged.

  “I’ll be back to talk with you later.”

  I harden my face like I don’t care, but inside, fear and anger are doing a tango.

  Keys jingle and the hinges creak. I bend my knees, making claws of my fingers. I’m ready to fight, and maybe I can poke another eye out before they take me down. I’m never cutting my nails short again!

  Metal clanks onto the floor. The flashlight illuminates a rusted bucket they’ve thrown in.

  “For when nature calls,” Joe Bob says, his voice high with humor. “That’s where you can answer.” What a funny freaking joke.

  “See you soon, Lucy,” Boss Man says as the gate clangs shut. “Get some rest. You’re gonna need it.” The lock clicks back into place and their footsteps retreat, taking the light with them. I slide down the wall, dragging in big breaths, sobs threatening to explode from my chest.

  I will not cry!

  “Assholes! Bastards!” I cling to anger. I’m the prisoner of some seriously messed up men who want to hurt me and will enjoy it, but I won’t give in.

  Roan. He has a steely exterior, a coldness that protects a damaged heart. I know he’ll come for me. I put my head between my knees and picture Roan in the sunshine, his lips on mine, our bodies melded together.

  He’ll save me. Maybe not in the physical sense, though I know he’ll try, but in my mind. I’ll hold onto Roan and the memory of our kiss, and it will keep me sane and whole, wrapped in sunshine and passion, protected and loved—even if it can’t keep me alive.

  Chapter Twelve

  Roan

  I run down the long corridor leading from the back hatch of the Haven into its depths, heading for the room they call the Command Center. The door opens as I reach it and I slam into it, almost knocking JT over.

  “Whoa,” he says in his deep voice, steadying himself against the door. Our gazes meet. The good-humored crinkles around his hazel eyes evaporate, revealing the hard gaze of the loner I met hunting three years ago. “What’s happened?”

  “Lucy has been taken.” I have to force the words out.

  “What?” Luca, the eldest Luciano, yells from where he’s standing behind JT inside the Command Center. JT swings the door wide and I step into the room. All five living Luciano brothers turn to face me, and I grit my teeth. This isn’t going to be easy.

  Luca swells to even bigger than his massive size, bunching his fists. “What the hell did you just say?”

  “She tracked me down in the forest and we had words. I sent her back. Alone. Three men, who must have been trolling us, took her. I take responsibility for that. I didn’t make sure she got back safe. She was upset—she sent Pinocchio back to the compound, forgot her rifle…and…she’s gone
.”

  Luca breathes like a bull ready to charge, Dolf paces like a panther, Cash begins to load a gun, Dante at the computer hunches forward, his fingers moving fast on the keyboard—but its JT, my best friend, who looms up nose-to-nose, staring me down. “This is on you, man.” His voice is low and dangerous. His little sister is missing, and it’s my fault.

  They’ve all teased Lucy about her “crush” on me. Only JT knows it’s mutual—he’s watched me walk away to take cold swims in the pond too many times to be fooled by my act.

  What I don’t know, have never known—is how he’d feel about Lucy and me being together.

  JT shakes his head, steps away. “No. Punching you will only slow us down. We have to focus on a plan to get her back.”

  Luca steps up where JT left off. “I still want to kick your ass,” he growls, fisting my shirt, his brown eyes almost black in the low light.

  “Don’t do it, Luca,” Cash says, resting the loaded gun on his thigh. “You know how Lucy feels about him—we all do. You kick his ass, and when we get her back, she’ll kill you—just when you’re about to become a dad.” Trust Cash to hit the right note, something just between humor and truth, de-escalating the situation.

  Luca grunts, stepping away from me.

  “Kill me if we don’t get her back unharmed.” My chest is still banded tight. “She fought hard. Didn’t make it easy for them. And she drew blood.” I unclip the wire loop from my belt. “Used this as a weapon. I tracked them to the road but they’re long gone in a vehicle.” Regret is an anvil on my chest.

  “Gone, but not lost,” Dante says from the computer bay where three large monitors reflect grainy views from the surveillance cameras of the Haven. He was reviewing the digital recordings from the cams as we talked. “They never got close enough to get into video range of our back-hatch cameras, but I have a satellite feed I can pull up.” He leans forward, his fingers a blur. Guy’s a wizard, casting spells at the keyboard.

  “They parked on the side of the road, due west from the back entrance,” I come up behind Dante’s chair.

  “What time?”

  I look for a window, some natural clue about the time, but we’re deep underground. Most of the family, except for JT and Elizabeth, sleep down here. I don’t know how they stand it. I prefer my hay bed in the barn, or anywhere outdoors. “She left my place around noon. An hour later, I discovered she’d been taken.”

  “So, they’ve had her almost two hours.” Dolf’s voice is low and controlled, edged with tension.

  My body is trembling with delayed reaction to the stress, but I can’t let it show. “I’d have kept tracking, but once they got into a vehicle…”

  “You should have let us know right away, the minute you knew she was gone,” Luca snarls. All of them are attached to Lucy, but Luca seems the most protective of her and he’s not anyone you’d want to cross. With his Special Forces background and massive size, he’s as dangerous as his wife, Haunani.

  Can’t they just beat on me and get it over with?

  JT catches my eye, as if reading my mind, and gives a single negative headshake. “Lucy does what she wants. Always has. She’s a handful. For you, and for whoever took her.” A small smile creeps on his lips. “I almost feel bad for the suckers—no way did they know what they were getting themselves into when they kidnapped Lucy Luciano.”

  Dolf snorts, and that’s about as close to a laugh as he ever gets.

  “There’s no excuse,” I murmur. “I should have seen her home safe.”

  “Damn straight,” Luca grumbles. Anger and aggression waft off Luca like cologne as he and JT lean in to watch the computer screen.

  Dante doesn’t respond in an emotional way, nor does he look at me. He simply plugs in the time I gave, and the grainy, long-distance feed begins to morph as the view swivels and changes. The youngest of the Lucianos, Dante has a single-mindedness that not even Dolf, the most intense brother, can equal. “I’m pulling up the satellite’s digital imaging from that time period so we can see where they went.”

  Cash, always restless, heads for the door. “I’ll prep the Humvee with weapons and supplies.” Dolf follows him out. The Humvee belongs to Dolf, as do half the weapons in this place.

  Dante chooses a time frame and plugs it into a data box. Most technology went down during the Scorching, but the satellites are still operational in space, given that their power sources are not dependent on human activity. Dante has taken the one over northern Idaho and made it part of the Haven’s surveillance arsenal.

  The grainy feed reveals a black dot that coalesces into an SUV as the camera zooms in. Dante rewinds it further and we see it pull out of the trees.

  I point. “That’s where they were parked.”

  We watch the black dot travel down the road agonizingly slow, like watching paint dry while a house is on fire. Dante speeds the recording up, pointing to a counter in the corner of the screen. “That’s kilometers. I’ll track and pinpoint where they end up.”

  The dot travels down the road. I try not to think of Lucy in that vehicle: bound, gagged, stifled, terrified… No, not terrified. Fighting mad, pissed as hell, and ready to inflict maximum damage.

  The thought almost makes me smile…but my eyes sting instead. That attitude of hers is going to get her hurt. I can almost feel it happening in my own body: the blows, the pain, the shock and violation of it. She’s all mouth and sassy pride. She has no idea of how much pain that attitude might get her.

  Dante points to a small video window in one of the screens. “We’ve got incoming. Looks like a motorcycle, moving in fast.”

  JT bolts out of the room. He’s going to the sniper observation tower on top of his house to cover the stranger’s approach. I want to intercept that cycle at the gate.

  I’m right on JT’s heels with Luca breathing down my neck, and I manage to beat the behemoth to the hatch out of the shelter, up the narrow stairs, and into the house. We blaze through. Luca’s stronger but I’m faster. We can hear the roar of the approaching cycle, coming down the dirt and gravel road past the Haven. We’re neck and neck racing to the first gate. JT opens it remotely, it swings wide and we fly through, pounding toward the second gate.

  I pull my tomahawk and the Colt. We’ll catch this guy. Interrogate him. Maybe send him home in a bag, or just spit his head on the gate as a warning…

  The dogs form a pack behind us, barking with excitement at this new chasing game: Shadow beside me, Tiny, Cash’s bear dog, Butch the Jack Russell, Pinocchio, and Peaches, Luca’s Shepherd, all sound like they want to take this guy on as badly as I do.

  When we’re a hundred yards from the main gate, Cash roars past us on the ATV. He’s standing on the pedals and aiming his compound bow at the cycle over the gate. The man riding it throws a white-wrapped rock over the gate and whips a U-turn, dust flying up as he roars out.

  Luca fires, but his aim is ruined by climbing the gate and the messenger gets away. Holstering my weapons, I pick up the paper-wrapped rock.

  My heart pounds like surf in my ears as I unwrap it. Luca strides up, rich color suffusing his face, and yanks it out of my hand as Cash pulls up on the ATV.

  Luca scans, reading what I couldn’t—not when one of Lucy’s fat, glossy curls was taped over the words. I’m holding that curl in my hand, sliding it into my pocket without showing it to her brothers, instinctively hiding and keeping it. I’m blindly possessive of this trace of her.

  Luca reads aloud:

  “I have your sister, Lucy. Give me back my sister, Jolene. Or Lucy will come home in pieces. ~Dwight Kane.”

  Luca lifts his head, his hard-brown gaze landing on Cash. Jolene is Cash’s wife, a soft and gentle lady who carries the antibodies for the Scorch Flu in her blood, injected into her by her asshole brother, a leader in the skinhead Great Nation America cult that unleashed this godforsaken flu.

  A man we thought was dead.

  Cash grabs the note, the color draining from his face. “No,” he says. “
It can’t be. I killed that bastard myself.”

  “Rage sweeps all aside,” Luca grinds out. “Death cannot be denied now. Lucy must return.”

  “I shot him in the chest myself!” Cash paces, ignoring Luca’s haiku—the giant’s always spouting poetry, especially when emotions are high. Cash’s shaggy blond head turns like he can scent the wind and find Lucy that way. Of all the brothers, Cash is the best tracker and is often my hunting partner.

  JT gallops up on Dante’s sweet pinto mare, an animal so tame she can be ridden with nothing but a halter, which is all JT’s using right now. He slides off Sweetie’s back and lands in the road with a thump that raises dust from his work boots. His green-brown eyes seem to burn as he holds his hand out to Luca.

  “You idiots might have messed up evidence on the note.” JT is the deputy sheriff in North Fork, a role he takes seriously. “Show me the message.” He’s already wearing latex gloves. He anticipated this. JT has what he calls the Sight, a sense of things to come. He clearly saw this coming.

  Luca drops the rock and its crude message into his brother’s hands. I stay back, my fingers stroking the black silk of Lucy’s hair in my pocket, but JT’s gaze rakes us. “Was that all there was? They didn’t include proof they have her, something to scare us?”

  Luca turns to me. “Roan caught the rock and opened it first.”

  I bring my hand out of my pocket and pass the ribbon of hair to JT without a word. It feels like giving away a piece of my soul.

  My best friend looks down at it, his jaw setting into a tight line. “Dolf, go into town.” his voice is low and even. “Pick up E and Melody. Roan, Cash, Luca, let’s get down to the Command Center and find these fuckers.” He looks up at me, our eyes meeting. “We’ll get her back.”

  But will she be alive?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kane

  I rub the swastika carved into my chest, rocking back in the office chair of the old foreman’s office at the front of the mine. The familiar raised lines ground me, along with the ache of the gunshot wound in my thigh.