I sighed. I would sort that out when it came down to it. Right now, I needed to figure out a way to escape.
I leaned back against the seat and let the lulling hum of the car take over, let it rock me into a vegetative state. Fighting wasn’t going to make a difference. I couldn’t do anything now, and I wasn’t going to argue with Kenneth. But once we stopped, he was going to have to untie me if he didn’t want to attract attention. At least my hands from my thighs.
We drove another hour. The scenery changed again, the countryside rising and falling in a series of hills that stopped me from seeing very far. The car curled down a winding road that made its way through the hills. Finally, we stopped. It was just a flat patch in the grass, littered with pebbles and sand. There was a worn picnic table off to the one side, and a swinging bin that had been broken off its poles and lay on its side on the ground.
“Come on, let’s stretch our legs,” Kenneth said. He turned in his seat and cut the tape around my hands and thighs with a knife. He didn’t untie my wrists, though, but being able to stretch my hands up and move my legs apart was already plenty.
He got out and opened the door for me. The sun beat down on me the moment I got out. I hoped my dress was down at the back. I couldn’t run my hands over my bum to check.
“Please untie my hands,” I said to Kenneth. He glanced at me, looking skeptical. I had to play this one the right way if I wanted to get away from him. I couldn’t do anything to him like this. “My wrists hurt from the tape.”
He looked like he was thinking about it, but I didn’t push it. I knew him well enough for that. The sun was hot, and I felt out of breath already. I wanted more water, but I knew it was in the car.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kenneth said.
I had to get away from him before we got in the car again and drove even further away. There were hills everywhere—if I ran, I was sure I could lose him.
“Please,” I tried again, “even if you just do it for five minutes and then retie them in a different way so that it doesn’t hurt so much. You did it when I was out, I’m awake now it will be easier.”
It was a long shot, trying to talk him into getting my hands untied, but I needed them loose. I didn’t know how many people there were going to be around, or what lay beyond those hills for me.
Kenneth looked at me, hesitating, but he was thinking about it. That was better than a straight “no.” Finally, he nodded and beckoned for me to step closer. I stepped into him, steeling myself against the dislike that welled up in my throat when his body was this close to mine. Instead, I pushed it a little further, looked up into his eyes and smiled. His eyes slid slowly down from mine to my wrists, and he started peeling off the tape. It took a while, the duct tape was sticky and it hurt me when he ripped it off my skin, but I could move again.
I rubbed my wrists, opened and closed my fingers to pump blood through them.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Five minutes,” he responded. I nodded.
“Do you have water?”
He walked back to the car and retrieved a water bottle, handing it to me. I unscrewed it, tipped my head back and drank. I looked like I was calm, but my mind was whirring. I was aware where Kenneth was, the road that stretched ahead of the car and all the way behind us, the sun beating down on my face, the fact that even though my body was stiff, I could still run.
When I dropped the bottle again Kenneth walked toward me, duct tape in hand.
“Come on,” he said and waved it in front of me. “Time to strap up.”
“Ah, just a little longer?” I asked pouting. I looked at him with my best big eyes. “Besides, it seems kind of pointless to tie me up again if this is where I wanted to be.”
Kenneth frowned at me. I kept my eyes on his face, and I was aware of the tape that he lowered slowly.
“What are you talking about?”
I shrugged. “It was very sweet of you to look out for me. If I knew you wanted to get us alone, you could have just told me. I might have taken the day off to road trip.” I looked around us. “To wherever we’re going.”
Kenneth sighed.
“I don’t have time for bullshit, Tanya,” he said.
I opened my mouth, a round O of surprise. “Don’t be like that. This is nice, just getting away for a little bit, change of scenery and all that. We’ve both been stressed lately.”
Kenneth looked like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to believe the change of heart he was seeing. I knew that he cared enough about me, even if it was on a stalker level, that my words were making some sort of impact. But he didn’t trust the peace, and he wasn’t wrong. Still, I needed to play this so that it was really going to work.
I sighed and dropped my hands.
“You were right, you know,” I said softly, hanging my head. “He was trouble. It was stupid of me to get involved with him.”
I saw Kenneth shaking his head. “You don’t have to worry about him finding us here,” he said. He was playing the protector. I was going to milk that.
“I just can’t believe I didn’t see it coming. He seemed so…” I couldn’t find the right word to finish that sentence with.
“It’s okay,” Kenneth said before I could try long enough, and I was glad. “It’s the Stockholm Syndrome. I recognized it the moment I saw that tape.”
What? Kenneth really was losing it. He was trying to justify what was happening by making it look like I had a mental issue, and I wasn’t the one who was crazy. But right now I wanted him to say everything he wanted to say. Anything to keep him from tying me up again. I covered my face with my hands, hunched my shoulders. I hoped it looked like I wanted to cry.
Kenneth sighed and then put his arms around my back. I fought the urge to shrug him off. He pulled me against him so that I was leaning against his chest.
“We’ll fix this,” he said. “Don’t cry.”
I sighed and shuddered on purpose, then looked up at him. His eyes trailed down to my lips, and I knew what he wanted. I didn’t know if I had what it took to kiss him and pretend like it was for real. If I wanted to make a move, I had to do it before things got worse. I could only pretend as if he was my savior for so long before he would either catch on to me, or he would expect a lot more of me. His hand with the tape was on my back, his body so close to mine I was almost pressed up against him. His face started inching toward mine.
There was no way I was going to let him kiss me. I did what I’d wanted to do ages ago. I yanked my knee up right into his balls. I felt the soft tissue give way until my knee connected with hard bone. Kenneth doubled over, breath leaving him in a loud gasp, and he crumpled to the ground. He was gaping like a fish out of water, hands cradling his crotch. He rolled around. I kicked him in the head, twice, before he got a chance to lift his hands away from his aching balls to protect his head. The third kick knocked him out.
My head hurt, knowing what I was doing to him. The concussion Kenneth had given me was far from healed, but the adrenaline pumping through my body now was a natural pain killer. I patted Kenneth’s pockets, looking for his phone. When I pulled it out of his left pocket, I realized the phone I’d found was mine. Thank God. And it still had an almost full battery after I’d charged it in my car the night before.
It felt like ages ago that I’d been with Reggie, waiting for Saxon to return my calls.
I dialed Saxon’s number and hoped to God that this time he would pick up.
CHAPTER 29
I’d literally driven to every place I thought she could possibly be, and I still hadn’t found her. I’d been back to the apartment twice. Her phone was off all the time, and Red was starting to panic which didn’t help matters at all.
I’d even driven back to Sherman’s house, hoping that if the bastard had her, then she would be there. I was starting to think that he did have her. He hadn’t shown up to work either, and that was suspicious. I was almost at the point where I was willing to go to the police—even tho
ugh I hated them—so that I could file a missing person’s report. I didn’t go that far though. I wasn’t going to waltz into the same place that had let me go less than twelve hours ago.
My phone rang in my pocket, and I pulled it out, holding it against my ear while I paced Sherman’s driveway.
“What?” I snapped, really not in the mood for Skinner and his shit.
“Saxon?” Tanya’s voice came over the phone, and she sounded damn near hysterical.
“Oh, my God, Tanya where are you? I’ve been looking for you all morning.”
She whimpered like she was crying. “He’s unconscious,” she said. “He’s unconscious, oh my God, Saxon, what if I killed him?” She breathed hard, hyperventilating. I had to help her get it under control. At this point, neither of us was going to get anywhere, and I was guessing she was in trouble.
“Tell me what happened from the start.”
She started crying. “He hit me over the head and tied me up. I got him to untie me just now, and I kicked him, and now he’s not waking up. I don’t know where I am. Shit, Saxon, I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay, don’t worry. We’ll fix this. We’ll make sure that everything works out just fine. You need to try to tell me where you are, okay? Describe to me what you see.”
She sniveled and swallowed hard enough that I could hear it over the phone. She took a deep breath, and it shuddered through me as she blew it out, like I was feeling what she was feeling.
“Uhm… It looks like we’re in the middle of nowhere,” she said. “There are just grassy hills everywhere. And the road. We stopped at this picnic place, but I don’t think anyone uses it anymore.”
I scratched my head and leaned against my bike. There were a million places that looked the way she’d just described to me. How was I going to figure out where she was?
“Is there anything else you can see? Something on the horizon?”
She was quiet, and I imagined her turning around, looking all over for something. I hoped she would find something that I knew. I’d been out and about, but I hadn’t been everywhere.
“There’s a cell tower on the horizon,” she said. That didn’t help me a lot. “A red and white one. And there are three of those electrical wire towers. What do you call them?”
I closed my eyes. A cellphone tower and three electrical towers. I actually knew what she was talking about. She was about six hours drive out of the city. Shit. And whatever she’d done to Sherman, I doubted she’d killed him as she was worrying about.
“You need to get out of there, Tanya,” I said. “He’s going to wake up soon, and I want you to get out of there before that happens.”
“Are you sure he’s going to wake up?” she asked.
She was so naïve.
“Definitely. Can you take the car? I can direct you somewhere and then meet you.”
She swallowed again. “I need to find the keys. I think he dropped them… here they are. I got them.”
I nodded. “That’s my girl,” I said. “Now get in the car and get back on that road. Follow it east until you see a dirt road coming out to the left. It’s near a clump of trees, but you have to be careful because you can miss it.”
“What if he finds me?”
“He won’t. You’re taking the car, and he’s going to have to walk a while to catch up to you—if he even figures out where you’re going, which I doubt he’ll do.”
I waited for her to respond. I heard a car door slam and the car start.
“Okay, I’m driving,” she said.
“Right. Take that dirt road to the left and follow it. It winds around the cell tower and then leads into some shrubs to a cabin. It’s really just a shed. It’s hidden, so you’ll have to look hard, but no one else will find it unless they know what to look for. Wait there for me, I’m coming to get you.”
I hung up and walked to my bike. I was going to do the quickest six-hour trip in the world. I pulled the throttle on the bike, and it roared. I drove down the street. My phone rang in my pocket, and I ignored it. I wasn’t going to let anything stop me now. She must have gone through hell. Kenneth had clocked her over the head, tied her up, and kidnapped her. What the fuck? I knew he was a psychopath. I should have trusted my jerk radar.
By the ninth time my phone vibrated I pulled off to the side of the road and pulled it out. There were three missed calls from Skinner. Shit.
I dialed his number and took a deep breath.
“Where the fuck are you? I’ve been trying to get you a hold of you for hours. I get your ass out of jail and now you disappear on me?”
“I had something to take care of,” I said. I’d gotten about two hours into the drive. The sun was scorching through the black leather now that there was no wind to keep my temperature down, and I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand.
“You are done taking care of shit that I don’t know about. You’re not part of this so that you can use your influence to do your own thing.”
“I know, Skinner,” I said. “I just have to do this. I’ll be back by… tomorrow.”
Skinner let out a string of curses that would do any biker proud. “What do you think is going to happen with tonight’s drop? You can’t just pull out.”
I took a deep breath. This was where I had to choose. I could turn around now, go back to Skinner and the gang, and take care of the drop-off. Or I could keep going, find Tanya, and make sure she was okay.
If I didn’t turn around though, it was pretty set that I was officially out of the gang. Or worse. With everything that I knew, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to walk down the street without looking over my shoulder. An ex-biker was either dead or going to be.
I looked down the road. It stretched ahead of me as far as the horizon before it disappeared. The sun was still high in the sky, but it wouldn’t be for long, and Tanya was all alone with a maniac after her, stuck in a crappy cabin in the middle of nowhere. The gang would be okay without me. I didn’t know if I would be okay without the gang, but there was only one way to find out.
“I’m sorry, Skinner,” I said. “I have to take care of this first before I can get back there.”
“You son of a bitch. If you turn your back on this gang, you’re going to—”
I hung up the phone. It was the best damn thing I’d done since I’d started getting myself into all this shit. I took a deep breath, blew it out, and pulled back on the road. Tanya was waiting out there for me, and I had to protect her. It was my fault she’d gotten into this mess in the first place, but that wasn’t the only reason I felt obliged to help her. I was starting to really care about her.
Was it a dangerous place for me to be in? Yes. But I’d always had a knack for danger, and I should have known that Tanya would catch me and reel me in the moment I’d seen her big brown eyes in the diner that first night. She’d been pulling me in ever since, and I’d been fighting it to no avail.
No, I was a goddamn biker. I laughed in the face of danger.
CHAPTER 30
As I drove away, I watched the limp form of Kenneth lying just a few feet from the side of the road shrink in the rearview mirror. I hoped he was okay. I didn’t know what kind of damage I’d caused. I hadn’t wanted to hurt the guy. Sure, I despised him, but I didn’t want to hurt him. No one deserved that, and I couldn’t be like him.
I lifted a hand to the bump on my own head, the blood still caked in my hair. I scratched with my fingers and spots of brown blood drifted to my dress.
The road was long and winding, and I kept my eyes open, praying that I wouldn’t miss the turn-off. There were more trees now than there were back where I’d left Kenneth, and I was scared I would search for the road at the wrong place.
I had to drive back before I saw it, but finally, I found the dirt road. I hoped it was the right one, and that there weren’t more for me to get lost on than just the one dirt road that led to where Saxon said he would come and get me.
The road was bumpy, hal
f of it washed away in scraggy ditches by the rain, and I had to go slow. My insides felt like they were being tossed around and my teeth rattled, my head throbbing. I kept checking the rearview mirror. Nerves sat in my stomach like a knotted fist, and I every time I looked, I half expected to see Kenneth in the rearview mirror, coming after me. It wasn’t possible, of course. He would never have been able to catch up to me with the speed I’d been driving to get away from him.
I was glad I didn’t run. I wouldn’t have made it this far on foot, and my whole body felt like it had been hit by a bus.
What felt like hours later, I finally drove the car around the cell tower. The red and white stripes stretched up to the heavens, and I leaned forward to see the top out of the front window. I couldn’t.
Filthy Ride: A Motorcycle Club Romance (Iron Bones MC) (Whiskey Bad Boys Book 3) Page 17
