Running Into Love - The Complete Box Set

by Annalisa Nicole

  “We were able to track her all the way to an abandoned warehouse downtown. The VW and the brown Chevy are still inside. It looks like it’s only the two men and Savvy. This should be an easy in and out extraction,” Chase says.

  “While we’re waiting for men to get here, I want blueprints of the building and I want one of you to go out there and make sure none of the men leave. I will not put any of their lives in jeopardy. This is on me. This family has been through too much already. I will not have them put in harm’s way, too,” I shout at the two of them.

  I don’t care which one of them has to babysit, but one of them sure as fuck is.

  Levi and Chase look at each other and do rock, paper, scissors. I’d roar like a fucking lion at them to stop playing games, but it’s over before I can open my mouth. Levi lost. He groans and gets up from his chair.

  “Pack heat. I’m dead serious. If you have to shoot one of them in the leg, do it. Not one person from that family leaves this building. Check on the women in the safe room on your way,” I tell him.

  He grabs his gun from the safe in the room, nods his head, then walks down the hallway. I stand just outside the doorframe and listen. Just as Levi gets to the door, it opens. Willow steps out, and runs into him.

  “Oh, sorry, didn’t see you,” she says.

  “Is everything alright in there?” Levi asks, craning his head to look inside the room.

  “Yep, we’re all watching a movie with the kids,” she says.

  “Stay inside the room,” Levi warns gently.

  “You got it,” she says and goes back inside the room.

  Levi nods at me, then goes to watch the men out in reception.

  Within ten minutes, there are three burly men that you do not want to fuck with, in my office. Several more men are on their way, but it will take longer for them to get to my office, so they’ll meet us at the warehouse. Chase and I go over the details and form a plan. Everyone is packing major heat. This should all be over in thirty minutes. I can bring Savvy back to this family and hopefully earn Aiden’s trust back.

  We head out to the front and I’m stopped by Aiden.

  “Please, I’m on my knees begging you, please let me come with you. I’m no good here. I need to be there for her when you get her. She’ll be a mess and I need to be there to pick up the pieces,” Aiden tries one last time.

  “I know you want to be there. Trust me. I get that. Stay here with your family. We’ll be back in less than an hour. I give you my word,” I promise him.

  Aiden balls his hands into fists, yells at the top of his lungs, then punches his hand straight through the drywall. Levi grabs him and forcefully makes him stay as we get ready to leave.

  “Jax, give me your keys, I’m going to take your H3,” I say, holding out my hand.

  He tosses me the keys, then Chase, Ben, Luke, Ton, and I leave the building.

  I chirp the locks and the four of them get in. I reach for the door handle and freeze. Something is off, I can feel it. I scan the parking lot and count the vehicles. One of the Explorers is missing.

  “Fuck!” I shout.

  “What is it?” Ton says, standing on the running board.

  I feel it in my gut. She wouldn’t do something this stupid. She just wouldn’t. Please God, I’ll do anything. Just tell me she hasn’t done what I’m afraid she’s done. I turn around and run back inside the building. The second I walk back inside the door, Aiden is all over me.

  “Oh, thank God, I knew you’d see it my way. Let’s go,” Aiden says.

  “Out of my way,” I shout, pushing through everyone.

  “What’s going on?” Asher asks, following me.

  “Get out of my fucking way!” I roar.

  Everyone follows me to the safe room door. Willow opens the cracked door, moves into the hallway, and closes the door behind her.

  “We’re all good in here,” she says with a shaky voice.

  “Out of my way!” I shout at her.

  “Hey! What the fuck man? Don’t shout at my wife!” Asher yells at me, grabbing my arm.

  I rip my arm out of his hand, place my hands on Willow’s arms, physically pick her up off the ground and forcefully move her out of the way. I throw the door open and startle a bunch of the kids in the room.

  “Where is she?” I shout and scan the room. My heart sinks, my gut is always right. I turn around and shout at Willow, “Where is she?”

  Jax, Adrian, and Kyle walk in the room, scanning for their wives. Asher pulls Willow into his hold who is now crying.

  “Where’s Amelia?” Kyle asks Willow gently.

  “Why isn’t Ava in here with you and the girls?” Jax asks Quinn.

  “Where’s my wife? Someone better tell me what the hell is going on?” Adrian yells.

  “They all went to rescue Savvy. You guys were just arguing. Nobody was actually doing anything about it. Somebody had to do something,” Willow yells.

  “Nobody was doing anything!” I shout. “That’s all I’ve been doing, planning and arranging her extraction. You can’t just go in there without a plan or people set in the right positions!” I shout. “Quinn and Willow stay here with Samantha and the kids. And when I say stay here, I mean stay the fuck here! Everyone else get in the surveillance room, now!” I yell. “Levi, pull up the surveillance footage for this parking lot,” I demand.

  It only takes a few seconds and I see Chloe, Ava, Shay, and Amelia getting into one of the Explorers. Sticking out of the back of Chloe’s scrubs is the butt of her gun. I could never mistake her custom purple glock.

  “FUCK!” I roar. “Everyone move out!” I shout.

  Everyone piles in vehicles and I lead the way in Jax’s H3 to the warehouse.

  Chapter 8

  Savvy

  My head is pounding and the smell of stale, musty air fills my nose. It’s quiet except for the echoing noise of dripping water. It’s dark and I’m just so cold. God, my head hurts. I try to lift my hand to touch my throbbing temple, but my arm doesn’t move. I stretch out my neck from side to side, and then look around the room as my eyes adjust to the darkness. Immediate terror and crippling fear rip through me. I start to panic. I don’t remember how I got here, or know where I am. I pull my arms again, but they’re tied behind my back. The more I struggle, the more the hard ties dig into my wrists. A sharp pain in my left wrist slices up my arm, as I struggle in the chair I’m sitting in. I start to scream from pain and fear.

  “Shh, they’ll hear you,” a familiar voice says.

  Oh, my God, someone else is in the room. Who was that?

  “Savvy, try and calm down,” the familiar voice says again.

  The voice processes in my mind. That’s sounds like Gary’s voice.

  “Gary?” I whisper.

  “Yeah, it’s me. I was starting to get really worried about you. I’ve been trying to get you to wake up for a while now,” he says.

  “Where are we? What happened?” I ask scared.

  “I don’t know where we are. Two men grabbed me from the alley behind the bar while I was taking out the trash. They brought me here, tied me up, and about an hour later they brought you in here unconscious. Are you alright?” he asks.

  “I don’t know. I can’t . . . I just want . . . I just don’t know,” I answer confused.

  “Take a minute, slow your breathing down, try and calm down. Does anything hurt?” he asks from behind me.

  I can’t see him; he must be tied in a chair behind me. I wish I could see him.

  “My head and my left wrist,” I answer. “What about you? Are you alright?” I ask.

  “Don’t worry about me. Listen, I know your wrist hurts, but they’ve got us tied with zip ties to the back of the chair. Can you reach mine?” he asks. I frantically feel behind me and finally feel his fingers. A little sense of comfort rushes through me and I squeeze his fingers. He squeezes back and says, “You’re alright. Can you reach farther up my hand?”

  I try, but I just can’t. Every time I try
to move my left wrist, the pain is too much to bear. And with my right hand, I can only touch his fingers. The sound of a heavy metal door being opened, fills the room.

  “Put your head back on my shoulder and pretend to still be unconscious,” Gary quickly whispers.

  I do as he says. I put my head back and close my eyes. My heart feels like it’s pounding outside of my chest. A man walks by me, runs something hard down my face, presses it firmly into my cheek, then walks behind me.

  “We spent six months in prison because of you, this little sweet whore, and your PI friend,” he says, then I hear and feel Gary’s head being hit.

  The force of the blow sends both of our chairs skidding to the left. I squeeze my eyes closed and say a silent little prayer.

  “Please just let Savvy go, she has nothing to do with this. I’ll get you whatever you want. Just don’t hurt her,” Gary pleads.

  “Oh, you’re going to get us what we want, and we’re going to have fun with your little bar fly. You’re going to go with Len to the bank and withdraw a million dollars,” the man says.

  Another voice, who must be Len, lets out a disturbing chuckle in the direction of the door.

  “But I don’t have that kind of cash,” Gary pleads.

  The man hits him again. I flinch as something warm sprays the side of my face, then runs down my neck. Gary has taken two really hard hits and the last one must have sprayed blood my way. This dude must be delirious. You can’t just walk into a bank and withdraw a million dollars. Even I know that. Think, Savvy, think. My hands are tied, but what about my feet? I make the slightest move and try to move my feet. They’re not tied to the chair. Alright, just keep calm. I can use this to my advantage at some point. There are only two of them. These are the men who tried to swindle Gary, then burned down the bar. They ran to Texas, but Max hunted them down and put them in jail. How did they get out? Why did they come back to Washington?

  “Wake up, bitch,” the man says, slapping me in the face.

  As hard as it was, I pretend to still be out. I go with the force of the hit and hang my head in front of my chest. Tears seep out of my eyes and I pray he won’t notice them. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, to not scream or flinch from the slap. It took every ounce of control I had.

  “Leave her alone. I’ll get you the money. Just untie me, I’ll get you your cash,” Gary says.

  Chloe

  We get to the warehouse and enter through a side door. Ava’s heels click on the cement floor and echo in the warehouse as she walks.

  “Take off your shoes, for God’s sake, Ava! They’ll hear us coming from a mile away,” I turn around and whisper.

  “But these are Louis Vuitton degrade effect Gossip Pump heels,” she whines.

  “Ava!” I whisper, shout.

  “You’re lucky these are last fall’s shoes,” she continues.

  She takes off her shoes and leaves them behind.

  I can hear voices talking, so we quietly follow them down the hall. As we walk, the voices get louder and louder. We come to a door that’s slightly cracked open. I look through the crack and see Savvy sitting in a chair in the center of the room, her head is hanging forward, her arms are behind her back and she’s appears to be unconscious. A man holding a gun by the chair is talking to another man sitting in a chair behind Savvy. There is another man standing just inside the door with a gun. I turn around and motion for the girls to fall back. We walk back down the hall and around the corner; my heart is pounding away in my chest.

  “Alright, there are only two men with guns,” I start to say.

  “Only!” Shay whisper yells.

  “Savvy is in there tied to a chair and I think she’s unconscious. They have someone else in there, too. I’m not sure who it is though. One of the guy’s with a gun is talking to the man in the chair. The other guy with a gun is standing just inside the door. Here’s the plan. We need to find something to hit the one guy standing by the door, we’ll call him door guy. It needs to be a good hit, we only get one shot, it has to knock him unconscious,” I say.

  “Will this do?” Ava asks, showing us a thick, round, metal pipe about two feet long.

  “Where did you get that from?” Amelia whispers, with big eyes.

  “I grabbed it when Chloe made me take took off my shoes,” she says shrugging.

  “Nice,” Shay drawls out.

  “So, who wants to whack him?” Ava asks.

  “You’re holding the pipe, you do it,” I tell her.

  “Me! Uh, sure, alright, no problem, I can do this. I only get one hit?” she stutters.

  “One hit, make it count,” I state.

  “Once doorman is knocked out, the rest of us need to barge in there. I’ll have my gun raised and ready to shoot the guy by the chair. We’ll call him, chair guy,” I tell them.

  “Didn’t you say the chair guy has a gun, too? What’s going to stop him from shooting Savvy, or one of us?” Shay asks, grabbing her chest.

  “I don’t have that part exactly figured out just yet. Are we doing this or not?” I ask.

  “I’d be more comfortable if we had a complete plan. I’ve already been shot once, I’d really rather not do it again,” Ava says, putting her hands on her stomach.

  “Me too! Oh, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. I’ll show you my gunshot wound to the chest if you show me your gunshot wound to your stomach,” Amelia says to Ava as she lifts her shirt.

  “Are you two for real right now? We don’t have time for show and tell. Let’s just hope chair guy values his head and gives up peacefully,” I tell them.

  “Whatever happens, I want you girls to know that I love you,” Amelia says.

  We all huddle together and have a group hug.

  “Let’s do this,” I tell them.

  Ava gets in front and raises the pipe like a baseball bat. I walk in front of Ava, put my hands on the door and count with my fingers, one . . . two . . . three, then push open the door. She closes her eyes and swings the pipe. It lands on the front left side of his skull with a loud crack. He falls to the ground, then chair guy turns his gun in our direction. We step over door guy, Amelia raises her pipe and we all walk closer to chair guy. I stand in front of the girls and point my gun at his head.

  “Put the gun down and step away. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll do as I say. I can hit my target with ninety-five percent accuracy. The other five that I don’t, I’m usually about three feet south, if you catch my drift,” I say, lowering my gun to his nuts.

  He gets my point and I raise it back up to his head. Out of my peripheral vision, I see Savvy raise her head and her eyes come to me. Oh, thank God, she’s alive!

  The man thinks about what I said, he points his gun at Savvy, then looks back at me. His gun comes to me and I put pressure on the trigger. I straighten my arm and zero in right between his eyes. His face changes to an, I’m screwed look, my heart rate comes down a notch, and I know I have him. His hands slowly go up in the air, my God, he’s surrendering. We did it!

  “Drop it motherfucker,” Max’s voice booms in the room, scaring the shit out of me.

  Then I see several red, laser scope dots dance all over chair guy’s body. Some are at his head and some are at his heart. I breathe a sigh of relief. Max’s hand comes to my shoulder, then runs down the top of my arm lowering my weapon. Once my gun is all the way lowered he pulls me behind his body and aims his gun at the man’s head.

  The man takes his finger off the trigger.

  “Slowly put the gun on the ground, stand back up, turn around, take three steps forward and lace your fingers behind your head. Just give me the excuse to make shooting you legal,” Max says.

  The man does as he says. Savvy kicks the gun with her foot over toward us.

  “Savvy,” Aiden’s relieved voice whispers behind me, sending chills down my back.

  He rushes past me, and then falls to his knees at her side. He takes her face in his hands, and then his lips c
ome to hers.

  “Aiden,” she cries.

  Tears are streaming down her face.

  I still remember that rush of relief when Max rescued me. It’s a damn good feeling.

  A man I’ve never seen before walks toward chair guy, he takes one wrist from the top of his head and slaps a cuff on. He takes his other wrist down and twists if forcefully behind his back, cuffing his other wrist. He slams him up against the wall, then pushes him out of the room. Another man I’ve never seen before, either, steps forward, picks the gun up off the floor that Savvy kicked, and puts it in the waistband of his jeans.

  Another man already has door guy, who’s still unconscious, lying on the ground turned over in handcuffs.

  Max lowers his weapon, turns around and looks me in the eye. His eyes are filled with anger, relief, worry, and love. Three out of the four are good, right? So, let’s just hope he’s not too angry with me. He holsters his weapon and I smile at him. You know the kind of smile a kid would smile when they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

  “Hi,” I say.

  I take my weapon, put it behind my back and slip it into the holster.

  Max wraps his hand behind my head and pulls me into his shoulder, squeezing the life out of me.

  “God, Chloe, don’t you ever do anything fucking stupid like that ever again. That shit aged me ten fucking years. Are you alright?” he asks, pulling away.

  He gives me a good once over, then pulls me back into his body.

  “One hundred percent,” I tell him, muffled in his chest.

  “You’re not hurt?” he asks.

  “Max, I’m fine,” I assure him.

  “Give me your gun, now! You’ll be lucky if I ever take you shooting again,” he says, squeezing me hard again.

  “No way,” I reply quickly.

  “Did you at least put the safety back on before you shoved it down your back?” he asks.

  “Of course I put the safety on,” I tell him. “I learned from the best,” I continue with a smile and a nod.

  “I have to deal with Len and Ray right now, and I need to go check on Savvy and Gary and call this in to the police. You and I are going to have a serious conversation about what you girls did here when we get home. No more badass get-togethers, you hear me?” he says, kissing me on the lips. Then he gives me his famous stare that would make The Incredible Hulk cringe.