by Heather Long
Doc slammed his elbow into Jasper, and then they both crashed into the wall. “Are you trying to hurt her?”
“She’s all skin and bones and bruises,” Jasper snarled in that shitty tone of his. “I don’t want to do anything to her.”
Yeah well, the feeling was mutual. They grappled for a second, and in a move I didn’t quite catch, Doc twisted Jasper around and yanked his arm up behind him in what had to be a punishing hold. I flinched. My arm had been in a hold like that once.
That was the second time I broke it.
They vanished into the bedroom with a series of grunts and then came more punishing blows. Dammit. I clung to the wall and then took a deep breath and stepped out on the bad ankle with my good hand flat to the wall. It would hurt. But I could handle it.
I made it out without passing the fuck out and over to the doorway in time to see Doc slam Jasper into the ground and then Jasper had a gun tucked right up under Doc’s jaw and everything in me froze.
“You want to think about that, Jasper,” Doc told him in the steadiest, calmest voice ever. The door to the other room was open, and a guy I’d never seen before wandered inside. Leaner than anyone else I’d met, he had brown hair cut short with the sides of his head shaved and a pair of curious blue eyes.
“Did I miss the party invite?” he asked, an easy grin on his face, and then he looked at me. “Well hello, gorgeous. I definitely missed the party invite, or I’d have been right up to see you.” The twang of his Southern accent was far too smooth to be manufactured. “You’re looking a little rough. The guys do like to throw their girls around, get all dominant and shit. Now me? I’m a slow and easy ride, I’ll take you real gentle like.”
“Freddie, fuck right the hell off,” Jasper snarled. “She is not here for your entertainment.”
“Well, no shit, Boss, I can see that. Though I think you should be a little easier on the ladies. Just ’cause we pay ’em don’t mean we need to slap them around.”
I wasn’t sure who was more appalled by the statement—Doc or Jasper. But at least Jasper pulled the gun away from Doc’s face, and Doc rose to let the other man go. Surging to his feet, Jasper glared at Freddie, who made no pretense of looking me over. Maybe I should’ve cared that I was standing there naked, dripping, and chilled, but that would require more energy than I could muster.
“Out of curiosity, do you laser or wax?” Freddie asked. “I mean, that’s the smoothest pussy I’ve seen in a long time.”
I stared at Freddie. Had he seriously just… Had he really just asked me about my grooming? That spurt of adrenaline had gotten me out of the bathtub, but it was already fleeing.
“Put some fucking clothes on,” Jasper snapped at me, and I sighed. It would take some effort to wrap a towel around me, so I just said fuck it and limped out of the bathroom.
“Yeah, you do whatever you want, Boo-Boo,” Freddie told me with a wide grin. “I don’t think I’d want to put on clothes over any of that, either. If you want, I can just shuck my clothes, then we can be naked together. Solidarity.”
I probably shouldn’t have laughed, but that was kind of funny. My bags were in the corner, which meant I had to go between Jasper and the doc to get to them. I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other as I made my way over. My ankle protested every single step, but I refused to do more than the faint hobble.
All of the bags were on the floor, which meant I’d have to bend or squat. Great, I guessed everyone was getting a show. Bending hurt, but squatting would put pressure on my ankle. I leaned to grab the hand of one with my good hand, and a grunt escaped me.
“For fuck’s sake.” Jasper brushed my hand aside and grabbed the bag. The gun he’d had before wasn’t visible anymore. He tossed the bag on the bed and then shoved Freddie backward. “Get out.” He looked at me. No, not me. Doc. “You too.”
“I think I’ll wait. I still need to rewrap her ankle and she needs help…”
“I could help,” Freddie offered from the other room, but neither of them looked over to the door. Instead, they just glared at each other. The tension in the room crackled. Yeah, I’d been in the middle of these situations before. Better to just keep my head down and get dressed. Then I could probably quietly pass out.
At least with the bag on the bed, I could unzip it. Everything was packed inside of it as neatly as I supposed they could manage. There were silk shirts that were rolled, and I tried not to grimace. I didn’t really think I needed to worry about silk blouses or cocktail dresses right now.
Hopefully this bag had… I felt around the edges and then snagged some lace and pulled it upward. Panties. Those would do. They weren’t practical, but anything would be better than the nothing I had right now. I stared at the panties for a minute and then sighed. Doc took a step toward me, and Jasper growled, honest-to-God growled, and he had a hand behind his back.
If I were to place a bet, I’d say he had a gun back there. I shook my head at Doc. I didn’t want him getting hurt for me. Clearly, he worked for my kidnappers, even if he wasn’t one of them. He might have already put his neck out too far. I leaned against the bed with my back to Jasper and then bent, good foot first while hoping the bad could take it for just that long. That done, I got the bad foot through and with care, pulled it up.
Probably not the most graceful put on of panties ever, but the moment they covered my ass, I swore I felt a thousand percent better. Sure, I was still topless, but fucking hell, my bare ass wasn’t hanging out for everyone to see.
“What’s going on?” The beautiful, melodious voice rolled right over me and eased some of the distress brought on by the fight. Vaughn, my brain very helpfully supplied. He’d been the one soothing me in the dark, chasing away my nightmares. “Freddie’s bitching you’re not sharing, Hawk.”
I glanced over my shoulder at a crunch, and there was Vaughn and I finally placed the melodious voice with a face. It was the tech who’d helped me out that night before Eric had shown up. He’d actually tried to get me clear.
He was one of them.
Disappointment inched through me. So far, every single person who’d been nice to me in this shitty little town was linked to this kidnapping. Good to know I attracted a type. He took a bite of the apple in his hand, and the crunch of it echoed through the silent room. My stomach growled at the sound, and my gaze fixed for a moment on the way his lips came together and the hint of juice on them.
It sounded like it would taste fantastic.
With one arm, he pulled the dark blue T-shirt he’d been wearing up and over his head without losing his apple, and then all I could see was the ripple of densely packed muscle under a colorfully inked skin. Someone had used him as their canvas, and my panties went damp, and not just from the water still dripping from my hair.
“Here,” he said in that soft voice, like this was the most natural thing in the world as he bypassed both Jasper and Doc. “Let’s get this on you. You look cold and a little miserable.”
I laughed. It was a weird little sound and it kind of hurt to let it out, but laughing was better than crying. Biting the apple and holding it in his teeth, he wiped his hand against his jeans and then tugged the shirt over me, maneuvering my arms with ease, and then I was surrounded in his scent again.
“You hungry, Dove? I can fix you something.” He offered his apple though, not the side he’d bitten into. Fuck it, I was hungry and so I took a bite, and damn if it wasn’t juicy, crispy, and sweet. The taste flooded my mouth, and I closed my eyes, almost swaying.
“Fuck.” Jasper’s sharp curse had my eyes jerking open in time to catch him storming out of the room. Sure enough, there was a gun tucked into the waistband of his jeans. A cold shudder went through me.
“Look after her,” Doc ordered. “I’ll be back.”
Then he followed after Jasper, and there was a sound of another door closing. When I looked back at Vaughn, he gave me a small smile. The copper of his hair seemed to gleam in the light, and his grin was easy,
like they did this every day. “They’ll figure it out. C’mon, get back in the bed and you can have the rest of my apple.”
As nice as he was being and as pretty as he was…he wasn’t my friend or my ally.
“Need a hand, or you got it?”
Exhaustion hit me all over again, and I sagged against the bed. Not even the warmth of his shirt or the richness of his scent around me was a comfort now. I was still trapped here—wherever here was—with armed, tatted up men, who probably wanted to hurt me. Or at least wanted something from me.
I pulled myself on the bed, and Vaughn let me do it, even when I grimaced. Once I settled against the headboard, I was ready to just close my eyes and pass out all over again. God, I was tired.
“Here,” Vaughn said, holding out the apple. As much as I’d have liked to refuse his food, I needed my strength, so I took it. He nodded once I took another bite, and then he moved the suitcase back off the bed after zipping it up. I suppose I could have asked him to get me something of my own out to wear, but I had on my panties.
That would do.
He vanished into the bathroom, and the water began to drain from the tub. He came back a minute later with a towel. With it in both hands, he nodded to me. “Sit forward a little, I’ll get the rest of that water out of your hair.”
“I don’t care if I’m wet.”
“Well sure, it’s fine now, Dove,” he said, agreeing with me easily, and I hated how his voice just seemed to beckon me to relax and my fucking body did it. “But you’re going to crash soon, and then your pillows are wet and it’s uncomfortable and a whole thing.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah,” he told me. “And I’d really rather not have to go steal pillows from one of the other guys, ’cause then they whine and bitch. Not to mention, it’ll smell like them.”
I swallowed. “You could give me yours.”
“Those are mine, Dove.”
“Oh.”
He grinned, and it softened his whole face. No one who was that big or that muscled should look that sweet when they smiled.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, not your fault. Rome pinched them and put them in here ’cause I have the nice pillows. I’d rather you used them anyway. But it’s better if we keep them dry.”
He had a point.
Fine. I eased forward, and he leaned forward until all I had was an eyeful of his gorgeous chest as he worked the towel over my hair with the kind of care Doc had taken when he washed it.
“You got a lot of hair, Dove.”
I shrugged and then winced. Fuck, that hurt. “It’s just hair.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Then he didn’t say anything while I took another bite of apple and tried not to focus on the way the muscles of his pectoral flexed and danced as he worked the towel. But when I dipped my gaze lower, I couldn’t stop staring at the tattoo on his navel—the crossed blades, the blood drops, and the way the snakes wrapped them together in an infinite loop.
“Vandals.”
“Hmm?”
I probably shouldn’t have said anything. “Nothing.”
He leaned away from me and then glanced down at himself, then back at me. “You asking about the tattoo?”
“Just reading it.”
He gave me a moment, then nodded before he flung the towel in the direction of the bathroom. The rest of me was mostly dry, even if the sheets were a little chilled from the fact I’d been wet when I got on the bed.
“Finish up the apple, and I’ll go find you real food.”
I was eating the apple, but I’d finished nearly all of it while Vaughn stared at me. It should’ve been uncomfortable, but the silence worked for me. When I was down to the core, he took it and I licked my fingers clean.
When he headed for the door, I had to admit, I was honestly surprised. They hadn’t been leaving me alone.
“I’ll be right back,” he said. “Don’t go anywhere.”
I didn’t comment. I didn’t owe them anything.
He sighed. “Dove…you’re safe here. We won’t let anything happen to you, but I need you to trust me.”
I stared at him.
“Just stay here.”
I held up my cast wrist and motioned to my throbbing ankle. “Where am I going to go?”
He sighed, one arm on the door, and it was hard to miss the roses along his biceps and the pistol on his forearm and the Captain America shield on the inside of his biceps tucked right toward his underarm like it was a secret.
Every tattoo had a story.
Vaughn had a lot of stories.
“I’ll be right back,” he said and pulled the door closed after him. I debated getting off the bed and trying to wrestle on pants and then seeing if I could get out of here. The click of the lock told me that would be wasted effort, and I sagged back against the headboard and the pillows again.
Dammit.
Fine. Rest. Bide my time. Eat.
Then get the fuck out of here.
Chapter 9
Emersyn
As much as I could, I kept track of the passage of time. The lack of any actual clocks or windows eliminated the sense of whether it was night or day. I relied on meals to give me some ideas. The guys were not cooks, that much was obvious. Some meals were just beans on toast, and I’d eat it because I needed the fuel. It wasn’t terrible, just bland. Grilled cheese was popular, so was microwavable pizza. The sheer volume of carbs was useful, but I needed more proteins.
I didn’t ask.
They didn’t offer.
Water, I had plenty of, though my cup was now plastic because I’d thrown a glass at Jasper’s head. Damn near hit him. Fuck his reflexes.
I slept a lot the first couple of days after Doc’s visit. That was another thing—Doc hadn’t been back since the incident with Jasper and the gun. After he came back up with food—a burger and French fries—Vaughn had rewrapped my ankle for me and helped me comb my hair before I pretty much passed out.
I woke up to Kestrel being back in the room, and they continued their rotation. Oddly though, Jasper was there more than any of the others. While Vaughn would keep an easy patter of conversation going when I was awake, expecting nothing from me at all, none of the rest did. The minute I realized I was disappointed that Rome had arrived instead of Vaughn, I wanted to slap myself.
These people weren’t my friends.
They refused to let me out of this room, and it was making me crazy.
Three meals a day helped me map out the hours over subsequent days. My ankle was better, but my legs were sore because I wasn’t working them. I was used to hours of daily training, whether we were performing or not. Being idle wasn’t good for me. If anything, I think it impeded my recovery, not helped.
When Jasper appeared on what I figured had to be the eighth day since they’d taken me—over a week since anyone had seen or heard from me, were they worried at all?—I glared at him. “Where’s Doc?”
Eyebrows raised, Jasper closed the door slowly and stared at me. I hated when he looked at me like that. Like he could see right through me. I’d grown to hate the gray color of his eyes. They were cool, even when he was hot. A muscle could tick away in his jaw and a vein pop on his forehead, but those eyes? They stayed ice cold.
It was unnerving as hell. Even if I forced myself to not look away. Showing fear did nothing for me. Not being defiant hadn’t gotten me far either. One thing he hadn’t done was act any differently if I was belligerent, so belligerent it was.
“What’s wrong?” He flicked a glance over me. I had changed out of Vaughn’s shirt after the first couple of days and unearthed a ratty old T-shirt of my own and pajama bottoms. At least my legs were covered. The more clothing I had, the more armor. I’d also managed to find some more practical panties than the see-through fuck me lace. Bad enough I’d given them all a peep show, I didn’t need to send the wrong message.
“I just asked where is Doc? He hasn’t been back to check on me, and I would like to ta
ke a bath.” I hadn’t had one other than a cursory wipe down with a washcloth while leaning against the counter in the bathroom. I’d been testing my ankle in there without their observation. It was stronger every day, but without a proper workout, I was rapidly losing muscle.
Even a handful of days down could take me a month to work back from. At the rate we were going… No I couldn’t handle being dependent for the length of time it would take me to rehab. If I got out of here—when I got out of here, I needed to be at full strength.
“He has a job,” Jasper said. “And you don’t need Doc. Just take a shower.”
“Wow. If only I had thought of that.” The sarcasm should be burning through the carpeted floor. At least the floor was carpeted, even if it was loose at the edges. I wasn’t complaining.
“Glad we resolved that.” He smirked, then moved to sit in the chair. That was their favorite station to take up, like they were on sentry duty in my boring as fuck room where the only entertainment was me.
Joy.
“With what tools, genius? There’s no shower curtain, and I’m not supposed to stand. I also need plastic or something to wrap my wrist so it doesn’t get wet along with my ankle.”
Half hovering over the seat, he straightened with a snap. Frowning, he stalked over to the bathroom and glared inside it like it had the temerity to do something wrong. It would be comical if not for the fact that for the last few days, I’d had to make do and there wasn’t much else to use. I thought Doc would be back and at least I could trust him to help me get another bath.
“Stay here,” Jasper said before slamming out of the room. I loved how they all said that. Stay here. Like, where did they think I would go, if they weren’t in this room watching me?
I’d tried the other door a few times when they’d left me alone. If it opened at all, I had no idea how. As soon as Jasper was out of the room, I slid off the bed and hurried over to the door. It hadn’t locked. Or at least I hadn’t heard the lock when he left. Turning the handle with as much care as I could, I braced myself for any sound that might possibly betray what I was doing.
