damn good one at that.
Taylor had put up a fight back at the hotel, but in the end, she’d been no match for the
two men. One had grabbed her from behind to clamp a hand over her mouth, while the other had
captured her flailing legs in the curve of his arm to help carry her bodily from the room. She’d
been too frightened to give much thought to where they were taking her, but she vaguely
remembered being carried down a flight of stairs and dumped in the back of a car, where the two
men had kept her subdued while a third did the driving. Then it was into some old building,
where they had pushed her down onto a chair, tied her wrists behind her back and shoved a gag
into her mouth.
Unable to even ask what they wanted with her, Taylor could only sit there trembling with
fear. She desperately wished that one of the men would say something, but they simply eyed her
coldly and talked amongst themselves in Spanish. Though she spoke a little of the language, they
were talking way too fast for her to understand what they were saying. From the way their eyes
kept straying to her though, it was obvious she was the topic of their conversation. Then again,
maybe it was a good thing her Spanish was so poor because she had the feeling she didn’t really
want to know what they were saying.
Abruptly, the door opened and a tall, broad-shouldered man strode into the building. The
other men fell silent at his entrance, Taylor noticed. Which meant that he was probably the leader
of their little gang. As he came to a stop in front of her, she recognized him as the man who had
thrown the first punch at Austin in the cantina earlier that night. From what Taylor could
remember, Austin had slugged him pretty hard. If the big bruise that was covering half the man’s
face was any indication, the blow must have done a lot of damage. Even with one of his eyes
swelled almost shut, she could still tell he was furious. And the look he gave her was enough to
make her tremble.
Even as terrified as she was, Taylor tried hard to give him a defiant look above the gag,
but her show of bravado must have only amused him because he chuckled.
“You don’t have much to say now, do you, chica?” he said in heavily accented English.
“But back in the cantina, you had a lot to say, no?”
As he spoke, he reached out to run a finger down her cheek. His touch wasn’t gentle, and
Taylor instinctively jerked away from it, but he only caught her chin in his hand and held her
still. Though she tried, she couldn’t stifle the little whimper that escaped her lips. These men
could do anything they wanted to her, she thought, and there was nothing she could do to stop
them.
The man grinned down at her. “Well, you messed with the wrong hombres, chica, and
now it is payback time.”
Taylor’s mouth went dry. Oh God. They were going to kill her, she thought. All because
she’d called their town a backwater dump. That was crazy!
“But first,” her captor continued. “We have to wait for your man to get here.”
She blinked in surprise, which made him chuckle again.
“You didn’t think we forgot about him, did you, chica?” the man snarled. “He made a
fool of us in front of the whole cantina. We’re going to make him pay for that, and then we’re
going to make him watch while we have our fun with you.” An evil laugh rumbled deep in his
chest. “You’re going to be sorry you messed with us, chica.”
Giving her chin a rough jerk, he walked off to go talk to the other men on the far side of
the room.
Taylor felt sick. She didn’t know what terrified her more, the thought of what the men
were going to do to her, or of what they were going to do to Austin.
That realization surprised her a little. Yes, she and Austin had slept together, but she
hadn’t been aware she had begun to feel something for him. When had she started to care for the
private detective so much? she wondered.
A thought suddenly occurred to her then. What made the Mexicans so sure Austin would
come looking for her? For all she knew, Austin might have left and gone back to LA after he’d
stormed out of her room. She had said some pretty nasty things to him tonight; she honestly
couldn’t blame him if he had gone back to the states. Even so, she felt a tightening in her chest at
the thought he had just up and left her all alone in a foreign country. If he had though, then he
would be safe. That was something at least.
Taylor swallowed hard as something else occurred to her. In the past hour, she had just
alienated the only two people in the world who cared about her. If something did happen to her,
would either of them even miss her? The thought that they probably wouldn’t hurt more than
anything else and she had to fight back tears.
Of course, even if Austin hadn’t left, there was nothing to say he could even find her. She
had to accept the fact that she was on her own.
But what could she do? She was obviously no match for all of these men, but that didn’t
mean she was just going sit there and wait for them to do whatever it was they were going to do
to her. Knowing it was probably futile, she began to try to work her wrists free of the bonds.
Keeping one eye on the men, she jerked on the ropes as hard as she could. But after several
minutes, all she had succeeded in doing was chafing the skin on her wrists raw. It was no use; the
ropes were tied too tightly for her to ever be able to get loose.
Taylor blinked back tears of frustration. She was going to die here in this abandoned
building, she thought, all because she had made some snide comment in a fit of anger. And the
worse part was that neither her sister nor Austin would ever know how sorry she was for the
hateful things she had said to them. If she got out of this, she would do things differently, she
promised herself.
Taylor was so lost in her thoughts that she almost didn’t hear the soft crackling sound
behind her. Her gaze went to the men, wondering if they had heard it, but they were still talking
amongst themselves. Maybe she had just imagined the noise, she told herself. But then she heard
it again, even louder this time. What was that? she wondered.
Tied with her hands behind her back like she was, Taylor couldn’t turn around very far in
the chair, but what she saw made her eyes go wide. Wisps of smoke were curling through the
gaps in the wallboards. In seconds, flames appeared to work their way up the wall behind her.
She watched in horror as smoke began to cloud the room. Oh God, the building was on fire!
Terrified, Taylor jerked her head back around to look at the men, hoping they’d seen the
flames too, but they seemed to be oblivious. What the heck was wrong with them? Didn’t they
smell the smoke? Silently cursing the gag in her mouth, she tried to make some noise around it.
But it took forever for the men to hear her muffled cries, and when they finally did, they stared in
wide-eyed shock before they all turned and bolted from the building.
They’d left her there to die! Not that she should be surprised, since they had been going
to kill her anyway, Taylor thought bitterly. Fighting the surge of panic that threatened to take
hold of her, she once again went to work on the ropes that bound her wrists, this time with even
more frenzy.
She didn’t care how much the ropes dug into her wrists, she just had to get out of
there!
But Taylor had barely started to struggle when she felt strong hands grabbing her arms.
Startled, she jerked her head around to see which of the men had come back for her, and was
stunned to find Austin crouched down behind her chair. He was untying her!
Austin wasted no time untying the ropes that bound Taylor’s wrists. As soon as he got
them off, she reached up to pull the gag from her mouth. A moment later, she was out of the
chair and in his arms.
“Oh God, Austin,” she said, her words muffled against his shirt. “I thought you’d left
me!”
Austin stared down at the top of her head in disbelief. Had she really thought he would
just leave her in Mexico? Knowing then was not the time to get into a lengthy conversation with
her about it, he set her away from.
“Come on,” he said. “We need to get out of here.”
Taking her hand, Austin quickly led her back the way he’d come. He hadn’t really
wanted to start the fire, but he’d needed a distraction to get the men out of the building, and
setting the fire had been the only way he could think of to do it. And when it came right down to
it, he knew he would do anything to save Taylor’s life.
By the time they jumped through the back door he had come in, the flames were already
engulfing most of the building. He didn’t let Taylor slow down for even a minute, though.
Instead, he pulled her as fast as she could run until he got back to his SUV.
Putting her in the Wrangler, Austin hurried around to the other side and jumped in. While
the men might have run, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t come back, and he didn’t want to be
there if they did.
Austin gave Taylor a sidelong glance as he drove. She was huddled on the seat trembling,
her arms wrapped around herself as she stared straight ahead.
“Did they hurt you?” he asked.
She shook her head. “N-no.”
Thank God, Austin thought.
“H-how did you find me?” Taylor asked, turning her head to look at him.
He glanced in the rearview mirror to make sure no one was following them. “Those
bastards left a message saying they had you and that they wanted me to meet them with money.”
Austin waited for Taylor to say something in reply, but she made no comment.
“Did you really think I’d left you?” he asked after a moment.
Taylor was silent for so long that Austin didn’t think she would answer, but then her
shoulders lifted in a little shrug. “Yeah,” she said in a small voice.
Austin had no reply to that. He shouldn’t be surprised to hear she would think that, he
supposed. Taylor didn’t think much of men, and that obviously included him. He didn’t know
why he’d ever thought there could be any kind of future with her.
The silence stretched out for miles, and the farther they drove, the harder it was to break
it. Taylor knew she should say something to Austin, but she just didn’t know how to begin.
Should she just tell him that she was sorry? But what would she apologize for first? For telling
him that her relationship with her sister was none of his business? Or for starting the argument in
the cantina? Or for simply getting him involved in this wild goose chase to begin with?
But one look at Austin’s clenched jaw made Taylor doubt he would accept her apology
anyway. She had almost gotten him killed, not once, but twice. Why would he want to have
anything else to do with her once they got back to LA?
That thought made her extremely sad. For the dozenth time, she wondered what it was
about him that had her wishing things could be different. She considered and discarded a lot of
reasons one after another. She certainly hadn’t liked him when they’d first met, but when she’d
been sitting there tied to that chair, she had finally realized how important he had become to her.
He was the guy she had been looking for her whole life. Which was kind of funny, considering
she hadn’t even known she’d been searching.
Austin was the first man she had ever allowed to get close to her, the first man she felt
she could one day come to trust completely. The first man she could see herself sharing her life
with. But after the way she had acted, she knew she had ruined any chance she might have had
with him.
Taylor was so lost in thought that she didn’t even realize they had gotten back to LA until
they stopped in front of her apartment building. She and Austin both sat there in silence. Though
she wanted to say something, part of her wished he would make it easy on her by saying
something first. When he didn’t, she opened the door and stepped out.
“Taylor.”
At the sound of her name, hope surged within her and she turned to look at Austin
expectantly.
“You should do yourself a favor and go see your sister,” he said, his gaze fixed straight
ahead. “Soon, before it’s too late.”
Taylor waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. Not trusting herself to speak, she only
nodded as she closed the door. A moment later, Austin put the SUV in gear and drove away.
Taylor didn’t think she had ever been as miserable as she was watching those tail lights
disappear.
Chapter Eight
It took some time, but in the end, Taylor took Austin’s advice and went to see her sister.
Of course, it took a week for her to finally get up the courage to do it. Taylor tried to tell herself
it was because she wasn’t sure if her sister had gotten back from Mexico yet, but the real reason
she hadn’t gone to see Tiffany sooner was because she was afraid her sister would slam the door
in her face.
Even now, standing on the doorstep of her sister’s apartment, Taylor wondered if she
should knock on the door or not. Telling herself to stop being such a chicken, Taylor took a deep
breath, lifted her hand and knocked. From inside, she could hear laughter, then her sister calling
out.
“Coming!”
A moment later, a smiling Tiffany opened the door. Her sister’s smile promptly faded
however, when she saw Taylor standing there.
“I was wondering when you’d come by,” Tiffany said coolly.
Taylor winced. “May I come in?” she asked.
Her sister folded her arms. “That depends,” she said. “Are you here to tell me what a
complete mess I’ve made of my life again?”
Taylor felt her face color. While she knew she deserved her sister’s animosity, it still
hurt. “No,” she said quietly. “Actually, I came to tell you that I know I’ve been a complete bitch
and I’m sorry.”
Tiffany studied her in silence for a moment, as if deciding whether to believe her or not.
Finally, she let out a sigh.
“All right. Come in then,” her sister said, taking a step back so that Taylor could enter.
“But if you start in on me again for marrying Andrew, then you’re out of here. Got it?”
Taylor nodded, relieved that Tiffany had agreed to let her in at all. Andrew, who had
been standing in the middle of the living room, eyed Taylor coldly as he walked over to Tiffany.
“Do you want me to stay?” he asked Tiffany.
Tiffany shook her head. “No, you go to class,” she said, glancing at Taylor. “I can handle
Andrew hesitated, but then finally nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll call you on break.”
Slinging the backpack he held over one shoulder, Andrew bent his head to give Tiffany a
kiss on the lips. Then, sending a glare Taylor’s way, he left the apartment, closing the door
quietly behind him.
Taylor reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear. “I wasn’t sure if you’d still be living
here, or if you’d moved in with Andrew,” she said.
The other girl shrugged. “He had a roommate and I didn’t, so it made more sense for us
to live here.”
Taylor nodded. Suddenly remembering the package in her hand, she held it out to her
sister awkwardly. “I got you a wedding gift,” she said.
Taylor hadn’t known what to get the newly married couple, but then she’d remembered
the woman at the wedding chapel in Vegas saying that each couple received a complimentary
wedding picture, so she had decided on a sterling silver frame and gotten their names engraved
on it, along with the date.
Tiffany looked surprised that Taylor had gotten anything at all, but a small smile curved
her lips as she reached out to take the neatly wrapped present. “I’d like to wait until Andrew gets
back from class so we can open it together, if that’s okay?”
Taylor nodded. “Of course. That’s a good idea.” She watched as her sister placed the
package on the living room table. She had rehearsed a whole speech in her head, but now that
she was there, she couldn’t remember any of it. Finally giving up on the prepared speech, she
just decided to say what was in her heart.
“Tiff, I really am sorry for following you down to Mexico, and for saying all those
terrible things to you, and for...well, for everything.” Taylor grimaced. “Actually, I have a lot to
apologize for, but mostly I want to say how sorry I am for the horrible things I said about
Andrew.”
Tiffany looked at her. “Andrew and I love each other, sis,” she said. “He’s sweet and he’s
caring, and he makes me laugh.” She smiled. “He makes me happy, Taylor.”
Taylor’s lips curved. “I can see that,” she said, and then added, “Now. I only wish I could
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