“I don’t believe you. We were all asleep. Why would they go into town to play poker? It doesn’t make sense.”
Martin pulled a chair out and sat opposite her, sipping on the whiskey.
“Their friends are drunken slobs just like them. It was so easy. All I had to do was buy Larry Jackson a few drinks. He got drunk and I stole his cell phone off of him.” Martin pulled a cell phone from his shirt pocket and held it up. “I used it to text your men that there was a poker game against the Baldwins going on and they needed to come down there.”
Aubrey stiffened in shock. “They wouldn’t go.”
“I watched them get in their truck and drive away. How do you think I got to you? If they’d been there I never would have been able to get you out of there.”
She shook her head, unwilling to believe they would leave her to go play poker after all the promises they had made.
“You’re a fucking liar.”
Martin shook his head. “I didn’t want to do this, but you made me. I wanted to try and save you from your sin. You’re full of terrible sin, Aubrey.”
“What sin have I committed? You’re the one who kidnapped me.”
“So many sins.” Martin tossed back the rest of the whiskey. “Fornicating with two men. Going to the club and letting them abuse you. Inviting it. Begging for it. Using language a lady shouldn’t use.” Martin stood and poured another glass. “I’m going to save you. I’m going to wash away your sins because I love you.”
“It was you that left all the gifts.”
Martin gulped the whiskey, his eyes hard and glassy. “I tried to lure you away from sin, but you wouldn’t be detoured from your road to hell. I’m going to purify you of all the bad things you’ve done.”
Holy hell, he’s bat shit crazy.
She swallowed hard and tried to center herself. Perhaps if she spoke to him in a calm and reasonable manner he would snap back to reality.
“Martin, you need to let me go.” She kept her voice soft and even so she wouldn’t spook him. “What you’ve done is against the law. If you hurt me, you’ll go to jail. You don’t want to go to jail do you? Think of how the kids at school look up to you. They respect you.”
His face twisted in anger. “Those kids love you. They have no idea what a whore you are, spreading your legs for two men.” He poured another glass of whiskey, drinking it in one shot. “I’m not going to jail. We’re going to be purified together.”
Aubrey didn’t know how this purification was going to take place but she sure as fuck didn’t want to stick around to find out.
“Martin, you’re right. I have sinned. I want to repent. Untie me so I can fall to my knees and pray for redemption. We’ll both be redeemed.”
He shook his head, pouring the last of the whiskey into a glass and gulping it back. “It’s too late to repent. We’ll both be cleansed and pure.”
Martin stomped out the back door, a little uneven on his feet from drinking so much so quickly, and came back in with a large gasoline can. Fear churned in her stomach, her heart rate going through the roof as it became clear how the purification was going to take place.
Shit, I don’t want to die. I’m too young to fucking die. I was supposed to marry Riley and Noah and have babies and a garden. I wasn’t supposed to die at the hands of a nut job.
She was going to haunt Riley and Noah in the afterlife. She was still shocked they’d left their bed and headed to the bar to play poker. They’d been so different lately it was hard to believe. There had to be another explanation. One where her men didn’t come out as total jerks.
“Martin, we need to talk about this.”
He twisted the top off the gas can and began pouring it on the walls, completely ignoring her. The strong aroma of gasoline filled her nostrils, and panic kept her from taking a full breath. She was going to die in this hellhole with a sociopath.
When the can was empty, he tossed it aside and pulled a matchbook from his pocket.
“Repent for your sins, whore. Confess them and let the cleansing begin.”
She’d confess to everything, including not voting for Amy Taylor in sixth grade to be Harvest Queen, if it would keep him from lighting that match. She drew a deep breath.
“I have so many sins, Martin, I’m not sure where to begin.”
* * * *
Noah was sweaty and dirty, and all he wanted was a shower and to curl up next to Aubrey. The sun wasn’t yet up, and she should still be sleeping peacefully. He pushed open the door to the bedroom with a frown. He didn’t remember shutting it.
The covers on the bed were pulled from the mattress and trailing over the floor, but the bed was empty. Noah headed to the bathroom to see if she was in there.
“Aubrey!” Noah called out when he saw the bathroom was empty. The house wasn’t more than three thousand square feet, so she couldn’t hide for long. He ran into Riley in the hallway, looking angry.
“She’s not here. I looked everywhere. She left a note on the kitchen table.”
Riley was holding up a small piece of paper. Noah snatched it from his fingers, and a quick scan struck fear in his heart.
“She’s been taken.”
Riley shook his head. “She said she’s had it with us. She’s left.”
Noah headed to the gun safe. “She didn’t write this note. I’m sure of that.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Noah handed Riley a shotgun and took the .44 for himself. “Because she’s a fucking English teacher, and she knows the difference between they’re, there, and their. In the note she says ‘their all talking about us,’ T-H-E-I-R, when it should be ‘they’re all talking about us’ with the contraction of ‘they are.’ Aubrey would never make this mistake.”
Riley scraped his hands down his face. “I wish you were wrong because then she’d be safe. Son of a bitch, how are we going to find her?”
“We’ll track her. It’s so wet and muddy out, there have to be tracks of a vehicle or footprints. Shit, I thought she’d be safe on the ranch. I never thought someone would come here to get her.”
Noah’s phone started going off and he bit off a curse, looking to see who it was.
“Aaron? Listen, man, we don’t have time to talk. Aubrey’s missing. We think someone took her. We’re going after her. Can you call Sheriff Grayson?”
There was a small silence before Aaron spoke. “I think I know where she is. I was calling to tell you that Tim Harold stopped in here tonight looking for Thad. You know Tim does security for all the schools in Sanctuary? Anyway, he was talking about how Principal Barker asked him to destroy a bunch of security tapes.”
Noah’s heart was about to beat out of his chest. “Get to the point,” he barked.
“Fuck, I will. Tim wondered why the principal wanted him to destroy the tapes. He didn’t feel right about it and delayed. Tonight he watched them. Barker is Aubrey’s secret admirer. He wanted the tape destroyed to cover it up. Tim just told me and told Thad.”
“Thad’s there?”
“He just left. He said he was going to talk to Barker in the morning. I’ll call him. You head to Barker’s place. It’s out on the county road near the lake.”
Noah hung up and started sprinting for the door, Riley on his heels.
“Let’s go! I’ll explain on the way.”
Never had a ride seemed to take so long. Noah drove as fast as he could, fear driving him to push their truck well past what would be considered a safe speed on the old country roads of Sanctuary. By the time Noah turned on to the rutted, dirt road leading to Barker’s house, his stomach was churning, bile in his throat.
If anything happened to Aubrey, Noah didn’t know what he’d do. Life without her was unthinkable. She was his life.
“Holy Mother of God,” Riley breathed, pointing in the distance. “Floor it!”
Orange flames shot up in the distance, and Noah pressed the accelerator hard. He’d had it floored before Riley said anything, but now he wanted to
press the pedal through the damn floorboard. He pulled up in front of the house and grabbed a blanket from the back of the truck cab, wrapping it around him and heading straight into the flames.
“Check around the house and make sure she’s not anywhere else,” he yelled as the searing heat of the flames seemed to take his breath away. The front door was half open and he pushed it all the way, almost sagging in relief when he saw Aubrey, beautiful but looking unconscious due to the smoke.
His relief was short-lived as he realized she was surrounded by flames. He wrapped the blanket tighter and ran toward her, ignoring the heat and his own fear. He was more afraid of losing her than he was of the fire. He knelt down on the floor when he realized she was tied to the chair. He fumbled with the rope but couldn’t get her untied, his frustration making him frantic and clumsy.
“Let’s just pick up the whole damn chair and carry her out of here. We don’t have time to cut the ropes.” Riley was suddenly at his shoulder, his brother’s face streaked with soot. Noah nodded in agreement, the acrid smoke making it difficult to breathe, let alone speak. Noah wrapped Aubrey in the blanket, and they hoisted her up, trying to dodge the licking flames. They’d barely cleared the porch when he heard the creaking of wood and a portion of the roof collapsed, sending a spray of fire to the back of his neck. They carried her a safe distance, sirens pealing in the distance, and fell to the muddy ground.
Riley pulled a pocket knife from his jeans and cut the ropes before gently lifting her into his arms.
“Aw, baby. Wake up. Let me see those gorgeous brown eyes. C’mon, baby, wake up.”
Noah’s throat was tight as Aubrey’s eyelids fluttered, and her eyes opened. She coughed and dragged in several breaths of fresh air before lifting her gaze to the now destroyed cabin. The roof had completely caved, and it was now a burning woodpile that could probably be seen for miles in the distance.
“He’s still in there.” Aubrey’s voice was a mere croak. “He’s crazy. He said I needed purification from my sins. He said you went to play poker.”
Noah frowned. “We got a text from Larry asking us to play poker but we didn’t go. Holly had her foal, honey. That’s where we were.” He kissed her face, red from the flames. “We’re sorry we weren’t there when you needed us, babe. Please forgive us. We love you so damn much.”
Noah choked up as the visions of what might have happened swamped his brain. He brushed a few tears from his face and saw Riley doing the same. Riley stood up and was rummaging through the truck, coming back with a half-drank bottle of water.
“It’s better than nothing, baby. Drink.” He held it up to her parched lips and she drank greedily, some of it spilling down her chin. She sputtered and coughed, Noah patting her on the back gently. He felt someone at his elbow and looked up to see Thad’s normally grim features more dark than usual.
“Let’s get her into my SUV and take her to the hospital. It’ll be faster than waiting for an ambulance.” Thad sounded pissed and he pointed to a deputy to check the perimeter. He knelt down next to Aubrey.
“Aubrey, did Martin Barker kidnap you?”
Aubrey nodded. “Yes. He’s still in the cabin. He drank a bunch of whiskey and passed out near the back door when the smoke hit us.”
Thad looked at Noah with a lifted brow. Noah shook his head. There was no way anyone was alive after the roof had caved in. The cabin was nothing but burning rubble. “By the time I got here the flames were everywhere. The only reason I saw Aubrey was because she was tied to a chair near the front door.” He pointed to the chair, now on its side in the mud. “The ceiling caved in as we carried her out of there.”
Noah nodded to Riley and he lifted her in his arms while Noah followed Thad to the SUV, helping them situate her in the backseat. They headed for the hospital, sirens screaming, the leaping flames fading from view.
Thad didn’t take his eyes off the road as he drove like a bat out of hell, only turning once to ask if Aubrey was doing okay. By the time they got to the hospital, her color was better, but her breathing was still ragged and labored. Noah watched helplessly as the doctor and nurses wheeled her into a room and firmly shut the door on him.
Thad put a hand on his shoulder. “She’ll be fine. I’ve seen smoke inhalation before. They’ll keep her for observation, and then you can take her home.”
Riley nodded, his face gray. “Take her home, marry her, get her pregnant, and never let her out of the house.”
A corner of Thad’s mouth turned up. “What you do with her when you get her home is your business, but I will say it’s about time.”
Riley’s head jerked around. “About time?”
“The whole town has been wondering when you were going to make that pretty girl a bride.”
Noah looked at the door that separated him from the woman he loved. “Soon. Very soon. Aubrey’s always wanted to be a June bride. I say we make her a bride this June.”
Thad started whistling “The Wedding March.”
“I’ll be back in a few hours, once they get Aubrey settled, to get her statement.”
A nurse came up to them, a clipboard in her hands. “We need some paperwork filled out. Are either of you family?”
Riley held out his hand with a smile of pride. “Yes, we are. She’s my fiancée.”
Noah shook his head with a laugh. His brother had come a long way. There was no limit to what the love of a good woman could do to a man. It could even make him happy about being grown up.
Riley took the clipboard and gave Noah a shrug. “What? It’s the truth. She’s going to be our wife, and we’re going to be the men she always hoped we could be.”
“What about all the fun we used to have with our buddies?”
Riley laughed. “Looking back on it, it wasn’t all that much fun. Just a bunch of juvenile acting grown men. I’d rather have an evening with Aubrey, than with Larry.”
“What if he calls you pussy whipped?”
“Then I’ll be happily pussy whipped. Larry’s just jealous. Hey, maybe we should get one of Aubrey’s friends and fix Larry and her up. What do you think?”
“I think we should concentrate on our own relationship before we go trying to counsel anyone else. We still have a lot to learn.”
Noah couldn’t wait to learn everything he needed to know to make Aubrey the happiest woman in Sanctuary. Fuck, make that Montana.
“I’m a fast learner,” Riley drawled. “It only took me ten years.”
Chapter Eleven
Aubrey stretched in bed and yawned. She’d been home for a week, and the men said they were never letting her leave.
Of course, they’d had to. She’d gone back to work on Monday despite their protests. Everyone in school had been properly shocked about Principal Barker’s behavior, and the school board was planning on naming a new principal as soon as possible.
They had managed to convince her not to move back to her place. She’d been here the entire week, and she didn’t want to leave any more than they wanted her to. It was heaven going to sleep between her two men every night. She usually woke alone as they had to get up early for ranch work, but she was fine with that. She wouldn’t question their devotion or love ever again. They showed it in every smile and touch. She’d never seen two men more determined to make a woman happy in her life.
And I’m that lucky woman.
“We brought you breakfast in bed.”
Riley carried a tray with Noah following right behind. The delicious aroma of cinnamon wafted past her nostrils, and her stomach growled in response. They were dressed in jeans and nothing else. Aubrey’s libido immediately perked up. There was nothing sexier than her men in a pair of well-fitting denim. She levered up in bed and Riley set the tray across her knees.
“French toast,” he pointed. “Strawberries, coffee, and orange juice. Fresh squeezed.”
They both stood looking like they’d invented breakfast. It made her want to forget about the morning meal and eat them instead.
She pulled the linen napkin from the tray, and something fell on the bed. She reached for it and felt her insides melt and her heart start to pound. It was a beautiful platinum and diamond ring. She held it up.
“Do either of you know how this got here? Someone might have lost this and be looking for it.”
Riley rolled his eyes. “You know very well what it is and what it means. So, you know, will you?”
She glanced at Noah, who had groaned at Riley’s awkward question. “Is this from both of you? Do you want me to, you know, do that thing with you?”
Riley’s and Noah’s cheeks went red. Noah nodded. “Yes, we do. I mean, we want you to marry us. I mean, will you?”
Delight bubbled through her veins like champagne. It had taken a long time to get here, but it was finally happening. She loved these men with all her heart and soul. It would never be easy, but it would be worth it.
Her men looked positively tortured, but she couldn’t resist holding out a little more. After all, they’d made her wait ten years for this moment.
“I don’t know. Are you sure you want to settle down and get married? You won’t be able to go out drinking and partying with your friends as often.”
Riley plopped down on the bed next to her. “Babe, I don’t intend to do that ever again. I did it way too long, and it doesn’t even appeal to me now. I want to spend as much time with you as possible.”
Noah knelt next to the bed. “I second that. Come on, babe. Say yes?”
Riley tickled her nose with a strand of her hair. “You know you want to.”
She slapped at his hand. “Okay, I will. On one condition.”
Riley frowned. “Anything, you know that, babe.”
She grabbed Riley and kissed him then Noah. They tasted like coffee and cinnamon. “Don’t grow up too much, okay? I won’t have anything to get mad at you about, and then we won’t have makeup sex.”
Noah laughed and lifted the tray from her lap, placing it on the bedside table out of the way. “I think it’s safe to say we’re going to make you mad so there will always be makeup sex.”
Sanctuary in Submission [Sanctuary, Montana 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 16
