Gage left her with Chief Edwards for just long enough to run to her house and grab the box of letters. When he came back, she was still lying in her tight ball answering the unending line of questions from her boss and friend. Her neck hurt. Her arms hurt. Hell, her entire body felt like it had been beaten with giant balls of hail, and she’d been caught outside in a storm being pelted to death by the chunks of ice.
When Chief Edwards thought he had all the information he needed, Gage lifted her off the couch and carried her to the bedroom. He set her on the mattress as gently as she’d ever known him to be. “Stretch out some, baby. You’re gonna ache later.”
Kayla unfolded as he pulled the covers up to her chin and tucked her in tight. He stepped to the bathroom and returned with two ibuprofen and a glass of water. He held her head up for her to swallow. And then he stroked her hair, sitting on the side of the bed until sleep graciously sucked her under.
Chapter Nineteen
Gage paced a hole in is living room while Chief Edwards went over the pile of letters Kayla had saved. There was also a pile of disks in the bottom of the box that made Gage cringe. He retrieved the envelope from the trash can and added it to the stack.
“Jesus.” Chief Edwards was pissed, at least as pissed as Gage. He kept sliding his reading glasses on and off his face until Gage thought he would surely break that pair.
They managed to keep their voices down so Kayla could rest, but barely.
“I can’t believe she kept this from me.” Gage paced.
“Oh, I can. I’m sure one look at those tapes and it would be crystal clear.”
Gage would never in this lifetime open one of those disks, but he would forever be haunted by the possible images they contained. “How much of this did you know?” he asked Chief Edwards.
Chief Edwards leaned back in his chair. “Nothing about the extortion, if that’s what you mean. I did know about her marriage to this asshole and most of the details about her divorce proceedings and then his death. She contacted me from Alabama after she left the Bollings, and I helped arrange for her to come home.”
Gage watched the pain on Chief Edwards’ face as he spoke, the same pain Gage had felt since Kayla had opened up to him about Simon. Chief Edwards had lived with that for two years, six if he worried about her the entire time she was gone also.
“Got to call this in to the local police in Alabama now.” Chief Edwards stood. He pulled his cell from his pocket. “If we’re lucky, they can head out to the Bollings’ home and arrest them within the hour. There’s enough evidence here to lock them up for a long fucking time. I just wish Kayla had realized she had other options sooner than now. That poor girl has been through more than most women could handle in a lifetime.”
Gage agreed. And he also knew she was the strongest woman he’d ever met for surviving years of torture and abuse followed by years of extortion and threats. It was a good thing Nevada was not close to Alabama, or he would probably have stomped to those mother fuckers’ house and killed them with his bare hands.
Things moved fast. By the end of the day, the Bollings were in custody and their house ransacked for any evidence. Unfortunately, as stupid as those idiots were, they had covered their asses concerning the disks. The police in charge of the case found absolutely nothing inside the house, and the Bollings weren’t cooperating with authorities. They insisted they knew nothing and hadn’t ever bothered “that poor girl.”
The rage that boiled beneath the surface made Gage antsy. It wasn’t as though the couple would be set free without physical evidence from their house. Hell, there was enough evidence on Gage’s kitchen table to light a bonfire. However, it would certainly have been tidier if they’d fucked up a little more and had the disks in the house.
The rest of Saturday and all of Sunday were tense. Kayla sat curled in a ball on the couch staring at nothing. She chewed her lip for so long, Gage kept cupping her face and tugging the poor flesh loose. He gave her space, only encouraging her to eat and drink, but she said little. All she did was sit and stare at nothing and occasionally wipe a line of tears from her face.
Thor understood Kayla better than anyone. That dog was sharp as a whip. He spent the entire day curled up next to Kayla, his jaw on her leg, as though ready to pounce if anyone upset her. He even followed her to the bathroom.
Gage ached for her, but she needed time to process what had happened. He imagined she’d spent the majority of the last two years stuffing her feelings deep inside and ignoring them. A coping mechanism.
“Come to bed, baby,” he prodded Sunday night.
She nodded and lifted herself off the couch as though she weighed four hundred pounds.
It was early. Barely nine o’clock. Gage held her in his arms and stroked her face as they snuggled under the covers. “It’s going to be okay,” he reassured.
“How do you know? You can’t be sure of that.” She lifted her face, her eyes watery and wide. “Until the police find those disks and destroy them, I can’t rest.”
“I understand, baby. And believe me, I agree. And the local police are doing everything in their power to locate the disks.”
They’d grilled Kayla for any possible solution. She knew nothing. As far as she was aware, the Bollings had no safety deposit box or secret safe anywhere. They lived so far from town they didn’t even have friends. She’d learned from her time with Mrs. Forester that most people didn’t like the Bollings and steered clear of them. They had one other son, older, but Kayla had never met him. He lived somewhere else in the South.
Gage wished he could jump on a plane and head straight for Alabama, but he would never leave Kayla to do so, and furthermore, he wasn’t a cop.
Thor leaped onto the bed and snuggled in on Kayla’s other side. Normally Gage didn’t let the dog sleep on the bed when both he and Kayla were there, but Kayla seemed to calm every time Thor touched her, so he pulled her closer, scooted them across the mattress, and let Thor claim his spot.
Kayla’s heart rate slowed with Thor at her back. Her breathing evened out as she leaned against Gage and fell asleep. For the first time in two days, she slept without jerking awake in a panic or flinching her muscles in her sleep.
Gage hardly slept, preferring to watch her rest and play with her gorgeous blonde curls. He brushed them back against the pillow so many times, it was a wonder he didn’t have a handful of her hair.
He finally closed his eyes and rested, only to jolt awake some time later, instinctively knowing he was alone in the bed. He sat up quickly and scanned the room. Kayla wasn’t in sight, but he could hear the shower running.
The clock showed seven thirty. He crawled out of bed and headed for the bathroom. He smiled when he found Thor lying next to the shower door, his head on his front paws.
Kayla turned and smiled at him through the glass door.
“You feel better, baby?”
“Yes. Thank you.” She shut off the water and stepped from the shower.
Gage handed her a towel and watched her dry. “You don’t have to push yourself if you want to stay home, you know.” He worried about her. She was too calm.
“I know. But it will be better for me to go to work and have a normal routine. The police may never find those disks, and I need to accept that possibility and move on.” She wrapped her hair in the towel and stood before him naked and sexy as hell.
He stepped forward, pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly. “You’re an amazing woman, and I thank God every single day for putting you in my path.”
She blushed, her face turning every shade of red. “Gage…” She pushed on his chest, never one to easily accept his praise and admiration.
He trailed his hands up her warm back and wrapped one around the back of her neck. “I mean it.” He pinned her with his gaze. “I love you, and we’ll get through this and come out stronger.”
She opened her mouth, hesitated, and then spoke. “What if the disks get leaked? What if my face is plastered all over s
ocial media or on a porn film? Worse yet, what if my entire body is displayed for the universe at large? I don’t think I can live with that, Gage. And I sure don’t intend for you to.”
He closed his eyes for one second and then whisked her off her feet, carried her cradled in his arms to the bedroom, and dropped her unceremoniously on the bed. He came over her without a pause, his body pinning her to the mattress as the breath whooshed from her lungs. He grabbed both her hands and tugged them over her head to hold her down. “Listen to me, baby. There isn’t one scenario or resolution to the case that will end with me not in your life. Do you hear me?”
She didn’t move. Her eyes were wide, but her mouth was pursed.
“I don’t give a fuck if I have to spend the rest of my life chasing loose videos of you across the entire planet, collecting them, and getting them off the streets. I will do so until I die. So, don’t look at me again and suggest you’d leave me over this. It’s not going to happen, and frankly it’s insulting. I’m a bigger man than that. A few naked videos is not going to stop me from loving you to pieces. Ever.” His voice rose. “Don’t insinuate otherwise again. Are we clear?”
She nodded. Tears fell again. Finally, she opened her mouth and gave him what he’d longed for for weeks. “I love you too, Gage.”
A smile formed on his lips and spread so wide it felt like his cheeks would split. “Then that’s settled.” He leaned closer and took her mouth in a long, thorough kiss that led to him sliding into her warmth and them arriving several minutes late to work.
»»•««
The morning went smoothly. Gage tried not to think too hard about what was happening in Alabama, and he only buzzed Chief Edwards once an hour for an update. Chief Edwards’ voice grew leery with each call, but Gage was undaunted. He wanted answers, and until he had a satisfactory resolution to this topic, he wouldn’t rest easy. For Kayla’s sake. And for his own.
It was almost lunch when Marci came running into his side of the building and stopped, heaving for breath as she interrupted his class. “Gage. She left.”
He dropped the papers he was holding and jumped off the edge of his desk where he’d been perched. “What? Who left? Kayla?”
“Yes. She tore out of here like the hounds of hell were on her heels. Chief Edwards is up front.”
Gage ran after Marci with Thor on his heels. He ran out the front door and joined Chief Edwards where he found him in the parking lot. “Where did she go?”
Chief Edwards spun around and faced Gage. “No idea. She didn’t say a word. Did she have her car?”
Gage glanced at the parking lot. “No. She took mine. She has her own keys.”
“Do you suppose she couldn’t handle the pressure of being at work?” Chief Edwards asked.
Gage’s heart beat faster. He shook his head. “Not buying that. She was fine this morning. Better than she has been for two days. Something must have happened. No one saw anything?”
Chief Edwards shook his head. “No. Nothing. She was alone in the front, and suddenly she jumped up and tore out of here. A few of the guys saw her from next to their cars where they were getting ready to patrol.” Chief Edwards nodded toward Rider coming from across the parking lot. “Rider saw her peel away and called me on the radio.”
Rider jogged forward. “What happened?”
“No idea,” Chief Edwards said.
“I’ve got to go find her.” Gage spun in a circle, realizing he had no transportation.
“I’ll take you.” Rider turned on his heel and headed for a patrol car.
Seconds later the two of them were speeding down the road with Thor in the back seat, alert and sitting upright. Rider had the lights on, but not the siren.
“Where do you think she would go first?”
“Drive by my place.” Gage grabbed the handle above the door and held on as Rider took a corner, hugging it tight.
It took only five minutes to get to Gage’s house with Rider driving, and there was no sign of Kayla. “Her place next.” He gave Rider the directions, and they took off again. Gage dialed her phone over and over, but she didn’t answer. He texted her also. Nothing.
When they pulled up to Kayla’s condo, he sensed immediately that something was off. His jeep was in the driveway, askew as though she’d parked and exited hastily.
Thor jumped out of the squad car the second Rider opened the back door. That dog could sense even more than Gage or Rider. Thor followed Gage toward the house, his ears standing up, his tongue wagging.
Gage pushed the front door open with Thor right beside him.
And what he encountered when he entered the house and slid to a halt made his heart stop.
Kayla stood in the center of the room, but she wasn’t alone. Some jackass had his arm around her throat and a gun to her head.
Thor growled low and menacing.
“Call your fucking dog off now, or she’s dead.”
Thor didn’t speak asshole, so he kept growling. The dog was smart though and trained to handle this sort of situation. Gage knew Thor was waiting for the signal to pounce. Gage would wait for the perfect moment and then give Thor the command to take this motherfucker down.
And the best part? This son of a bitch didn’t know that.
Gage could sense that Rider hadn’t entered the house behind him. Which meant he was either lurking outside the door waiting for an opportunity to shoot first and ask questions later, or he’d circled to the back of the house.
Gage lifted both arms in the air. He wished he had his .38 on him, but it was in the glove compartment of his jeep. As a civilian, he couldn’t carry a weapon inside the police station. Rider was somewhere nearby, and that man was indeed packing.
Who was this asshole, and what did he want with Kayla? Gage wished there was some explanation that didn’t involve the Bollings, but the likelihood of that was slim. The coincidence the dude happened to be in the house for a random robbery was nil.
“What do you want?” Gage asked.
The guy snarled. “Money, dickface. What do robbers usually want?”
“Money, as in a roll of twenties from the underwear drawer, or money as in extortion and revenge?” Gage didn’t bother mincing words. “I suggest you put that gun down now before you find yourself in more trouble than you’re already in. If you add homicide to extortion, you’ll serve life without parole.”
“Fuck you.”
Gage shuffled slowly forward, still holding his hands up.
“You think you and Fido here are going to take me out?” The fucker laughed sardonically as if he had the upper hand.
Gage did nothing to insinuate this shithole wasn’t far from the truth. As long as he held a gun to Kayla’s head, he did indeed have Gage by the balls.
Kayla held on to the fucker’s forearm, tears streaming down her face, her eyes wide, and her mouth open. She wasn’t getting enough oxygen. Her feet barely scraped the floor.
Moments of silence as Gage angled to one side, trying to get out of the way in case Rider planned to get by him. He moved right, forcing the asshole with the gun to follow him with his gaze.
“Stop fucking moving, dickface.” He gripped Kayla tighter, making her whimper.
A shot rang out behind Gage, but that wasn’t what took this jackass down. The distraction was exactly what Gage had been waiting on. He gave Thor the signal, and the dog leaped into the air and clamped his jaw down on the fucker’s forearm while the guy looked in the direction of the shot. In less than a heartbeat, Kayla was free, the gun went flying across the room, and the jackass went down, screaming in pain.
Thor did not release. He was trained to incapacitate. One word from Gage and he would do just that.
Rider came around the corner on the next heartbeat, gun raised. He made his way across the living room, grabbed the jackass’s free arm and slapped a cuff on him.
Gage hesitated, letting Thor continue to grip the man’s arm tight. He knew it had to hurt like a son of a bitch, but all the more r
eason. He still didn’t say a word when Rider glanced back.
Finally, Rider lifted an eyebrow. Calm as could be, he announced,” I’ve got this, Gage. Call him off.”
Gage took a deep breath and transferred his gaze to Thor. “Release.”
Thor dropped the man immediately and turned toward Kayla.
The squirming asshole on the floor flailed, screaming about his arm, but Rider set a knee on his chest and then flipped him to his front, locking his second hand to the first behind him. Next, Rider pulled out a radio and hit the side button. “Need backup at two seven five Maple. Man in custody.” He put his radio back in the holster and inserted his knee in the center of the fucker’s back.
Gage took three long strides to get to Kayla, who sat choking on the ground, her sobs mixing in with her erratic breathing. Thor nuzzled her arms, trying to get her to look at him. The dog was a genius.
Gage bent down and gathered Kayla in his arms, lifting her and turning to go outside, Thor on his heels. He didn’t want her witnessing another second of that man’s face. He went straight to the squad car, opened the back door, and slid inside, still holding her cradled in his arms. When he was seated, Thor jumping into the open door on the other side, he brushed her hair from her face. “It’s over, baby.”
She shook violently and sobbed harder.
Not surprising considering what she’d been through.
He let her cry, listening to the sirens as they came closer. It seemed like an eternity, but probably only lasted about three minutes. After all, the entire precinct had been aware of the situation before it went down.
Kayla heaved deep breaths as two squad cars squealed to a stop in front of her condo. Gage blocked her from the view, hoping to calm her. It took forever for her to speak. “Oh my God, Gage. If you hadn’t…”
“I did, baby.” He held her closer, kissed the top of her head. “I’m here. I’ll always be here. It’s over.” He lifted her chin to meet his gaze, hating the number of times he’d seen her in such pain in the last few days. “Talk to me, baby.”
The Fight Club - Boxed Set Page 83
