Chapter Ten
Life threw twists and turns at Riley, and she kept battling them. For years, she defied death and fought with the demons that held her past in their hands. But right now, she was more helpless than she had ever been. When she opened her eyes, she was tied with a thick rope. It bound her hands and feet, and there was a gag on her face. She was on her back on a narrow bed in a room that didn’t contain much. There was a single chair standing against the opposite wall. There were no windows.
Where was she?
Did Wesley kidnap her? If he yes, why didn’t he kill her? The perfect time to murder her would have been when she was unconscious. Maybe he wanted her to experience terror in her last moments. Perhaps he wanted her to be wide awake when he plunged the knife in her back. The thought of that filled her with new fear. She struggled against the ropes, but her efforts were in vain. The ropes were too thick, and she couldn’t do much.
She was alone, defenseless. This was exactly the sort of situation she’d prepared against. Chance warned her about it. She should have listened to him. It was stupid of her to leave the apartment before she had a chance to talk to him. She should have waited for him to call her back before she left the safety of their apartment. Now, she was a prisoner, and there wasn’t much she could do about it.
Before Chance had an opportunity to realize that she was gone, she would be dead. Wesley would kill her. She had no doubt about it. Her brother was insane, but he was focused. He chased her for so long and finally he got his chance. As she struggled against the ropes, the door creaked open. Her heart leapt into her throat as she doubled her efforts to escape, but nothing happened.
The man who strode into the room wasn’t Wesley. He was Mathew, the second-in-command of the Comanche Sons. Riley couldn't have been more shocked. Why the hell did they kidnap her? She didn’t do anything to them. What were they planning to do? Why did they bring her here?
“Surprised?” He raised an eyebrow. Mathew sat on the chair and surveyed her. “You’re pretty; I will give you that. No wonder Chance is so enamored with you. If he wasn’t so besotted, he would have thought with a much clearer mind, and he would have realized a long time ago that whatever he did against our club was going to cost him big.”
“What did he do?”
“He dragged police to our doors. That is enough of a crime. But he didn’t do it once, but twice, and now thrice. On top of it, he was helping Simon.”
These men killed Simon. They were capable of heinous crimes. Riley couldn’t believe she was stupid enough to fall right into their hands. She should have listened to Chance. If only she had taken her security more seriously, but then she never expected an ambush.
“What do you want from me?”
“You, my dear, are the bait we’re going to use to entrap Chance. He messed up good, and now he is going to clean up.”
Fear congealed in the pit of her stomach. So, they planned to use her to force Chance to do their bidding. But why? “I don’t understand…”
“It’s easy enough to explain.” Mathew snapped his fingers. As if that was a signal, the door creaked open once more and in came her wayward brother. She’d not set her gaze on him for a long time. Whatever glimpses she caught weren’t enough to make her see that he was no longer the boy who had gone to jail. Wesley was grown up, and how. His muscles bugled. He was at least half a foot taller than she remembered. His dark, brown hair was cut short, and his hazel eyes were cold, calculating. Seeing him, the terror that boiled in her blood intensified.
Riley never realized that he hated her with a passion she couldn’t quite explain. When she gazed into his eyes, she saw death. This wasn’t just some boy who was on a mission that he found exciting, but rather, he was obsessed, driven. As long as he remained alive, her life would always be in danger—and just now, she was teetering on the brink of death.
“Good afternoon, sister.”
She wisely kept her mouth shut. Riley had the distinct feeling that if she opened her mouth, he would twist anything she said and use it to fan the temper that already roiled in his eyes. He wanted her dead, and Wesley would do anything to get to that end.
How long did she have?
“It appears she doesn’t want to have a conversation with her long lost brother,” said Mathew.
Wesley cracked his knuckles, and the sound was ominous in the small room. She shivered. If he got his hands on her, her end wouldn’t be pleasant. She would rather die from a bullet. At least that would be quick and painless. Wesley would torture her before he allowed her to breathe her last breath.
“Give me a few minutes with her, and she will sing like a canary.”
Riley trembled from her head to toes. If she was left alone with him, there was no was way she would survive the encounter. Her heart pounded so loud that she was sure they could hear it but, of course, it wasn’t so. “We have a deal,” said Mathew in a cold voice that brooked no argument. “She isn’t yours until the man is in our hands.”
“So bring him here. What’s taking your men so long?”
“He is a canny individual, and right now, he is rather busy with the police.”
Wesley sneered. His gaze remained fixed on her, and she dared not move because she didn’t want to draw anymore of his attention. Riley realized that she hadn’t taken him that seriously. Now that she saw him, she could tell that there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to make sure she breathed her last soon. She should have changed her name and gone to another country. That was the only thing that would have kept her safe.
Too late for regrets now.
She was stuck in this hell hole, and he was one of her jailors.
“If I had known he would come into the bar, I would have gutted him too,” said Wesley. “He took me by surprise, and I barely made it out before he saw me.”
“It was a mistake to think that you didn’t have to secure the bar,” said Mathew. “I told you to lock the door behind you when you entered.”
“The old man didn’t give me a chance,” protested Wesley while Riley tried to follow their conversation. What she heard made her blood run cold. “He just sprang on me—almost as if he was expecting trouble. Tough, old bird he was. Put up quite a fight.”
Mathew glared at him as if he couldn’t quite believe that a man could be so dumb. She could tell that he held Wesley in disdain, but he also appeared to have no qualms about using him to further the club’s gains. “You messed up things. In and out, that was meant to be your goal. Rather, you spoiled things by allowing someone to go in before we had a chance to clean up the mess that you left behind. We should have disposed of that corpse, and then no one would have been any wiser. Simon was an old guy, and he didn't have any family. If he disappeared, no one would have cared. Now, the police are on the case.”
“And that’s why it’s so important for me to finish the rest of my work and disappear. In any case, I made up for my mistake by luring her out of the apartment. Her boyfriend will come when you call, and in the meantime, I will have some fun with her.”
“You can’t have her before we get a handle on this. We need Chance. He is talking to the police, so we need to shut him up before he gets more involved in this case.”
Wesley stuck out his bottom lip in a gesture that she recognized well—even after so many years. Seeing him do that, her heart filled with dread. He was getting antsy. Not a good sign. She wondered if Mathew realized how unstable this man was, or perhaps he didn’t specifically care. Maybe he was confident that he could handle Wesley if the situation arose. “How the fuck are you going to do that?”
“This girl made it easy for us. She fell into our lap. Now, she will tell him to come here; we will talk to him and convince him to change his statement to the police, and all will be well.”
Wesley exchanged a glance with Mathew. Some kind of a nonverbal communication took place, and both men smiled. Riley didn’t need them to say anything. She knew exactly what they planned. They would kill Chance. It wa
s clear that they didn’t want the police to connect Simon’s death with the Comanche Sons. By now, Chance must have told them about the burgeoning fight and the tussle for power that was ongoing. They needed him to shut up about it, and it didn’t matter how they achieved that end. With him out of the picture, the police wouldn’t have much of a case. No one else would talk against them. Chance was the only one who had guts to do that.
She shuddered as her heart slammed into her chest. Why the hell hadn’t she told him that she loved him? Now that death loomed near, Riley was aware that she adored him. He was the love of her life. She cared about him more than she ever cared for anyone. It was stupid for her to fight him for so long. He was the only man who made her feel safe and complete, and in turn she repaid him with a bad attitude and her cold demeanor.
Perhaps she deserved this end.
“When can I get my hands on her?”
“We’ll keep her safe for you until Chance comes in. Until then, you have to be patient,” said Mathew in a dismissive voice. “In the meantime, I suggest you hole up tight here. Don’t go out. Don’t contact anyone. Just sit still and soon you can have her.”
Wesley smacked his lips together. He glanced at her, and she could see that his hands twitched to touch her. He wanted to kill her right now, right here, and it was only Mathew’ presence and edict that spared her life for now. “Soon, little sister, you will be mine, and you’ll regret the day you testified against me in court.”
He walked out of the room, and Riley released a sigh of relief that she didn’t know she was holding. Mathew grinned as the door closed. “Eager bastard, isn’t he? I thought my family was fucked up. My father left when I was two and my mother made her money by getting men into her bed. She kicked me out when I was eleven. Good thing too, as some of her johns had their eyes on me.” He laughed. “But when I heard your tale, boy was I shocked? You never did have a chance. From the moment you opened your mouth against this asshole, he made up his mind to send you to join your parents.”
She cleared her throat. Maybe she couldn’t do much to save herself, but Riley was determined to protect Chance. Right now, she was helpless, vulnerable. But perhaps she might get an opportunity to do things right by him. “How did you team up with him?”
“We approached him. After Chance told me about this crazy man who was out to get you, I told some of my men to watch you to see who was following you. Initially, I thought we might grab him and present him to Chance. I’d hoped that he would start working for us in a big way, and I wanted to entice him into our ranks. The man has some good training, and he sure could be helpful in a lot of our work.”
“He doesn’t want to join the world of crime.”
“It’s not a crime until you get caught, and we have never been touched by the police,” he announced in a proud voice. “He would have done some good work with us, but now…well, it’s too late.”
“Don’t hurt him, please. I beg you.”
He laughed. “Oh, you poor dear. You’re just as besotted as him. Love? Is that what’s it about? You want to protect him at all costs.” His face hardened, and he stopped smiling. “You’re not going to get anywhere, dear. Let me tell you straight out that Chance wrote his own death warrant when he got the police involved. After repeated warnings, he did the same thing yet again. When he saw that body, he should have called us or waited for us to show up. We were on our way to take away the corpse, but no, he had to fucking call the police and ruin everything.”
She breathed in deeply to calm her nerves. This man was as insane as her brother. If Chance came here, he wouldn’t leave alive. Right now, the only thing she could do was to keep him talking. Perhaps he would reveal a secret that might make it possible for her to save Chance. “Why did Wesley kill for you?”
“When we caught him as he stalked you, I realized that he could be useful. He agreed to get rid of Simon for us in exchange for you. It was a deal I could make easily enough, but of course, you brother isn’t a pro. He didn’t take the precautions we asked him to. Chance came in before we had time to clean up the mess and take the body away. Well, never mind. I have always been good at improvising. We have you, and that will bring lover boy here faster than anything.”
“He won’t come.” Or at least, she hoped he wouldn’t. If he came here, his life was over. Chance had to know that. He wasn’t stupid. And yet, Riley had a feeling that he wouldn't care about anything. When he heard that she was in trouble, he would come running and not think about the cost to his own health and safety.
The man loved her.
He said it and she didn’t believe him. She didn’t want to. It complicated her life to accept his feelings and that’s why she ignored them. But still, in her heart, she was aware that he would do anything to save her. He would put his life on the line—even though she never once admitted her love for him. He would do it because he was that kind of man. The sad thing was that she wouldn’t get a chance to disclose her true emotions. She would die without telling him that she loved him just as much.
Tears sprang into her eyes, but she didn’t want to give this man the satisfaction of knowing that he brought her to the verge of a breakdown. She wouldn’t let him know that he scared her that much. If she was going to die here, she would do so with her head held high and with the knowledge that Chance was safe. Whatever he did, whatever he said, she wouldn’t ask Chance to come here to rescue her.
That mission would be suicide. It would be crazy, and in any case, Mathew didn’t have any intention of letting her go. He would hand her over to Wesley the moment Chance walked in. One thing was clear; her life was over. The only thing she could do in her last moments was to save the man whom she loved.
Riley was determined to do that. Whatever happened, she would make sure that Chance walked away from this mess without as much as a bruise. She wouldn’t let them hurt him. That was her last resolve, and she intended to see it through.
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Chapter One
If there was anything worse than being kidnapped, it was that she could be the cause of death for the person whom she loved the most in the world. Riley twisted against the ropes that held her. If there was any way she could escape, she would make sure that Chance stayed out of trouble—but, of course, the ropes didn’t even budge. She’d been brought here against her will, and now there was no hope for her. Once she outlived her usefulness to the Comanche Sons, they would hand her over to Wesley, her brother, who wouldn’t waste too much time before he killed her.
Her fate was sealed.
The only thing she could do was save Chance, but until now, she didn’t have a prayer of doing so.
The door opened, and in came Mathew. He was carrying a phone in his hand. “I hope some sense has prevailed by now. Are you ready to contact Chance?”
“No,” she barked out. It was the same answer that she had been giving for the past many hours. “In any case, you’re not going to let me go free so what’s the point of doing anything to appease you.”
“Good point.” Mathew sat on the chair. “I do believe that you’re right. The thing is…there is a way we can both help each other.”
She simply couldn’t place her faith in this man. He hired her brother to kill Simon and in exchange promised him that he could have an opportunity to kill her. How could she trust anything he said? “How?”
“You call Chance here, and I’ll let you go.”
“And what about the deal you made with Wesley?”
“I will renege on it.” He laughed. “We’ve already paid him for Simon’s murder, so as far as I am concerned, I don’t owe him anything.”
What was to stop him from reneging on this new deal with her? It was obvious that the man was a consummate liar. He didn’t keep his word to anyone, and his only allegiance was to himself and to this club whom he was nurturing. The Comanche Sons was fast bec
oming more than a biker’s club; it was now a notorious organization that had its hands in various illegal pies and now even murder.
“If I call him, what will you do to Chance?”
“We’ll ask him to take back his statement from the police and stop cooperating with them regarding Simon’s murder.”
As much as she knew Chance, she knew that he wouldn’t ever do that. By killing Simon, they pushed him away. He would never allow them to get away with it. Chance was a man of good principles. He’d liked and respected Simon, and now there wasn’t anything they could do to stop him from helping the police get to the bottom of this mystery. Also, she didn’t believe for a second that all Mathew wanted was an opportunity to talk. He would kill Chance, just as he murdered Simon. This man was dangerous, and this place was too, and she didn’t have any intention of luring Chance here, even if that was her only hope of saving her own life.
“I am not calling him.”
Defiant Loyalty (Comanche Sons Motorcycle Club Book 2) Page 8
