Who wants to sit at a birthday or at dinner and hear, “That’s just like when Noah and Luna got married. The bed was banging off the walls and our room sounded like Porky’s Poon Vacation.”
“Is that clapping?” he asked against my back.
“Oh shit,” I cried, even more upset now. “We have to leave! We have to move. We’re changing our names!”
I tried to disengage my vagina from his penis, but he wrapped his arms around my torso and stopped me.
“Baby,” he chuckled against my back. “It’s okay!”
“No,” I argued, still trying to pull away from him.
He was a sneaky-dickens my husband though, because every time I pulled forward, he followed me. Every time I moved backward, he moved forward. This meant that within twenty seconds, he was pumping in and out of me again, and we gave them even more ammunition against us.
Noah
The next morning should have started how the night had ended and would have if I’d had my way.
Reaching over, I went to pull Luna toward me, but her side of the bed was cold, very cold. Raising my head and opening my eyes, it took me a minute of blinking to focus on the room, and my head was pounding like I’d drunk a ton the night before.
Why was that?
That was when I realized that the pounding in my head was being joined by pounding at the door, and I slowly got out of bed and made my way over to it. I felt off balance and kept stumbling the whole way.
Shit, was I getting sick?
At the last second, I remembered that I was naked and grabbed a pair of sweats that were somehow on the table near the door and pulled them on.
Opening it, I came face to face with an amused Sven.
“I thought you had shit you wanted to do today? I’ve been trying to wake you up for four hours!”
“Crap,” I groaned, using the heels of my hands to rub my eyes. “What time is it?”
“Twelve-thirty,” he replied, pushing me back into the room and following me. “Where’s your wife?”
Looking at the open door of the bathroom, I frowned. She wouldn’t have gone out without me, would she?
“Did she go out with Maggie?”
“Nah,” he shook his head, looking around the place more closely. “Maggie said they were meant to meet up at breakfast, but when y’all didn’t turn up, she figured you’d screwed each other’s brains out last night.”
That was when we both saw the shattered lamp on the table near the couches.
“We didn’t do that,” I muttered, more to myself than him.
Over by the bed, all of the shit on the bedside table was now scattered across the floor and the phone had been torn out of the wall.
“Man…,” Sven started, pointing at the sheet on Luna’s side of the bed.
There was a bright red blood stain, not a big one, more the size of my fist, but there was no reason for there to be blood on the bed.
I started to walk over to it when Sven grabbed my arm stopping me. The ache and sharp pinch that happened with his grip had me growling at him.
A quick look at where he was holding almost fried my brain, which was coming back on track properly now.
There was a small smear of blood on my bicep. Quickly, I licked my thumb and reached over to rub it off seeing a small pinprick that wasn’t there before.
Blood on the bed.
Blood on my arm.
Looking at Sven, the two of us burst into action.
They’d taken her. They’d fucking taken Luna.
“Noah, we’ll get her back!” he walked up behind me as I swapped sweats for jeans and yanked on a t-shirt.
“I’ll kill them all,” I roared in his face.
“And I’ll help you,” he assured me. “But we can’t do jack shit until we know who took her. To get that information, you’ve got to keep your shit together and help me. You with me?”
“If they’ve hurt her,” I warned, shaking my head.
I could feel my hands shaking too, but I didn’t realize how badly until I felt him nudge me and looked down to see him holding a gun out to me.
“Then we get them, deal with them, and you put her back together,” he said, checking his phone and tapping something onto the screen. “I’ve told Maggie to stay locked in our room but to listen for noises in here. I’m going to reach out to a friend of mine who’s currently in Hawaii who has guys here with their ears to the ground. As soon as we get any leads we’ll head out.” The fact that he was so organized was a relief. At that moment, all I could do was swallow over the lump in my throat. “You’ve got to keep your head though, man.”
Snapping my head in his direction, I had to hold back from punching him. “And how would you feel if it was Maggie?”
Nodding, he took a step closer. I was slightly taller than him, but there was no underestimating the power that he had.
“Yeah, I’d be fucked up,” he agreed. “But just saying, you’re not gonna be any good to her with your head up your ass.”
I knew what he was saying was true, and in a minute, I’d do just that.
At this precise moment though, I wanted to roar and tear the room apart with my bare hands.
Taking deep breaths, I started to walk around the room, forcing my eyes to focus on anything and everything I could see.
That was when I saw it, a tiny flash of something shiny poking out from underneath the bed.
Crouching down I picked it up and felt something tear inside me when I realized what it was.
It was the ring I’d put on her finger just hours before. The matching one with the diamond in it was waiting to be picked up today, and I’d planned to take her somewhere special to give it to her.
I was going to get that opportunity even if I had to tear the city apart one brick at a time.
14 Luna
Every part of me hurt as I lay there, but what hurt the most was my jaw. I’d woken up only moments before, but already I knew that I was in a dark box in a vehicle of some sort.
Feeling around me carefully, I felt the thick and firm padding on the walls of whatever I was in. There was a faint hissing noise that initially scared the shit out of me, with images of the pit of snakes in Indiana Jones flashing through my head. When I’d felt a cool breeze hitting me from above though, I’d discovered the tiny hole with cool air coming in through it.
I’m pretty certain oxygen was being pumped through it into the box– how civilized and generous of them!
The more I tried to focus on my surroundings, the more memories came back of how I’d gotten here.
I’d woken up to get some water just as a shadow leaned over me in the dark. I’d obviously still been drunker than I’d realized last night, because had I been sober and the lights hadn’t been on, I’d have freaked out. As it was, waking up in the dark had my hand shooting out to find the lamp switch. I’d never gotten the opportunity because I saw the shadow, went to scream and was hit in the face. The pain had stunned me and stopped me from screaming even harder as I was pulled from the bed by my hair. Then again, the fact that I couldn’t move my jaw properly had also prevented me from screaming too. That shit hurt!
I’d tried to fight them, but they’d shoved me face down on the bed and secured my arms behind my back with something. I’d felt my ring being ripped off, and when I’d started kicking at my attacker, there had been a sharp pinch followed by a burning sensation.
The next thing, I was waking up in here and it brought me to now.
I was in a tiny dark place - all of my biggest hang-ups all rolled into one freaking fantastic package. Thankfully, they’d moved it so that my hands were now tied in front of me, but it felt like I was in a coffin.
I decided to risk opening my mouth and screaming for help, but quickly realized that that wasn’t going to happen. The pain of just opening it slightly was enough to have me sucking in deep breaths through my nose, doing everything I could to stop myself from throwing up and potentially choking on it.
I
n all of my years on the run with my dad, I’d never felt as alone and desperate as I did now. And trust me when I was with him– I’d felt seriously alone and desperate.
The hissing sound changed, and I smelled something almost sweet fill the air in the box. Almost immediately my eyes began to roll, and I felt my head get fuzzy.
I was screwed. Well and truly screwed!
Noah
It had been thirty-seven hours and fourteen minutes since I last kissed her.
Two-thousand-two-hundred and thirty-four minutes.
I knew the exact time because I’d still been inside her and had seen the time on the clock beside the bed flashing three-thirty in the morning. I’d joked that if we didn’t stop now, we’d either die of dehydration or be one of those weird couples you saw on the news who got stuck together and had to get wheeled out on a stretcher while every asshole and their camera recorded the moment. Then I’d kissed her as I pulled out and we’d fallen asleep almost immediately.
My brothers, Archer and Levi, were on their way up to the room with my mom. We’d mobilized immediately, and they’d arrived here within hours of realizing Luna was missing, thanks to the company’s plane and pilot.
Tate, Ariana, and Dad had stayed home along with my grandparents, who’d flown in from where they lived with my cousins roughly a three-hour drive from where we lived.
We were leading the search for Luna from Vegas, whilst they did it from Texas. The goal was to leave no stone unturned… I just couldn’t.
As soon as they walked through the door, Levi tried to punch me but was caught by Archer.
“You were meant to look after her,” he bellowed in my face. “I fucking trusted you!”
I didn’t make a move to protect myself or retaliate. All I could do was stare at him and spin the wedding band currently sitting halfway up my little finger. It made me feel closer to Luna, and desperately lost at the same time.
“Enough,” Sven ordered, walking in with Maggie behind him. “He was looking after her. It was her piece of shit father who wasn’t. Fucking look at him, man,” he said walking up beside me and putting his hand on my shoulder, glaring at my brother.
“If he was looking after her, she’d still be here,” Levi snapped.
He wasn’t saying anything I wasn’t already saying to myself. I’d failed her!
Yesterday, Sven had told me he’d found out about three deals her father had made to pay back debts using her. One to a man who owned a brothel on the Mexican side of the border, one to a pimp in Vegas who was currently a suspect in the murders of four prostitutes, and one to a well-known footballer who was being investigated for the rape of his team player’s daughter. It was fucking sick!
Sitting down heavily on the bed, I let my head hang down. I couldn’t stop staring at her ring remembering everything that had led up to me putting it on her finger.
We’d stopped by a jewelry shop in a hotel on the way to Elvis. She’d wanted to just buy one from the place that we got married at, but I’d insisted that we at least did this part properly. We’d argued for five minutes over a plain band versus one that had diamonds inlaid around it. They weren’t huge, and it wasn’t gaudy at all - it was beautiful and classy just like my little Miss. Priss.
She’d rolled her eyes and gone to look at a bangle that Maggie was interested in buying for her sister, so I’d gotten the sales chick to just ring it up. It had been serendipity though because this was the ring that had fit her perfectly.
At the chapel, she’d been laughing as Elvis had told me to put it on Priscilla’s finger, her eyes sparkling as she grinned up at me.
My band was a plain black titanium one. I didn’t want a shiny one in case I scratched it doing work stuff or working on machinery. This one was made of a special type of titanium that was black all the way through and the saleslady had told us it was one of a kind. Those words made people buy jewelry all the time, thinking only they’d have it. I bought mine because Luna was one of a kind, so having a ring from her that was just like her? It was fate, just like her ring had been.
We’d planned to go back today to get them engraved with something and couldn’t tell the other one what.
Fuck me, I couldn’t lose her. Not now!
Not ever!
“What’s that?” Mom asked quietly.
I hadn’t even noticed her walking up to me.
“Luna’s wedding ring,” I mumbled.
“Her what?” she shrieked. “Are you asking her to marry you?”
“The fuck you say,” Levi yelled, storming over to us. “I forbid it!”
I’d forgotten that we’d decided to tell them after we got home. That said, my brother’s reaction pissed me the fuck off!
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Archer and Sven walking up behind Levi, but I gave not one fuck if they got there in time for what I was about to tell him.
“Too late,” I sneered. “We got married last night!”
The first punch landed on my jaw, I didn’t give the second one a chance to land anywhere as I jumped up and punched him back. All the heartache, anger, guilt, just everything came pouring out of me as we hit and pushed each other.
It didn’t last long, but it was long enough for both of us to have our fair share of bruises and cuts before Sven grabbed me, and Archer grabbed Levi.
“I told you not to fucking touch her, you son of a bitch!” he yelled at me.
“Hey!” Mom snapped, taking offense as always to being referred to as a bitch even if it wasn’t meant that way.
“Man, that’s like a red button with ‘don’t push’ written above it!” Archer snorted, tightening his hold on our brother when he tried to swing at him, too.
“You might be her friend,” I growled, straining against the hold that Sven was keeping me in. “But that doesn’t give you the right to pick and choose who she’s with. I fucking love her,” I choked out. “I love her!” It took everything in me not to cry as I finished.
My brother stood staring at me for a long while before he jerked free from Archer’s hold on him.
“Whatever,” he glared at me over his shoulder as he walked toward the couch. “Just fucking find her.”
“That’s what I was about to say when you lost your shit like a little bitch,” Sven told him. “We’ve found her father.”
Snapping my head around to look at him, I started to walk toward the door.
“Where?” I barked, not meaning to snap at the guy who had done so much for me and Luna but irritated by even a second of a delay in finding her.
“Denver.”
“Shotgun,” Archer sang, passing me with a slap on the back as he headed for the door.
“Well?” Levi asked, raising an eyebrow as he walked toward me.
“Well, what?”
“Well, let’s go get your wife!”
Just hearing him of all people call her that brought me completely out of feeling like I couldn’t breathe and that I was completely powerless, and moved me back into the level-headed asshole I was used to being.
“When we get to him, he’s mine,” I threw out as we got into the elevator and hit the button for the basement garage.
“I get to shove his balls down his throat,” Levi argued.
Fair argument. I didn’t want to touch his balls, so if he was so determined, they were his.
Looking around the elevator at the disgusted looks on the guys’ faces, Levi had the grace to blush a little before focusing on the floor.
“Kinky little fucker, isn’t he?” Archer chuckled as Sven nodded in response.
“So, how are we doing this?” I asked Sven. He knew where the asshole was, so he might already have a plan in mind.
“I’ll tell you in the car,” he replied, flicking his eyes to the camera in the corner in warning.
If it was anyone else, I might feel sorry for them given what that movement gave away.
But I didn’t. I hoped he burned in hell!
Three hours later…
“How are we going to do this?” Archer asked my earlier question again after hearing a brief outline of the plan from Sven.
We were basically hunting him down and then getting the information out of him. An obvious plan, but the key we were missing was the how.
“You ever hear of a guy in Vegas called Dino?” he asked us, lowering his voice even though it was just us in the cabin of the private plane.
“The name sounds familiar,” I frowned as I tried to place it, but my mind was too focused on Luna.
“He owns a place in the desert,” he sighed, sitting back and rubbing the tips of his fingers on his chin as he looked at us. “It’s a place where you can take people to ask them questions,” he paused as he thought over his next words. “A place where you can’t hear them scream.”
“Like padded rooms and shit?” Levi asked sounding confused, but now I knew where I’d heard the name before. Sven had mentioned him once before when we’d been discussing what life had been like before we’d met. He didn’t like to talk about it, but somehow, I’d earned his trust, and one night he’d given me the dummies guide to his life before he’d moved back to Tennessee.
“Like underground bunkers in the middle of the desert, literally,” he explained, his eyes hardening no doubt at the memory of the times he’d used them or seen them being used.
“I don’t think taking him from Denver back to Vegas is a wise idea. We’re increasing the risk of someone seeing him with us and there being a trail,” Levi sighed, closing his eyes in frustration. I was inclined to agree with him.
“True,” Sven nodded, a smile kicking up one side of his mouth. “So, it’s just as well he knows a guy who has a similar place in Colorado - just as secluded.”
“Gentlemen, the Captain says we’ll be beginning our descent in just a minute. Is there anything else that I can get you?” The woman who worked for my family on the plane, Janice, asked as she walked toward us.
Until Fools Find Gold: A Providence Gold Series and Until Series Crossover Page 12
