by Tl Reeve
“The lady is right here,” the cabbie said, opening the door. “She’s bleeding and wearing next to nothing.”
A thread of embarrassment slid through her, but as quickly as it was there, it was gone. “Help me,” she croaked. The world around her was slowly floating away. No matter how much she tried to keep her eyes open, she couldn’t gather the strength needed to do so. “I…can’t…go…back.” Unconsciousness, blissful yet scary, drifted around her, cradling her in a void of nothingness.
“No, you don’t, sweetheart.” A gruff voice called to her, drawing her out of the darkness. “Come back to us.”
Sabine’s eyes fluttered open then shut again. She didn’t want to open her eyes. The darkness was safe. It was comfortable there. There was no pain. No cages. Freedom lurked in the darkness.
“Ambulance is on the way,” another male said. His voice was an octave higher than the penetrating baritone of the first man. “It’s our kidnapping victim.”
Congratulations, you win the booby prize.
“Yeah, it is,” Man One said. “When did you say that ambulance would be here?” In the distance, she could hear the warble of noise. Finally, she could sleep. “Hey, now.” The man’s rough palm patted her cheek. “Wake up, sweetheart. Stay with us.”
Sabine groaned and turned away from him.
“They’re both through and throughs, Stuart, and she’s lost a good amount of blood.”
So Man One did have a name. Stuart. His name was both sexy and bold, invoking delicious images of the man holding her hand. When did he take my hand? How come I can’t remember how I got here?
“Damn it,” he cursed. “If they don’t hurry their asses up, we’re going to lose our victim. Call them back, Kyle, and tell them to double time it.”
Kyle. His name was just as delectable as Stuart’s. I wonder what he looks like. A part of her was using anything she could think of to stay right there even though she could feel the darkness surrounding her.
Sabine groaned as she was jostled around. The prick of a needle in her arm caused her to whimper. “Stop.” With a weak gesture, she tried to push them away, and a hand appeared in hers, squeezing it.
“You gave me a scare, girl,” Stuart said close to her ear. “Stay with Kyle and me. Don’t try going anywhere again.” What was he talking about? “Is she ready?”
“Yes, we’re loading her up now. Are you following?”
Sabine half listened to the conversation around her, trying to stay with Stuart like he asked her to do.
“I’m riding with you. My partner will give you the escort.” The soft cushion she lay on lifted up momentarily, jostling her around, then slid into something. In no time, they were rolling. “Sabine, we’re going to get you fixed up. I promise.”
She muttered something, and a sharp burning sensation raced up her arm, then everything inside her mellowed out, relaxing her completely. Oh, hell, yeah, that’s the good stuff. Instead of fighting the darkness, she went with it. It was light and peaceful. The pain that radiated through her whole body relented, and she could finally breathe without feeling as though her chest was being squeezed to death. Just a little nap, and then I’ll tell them everything. The heavy darkness wrapped its tendrils around her, and she fell into the deepest sleep she’d had in weeks.
Chapter Four
Stuart stood at the foot of Sabine Babineaux’s hospital bed. She looked better. Her skin was a nice tan color, and the pain lines that had bracketed her mouth and furrowed between her brows were gone as well. When he had found her, she was completely pale and covered in blood. Her knees and palms were banged up. The bra and panties she wore were in complete tatters. Wherever she’d been kept, it was a miracle she’d survived.
The doctor had said she should heal nicely. He’d stitched up the wound on her side after doing a little bit of exploratory surgery to make sure the bullet hadn’t hit any vital organs. The wound to her calf had been closed and wrapped. Other than being a little malnourished, she would physically be fine. However, none of them knew what the mental effects of her captivity would be until she opened her eyes and talked to them.
After she’d been taken into surgery, he had made a call to his chief and let him know they had the mayor’s daughter at the hospital. She’d escaped her captors. The likelihood of her being found and either recaptured or killed was high. Between him and Kyle, she had round-the-clock security. Once she was able to leave the hospital, the consensus was that she should be placed in a safe house. It didn’t sit well with him, so he offered up his place. He didn’t know why, and he was sure Kyle wouldn’t bitch, but there was something about the woman that called him.
Right or wrong, he couldn’t stop thinking about her occupying his space. The idea of her being in his home, near his bed, made his dick hard, and he knew Kyle was thinking the same. If it made them perverts, so be it.
“How is she?” Kyle’s whisper pulled him from his musings.
“She’s still sleeping. If I had to guess, she’s probably catching up after her harrowing confinement and escape.”
“Yeah, true.” His partner held up a bag and smiled. “I got us some lunch. Want to eat?”
Stuart’s stomach growled, and he nodded. “Yes.” He followed his best friend to a small table, and they sat down. Kyle pulled out the contents of the bag, and he groaned. Jambalaya, dirty rice, and bread pudding sat before him in a matter of moments. “Damn.”
“I was hungry. I couldn’t decide what I wanted.” Kyle laughed. “So I have news, and you’re not going to like it.”
Didn’t that just sour his stomach. He stared ruefully at the containers on the table and sighed. “Spit it out.”
“The cab driver is dead.”
“What?” Stuart was sure he had misheard his partner.
“The call came in at six this morning. His car and the body were found down by the river. There were no prints on the car. No blood, no defensive wounds, nothing. The guy didn’t see it coming.” Kyle grabbed one of the bowls in front of him and opened the lid. “The medical examiner is going to do an autopsy and let us know what happened.”
“He was the only person besides our vic who could tell us where she came from.” Because he had left the scene with Sabine, Stuart hadn’t gotten a chance to speak with the driver. Another detective took his statement, but there were a lot of follow up questions that begged to be asked. Now he would never get the chance. Son of a bitch.
“Well, hopefully, when sleeping beauty over there wakes up, she’ll remember everything.” It was wishful thinking on both of their parts. He had learned pretty quickly on the job that, some of the time, victims didn’t remember anything. He had learned from talking to different psychologists that it was a failsafe in their brains. It blocked out the bad stuff that happened to them. When they felt safe, they would talk.
“Yeah, hopefully.” Stuart scratched at his scruff-covered jaw and frowned. “Thanks for ruining my appetite, asshole.”
“My pleasure.” Kyle grinned.
Stuart stood up and crossed the room to the hospital bed. Sabine looked so peaceful lying there. “If you can hear me, sweetheart, I really need you to wake up and come back to us. You have some unfinished business here.”
He watched her eyes flutter, and she blinked rapidly. “Mmm,” she moaned, swallowing a few times. Stuart reached for her hand and silently willed her to open her eyes. To his astonishment, she squeezed his hand back. “Where,” she croaked and licked her lips. “Where am I?”
“You’re at Tulane Medical Center. You’ve been here for three days.” Her blue-eyed gaze was slightly glassy as she tried to fix it on his face. “Do you remember anything?”
***
Sabine could hear the rumbled voice of a man, and it sounded familiar. However, an incessant beep…beep…beep distracted her. Did she remember anything? Yeah, she remembered all of it. Sabine lifted her free hand to rub the middle of her forehead. “Yeah.” She cleared her throat. “Can I get something to drink?” O
n her right side, another man appeared holding a small cup with a straw. She took a sip and closed her eyes. Ice-cold water met her lips then her tongue. The cold water slid down her parched throat, and she felt it all the way to her stomach. “How long have I been here again?”
“Three days,” the man on her left said. There was something familiar about him, but she couldn’t place it. His black hair was cut military short, and his piercing gray eyes stared through her. When she blinked at him, his full lips tugged into a sinful half smile. His suit fit him like a glove. His muscular upper body gave way to a tapered waist and an impressive bulge behind the zipper of his slacks. The man cleared his throat, and her cheeks flamed.
“How did I get here?” she asked, determined to take her eyes off his groin.
“You were brought here by ambulance.” The man on the right said. He was the complete opposite of his partner. He had sheared red hair, green eyes, and a smatter of freckles across his nose. Boyish good looks and a body to rival his partner’s? Wow, I won the hottie lottery. But, knowing my luck, they’re gay. She sighed.
“Are you up to answering a couple of questions for us?” Partner Number One asked.
It wasn’t as though she could go anywhere. “Sure, I guess,” she paused. “Do I smell food?” Her stomach picked the perfect time to announce its arrival.
“Yeah.” Partner Number Two said. “I just grabbed us some lunch. You’re more than welcome to a little bit of it. Wouldn’t want to make you sick after everything you’ve been through.” He adjusted her bed a bit then grabbed a bowl off the table across from her. “It’s dirty rice. I also have jambalaya and bread pudding.” He placed it on the rolling tray and stopped it right in front of her.
“This smells really good.” She smiled at him and picked up the fork he set beside her then watched as he gave her just a spoonful of the rice. She took a small bite and moaned then took another, bigger bite. “I’m sure you could get in trouble feeding me this, but I am eternally grateful you had it handy.”
“You’re welcome. Go slow now.” While she continued to eat, both men sat down next to her. She knew they had questions for her, but she wasn’t ready, just yet, to answer them. She could have died. For a moment, she wondered if the other girls had gotten away. Fear ripped at her insides at the notion that perhaps they’d been found and brought back. Or worse yet, killed. Sabine put the bowl up the table in front of her. Her stomach had soured at the idea of getting those girls hurt.
“Ask your questions,” she whispered, not wanting to look at either man.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, but first what is your name?” She glanced over at the man on her left.
“I’m Stuart Renwick, and this is my partner, Kyle Novak.” She knew those names. She’d heard them at some point; she just couldn’t remember where.
“I know you,” she said. “How do I know you?”
“You pulled up to the station where Kyle and I work, bleeding out, and asking for help. You must have overheard us talking. I rode with you in the ambulance. How about you fill in the rest of the story from there?”
Flashes of images filled her mind. The warehouse. Running. The pain. “I was shot, wasn’t I?” She gasped. “I was trying to get away, and I heard it. It sounded like a firecracker and then the pain.” She was rambling. Closing her eyes, she started from the beginning. “I had just gotten off work at The Three Princesses when I was snatched off the sidewalk. I don’t know how long I was out, but when I came to, I was in a cage. The room was filled with women.” She remembered the first time she had actually gotten to see the women around her. There were six in total. All wide-eyed. All frightened.
“We were kept in the dark almost constantly. Light consisted of a single-bulb fixture above our room that was switched on for a few hours a day. Then I met the Master.” Both men shot each other looks she couldn’t quite make out.
“Who is the Master?” Stuart questioned while Kyle kept notes.
“I couldn’t tell you.” She shrugged. “Whenever I met him, he was dressed, head to toe, in black. If he didn’t want us to see something, he blindfolded us.”
“Were you forced to do anything sexual for this ‘Master’?” The question came from Kyle. There was no emotion in his tone. It was completely clinical.
“No. I had thought I would be, but he said I was a trophy for him. I was the mayor’s daughter. He said he could get a lot of money for me, so he was saving me.”
“How about the other girls?”
Sabine swallowed hard, and her lip trembled. She hadn’t allowed herself to cry the whole time she had been kidnapped. Taking a shuddering breath, she nodded. “Yes. All of them. One of the girls came back several times covered in bruises.”
Stuart opened his mouth to ask another question when the door of her room opened and the doctor and nurse came in. Both men stepped aside while the doctor checked her wounds, and the nurse wrote down the information from the monitors. “When can she leave, doc?”
“If she continues to improve, tomorrow morning,” he said, smiling down at Sabine. “Her stitches look good. The glue will start peeling off in a couple of days. I’d say in a couple of weeks, she’ll be right as rain.” He turned a compassion-filled smile in her direction. “You were very lucky, young lady.”
She wouldn’t call it lucky. Blessed, perhaps. But not lucky. Each step Sabine had taken, from befriending those goons back in the warehouse to stealing the key, had caused another domino in her plan to fall into place. Had they not fallen correctly, death would have become her new reality. “Thank you.”
When the doctor finally left, she breathed a sigh of relief. She had expected him to yell at her for eating something she probably wasn’t supposed to. “So what happens now?”
Both men turned their respective gazes on her and they smiled. “You’re coming home with us, Sabine. We’re your bodyguards until we can apprehend the Master.”
Sabine sat up too quickly and hissed. Her hand went to the large incision on her side, and she groaned. “Why would you take me home with you? I’m fine. I can take care of myself.” She wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed—get back to feeling normal. Having both men around her would only be a hindrance. Not to mention they both made her feel off-kilter.
“Maybe it’s the little fact that you were kidnapped, and the guy who took you is currently searching for you.”
Her gaze snapped to his. Why? Why would he be looking for her? “I don’t understand.”
The cab driver who brought you to us turned up dead this morning.”
Her blood went cold, and her hands turned clammy. Someone had died because of her already. Shit. “Does it have to be you guys?” She posed the question out of fear. If being in their presence for only a few minutes could tie her in knots, what would spending day after day do to her?
“We were assigned to you by your father and the police chief.” Stuart grinned smugly.
“Plus we feel responsible for you,” Kyle said. “You did fall at our feet and almost die on us. It’s only right we get to nurse you back to health.”
His devilish smile made her sex clench and her nipples bead into hard points. She folded her arms over her chest to hide the effect he had on her, but by the way Stuart’s gray eyes grew heavy-lidded and Kyle licked his lips, she knew she was in over her head. “This isn’t going to work,” she whispered.
“Why don’t you leave the thinking to us,” Kyle said. “Besides, in a few days, we’ll probably be out of your hair.”
A lie. She knew it. This was going to take more than a few days. But with both of their imposing forms standing over her, she relented. “Fine, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.” She pouted.
“We wouldn’t dream of your liking any of this in a million years, sweetheart,” Stuart said, stepping away from the bed. “Get some rest. We’ll be outside if you need anything.”
Sabine nodded and closed her eyes.
Lord, what have I gotten myself into this
time?
Chapter Five
What the hell were they doing? Kyle stood in the kitchen of the house he shared with Stuart and now Sabine. For two weeks, she had occupied their home and their thoughts. He and Stuart had talked about their attraction to her, but she was standoffish. Who could blame her?
Nonetheless, they wanted her, and if her reaction to them was any indication, she wanted them, too. But how did they make the first move? She had been through a hell of a few weeks, and she didn’t need two overly sexual detectives sniffing at her heels every five minutes.
Kyle sighed and glanced out the bay window overlooking the river. One good thing about being in New Orleans was the view. From his perch in the kitchen, he could watch the trolley ships go out early in the morning and return early in the evening. It was one of the selling points for him. He did some of his best thinking when he could look out over the river. It wasn’t always like that, though. When Katrina hit, he had never wanted to see the gulf or the river ever again. He hadn’t wanted to even live anywhere near Louisiana anymore. But he had also known he had a responsibility to the people who trusted him to protect and serve. So he had stayed.
The battle had been long and hard. Looting and shootings were commonplace. Once the riffraff was taken care of, the corruption set in. The city was built on the decadence and mystique of New Orleans. People came to see the voodoo priestesses, the cemeteries. People wanted the ghost stories and all the little haunts that made his city unique. The people who were initially elected to rebuild used the city’s charm to line their pockets. Those first few years for Kyle were dark. However, it got better. The tourists came back. The city was rebuilt, and it was returning to its former glory.
He turned away from the window and strode to the lip of the hallway. Sabine was sleeping. She would be for several more hours. He still couldn’t believe everything she’d been through. A million questions swirled through his mind. For instance, was her kidnapping random, or was there a pattern? If he could find the pattern, he could figure out why. Why her? Why the other women who were kidnapped and subsequently, due to Sabine’s help, escaped? It took a day or two, but eventually all the women from the warehouse showed up at different precincts. Each one had a different tale to tell. But the one consistent fact through each report was that Sabine had saved them. Had it not been for her, the majority of the girls were convinced they would have died. Unfortunately, none of the girls knew who kidnapped them or why. They all said the same thing: all the men wore black, and all of their faces were covered but for a bit of white on the sides. Maybe if he could find a mask matching the description, he could trace it back to a buyer. From there he would find who captured those women, including Sabine. It might take Stuart and him time, but he would bring the suspect to justice.
