“Ryan?” Fear threatened to bring up her lunch as she watched the white page of a notebook flutter to the ground, its ragged edges seeming to metaphorically attest to the message she’d find on the paper.
In slow motion, Lindsey fell to the floor and crawled toward the paper as it settled against the rug. Alex grabbed her around the waist, but even he wasn’t strong enough to keep her from her goal, and she reached out her hand just far enough to snag the object that would tip her world on its axis.
*
Dear Sister Mary Martha,
It appears you do not fully understand the severity of your actions.
It was deemed by your grandmother that you would marry the man of our choosing on your twenty-second birthday. That date has come and gone.
In your stead, we have decided your roommate will be a perfectly suitable replacement. After all, her own twenty-second birthday is coming up this Friday.
Now, we realize you may find it in your heart to repent your evil ways in light of this new information. Should you choose to do so, please present yourself at our building this Friday, September third, precisely at noon, prepared to repent for your sins and exchange yourself for your dear friend, Jessica.
Should you choose not to arrive by the requested hour, or to do so other than completely alone, we will be forced to marry Jessica in your stead.
Trust me, she will never be seen again.
Yours truly, Pastor Stone
*
The room spun around Lindsey for several seconds before everything went black.
Chapter 17
Lindsey paced the kitchen floor for the thousandth time, her hands fisted at her side to avoid biting her nails any more than she already had.
Two more hours until the designated rendezvous. Two long hours.
She hadn’t slept more than a few hours at a time since Wednesday afternoon. And when she did drift off, she always awoke screaming in terror.
Jeez, those bastards have Jess. And they have for two days. What the hell have they done to her?
Her stomach threatened to purge itself again. She’d thrown up nearly everything she’d swallowed in the last forty-eight hours.
“Ma’am, let’s go over this one more time.” The officer sitting at the Masters’ kitchen table this morning was calm and understanding, but she was tired of rehearsing.
Ryan stopped her in her tracks on the billionth path. “You’re wearing a hole in the floor.” He didn’t crack a smile, just took her in his arms and held her … again.
Lindsey groaned. “I’ve got it. We don’t need to run through any more scenarios.”
She was uneasy about the amount of police involvement. There’d been no way in the world to stop Alex and Ryan from calling the authorities, and on one level she wholeheartedly agreed, but Jess’s life was at stake. She didn’t want to fuck this up even if she had to give up her own life to spare her friend.
“Nothing is going to happen to you. We won’t let it.” Alex reached out to her from somewhere outside. Babysitting duty was Ryan’s this morning.
While Lindsey was concerned about how much the police and her new family could possibly be a threat to the rescue, they were just as equally insistent that she not even show up at all.
Alex and Ryan had emphatically insisted she stay out of it in the beginning. No way in the world were they going to risk her life by sending her to the “wolves.”
In the end, the police agreed to a certain extent with Lindsey. She should go into the church at noon as demanded, by all appearances alone.
The building would be surrounded. She’d have an invisible ear mic so the officer in charge could communicate with her.
Of course there was no way for the police to realize she had a far better form of communication readily in place with Alex and Ryan. Thank goodness.
Even if things went awry, she could always let them know what was going on.
The officer cleared his throat and walked into her line of sight, narrowing his gaze on her. “Don’t say anything more than necessary when you get inside. Just ask the questions we discussed. Hopefully you’ll get the answers we need on tape to arrest these people and put an end to this once and for all.”
Ryan squeezed her back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her middle. No matter how tight he held her now, or what sort of cocoon he imagined he could use to protect her, he was going to have to let go soon. The clock was ticking.
“Got it.” Lindsey nodded agreement.
“What if they have weapons?” Ryan asked.
They’d been over this. Lindsey rolled her eyes toward the police officer so Ryan couldn’t see. “Weapons of God?” She tried to laugh, but it came out sounding forced.
“Ha ha.” He tightened his grip and she wiggled to get free.
“You’re squishing the breath out of me.” She twisted around to face him. “I’ll be fine. I know these people, don’t forget. I’ll do what I have to do to play along and get Jess out of there.”
“And then what? What about you?” His brow furrowed and he gave her a shake.
“Then I run like hell if I have to. We have every possible scenario covered, Ryan. Everything from someone grabbing me, to weapons, to an eternal prayer service for my soul. I’ll be perfectly safe. Hell, cops will be everywhere.”
“I don’t like it.” He laid his forehead against hers. “But, seeing as you’re stubborn and you’ll be surrounded, I’ll bite my tongue. I love you.” The last words came out on a breath. “Don’t do anything foolish or I’ll have to punish you for giving me heart failure.” This he whispered right inside her ear so no one could overhear. Thank goodness.
The smile on his face when he gazed back into her eyes was all she needed to know what kind of punishment he had in mind. Perhaps she’d be just a little less compliant with the plan than arranged, just for the opportunity to experience his kind of discipline.
“Don’t look at me like that you little imp.”
“We should go. It’s almost time to meet with the rest of the team at the motel across the street from His Mighty Sword.” The officer shook his head in disbelief at the name of the church alone, and not for the first time.
Ryan and Lindsey followed Officer Hammond outside and met Alex at the car. The rest of the family was coming toward them from every direction. Every detail was planned. Ryan and Alex would take Lindsey. Charles, Richard, and Aaron climbed into another truck.
Michael stood to the side, still pouting about being left out to stay back with Nancy and Tessa. The farm was bustling with several other men working on the land, but Michael was only twenty and deemed too young to accompany them.
Tessa hugged Lindsey before she stepped up into the truck. “Be safe. Please.”
“I will.” She turned to Nancy who stood a few steps back with watery eyes and nodded. “Don’t worry.”
This was her family now. She’d never had so many people love her unconditionally like this.
The drive was silent and Lindsey concentrated on the sound of the gravel crunching under the tires and then the swoosh of the road beneath them. Both her mates kept a hand on her the entire way, caressing her seemingly everywhere. For once, their touch didn’t cause her to pant like she was in heat.
She held her breath when they arrived at the motel, followed everyone inside, and spent twenty minutes in a state of suspended disbelief, nodding at what each officer told her, repeating their instructions back to them for the umpteenth time.
Everyone hoped this would go quick. In and out. Please, God.
“Do not lose contact with us, babe.” Alejandro wrapped his arms around her for only a moment, his own eyes wet when she stepped back. “Not for a minute.”
“Okay.” Thank goodness she had this link to get her through the most challenging ordeal of her life.
A brief hug from Ryan on the way out the door and she was off.
Her legs shook and her hands sweated profusely as she rounded the back of the building and
came out onto the street several doors down. So far so good. She trudged the planned route to the church, her eyes scanning her surroundings and darting every so often at the tall green French doors at the front of her destination.
Wherever the cops were, she couldn’t see them. That meant the bad guys couldn’t either.
She shrugged her shoulders and tried to relax, took a deep breath as she reached the source of her nightmares, and opened the front door.
It wasn’t locked. They were expecting her. Please let them be as stupid as they are ignorant.
She paused in the rear vestibule, letting her eyes adjust to the dim lighting after her trek in the sunshine.
At first she heard nothing but silence. Turning her head to the side, she strained to listen for any sign of life.
A tiny whine stabbed her heart. Jess. Her friend of four years held against her will by these supposed lambs of God. What an oxymoron.
“Can you see anything? What’s going on, Lin?”
“Ryan, let me concentrate. I can’t be sharp if you clog my head. Give me a minute.”
“We’re worried, mi amor.”
“I know.”
Lindsey crept into the sanctuary, her eyes focused on the end of the center aisle as three people came into view. She sucked in a breath and held it. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have thought the scene appeared quite innocent. Just three human beings waiting for her.
“Oh, I see you chose well, my lamb.”
Her teeth gritted and she cringed as though the voice of Pastor Stone were akin to the scratching on a chalkboard. How could she have sat in these pews year after year for eighteen years and never realized what a hypocrite this mother fucker was?
At the second pew from the back, she paused. “Let Jessica go. I’m not coming any farther until you release her.”
Perverse laughter reminiscent of the Joker from Batman echoed through the hollow room. Oh, he’s cracked indeed.
“Hammond says he’s laughing. Why is he laughing?” Ryan demanded.
“He’s loony.”
“Tell you what,” Stone wiped his eyes with the back of his hands as though recovering from a fantastic joke. The two members of his flock at his sides even stared at him incredulous. He’d gotten crazier than ever. “How about we meet half way.”
He took one step forward, shoving Jess in front of him and into the ray of light coming through the stained-glass window.
Lindsey sucked in a breath and tried not to cry. Jess. Her hands were wrenched behind her back, her mouth covered with duct tape. Her eyes were saucers filled with the most horrendous fear she’d ever seen. Tear stains ran in tracks down her cheeks.
In slow motion, Lindsey inched forward.
“Don’t get too close, Miss Walters. We don’t want him to have the upper hand,” Hammond whispered into her earpiece. “Stop a few feet away and demand her release or I’m going to find myself with two women to rescue instead of one.”
Lindsey nodded as though the officer could see the motion and blinked to clear her head.
Get her out. Just get her out. Then worry about yourself.
“Could you possibly do both tasks at once, mi alma? I’m about to shit my pants as it is.”
She didn’t have time to respond.
When one hard wooden pew remained between Lindsey and Stone, who gripped the struggling Jessica far more harshly than necessary, she stopped.
“Let her go. I’m here.” She folded her arms across her chest as rehearsed, a little tip of body language that screamed “I’m not going to let you get the better of me.”
With a smirk, the crazed lunatic shoved Jess to the side. She stumbled and fell into the aisle, her head banging into the dark wooden pew.
Lindsey cringed and leaped toward her friend, but in a flash, the leader of this absurd excuse for religion grabbed her by both arms and pulled her toward the altar.
Lindsey twisted her neck and watched as Jess frantically struggled to upright herself and ran helter skelter toward the back of the church.
The long marble slab on the raised dais drew Lindsey’s attention. Why hadn’t she ever really looked at it before? It was reminiscent of what her ancestors probably used to make a human sacrifice and she prayed today her life would not end in the same manner.
At the altar, Lindsey recognized the older gentleman standing in wait from her childhood. She couldn’t remember his name, but it didn’t matter.
Next to him stood a woman she didn’t know, her head bowed in submission. She mumbled toward the floor what Lindsey soon realized was a constant stream of prayer. She wondered briefly what exactly the lady might be praying for? Lindsey’s redemption? Her own? Or perhaps something more sinister?
“Brother Frank Wellington,” Pastor Stone began, “your intended, Sister Mary Martha.” Stone jerked on Lindsey’s arm and nodded in her direction.
Fuck you.
The grip on her arm started to smart. She’d have a big bruise tomorrow. I hope that’s all I get out of the farce.
Two men growled in her head. She could sense their need to pummel the asshole for laying a hand on her.
Frank was about sixty. Didn’t he already have a wife? She cringed.
Her chest pounded as Stone began to recite the absurd wedding ritual customary among his flock.
It doesn’t matter. They’re just words. They mean nothing and hold no weight legally, she repeated to herself.
Lindsey concentrated on Alex and Ryan, flooding them with thoughts of her love, tuning out Stone’s ceremonial words.
“…I now pronounce you man and wife.”
Lindsey jerked her gaze to Stone’s smug look of victory as he released her arm and literally handed her over to the older man. “Wellington, I don’t envy you. You’ll need a firm hand and a thick belt to turn this harlot back down the path of righteousness. God speed. Take heed of my advice earlier.” He raised his eyebrows and then sauntered out a side door.
“Stone went out the West door. My new ‘husband’ is leading me bodily toward the front door. There’s another woman here, but she hasn’t moved. She’s at the altar, demurely praying to her vindictive God.” How on earth Ryan and Alex were going to relay that info to the cops without raising a few eyebrows she didn’t have time to ponder.
“Got it.”
Hammond spoke in her ear. “Miss Walters? I’m assuming you are on the way out?”
She coughed once, her sign for yes.
“The front?”
Another single cough.
Wellington hadn’t spoken a single word yet. She glanced up at him to see his lips pursed tight, his brow furrowed. Was he worried? He should be.
Picking up speed, he hastened down the aisle, out the front door, and toward the blue, four-door sedan the cops had blessedly assumed would be their method of escape.
Halfway down the sidewalk, the show began. “Stop where you are! Hands in the air. Release the woman.” Cops descended from every direction.
Lindsey yanked free of her captor and ducked to the ground as planned. She crawled as fast as she could away from the danger zone. The rough concrete dug into her palms and knees, but she didn’t stop.
A stunned Wellington spun in a circle, his eyes wide, his arms raised. The poor bastard had no idea what was happening or even that he’d broken the law.
Ryan and Alex rounded the building across the street and sprinted toward her as she darted their direction at the same time. In midair they caught her and spun back to the motel. Her feet never hit the ground after she was in their arms, unsure which of them was the one actually carting her away.
They were a tangle of heavy breathing and determination.
They headed straight for the corner unit of the motel, the prearranged meeting place, shoved the door open from its position ajar, scrambled inside, and slammed the three of them into the dank, hazy room. Only then did they set Lindsey on her feet.
She leaned forward to catch her breath, hands on her knees.
“You okay?” Alex pulled her back upright. Four hands patted her from head to toe.
“I’m fine.” Or not. Tears flooded her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Even with the curtains drawn, making the light dim, she could see the relief on both men’s faces. Their breathing slowed, their shoulders lowered.
“Don’t you ever scare the hell out of us like that again, you hear?” Ryan narrowed his eyes at her, one side of his mouth raised in a smirk.
Oh, yeah, because I planned this as an entertaining outing for the week.
His lips smashed onto hers and he devoured her until Alex pushed him aside and did the same.
“You did great, mi amor. I’m so proud of you.”
Her smile spread a mile wide, until her cheeks ached, and then she sobered. “Did they get Pastor Stone?”
Heads nodded. “Oh, yeah. He never had a chance. The bastard was incredibly cocky,” Ryan stated.
“And the woman? Will she be arrested?”
“Probably, but she won’t be held too long. She ‘knows not what she does,’” he added sarcastically.
“Oh, no. Where’s Jess?” How could she forget Jess?
“The cops took her to the hospital to check her out. She looked good though. I don’t think they hurt her, cariña.”
“I’d like to see her.” Lindsey stared both men in the eye, daring them to contradict her. “And then, we go home. I need a long bath, some fierce loving, and two day’s sleep.”
“Of course. Let’s go.” Ryan took her hand in his, threaded his fingers with hers. “After all, two days without sex right after a claiming is brutal torture to us wolves.”
“I second that.” Alex clasped her other hand and kissed her knuckles.
“It’s not pleasant for us humans either. What are we waiting for? Time’s a wastin’.”
Side-by-side they walked to the car, away from the danger haunting her past, toward the future waiting to be filled with new memories to replace the nightmares.
Epilogue
Lindsey stared in awe out the tiny, round window. From this vantage point, several miles in the air, the lush Spanish landscape took her breath away. Miles and miles of rolling hills covered with what she now knew were vineyards and olive groves.
Lindsey's Wolves Page 21
