Grayson, well he tried his damnedest to not fight with her. But arguing with him was like foreplay and always turned her on. One minute they would be all but roaring at each other and the next jumping each other’s bones.
Shit, she was in love with the brothers. Completely and utterly in love with them. What was she going to do? She lived in another country and had a job and a life. Could she just pick it all up and move to Merricks to be with three men? Did they even want that?
They had chased her hard enough and told her she was their woman, but there were no words of love and commitment. They might just think she was a holiday fling, too. She was going to get her heart broken. She just knew it.
And now she felt guilty for leaving and not telling them. All because she had decided she was in love with them. She would have to tell her sister to go home. Then she would rush back to her men and hope that she hadn’t blown it with her impulsive, independent bullshit.
Kate looked up as her sister pulled up and parked Blake’s truck. Blake had been using a squad car since the accident, leaving the truck free for James. Her sister jumped from the truck and walked over to her.
Kate hugged her sister and wondered if her face looked as pain ridden and as guilty as her sisters. She needed to stop being so impulsive and stubborn. She had made her sister miserable in the process, and for what. To prove to the men she loved that she was her own woman and didn’t want to be housebound.
“We shouldn’t have done this, Kate. James is going to be pissed, and don’t think you’re going to get away with knocking off Brock’s SUV, either,” Sarah reprimanded.
“I know. I have had a sudden change of heart. It was wrong of me to ask you to go against your men.” Kate hugged her sister once more and smiled.
“Let’s go—” Sarah’s face fell and her whole body froze. She was looking over Kate’s shoulder at something behind her. Kate turned and expected to see Blake. She was surprised when she didn’t know the well-dressed man standing a few feet behind her.
How hadn’t she heard him approach? Or the three men behind him for that matter? Kate stood in front of Sarah, blocking her body with hers. She didn’t know the men, but she knew something was up. Her sister looked like she was about to faint.
“Can we do something for you, gentlemen?” Kate asked. She kept her voice forceful to hide her nervousness. All three men looked like thugs and were covered into tattoos. The well-dressed man looked young, rich, and clean-cut. He had inky black hair and a three-day growth. He wore an expensive-looking Italian suit and was obviously the boss of the group.
“You played straight into my palm, didn’t you, Sarah?” The man flicked something from his suit and acted bored. “And it seems I get two for the price of one.”
Kate’s eyes widened as one of the three men pulled a gun from his coat pocket and pointed it at her and her sister.
“Get in the pickup,” the boss man said. “Or I’ll have you both killed right here.”
There was no way that Kate was going to let Sarah get into that truck without a fight. She inhaled and stood to her full height, which wasn’t much, but she had to work with what she had.
“Shit, we’re in trouble now,” Sarah said from behind her.
“Looks that way,” Kate answered.
* * * *
Brock was going to kill her. He heard the roller door of the garage go up and thought it was one of his brothers returning. He looked out the window and saw Kate burning off in his car.
He ran to the phone and dialed her cell, only to have it ring out. What the hell did she think she was doing? Brock hung up and then dialed again. When she didn’t answer a second time, he threw the phone at the wall hard. Broken pieces of plastic flew around the room.
“Shit, fuck, shit,” he swore. He shouldn’t have done that.
Brock flew down the stairs to the kitchen and grabbed the phone off the hook. He dialed Pierson’s cell, and that rang out, too. Brock had only one more person to call, and he really didn’t want to call him. Grayson was going to have his nuts in a vise for letting Kate steal his car and run off with it.
He was supposed to be keeping an eye on her, but he got caught up on a lead. He was so close to finding Wolf’s friends from the Marines. He knew when he got caught up on the computer that he was in a world of his own, but that was when he did his best work.
Brock dialed Grayson’s private line at the security offices and waited for him to pick up.
“Come on. Pick up. Fuck—”
“Hey baby, what’s up.” Grayson’s deep voice came over the line.
“Don’t baby me, asshole.”
“Sorry, I thought you were Kate. She’s the only one that uses the house phone. Where is your cell?”
Brock dreaded the next conversation, and he took a deep breath and slowly let it out.
“Not sure, upstairs somewhere. Listen, Kate just took off in my SUV. Snuck out whilst I was working. Just up and left. She—”
“Fuck, Brock. Look up the SUV on the GPS and I’ll call Blake. If I know Kate, she’s headed to her sister. She’s been complaining for days. We should have seen this coming.” Grayson hung up, and Brock ran back up the stairs to the computer. He logged onto the GPS system and started to track Kate’s progress into town. She was just on the outskirts about to head past the “CUSS” building.
Brock looked around the desk for his cell. He couldn’t see it anywhere. He raced into his bedroom and searched all over. Still not able to find it, he bolted downstairs to the kitchen phone. Dialing his number, he listened for the ring.
Finally he heard the chirp of his cell. It sounded like it came from the lounge room. Brock put the phone down on the bench and ran into the lounge. He needed to find it before it went to voice mail and stopped ringing.
Ah, the couch. He lunged for the couch and found the cell tucked behind the cushion. It must have fallen from his pocket this morning and he didn’t notice. With his cell phone in hand, he returned the kitchen phone to its cradle and ran back to his computer.
Kate had gone into town and was parked by the Mushy Creek Bridge. What the hell was she doing there? Brock redialed Grayson’s number and told him where she was. Now he just had to wait. He had no way of getting into town. Kate had taken his damned car, so he would have to sit tight and wait for his brothers to return her.
The wait was going to drive him mad. He stared at the little red dot on the screen that was his car. It still wasn’t moving. Fuck, he should have paid her more attention. Taken her to see her sister or something. When she got back he didn’t know whether he was going to hug her or spank her.
She was his everything. He loved her. Had since the first time he had laid eyes on her kissing his brother and trying to climb him like a damned tree. When she had turned that fire onto him and all but bitten his head off, he knew she was the woman for him. When she had submitted so beautifully and let the brothers take charge, he knew he was lost forever.
Now she was putting herself in danger. Yes, a spanking was in order. He knew his brothers would also want a crack at her round ass, but it was his SUV that she had taken off with, so he got first dibs. They just had to get her back first.
* * * *
Pierson rushed from the firehouse like the bats of hell were on his tail. Kate had taken off in Brock’s SUV, and Grayson was frantic to find her. He didn’t bother with his truck and ran next door to the sheriff offices.
Grayson had already told Blake what she had done, and now Grayson was meeting Pierson there. Pierson ran up the stairs and burst through the door. Blake was standing behind the counter on the phone. He didn’t look happy. His face was hard and his jaw tight.
“Just get down here, now,” Blake said and slammed down the phone. He turned to Pierson and snapped, “Get your brother on the phone. Sarah has taken off in my truck whilst James was in the shower.”
Pierson pulled his cell from his pocket and rang Brock. His brother was quick to answer and said that Kate was parked at the
bridge. Pierson waited whilst he looked up Sarah’s location on the GPS tracking system. When Brock came back on line, Pierson was relieved to hear that Sarah was parked next to Kate. Pierson hung up and turned to Blake.
“They are just up the road at the bridge. Lord knows why.”
“Let’s roll,” Blake replied, as they walked from the building and out to the squad car. “When I get my hands on that woman she will have trouble sitting for a week. Your woman is a bad influence. Sarah never would have done this if Kate hadn’t talked her into it. Kate’s lucky she’s family, but I’ll still be reddening her bottom for this.”
“No you won’t,” Pierson informed him. “Kate is our woman, and we will dish out the punishments. Besides, how can you be sure this wasn’t Sarah’s idea?” Pierson pulled open the door and jumped into the squad car.
Blake started the car and put it into drive before saying, “You’ve met my woman.” With that, they burnt off down the street, tires squealing and gravel flying up behind them.
It didn’t take more than a minute to reach the bridge. They jumped from the cars and ran over to the vehicles. The sisters were nowhere to be seen, and Blake and Pierson frantically called their names, with no reply.
Pierson looked up as Grayson pulled up and then walked over to them.
“Where are they?” he asked. “I’m going to turn our little girl’s ass red.”
“They aren’t here,” Blake replied, running a hand through his dark-brown hair.
“Where the fuck could they have gotten to?” Grayson asked. “Do you think that whoever ran them off the road has got them?”
It was a possibility. Shit. Pierson was stressing. He had felt relieved when he thought that they had found them. To find that they were missing again was freaking him out.
“Shit,” Grayson yelled. He had walked over and was standing closer to the road. “There is another set of tire marks up here. It looks like they left in a hurry.”
“Let’s head back to the station and call in some of the men. We found her last time and we will again,” Blake said.
They all ran back to the vehicles and hauled ass back to the station. From then on it was all go. Pierson called Brock back and had him trying to track the girls on the computer. Blake called James, who was already on his way. He had hitched a ride to town with Cole and Trace Jackson. Now Blake was on the radio to his deputy Erik Bozeman.
April, the dispatcher, had called her husbands, Jake, Lucas, and Marcus, and they were scouring the town for clues. Holly was going to talk to old Mrs. Hailbury, the town gossip, and Grayson had called Wolf and his partner Hawk, who were gearing up and headed this way.
Pierson had called Tank, who lived up in the mountains, but had been unable to make contact. Tank was somewhat of a hermit and mostly keep to himself, but he and his brothers had long suspected that Tank was ex-military and hiding from someone or something. He was a big mountain of a man that made Blake look small, which was saying something. He intimidated most of the ladies in town, with his dark looks and constant pissed-off manner. It would take a strong woman to handle a man like that. Not that Pierson had ever seen Tank with a woman.
He was a nice enough man and Pierson and his brothers would trust him with their lives. They just knew little to nothing about him, other than the fact he came across as dangerous and possibly deadly when crossed. Shit, Pierson thought. They really could have used his knowledge and skills.
Now Pierson just had to call the firehouse and Chase and Jared Walker and they were set.
The whole town had to pull together to find Sarah once more. Except this time Kate was in trouble, too. Pierson felt like someone had stabbed him in the chest. The pain he felt was incredible. He never realized just how much he loved Kate. Oh, he knew he was in love with her, but now that she was gone and possibly in danger, he felt like his whole world was being ripped apart.
He needed to focus. He could fall apart later after they had found her. She needed him to be strong. He called the firehouse and spoke to the chief. Payton was joining the search, but the chief had to stay behind in case of a call. Then he rang Chase and Jared, who would swing by and grab Brock.
“I’m going to grab Payton and start searching. I can’t sit around any longer,” Pierson told Grayson and then walked from the building. Payton had arrived and was just closing the trunk of his car, as Pierson approached.
Pierson saw the three red gasoline bottles for a split second before the boot closed. Payton spun around and looked at Pierson nervously.
“What happening?” he asked. “Have you found them?”
“No, we haven’t,” he replied. His mind turned from the contents of Payton’s boot and back onto Kate and Sarah. “We are going to start searching. Get in the car.”
“Where are we going to look? Or are we just going to drive around the streets and hope for the best?”
“Pretty much,” he answered and got into Payton’s old battered-up Ford. It looked like something his mother had driven in the eighties. They’d be lucky if they made it down the street. Payton turned the car’s engine over and they pulled out. God, he hoped they found them and soon.
Chapter Fifteen
Kate and Sarah lay in the storage area of a dark black van. The windows were blacked out, and from the outside it looked like any other regular delivery vehicle. They were both tied up, hands secured together if front of them and their feet firmly bound. They were also both gagged and had no way to communicate.
Kate lay still and tried not to roll whenever the van took a turn. This was all her fault. If she had just been patient and stayed where she was safe, she and her sister would be fine.
If they got out of this alive, Kate would promise to always do what she was told. She wouldn’t argue anymore and she wouldn’t talk her sister into her silly schemes. She would be the model of submissiveness, and her men would never want to let her go.
God. She was in love with them, and now she had gone and blown it by letting her and her sister get taken. They would never want a girlfriend who so openly disobeyed them, and she’d be lucky if James and Blake didn’t drop her at the airport and tell her never to come back.
She still didn’t know who it was that had taken them. They hadn’t said and they hadn’t called the man by his name. It had to have something to do with the drug cartel. Sarah had shot their boss, after all, and was the one they were after. Kate was just taken so she couldn’t blab.
The van slowed and pulled to a stop. Kate had to squint as the back door was opened and light flooded the interior. Rough hands pulled her from the van, and Kate felt the air leave her lungs with a whoosh as she was unceremoniously dropped onto the ground.
She struggled to her knees the best she could, still trussed up like a turkey, and looked around. They were in a clearing, out somewhere in the mountains that surrounded the town. It was remote and dangerous. People got lost in this kind of wilderness all the time. If they didn’t want Sarah and Kate to be found, there was a good chance they wouldn’t be.
Sarah hit the dirt next to her, and Kate looked down at her. She lay on her side and didn’t get up, but her eyes were open, fear etched into every line of her face.
The man dressed in a suit walked over and removed Kate’s gag. She spat and swirled saliva around her mouth, trying to wet it. The gag was just some old hemp bag, and bits were still stuck in Kate’s mouth and tickling her throat.
She had lost sight of the three thugs, and Kate assumed they were standing behind her and Sarah. She didn’t like that she couldn’t see them. It meant that she didn’t know what they were doing. Did they have guns pointed at them? Or were they just scouting the area.
She tried to swivel around and look for them, but the man pulled her attention back to him.
“Who are you?” the man asked. “What is your relationship to Sarah?”
Kate contemplated lying and telling him she was no relation, but then changed her mind. Maybe being Sarah’s sister might be an advantage.
The slap to her face was unexpected and hurt. Her head snapped to the side, and she tasted blood in her mouth.
“I’ll ask the questions,” he sneered. “Your sister has caused my family a lot of trouble, and I’m here to return the favor.”
He moved closer to Sarah and grabbed onto a chunk of her hair, using it to pull her to her knees. She struggled to move with her hands and feet tied and cried out behind the gag. The man used a large knife to cut away Sarah’s gag, sliding it along her cheek and through the hemp.
“Are you smarter than your sister? Do you know who I am?” he asked. He still held Sarah’s hair in a tight grip, and as he spoke he pulled her face close to his. Kate could do nothing but watch as the man terrorized her sister.
“Y–Yes,” she answered. “I–I think s–s–so. You’re Angelo’s brother.”
The man smiled and shook Sarah by her hair.
“Very good. My name is Nick Russo. Angelo was my older and stupider brother. You did me a favor killing him. Now I’m head of the business and I don’t have to put up with the useless whiney prick.”
Nick let go of Sarah’s hair and took a step back. He looked down at the sisters, a contemplative look on his face. Kate knew she wasn’t going to like what he had to say next, and she braced herself for the worst.
“Whilst I’m glad you took care of killing my brother for me, it turns out, by sheer luck, that I get to return the favor. I’m going to shoot your dear sister here, and then we’ll be even. I’ll still have to kill you, of course. Can’t have any witnesses, and family honor dictates that I have to avenge the death of my brother.”
Fire Me Up [Merricks, Montana 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 15
