by Brook Wilder
A slow, terrible smile drew across Finn’s face as he stared up across the ridge at the house. It looked like something out of a fucking picture book or magazine with its white washed fence and porch complete with rocking chair. Well, it wouldn’t be picture-perfect for long. Not when he was done.
He wasn’t interested in the building itself. His focus was on the person inside it. Over the past two hours he’d sat motionless, crouched between a tree and an overgrown shrub that provided the perfect cover while he reconned the area.
He was still furious over how things had played out at the Roadburners club house. Jackrabbit may have gotten the drop on him by calling in the local law enforcement but he would be ready next time. He would have the right leverage. Warfare was all about leverage. Having the higher ground, fire superiority, and dictating the op tempo. That was exactly what he intended to do.
Finn had been forced to play along with that dopey Sheriff after the man threatened to call in the Feds. But once he found out that Jackrabbit’s lady love was none other than the Sheriff’s daughter, all the pieces had fallen into place and he’d known exactly what he needed to do.
As silently as he could, Finn moved from tree to tree, making sure to keep his big body hidden in the shadows as he moved closer to the house.
There had been a lot of different rumors that he’d heard about this Rachael, from her and Jackrabbit getting married, to them splitting up, to the ridiculous rumor that she was pregnant with Rabbit’s kid. He wasn’t interested in the rumors. It was his job to sort fact from fiction and he knew three things for certain:
She had green eyes, dark hair, and she was the key he needed to win this war once and for all.
He would get back at them. He would make them suffer like he had suffered. Finally, he would get his revenge on the Roadburners crew—Jackrabbit and Hatchet and the rest of them. It was a shame that he wouldn’t be able to wring that bastard Mad Dog’s neck himself but he could at least rest a little easier knowing that the bastard’s been put down like the animal he was.
Focus, Finn. Keep your mind on the target. He silently reminded himself. Eye on the prize. The mission was all that mattered. He’d been watching for hours, and he knew that Rachael was home alone. It took a few more hours of waiting patiently to make sure that there was no one else. But now was the perfect time. He inched to the front door and tested the doorknob. Locked.
He pulled a small metal pick from the back pocket of his dark green camo pants and made quick work of the lock on the front door. It was almost laughable how easy it was to break in.
If it was his woman inside, he’d have locks and barricades, land mines and barbed wire; all just to protect her. He would never leave her side, especially not in the middle of a war. He would do anything to protect her.
Too bad Jackrabbit apparently didn’t feel the same, and now Finn was going to make him pay for being sloppy. Jesus, Rabbit. Not even a damn deadbolt? Finn snorted to himself and slowly opened the door to the charming country house, and closed it silently behind him.
For a moment he briefly considered the possibility that he might be walking into an ambush. But after a quick cursory scan of the first floor that gave no indication of that, he quickly made his way up the stairs towards his target.
She was in the second room to the left. He’d seen her silhouette in the window earlier.
Earlier, he had stared at her from the distance and considered just putting two rounds in her head. But her death wouldn’t give him the leverage he needed. A dead hostage was a useless hostage. He learned that lesson the hard way. What he planned was so much sweeter.
Finn paused for a moment just outside the door and took a deep breath as he un-hostered his S&W .45. He needed to make this quick. No mistakes.
He burst into the room, the gun leveled straight at the green eyed, dark haired woman. She turned to him but the expression on her face was more annoyance than fear.
“Who are you?” She sounded surprisingly calm as she sized him up with her impossibly big eyes. “What are you doing here? Is that a gun?”
“Yes, it is.” He answered her last question first, quickly moving to her side, the barrel never leaving its mark, “I’m here to kidnap you.” He grinned. “Name’s Finn.”
Her eyes narrowed at the sound of his name but instead of the fearful reaction he expected her brow lowered and she planted her hand on her hips.
“Are you now?” She cocked her eyebrow at him. “Well, I’ve got a few things to say to you, Mr. Finn.”
“It’s not Mr. Finn…just Finn.” He narrowed his eyes and walked around her, grasping her by the wrist. “You’ll need to be quiet.” He whispered, pressing the muzzle of the gun against her side. “If you make a sound, I’ll use this, got it?”
She nodded and Finn let out a soft sigh. At least she had a few brains in that head of hers, even if she reacted to being kidnapped like no one met before.
“Come on. We’re leaving.” He pushed her forward with the gun and she started walking, as calmly as if they were just out taking a stroll. Something about her unperturbed attitude had him gritting his teeth. Who was this chick? Usually they were crying and screaming by now.
It didn’t take long to get back outside. Finn kept looking around for anything suspicious, expecting an attack—or at the least an attempt to stop him—at any moment. Yet, nothing came and Rachael still seemed as nonplussed as ever.
It was only after he led her off the property and into the trees that she spoke, the words calm and measured.
“Why are you kidnapping me? What are you hoping to accomplish?” She asked the question like a teacher asking a student for the answer to a math problem. Finn gave her another sideways glance over his shoulders before shrugging. It didn’t matter if she knew.
“I’m going to use you as leverage against Jackrabbit, Rachael.” He finally said. “And your nosy father too if I’m lucky. You’re my hostage now.”
To his surprise, instead of blowing up or breaking down in tears, she just nodded her head as if what he was saying made perfect sense.
“That would be a good plan, except for a few things.” She held up one hand and ticked off each reason as she spoke in her calm lecturing tone. “First of all, I’m not sure how far you can even take me without being caught. Secondly, I’m not sure what sort of leverage you expect me to provide against this Jackrabbit, because thirdly, and this is important, I’m not Rachael.”
Finn drew to a halt at her words and turned her around until they were face to face. “What the hell are you talking about?” He hooked his finger under her chin and tilted her face up towards him. “You are Rachael Donohue. Green eyes, dark hair. Sheriff’s daughter. It all fits my intel.”
“Well, there’s one very important piece of information you missed.” She smiled up at him—actually smiled. “I’m Hannah, Rachael Donohue’s identical twin. You just kidnapped the wrong sister.”
THE END
Read on for an excerpt from Finn and Hannah’s story: Broken!
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PREVIEW: BROKEN
FIRST SHE'LL BEND. THEN SHE'LL BREAK.
I was on the warpath when she put herself square in my sights.
Innocent, pure, so good that it hurts.
I took her, put her in my world.
Made her play by my rules.
I made it perfectly clear from the moment I held her body against mine.
I'm not the good guy, and this is no fairy tale story.
I'm everything she's been taught to stay away from.
Everything she's taught to fear.
She might hate me.
But that's too bad.
Because she's going to have to get used to me.
And before this is all over, I'll have her begging me for more.
To own her.
To use her.
To put my baby inside of her.
Chapt
er 1
Fuck! Finn fumed in silent disbelief as he set about tying Rachael’s– No, Hannah’s hands together. His thoughts whirled in chaos as he glanced up at her serious face. She looked back with a calm nonchalance that seemed out of place for having just been kidnapped.
At first, he’d suspected she was lying, just trying to save her own skin but a quick call to his second in command confirmed his worst fears. Rachael Donohue did in fact have a twin sister named Hannah. And now she was standing there, smirking at him in unconcern. Someone was going to pay for that fuck up and it wasn’t going to be pretty.
But what the hell was he going to do with her in the meantime? Finn rubbed a callused hand through his hair as he took a quick step back. But the distance didn’t seem to help, because now he could see her. All of her. From the unconcerned expression shouting at him from the depths of her gleaming green eyes, to the small sarcastic smile curving one corner of her ruby red mouth.
Finn nearly swore again at the turn of his thoughts. He needed to find another way to use her in his plan to get revenge on the Roadburners, and Jackrabbit and Hatchet in particular. What he didn’t need was to dwell on just how stunning she was or the way his nerve endings tingled where his hands had made contact with hers while tying her up.
“Fuck.” This time, Finn did bite out the epitaph out loud through a tensed jaw as he pulled the pistol out of the holster at his waist and gestured for her to start walking again. She stood there for a long moment, looking from him to the weapon held easily in his hand and back again before finally giving a slight nod. As if it was her own damn choice to be tied up and walking god knows where with an armed man.
They continued to trek across the rural Texas terrain. Finn made sure to stick mainly to the dense tree line that edged the dirt road, only moving across open field when he had to. He relied solely on his military training. As a sniper and surviving through two tours in the middle east, he’d learned a thing or two about how to move quickly on foot when he had to.
For what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour his eyes were drawn back to Hannah. She was walking stoically ahead of him, for all the world like she was on a leisurely hike rather than being forced ahead at gunpoint.
He shook his head, his thoughts tumbling haphazardly as he kept one eye on her and the other on the area around them. Even though he’d tried over the past hour, he couldn’t quite figure her out.
She had been completely silent as they walked, never asking him where they were going or how much longer they would have to walk or whether or not he was going to kill her or any of the thousand questions he imagined anyone else would be screaming at him right about now.
Finn was more than surprised by her calm, logical response to getting kidnapped at after a while he found an odd sort of respect growing for her.
She’s bad fucking news, Finn reminded himself fiercely. Don’t let her distract you. You are here on a mission. Get your revenge. Make the Roadburners pay. Make Hatchet and that son of a bitch Jackrabbit pay.
He was so lost in his own vitriolic thoughts that he nearly missed the sound of tires crunching on the dirt and gravel road. With a silent curse, Finn wrapped an arm around Hannah, pulling her tight against his body as he hid behind a large tree.
His hand over her mouth stalled any sound. He couldn’t risk her calling out for help, especially not after he peeked around the rough bark of the trunk and saw the state trooper logo on the side of the patroller. Shit. It was the cops. They were still swarming the area after the shootout at the Roadburners clubhouse.
Finn’s vision went red as he remembered. He and the rest of his small crew had spent the last months slowly drawing the noose tighter and tighter around those goddamn Roadburners only to have them walk straight into a trap.
Several of his men had been shot and then the cops had shown up, forcing him to flee right as he’d had Jackrabbit was in his crosshairs. It was just one more betrayal adding fuel to the fire that raged inside him. The fire that wouldn’t be satisfied until the Roadburners were done for good. It was the least they deserved.
While they hid there, Hannah’s back pressed close against his front two more police cars crept by, obviously on the lookout for him or any other member of the M60’s still in the area. Little did they know that Finn had prepared a bolt hole a few counties over just in case things went south. His time in the military had taught him to always have an out.
The rest of the crew, or what was left of them anyways, had orders to go directly there and wait for his next order. It was an old abandoned mining shaft that had been built in the perfect hiding space, far enough away from any town to not be noticed and out of use for several decades. They had converted it into their base of operations and Finn knew it was still secure.
After a long moment with no more traffic on the road, Finn finally allowed himself to relax his hold on Hannah but he felt a pang of regret as she stepped away. She shot him a questioning look, one dark eyebrow raised but didn’t say a word until he did.
Finn stared right back, “Listen princess, this place is swarming with pigs. We have to keep moving. Get farther away from the road.”
“I realize that you already know this, but I just need to reiterate the futility of your plan. My father is the sheriff of all of Mayville county,” Hannah said, the tone in her voice turning lecturing as she spoke, “That means that a, he probably realized that I’m missing. B, he’s contacted every local trooper, and c, they’re all looking for me.”
She shook her head before continuing, “There’s no way you’ll get away with this.”
“You’d be surprised by just how much I can get away with, princess,” Finn said, a sarcastic snarl on his lips, “More than you realize. Those cops are fucking blind. They’ll never see us. Now, get moving, and not a god damn sound, got it? You call out or scream or any of that shit and I’ll use this.” Finn nodded to the pistol once more holstered at his hip.
Hannah gave him another one of her long, unnerving looks before nodding once more. She turned and started back on the overgrown ATV path they’d been on for the past few hours, walking on without another word.
The afternoon sun was settling into the branches of the trees overhead as evening began to fall when Hannah tripped a few feet in front of him. Finn was there to catch her before she’d even hit the ground. He’d known the moment she started to fall because for the last three hours he’d been watching her a hell of a lot more than he’d been watching the terrain around them. His mistake, he knew. But even still, he was glad of it as he hauled her back up until she was standing.
“You alright?” Finn asked gruffly. Caring didn’t exactly come easy to him.
“Yes, I’m fine thank you very much,” Hannah shot back tersely and he nearly let her go and turned away in anger at her curt words but then he noticed what she was looking at. His own gray gaze travelled downward until he saw her feet, one scraped by the fallen log she’d tripped on. Her bare feet.
“What the–.” Finn bit out, “You’re not wearing shoes.”
“And the prize goes to the most observant man in central Texas.” Hannah said, her tone just as flat as his, “Turns out being kidnapped and forced out of one’s home at gun point doesn’t give one a lot of time to stop and put on appropriate footwear.”
A pang of unfamiliar guilt hit Finn somewhere near the vicinity of his solar plexus. He glanced around him at the dense forest they’d been trekking through and then up at the sun that was beginning to set.
“Fuck it,” Finn growled angrily. He wasn’t sure if the emotion was directed at himself or the confounded woman he’d mistakenly kidnapped, “We can’t go any further today. Not with the cops on our asses. We’ll camp here tonight.”
He watched Hannah look around before turning back to him, that damned eyebrow of hers raised in question. “Where exactly?”
Finn snorted, “Right here,” He pointed to the leaf covered ground in front of one of the big trees providing their cover, “You
got a problem with that princess?”
“No,” Hannah said shortly, proving her word as she walked over to the exact spot he’d just pointed at and dropped to the hard ground with a soft huff. Finn winced to himself as he noticed the slight limp in her step but that didn’t stop him from kneeling next to her.
He fumbled at the length of rope binding her hands together, trying to ignore her nearness as he reached across her body to secure it to the trunk of the tree she was leaning back against. Damn but she smelled good. Even after hiking across the rough terrain all day, bare foot no less, she still smelled fresh and sweet, like lavender and sunshine.
Finn halted himself mid thought. He had too much at stake to let himself get distracted by a fucking female. He opened his mouth to snarl something but that close, their faces just a few inches apart and for a second he completely forgot what he was going to say. He was so close that he saw the moment her emerald green eyes dilated, filling with something warm and surprising. He could feel the sharp intake of breath as she gasped.
