by Maya Banks
He backhanded her without a single word. Her head flew sideways and agony flashed through her face. If the two men hadn’t been holding her arms, she would have tumbled to the ground. Tears leaked from her eyes and slid down over the duct tape still wrapped around her head and mouth.
She sagged precariously and Joel looked at her in disgust. Then he dug into his pocket, pulling out two ten-thousand-dollar wraps. He handed one each to the two men and then called over his shoulder into the plane.
“Come get the bitch.” Then to the two men he’d just paid, “Get lost.”
The two men didn’t waste any time. They dropped their hold on Lauren and she staggered to keep her footing as they took off for the Hummer.
A second later, Ron appeared behind Joel. She recoiled when Ron moved past Joel and put his hands on her. This wasn’t happening. She wouldn’t go back to her old life. Not that her current reality would bear any resemblance to the past. Joel had never treated her well, but he wouldn’t show any restraint now. He felt betrayed by her and he’d want revenge. He’d want to save face. Losing her had been a blow to his ego.
She’d walked out on him. She’d refused to recognize her good fortune in landing a man like him. He’d never forgive her for that transgression.
Ron hoisted her up and tossed her over his shoulder. As soon as his body made contact with her ribs, she screamed in agony. The sound was horrible, muffled by the tape over her mouth, but it was the sound of agony that couldn’t be disguised.
“What the hell did you do to her?” Joel demanded as Ron climbed the steps into the plane.
“Not a damn thing,” Ron defended.
Ron tossed her down onto the couch in the back of the plane, and she let out another garbled sound, nearly passing out. She couldn’t get enough air in through her nose.
“Be careful damn it,” Joel barked. “I don’t know what those dumbasses did to her. Swear to God if they touched what is mine, I’ll cut their dicks off and force-feed them to each other.”
“You’re not going to find out much until you get the tape off her mouth,” Ron said dryly.
“Give the order to take off,” Joel said tersely. “Then find me something to cut the damn tape off.”
Hysterical laughter bubbled in Lauren’s throat. He’d just nearly knocked her teeth out and he was pissed because the assholes he’d hired may have hurt her. Apparently only he was allowed to abuse her.
She rolled back against the couch when the plane started forward. Ron returned a second later, holding a knife out to Joel.
Joel pulled her over onto her belly and panic blew up. It was worse because she had no way to fight. She hated being pinned down this way. Hated it!
He sawed at the tape around her wrists and finally worked it free. Her arm flopped forward, falling over the edge of the couch, and her shoulders protested the sudden change in position. She moaned against the tape over her mouth and tried valiantly to keep the tears at bay.
Next he freed her ankles, and then he began working on extracting the sticky tape from her hair. She was surprised he didn’t grow impatient and just hack her hair off, but then her hair has always been something he liked and hadn’t wanted to change about her.
She braced herself to have half her skin and lips taken off when he ripped the tape from her flesh, but he was surprisingly gentle, working it a little at a time until finally it came free.
She automatically licked her cracked, dry lips. Then she pushed herself upward, refusing to remain in so vulnerable a position.
Joel assisted her, nothing forceful in his touch. It only made her fear him more, because she knew how quickly the pain could come. It was almost as if he liked to keep her aware at all times that he could do as he chose. He liked to follow tenderness with brutality, and then he’d always follow up pain with a caress.
“Would you like some water?” he asked, frowning at her appearance.
She nodded, not trusting her voice not to crack, and the last thing she wanted was to demonstrate her terror. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.
Ron appeared with bottled water, and Joel took it from him and carefully held it to her lips, refusing to let her hold it.
She drank greedily, closing her eyes as the cool liquid soothed the rawness of her throat.
When Joel took it away, she lifted her gaze warily, waiting for whatever came next.
Joel frowned. “What happened to you? What did those idiots do to you?”
Since he seemed concerned, at least on the level that someone had possibly damaged something he viewed as a possession, and he was exceedingly possessive of things that belonged to him, Lauren didn’t provoke him and instead played his game.
“They forced my vehicle off the side of a mountain,” she said in a low voice.
Joel’s frown turned to an all-out scowl. “They caused you to wreck?”
She nodded.
“Fucking morons,” Joel exploded. “They had explicit orders to deliver you to me. Alive. How the hell could they possibly be certain you’d survive a plunge over the side of a mountain?”
She lowered her gaze as questions bit at her lips. She wanted to ask him if he was the idiot since he didn’t seem to get that she wanted nothing to do with him. But she was hurt and the last thing she wanted was to enrage him to the point he got violent. At the moment, he seemed genuinely concerned—or at least inconvenienced—over her injuries.
“Where are you hurt? I heard you cry out when Ron carried you onto the plane.”
“My ribs,” she said slowly. “Hurts to move. Hurts to breathe. I’m worried they’re broken.”
Joel swore and then bellowed for Ron to return. When the man appeared in the sitting area, Joel said, “Call ahead and have my personal physician waiting for us when we arrive. Give him the rundown on Lauren’s condition and tell him she needs pain medication and X-rays.”
Ron nodded and disappeared once more.
“I’m not happy with you, Lauren,” Joel said coldly. “Look at me when I’m talking to you!”
Swallowing back the rage building in the pit of her belly, she slowly lifted her gaze to meet the eyes of a demon.
“You wouldn’t be in your present condition if you hadn’t been stupid and tried to walk away from me. No one walks away from me. Do you understand that? There is not a place on this earth you can hide from me. I will find you. I’ll never stop looking. And I’ll kill anyone who helps you, who is with you, who interferes in any way. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“You’re mine, Lauren. You belong to me. You’re my property. I make all the decisions regarding your well-being, your life, your very existence. The sooner you accept that, the more peaceful your life will become.”
Oh God. She couldn’t bear it. She wanted to scream Noah’s and Liam’s names and keep screaming until they came for her. They had to find her.
“Now get down on your knees and prepare to apologize,” he ordered.
Her eyes widened and she stared at him in horror. His face reddened with rage at her reaction and before she could defend herself, his hand was in her hair, twisting the strands in his fist. He yanked her from the couch and she landed on the floor, the jolt sending pain racing through her midsection.
“You don’t learn,” he ground out. “Your defiance will bring you nothing but misery. I guarantee it, Lauren. Now get up on your knees.”
He let go of her hair, his hand going to the fly of his pants. Tears sliding endlessly down her cheeks, she pushed herself upward until he cupped her chin in his merciless grip.
She closed her eyes and forced herself out of her body, to a place where Joel couldn’t hurt or humiliate her. She focused on Noah and Liam and their love for her.
Joel might control her body, but he’d never control her heart or her mind.
For the men she loved, she could and would endure anything Joel forced on her. She just had to hold on and do whatever it took to survive until they came for her.
NOAH’S cell rang as he and the others were boarding Max’s jet. Recognizing the number as an NYC area code, he hastily answered.
“Noah, this is Rick Castanetti. I have something for you. We just got a huge break.”
“You found him? Did you find Lauren?” Noah demanded. “Is she okay?”
Around him, everyone went completely silent. Liam pushed in next to Noah and put his ear close to Noah’s head so he could hear the conversation.
Noah punched the button to put Castanetti on speaker and then held the phone in front of him so everyone could listen.
“We just got a tip from an informant that Knight’s personal physician got a call to meet Knight at his lake house in upstate New York to treat Miss Wilder’s injuries.”
“What injuries?” Liam demanded. “What the hell did that bastard do to her?”
Noah held up his hand to silence Liam before he blew completely up. “We don’t know if she was hurt in the accident or not. Let’s not assume the worst. He can’t have had her in his possession that long yet.”
“They’re flying to a private airstrip owned by Knight. He typically takes his helicopter and lands it on the property, but this is where you catch a break. The airstrip he owns is a good forty-five minutes from his house. There’s a commercial field ten minutes away you could land at, and it will even the odds on time. With the head start he got on you leaving Denver, there’s a good chance you’ll get there not long after he does.”
“Where is this lake house?” Noah bit out.
“You have to know that you can’t be the first in,” Castanetti said in a low voice. “I have to go through the channels on this one.”
Noah sucked in his breath and hoped like hell he wasn’t trusting the wrong man. “You can’t call this in.”
There was a long silence over the line.
“What the hell?” Castanetti demanded. “You don’t want me to ensure that the police get there to prevent any harm coming to Miss Wilder? Are you crazy?”
“You can’t call it in because Knight would know about it and then we’d lose Lauren. Right now we know where he’s going. That gives us the edge. If you arrange a sting, he’s going to disappear, taking Lauren with him, and we’ll have lost our one chance to get to her and take Knight down.”
“I don’t like what you’re insinuating,” Castanetti said in an angry, pissed-off tone.
“I’m not insinuating anything. I know damn well that he has some dirty cops on his payroll. I’ve seen the information on the disk Lauren copied from Knight’s computer. And this goes all the way to the top. I’m taking a huge fucking risk even talking to you.”
There was another long silence, and then a string of curses from Castanetti.
“I want what’s on that disk, especially if what you’re saying is true.”
“And if we get Lauren back, you’ll have it,” Noah said smoothly. “She’s our top and only priority right now.”
There was a sigh, and then Castanetti mumbled his agreement and provided specific addresses and locations as well as the airport for them to land.
Noah motioned for one of the others to copy down the details as Castanetti gave them.
“He better not be dead when this is all over with,” Castanetti said when he finished supplying the location.
“I can’t guarantee you anything,” Noah said in a low voice.
If Lauren was threatened in any way, Noah wouldn’t think twice about taking out the bastard.
“Just don’t get yourselves killed,” Castanetti said in a somber voice. “Knight’s been responsible for too many lost lives as it is. I hope Miss Wilder makes it out of this okay, and I’m not just saying that because I want her on the witness stand.”
“Thanks. We’ll keep in touch,” Noah said.
“See that you do.”
Noah hung up as the plane lifted into the air, and grimly surveyed the group of men who’d listened in on the call.
“We’ve got some time to make up. Knight got a head start, and Lauren’s life depends on us getting to that lake house as quickly as possible.”
* * *
LAUREN huddled on the sofa of the plane and moaned softly when she was jostled by the aircraft touching down. Fear was immediate, because she had no idea where they were or how Noah and Liam would ever be able to find her.
It was time to be real and not solely rely on someone else to rescue her. She’d escaped Joel once. She’d just have to do it again.
Only, the first time he hadn’t been expecting it. Now he’d watch her constantly, keep her more firmly under his thumb than he had ever before.
Despair settled heavy and bleak. Then she grew angry at the defeat that nagged at her. She’d survived Joel once and she was stronger now. She’d survive again.
“Lift her and be careful with her,” Joel ordered. “If you hurt her, it’ll be your ass.”
Rough hands slid underneath her, lifting her in one motion as Ron settled her roughly against his chest. It made her furious that Joel was such a nauseating hypocrite. That he acted like he gave a flying fuck about whether she was hurt or not. She thought it more likely that he was so insanely controlling that in his mind she was his to torment, much like a favorite toy a child jealously guards from use by other children.
She was still numb from the violent episode of earlier. He’d used her. Not for sexual release, but to humiliate and degrade her. He was proving a point and chipping away at her rebellion.
He was trying to break her.
He had no way of knowing that unlike before, she was infused with purpose. Resolve. She knew her worth. Knew she was loved for who she was. She knew the difference between love and control.
If he thought he was getting back the same naïvely stupid Lauren Wilder, he was wrong. Dead wrong.
She was placed in the back of a waiting car and then Joel slid onto the seat next to her, his hand going immediately to her head. It wasn’t a tender gesture. It was a warning. An expression of his dominance and control.
She curled herself into a tighter ball and closed her eyes, shutting out his presence. The car pulled away, the seat vibrating against her cheek. She didn’t try to rise. She didn’t move a single muscle.
Her face was bruised and throbbing from when he’d struck her and then from his rough handling of her later. And her entire midsection ached fiercely. Though she’d played up her injuries to try to get Joel to lay off her, more and more she thought that she may well have broken her ribs in the wreck. It scared her, this faux concern from Joel. He was like a bubbling cauldron just waiting to explode, and she waited for it at any moment.
The drive took forever, and she was desperately tired but afraid to let herself fall asleep even for a minute. She didn’t want to be put in a position where she was vulnerable and not on her guard.
When the car finally ground to a halt, she automatically tensed. Joel’s hand tightened on her head.
“You should be wary,” he murmured.
His voice was calm, but the threat was there. She’d have to be an idiot not to sense the thinly veiled violence that radiated from him.
“Do as you’re told, Lauren. Don’t make me angry. I’ll have a doctor look at your injuries and determine whether you’re able to accommodate me. If you defy me, I’ll hold you down and fuck you whether you have broken ribs or not.”
Her stomach lurched and her pulse accelerated. Her hands grew clammy and her forehead was dotted with cold sweat.
She had no doubt that he’d carry out his threat. When she lifted her head to glance warily at him, she saw that the idea of raping her, knowing she had injuries, excited him.
As much as she wanted to defy him, to tell him to fuck off and go to hell, she knew she had to be smart and wait for her opportunity.
He cupped her jaw, holding it painfully tight, his fingers pressing into the bruise he’d put on her earlier.
“You’re mine, Lauren. You belong to me. You don’t walk away. You
don’t make the decision that it’s over. Only I make that decision, and I’m not finished with you yet.”
When she didn’t respond, he squeezed harder until a whimper escaped her lips.
“Do you understand?” he demanded. “Say it. Say the words. You belong to me.”
“I’m yours,” she croaked.
His hold lessened and tears stung her eyelids. She inhaled sharply, determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing how much he’d hurt her.
“Take her into the house,” he ordered Ron.
Then Joel got out of the car and strode toward the walkway to the front door, leaving Ron to deal with Lauren.
As Ron pulled her from the backseat, she quickly surveyed the terrain and considered whether now was the time to try to make her escape. It would take her being able to get free of Ron, but where would she go? They were in a heavily wooded area, and she couldn’t see any highway or lights from other residences.
Panic scurried up her spine, and she had to work hard to keep herself calm and focused. Ron obviously didn’t like being saddled with the responsibility of packing Lauren around. His brows were drawn together in a disgruntled expression as he carried her up the walkway.
“Told him he should have just gotten rid of you a long time ago,” Ron muttered.
At first she thought she hadn’t heard him correctly.
“Told him you were a silly bitch. Too easy and too dumb. And now you’re just a pain in the ass. He has a business to run and shouldn’t be wasting time chasing you all over the damn place.”
“I’ll be sure to let him know you think so,” she said through her teeth.
“You’ll keep your mouth shut or I’ll come at you,” he said coldly. “Joel likes to watch when I fuck a woman. He says it inspires him. Because I don’t give a shit if I break them. I’ll shove my dick up that tight ass of yours and I’ll enjoy making you scream. If you think Joel will protect you, then you’re wrong. He’ll get off watching me work you over and then he’ll fuck you while you lay there and cry.”
He strode through the open door while she lay rigid in his arms, his words echoing over and over in her horrified mind. It was a threat, yes, but he sounded so certain. There was knowledge in his tone, as if he’d done just as he’d described to other women Joel had been with.
