by Mandy Harbin
He lifted the gun and blasted a shot, and through her screams, it barely registered that she’d never seen so much blood.
Chapter Sixteen
Maya’s head throbbed as she moved against something hard. Her body was like lead, and she was so exhausted. Groaning, she tried to move her hand to rub her aching forehead but it was stuck.
“Your wrists are tied,” someone said. She was too tired to look, but the voice was familiar. Where was she at? “How’s your head?”
“Feels like a pin cushion.” If those pins were knives. And those knives were on fire.
“Brody is going to be so pissed,” the voice breathed.
Maya cracked open an eyelid and saw Xan sitting across from her, covered in dirt. They were in some kind of a warehouse. Why? It hurt to think. She wanted to ask, but talking required energy.
“It’s my fault.” But the statement hadn’t come from Xan. Maya glanced to the side, ignoring the stabbing pain in her temple, and found Roxie sitting there in the same condition as Xan. “I was the one who talked you into going to Hunter’s to ask about Roc’s barn.”
“I knew better, though.”
“Oh, please, it’s not like you have to get permission to go anywhere. You and I run to town all the time.” She huffed. “I didn’t see the big deal in going to a friend’s house to talk about wedding stuff.”
“When that friend is watching over a witness or something, working, then yeah, he’d have a problem with it.”
When had they been at Hunter’s house? Maya didn’t remember seeing them earlier.
“It’s not like we haven’t been there before.”
“I know, girl,” Xan said.
“I just don’t understand why Flint would do this to us. My own flesh and blood,” Roxie said, her voice quivering.
Flint. Right. Hunter had called him and wanted him to take her away. He’d believed she’d lied to him about Jake. She remembered that part, not that she wanted to remember it. But yeah, she remembered Hunter calling the man, and letting him in. Maya gasped.
“He shot Hunter.” Oh god. She moved her arms around, trying to loosen the rope. “He had a gun and he shot him.”
“Stop. That’s some kind of voodoo knot,” Roxie said. “You’ll just tear your wrists up.”
“I have to get to him. I have to help him.” The fact that he was ready to throw her out of his house and out of his life didn’t matter. He was hurt. She could be pissed later…after she knew he was okay. Please, God, let him still be alive.
“Help is on the way,” Xan said.
Maya looked around the dark, dank warehouse and wondered how the woman was so sure of that. It was too dark to make out much, but it wasn’t as if she heard the cavalry banging the door down. But Maya had been knocked out, so maybe she just wasn’t up to speed on who was out there. “How do you know?”
Xan smiled at her then, as if she had some sixth sense, sabotaging any hope Maya felt. Had the woman cracked under pressure and lost her mind? Was that it? She was clearly delusional.
“Don’t look at me like I’m crazy, girl. After some things went down with me before, Brody has all kinds of trackers on me.” She lifted her shoe.
“It’s hidden in the sole.”
Yeah, the jury was still out on Xan’s mental health.
“And they’ll find Hunter before they find us because we were at his property when I hit my panic button on my phone.”
“What?” Maya said, frowning at her.
“Jeez, woman, quit talking in circles,” Roxie said, and then looked at Maya. “We showed up at Hunter’s. Saw Flint’s car there—personal, not squad—and as we walked up to the porch, we heard blood-curdling screams.”
“He stuck me with something,” Maya said, looking at her shoulder, but her sleeve covered the evidence.
“Xan fired off her S.O.S. flare thingy-ma-bob to Brody.”
“We tried to make a run for it, but the door was open, and the screaming had stopped. He either saw us hightailing it to the car or heard us running on the gravel. He shot out a tire on my car and told us not to move.”
“He said he shot Hunter, and he’d shoot us, too,” Roxie said, tears forming in her eyes.
Okay, so know she understood what they’d meant by being at Hunter’s and why she hadn’t seen them.
Maya’s wrists burned. “Have you tried untying each other’s wrists?”
Xan lifted her hands out from under the loose rope, and Maya gaped at her. “He ordered us to tie each other up, so we didn’t tie them very tightly, but he did yours.” She shrugged.
“After he was gone for a while, we undid ours and tried yours, but apparently, they teach proper abduction skills in the police academy,” Roxie added, clearly upset about her cousin.
“All we were doing was irritating your skin, and we didn’t want to make you start bleeding.”
“At least you don’t want to see me hurt,” Maya mumbled as she looked away. She figured Hunter and his crew hadn’t had a chance yet to spread their halfcocked theories to these ladies.
“What does that mean?” Xan asked.
Maya laughed bitterly. “Hunter thinks I have something to do with what’s going on. He spouted off things like I’d played him, and some dude had paid me off to get to him.”
“Why would he think that?” Roxie asked, narrowing her eyes. Great, she should’ve known they’d be more willing to take Hunter’s side.
“Because he’s an asshole.”
Xan laughed. “They all can be. The whole lot of them. I think it’s some requirement for their little club.”
“Which is led by the king of assholes,” Roxie muttered.
Maya relaxed a little when she realized the girls weren’t going to quickly jump to Hunter’s defense. “My uncle gave me ten-thousand dollars when I graduated high school. Hunter thinks it was someone else. That since I got the money when I went to college, it was some pay off for befriending Heather to get to him.” She shook her head. “He called me a whore.”
Xan gasped.
“Oh no, he didn’t,” Roxie said, full of sass.
“Yeah, he did.”
“Why would he think you betrayed him?” Xan asked, no accusation in her voice, only curiosity.
“I honestly don’t know. We really didn’t get a chance to talk. He was too busy throwing around accusations and then throwing me out.”
A loud bang sounded from outside and echoed all around them. The girls scrambled to put their hands through their ropes to make it look like they were still tied up and succeeded before the overhead door rolled up.
Four men came in, dragging people. Well, two pulled a limp and bloodied man, but the other two carried what looked like unconscious women. At least she hoped they were just unconscious. They were all unceremoniously dropped to the floor before the men took position on each side of the door. When the next person walked in, Maya gasped. She’d seen him before, sure, but it had been years.
“Uncle Al?”
He walked toward her with open arms, and she mutely watched as he placed his hands on her cheeks and kissed her forehead.
“You did an excellent job, criado. Excellent.”
“I-I don’t understand.”
“I know, Maya. I know.”
He saw the gun before Flint fully raised it, aiming it at him. He fell back before he could pull the trigger, but he wasn’t fast enough. The bullet grazed his shoulder and blood gushed out of him. Not crying out was hard, but he had to save his own ass.
Alonzo had gotten to Maya and Flint. How the hell had he managed that? Hunter couldn’t even begin to imagine. Maya’s screeching was a nice touch, but maybe she hadn’t known Flint was going to shoot him. He couldn’t see what was going on, but he figured they ran as soon as they could.
Another gun shot.
What the fuck?
“Don’t move!”
Was Maya trying to get away? Maybe she didn’t know Flint was working with her.
He crawled to the
window with his good arm, staying down and out of enemy sight. Creeping up the wall, he carefully looked out. Maya was in the front seat, looking down, as Flint ordered Xan into the back of his car. Looked like Roxie was already in there. Shit.
He dug into his pocket for his phone, wishing he had his gun on him. He’d left his primary piece in the garage when he stormed in here to talk to Maya. He had another stashed in the kitchen. He’d missed a call from Brody a minute or so ago, so he hit that number as he ran toward the kitchen.
“What happened?” Brody barked while Hunter grabbed the gun.
“Can’t talk now, bro. Flint’s driving away with your woman.”
“Flint?”
He heard a loud string of curses on the other end, but those hadn’t come from Brody. It sounded like Bear.
Hunter ran to the door, gun drawn, safety be damned.
“Shit, I got taillights.”
“Don’t shoot,” Brody roared.
“Not my first day,” Hunter muttered as he ran to his truck, started it up, and pealed out.
“Hang back.”
“What?” Hunter roared as he swerved to miss a dead possum. “You can’t be serious. He has Xan.”
“Fuck, fuck, I know. She has a tracker on her. Sent me a distress signal, so Bear and I headed your way immediately. We’ll be at your place in less than two minutes. Bear’s on the line with Roc, getting him back. Gauge was out digging more into Maya. He called reinforcements and is hightailing it to meet up with us.”
He knew Gauge was heavy into research when he’d called him to come get Maya. He’d told Hunter he’d send someone else out to get her. He didn’t think he’d send Flint. That had been a surprise, but it shouldn’t have been a big deal. Sure, Bear hadn’t wanted the cops involved, but Flint was different. Or so they thought.
At the next corner, Brody’s headlights flashed him. “Turn around,” he barked, and threw up his hand as he passed Hunter.
He growled as he did a U-ey in the street and followed Brody back to his house.
When he jumped out of his truck, the other two guys were already waiting for him.
“I could’ve followed his ass,” Hunter said.
“And then what? We can’t just run him off the road. He has hostages. Besides, going in hotheaded isn’t the answer.” Bear cast Brody a lethal look.
“Not gonna apologize.” Brody shrugged. “But you’re trying my patience, man. He has my woman, and I’m not going to sit around with my thumb up my ass. I agreed to formulate a plan, but I didn’t agree to wait.”
Bear tilted his head to the side, cracking it. The man was obviously filled with tension. They all were.
“Look, there’s something neither of you know about Flint.”
“You two had some falling out. We know that,” Brody said, his patience nonexistent.
“No.” Bear shook his head. “I mean, yes, we did, but it’s not that simple. Remember the drug bust we helped the feds with a couple of years back? The marijuana farm?”
“Yeah,” Hunter said, crossing his arms.
“Local police got pulled in on that to contain the area.”
“So,” Brody said, getting even more agitated. They all remembered that.
“Some of the evidence didn’t make it into custody.”
“Meaning someone filched some pot for their personal stash,” Hunter said slowly. It was illegal, sure, but a dime bag was hardly worth their time.
“Street value was estimated at over ninety grand, but that could’ve been a low number.”
Hunter whistled low.
Brody’s face grew dark. “Someone wanted to make some money.”
“Bingo. Even though the feds knew Flint was involved, the evidence was circumstantial. They needed more to go on.
“And they tasked you with getting that evidence? Why? Hunter asked. “Because you two were close,” he said, guessing.
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?” Brody asked.
“If your best friend came into what he thought was a sweet little side-hustle, don’t you think he’d want you to have a piece of the action?” Bear raised an eyebrow at him.
“Oh shit,” Brody breathed.
“Yeah. When I said no, that was the end of our friendship. I should’ve turned him in then, but I…couldn’t,” Bear said, looking away. When he focused on the guys again, he said, “After everything went down with Colonel, I ratted him out, worried Colonel might’ve been connected somehow. Lord knows Flint isn’t smart enough to be a ringleader if there was more to this than what I knew about. But no link was found, and the weed was long gone by that time. They needed something more to go on.” He sighed. “Since Gauge’s agent status was known and I was in charge now, I pulled him in on this. He’s been watching Flint’s bank records, but hasn’t found any evidence of the money.”
“Why didn’t you tell us before?” Brody asked.
Bear gritted his teeth. “Because it isn’t an official job. It’s fucking personal. We’re not making any money off this. Even though I tried to right a wrong, the feds needed more to go on. It was my word against his. Gauge is doing this as he has time.”
“We could’ve all helped,” Hunter said. If they had, maybe they’d have found out the truth about him before he got a hold of Xan and Roxie. He didn’t say that out loud, but Bear frowned at him as if he’d read his mind.
“Look, you better believe if I had any idea he was capable of more than selling drugs, I would’ve put the heat on him a long time ago. Figured out a way to run him out of town. Something.”
A horrible thought crossed Hunter’s mind and he voiced it without thinking, “Does Roxie have anything to do with it?”
Brody’s gaze flew to Bear’s, a slight look of panic on his face. Hunter understood it had nothing to do with Roxie and Bear, although if Bear had suspected Roxie of anything, it could explain why he’d never let himself get close to her. No, Hunter knew the fear that landed on Brody’s face was because his soon-to-be wife was best friends with Roxie. If Roxie was into something illegal, she’d have to distance herself from the woman, too, and it would crush Xan.
Bear blinked. Hesitated. Then gave his head a quick shake. “No.”
“But you looked into that possibility,” Brody said.
Bear glared at Brody, not answering, although it hadn’t really been a question.
“Because Xan and Scott are around her all the time. They love her, man, and if there’s any chance they could get in any kind of trouble because of her—”
“She checked out,” Bear reiterated.
“You’re gonna have to give me more than that. Her life is tangled up in all of ours.”
“You have no idea just how much I know that,” Bear said, leaning closer to the other man. Hunter and Brody stared at him, knowing full well what he meant.
Bear’s phone rang. “It’s Gauge,” he said to the guys before answering and moving in closer. “Yeah?” He didn’t say anything for several seconds. “I’m putting you on speaker.”
“…landed at Conway airport forty minutes ago.”
Bear looked up. “A private jet. Flight plan logged by Oberman,” he mumbled.
Hunter put his hands on his hips. Was this Maya’s getaway? Flint’s?
“Since he’s flagged, the FBI tracked it. But that’s all they did. No one was on the ground to tail them.”
Brody pulled out a hand-held device. “They’re holding still at the old train depot just outside of Conway.”
“Let’s roll,” Hunter said as he turned to jog toward his truck. “If they have a plane, they’re ghosts.”
“Fuck,” Bear roared. “Gauge, meet us there. Call Roc. He should be nearing Mayflower now anyway. We’ll rendezvous at the north tracks. And get the feds on this. They wanted evidence against Flint–well, here they fucking go.”
Within seconds, the guys were hitting the road again, but this time, Hunter wouldn’t stop until he ended this. The pain he felt didn’t matter. H
e had a job to do, and he would do it. Just like Bear had with Roxie.
He understood that man better now, why it seemed he had ice in his chest when it came to Roxie Willis.
It was to keep his heart numb.
Chapter Seventeen
“Why are you here?” Maya asked, frowning at her uncle but stealing glances at her ex.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head about that, dear.”
The man who’d slumped against the wall spat out blood. “Your uncle’s been a bad, bad man.”
Maya squinted, trying to make out the person.
“Blade?” Xan asked. “Oh god, is that you?” Maya had only seen him a couple of times before, not that she’d be able to tell by the look of him anyway. He was covered in blood and bruises.
“Hi, doll,” he said, tilting his head to the side and smiling at her. His teeth were all bloodied, too.
Roxie whimpered, and he winked at her, probably in an attempt to calm her down. Or so it looked to Maya. She couldn’t really tell with this other eye swollen shut.
“You’d do well to shut your mouth, Mr. Young.”
“That’s my daddy’s name, Al.”
Her uncle strode over to Blade and raised the gun in his hand.
“No,” Maya yelled, but it was too late; he hit Blade in the face, knocking him down. He groaned, and she instinctively tried to get up, but failed. She found little comfort that her uncle had hit him with the gun. It could’ve been much worse. Was her uncle even capable of shooting someone? She feared she knew that answer already.
One of the other women groaned and rolled over. What she saw had her feeling the blood drain from her face; her body frozen in shock. Heather. He’d taken Heather. Her lip was cut up as if she’d been hit, and one of her arms, had moved at a weird, unnatural angle. Her body was bloody and broken.
“Oh my god,” she breathed.
Uncle Al looked to the side. “She had a mouth on her, that one.” He pointed to Heather and shook his head. “Should have killed her just for that. I needed her alive, though.”
