The door beeped and opened. Addison strained against the ropes and lifted her head. If someone was outside the room, she could scream for help. She only caught a glimpse of the hood of a car right outside the room before the door closed, but she could hear traffic from the interstate. Were they still at South of the Border?
She recognized the man from the castle. He’d been in the dungeon with them and had followed Tsarevna around like personal security.
“There you are. What took so long? I’m starving.” Tsarevna took the bag of to-go containers and set them on the desk. Pulling one out, she opened the lid and grimaced, setting it aside. She did the same with the other two containers.
“What is this slop?”
“It’s what they have here,” Andrew said.
“I can’t eat this. This doesn’t even qualify as food.”
Addison huffed out a laugh. “What did you expect—gourmet dining? You’re at a rest stop in South Carolina with a tower topped with a giant sombrero and a reptile park. Maybe you could try the gator tail. It tastes just like chicken.”
Tsarevna sneered. “I’m going to enjoy whipping that attitude out of you before I pass you off.”
“I thought she would be let go after you received the money,” Andrew said.
“That’s what you get for thinking. They are not going to have the money in time and, even if they did, I still would not hand her over. She cost me too much. Lessons must be learned. Now go get me something edible to eat.”
Andrew turned toward the door.
“Stop!” Tsarevna stood. “I don’t trust you and I’m too hungry for you to figure it out—I’ll go myself.” She looked at Addison. “Don’t bother testing the ropes. I tied them—you’ll never get free until I free you.
“Watch her,” she said as she left the room, pulling the door shut with a thud.
Andrew stared out the peephole for several minutes, then moved the curtain aside to watch out the window. Letting it fall, he turned and looked at Addison intently before approaching the bed.
No. Fuck, no. If he came near her, she’d kick him in the face and anywhere else she could reach before she let him rape her. She scooted over as much as she could and turned on her side, kicking out when he got close enough.
“Stop!” he hissed, grabbing her leg.
“No!” She struggled as best she could, wriggling and twisting, kicking and kneeing.
He lay down on top of her and pressed a thumb into the pressure point of her hip.
“Ow!” She jerked her knee up, ineffectually hitting him in the chest.
“If you don’t stop struggling, I can’t loosen the ropes,” he said.
She froze. “What?”
“I can’t untie you—she’ll realize someone had to let you go and that someone could only be me. I can’t afford to lose my cover right now.”
“You’re—? You’re the inside guy?” She didn’t want to mention Connie’s name in case this was all a ruse.
“Yes. We don’t have much time until she figures out there really is nothing to eat here and comes back. Don’t kick me when I get off you.”
“Okay,” she whispered. She still glared at him warily.
He knelt beside the bed and pulled on the frame. “She might have tied you, but I set up the ropes.” He yanked on the frame and grunted. “I loosened the frame when I did so it would look like you managed to slip free.”
The bed shifted, and he fell back on his ass. “Shit. I thought I’d loosened it more than that.”
The rope slackened, and she pulled her arms down, groaning when her muscles protested after being in one position for too long. “How is this going to work? I can’t just walk out of here.”
He pushed up and helped her sit. “There’s a team on the way, but they’re about fifteen minutes out. You’re going to hit me on the back of the head with the telephone to make it look like you took me by surprise and then you’re going to run. There’s a cop over by the souvenir shop.”
“Where is that from here?”
“It’s across the road—we’re on the back side of the hotel. There’s a bridge that goes over the road if there’s too much traffic. Although with your hands tied like that, you might get help faster if you flag someone down.”
He unplugged the old-fashioned push-button phone from the wall and handed it to her. “You ready?”
She took the phone and nodded. “Yes.”
“Okay. I’m going to kneel on the rug so I don’t fall so far.”
That surprised a laugh from her. “Okay.”
He knelt on the carpet and hung his head down. She lifted the phone over her head and paused.
“You have to do this, Addison.”
“Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I knocked you on the head. It’s only fair.”
She swung the phone down with all her strength. The bell inside it rang.
He grunted and fell to one elbow, but didn’t collapse. “You need to do it harder than that.”
She gritted her teeth. With her hands tied together, she wasn’t sure she could get the leverage. The decision was taken from her when the lock beeped and the door rattled.
“Shit,” she whispered.
Andrew pushed up to one knee. “Give me this.” He took the phone. “Go lie in the bed like you’re still tied up. I’ll lie in the bathroom like you did knock me out.”
“Then what?” she whispered.
“Andrew! The key isn’t working. Open the door.”
His gaze was heavy. “Do what you have to do.”
Addison bit her lower lip and nodded.
Tsarevna banged on the door. “Andrew!”
“Go. Now. She’ll figure it out in a second.”
He took the phone and lunged into the bathroom, partially closing the door. Addison raced to the bed and gathered the end of the rope in her palms. Raising her arms over her head, she dropped the excess between the mattress and the wall, just as the lock beeped. The tumbler rolled, and the door slammed open.
Her heart pounded in her chest, and she affected what she hoped was a bored expression.
Tsarevna stopped in the doorway and stared at her. “Where is Andrew?”
“Either jacking off or taking a shit.”
“What?”
“Bath. Room.”
Her nostrils flared, and she slammed the door, throwing the key card on the dresser. “Andrew!”
Addison rolled off the bed as soon as Tsarevna passed the end and reached the corner that led to the bathroom.
“Andrew, so help me….” She pushed the door open. “What—?”
Before she could turn, Addison looped her bound wrists over her head and pulled back, choking her. Tsarevna had at least three inches of height over Addison, more with her heels on, so all Addison had to do was pull her arms in close to her body and let her weight do all the work.
Tsarevna’s nails scratched and clawed at Addison’s forearms, and blood welled from more than one gouge.
She raised a knee and pushed it into Tsarevna’s back. Her knees buckled, and she fell back, taking Addison down with her.
The breath was forced out of her between the hard ground and the weight of Tsarevna on top of her. For one timeless moment, her hold slipped, but Addison twisted her arms again and wrapped her legs around the woman’s torso, hooking her feet together.
Tsarevna stopped struggling, and her arms fell limp to her sides.
Addison considered it. God help her, she did. All it would take was one hard twist, and she could break her neck. No one would blame her. She’d been kidnapped. Her brother had been kidnapped and almost trafficked. The woman was the scum of the earth, and she’d be doing the world a favor by killing her.
Just…one…twist.
Glass shattered, and something thudded on the floor.
“Shit!” She pushed Tsarevna off and rolled to her side, curling into a fetal position, pressing one ear into her shoulder and clapping a hand over the other. It had littl
e effect against the percussive blast of the flashbang.
The door bursting open and shouts to get down were muffled by the ringing in her ears. Forcibly hauled up from the ground, she coughed as the cloud from the smoke grenade hit her. Whoever held her dragged her outside and shoved her against the brick wall, pressing on her shoulder to get her to sit.
Addison slid down the wall and rested her head against it, too stunned to do more than sit and watch the tactical team mill about now that the imminent threat had been subdued.
The sound from the activity was muted by the tinnitus caused by the blast. Shaking her head, she stuck a finger in her ear and wiggled it around. Her ears were going to ring for hours.
Connie squatted in front of her. “Sorry we couldn’t get here sooner.” Her voice was muffled, as if she was speaking to her underwater.
Addison nodded. “That’s okay.”
“That your handiwork?” She pointed toward the motel room.
Addison nodded.
“She’s alive.”
She nodded again.
“You had the chance to kill her, but you didn’t.”
She shook her head slowly.
“How come?”
“I thought about it. I thought about it hard. Before I could decide, you guys threw a flashbang into the room.”
Connie shook her head. “You’d already decided. Otherwise she’d be dead.” Connie held her gaze, challenging her to argue.
“I didn’t want to give her any of my soul.”
“It was a good decision,” she said.
Addison held up her bound hands. “Can someone cut these off me?”
“Yeah. Hang on a sec.” She stopped one of the FBI agents and commandeered his multi-tool, using the saw blade to slice through the ropes.
“So…you work for the FBI?” Addison pulled her wrists apart and shook the remnants off.
Connie grinned and closed the tool. “Something like that.”
“Let me through! Let me through!”
They both looked over at the commotion, where three agents were trying to hold Devon back.
“Let him through!” Connie called. She turned back to Addison. “Have EMS look at your wrists before you leave. The FBI will want to debrief you, but I’ll work to make that happen quickly.”
Devon pushed past the agents and rushed to Addison as she stood up. He grasped her face and kissed her hard. “Fuck. I thought I lost you. I love you. I love you so much.”
Joy rushed through her heart in euphoric waves, but she couldn’t get the words out. She showed him the only way she could in that moment—by trusting him with her heart. She wrapped her arms tight around him, buried her face in his chest, and cried.
Chapter 27
Devon pulled the blanket up over Addison’s shoulders and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. It had been a long night.
After the doctors ran tests and determined there was no permanent damage to her ears and bandaged her wrists, they’d had to wait for TLC’s lawyer to arrive at the hospital so she could sit in on the FBI’s questioning. It was technically only a debrief, but since Addison had choked out one of Interpol’s most wanted, no one was willing to take any chances. She’d fallen asleep in the car before they ever pulled out of the hospital parking lot.
She hadn’t said it back. He’d told her he loved her, but she hadn’t given the words back—yet, but it stung. He knew she felt something for him by the way she let him take care of her. It was a lot for a woman like Addison to trust someone and rely on them.
He sighed. Words were just words, but he selfishly wanted them. He eased off the bed and pulled the door closed behind him. In the kitchen, he pulled two long-necks from the fridge and made his way back to the living room, handing one to Braedon.
“Thanks. She still out?”
“Yeah. I think the meds they gave her knocked her out.”
“That and she hasn’t really been sleeping the last week or so.” Braedon sipped his beer and looked at the T.V.
He said it as if it was somehow Devon’s fault. Maybe he owed an explanation for why he’d bolted.
“I heard her tell you it was all pretend. That she was pretending.”
Braedon rolled his head to look at him. “I knew she was lying. Why didn’t you? More importantly, why didn’t you man up and tell her you weren’t pretending?”
“We’re gonna do this? Talk about our feelings? You want to turn on the Hallmark Channel afterward?” He knew his bluff wouldn’t work, but he needed to buy some time to collect his thoughts.
“It’s already on. Spill.”
Devon looked at the television. Damned if Jessica Fletcher wasn’t sneaking around on screen. He leaned forward and braced his arms on his knees, running a hand over his face. “It stung. My pride. My ego.”
“Your heart,” Braedon said.
“Yeah. That, too. It was easier to believe the words I heard than trust what I was feeling, so I walked away.”
“Look, Addy’s been giving me shit about my ‘life’s too short’ philosophy I’ve got right now, but it is. Bad shit happens, and not just to people like us who go looking for it. Either of you could be hit by a bus tomorrow. Don’t waste time walking away from the things that scare you. She might not have said the words yet, but I think she loves you.”
Devon swallowed hard. “Why’s that?”
“A few reasons. The only person she lets call her Addy is me. Not even our parents call her Addy.”
“I call her Addy all the time,” Devon said.
Braedon pointed the top of his beer bottle at him. “Exactly.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t exactly equate to love.”
Braedon lowered his beer and stared at the television. “When we were around six, she was crying about something—I don’t remember what. Our dad had been drinking and yelled at her to stop crying. I mean, yelled at her. She stopped. Immediately. The only person she’s cried in front of since then is me.” He looked at Devon. “And you. Addy does not trust easily and she doesn’t share her feelings—ever—but she does with you.”
He turned back to the T.V. “That and the fact she was on her fucking way to tell you how she fucking feels.”
Devon looked down and smiled.
“This is a nice house,” Braedon said.
“Thanks. I like it.”
“It’s an old carriage house, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you renting it?”
Devon shook his head. “No. I bought the property at auction about five years ago. Spent two years renovating this house. I’ve been working on the big house bit by bit. Eventually, I’ll move into the house and rent this out.”
Braedon nodded. “Huh.”
“Why do you ask?”
“How’d you feel about hiring an inexperienced handyman to help you renovate the house?”
“You getting out?” Devon asked.
“Yeah.” He nodded as if not really sure. “Yeah. I am. The Navy’s giving me the option to retire, and I’m taking it. I can’t keep looking for the bad shit, not after what happened. I can’t keep putting Addy and my parents through that. And I figure Addy’s going to be spending a lot of time down here in Charleston. It’ll be nice to be close to her.”
“Uh…how close are we talking?”
Braedon looked him dead in the eye. “I’m going to take the guest room.”
Devon pressed his lips together.
Braedon threw his head back, laughing. “Oh, man! You should see your face!” He wiped his eyes. “I’ll find an apartment nearby.”
Devon’s shoulders dropped, and he let out a sigh of relief. Not that he wouldn’t enjoy having Braedon around, but not that around.
Still chuckling, Braedon stood and tossed the remote to him. “But right now, I am going to take the guest room because I’m beat. See you in the morning.”
“Night.” He flipped aimlessly through the channels, hoping something would catch his interest. Finding nothing, he tur
ned off the T.V. and threw his empty bottle in the trash. In the living room, he flipped off the lights and stripped to his boxers. He pulled the back cushions off the couch and tossed them on the chair. Without the cushions, it was almost as wide as a twin bed and comfortable to sleep on—which was one of the reasons he’d bought it. He stretched out, pulling a throw over himself.
Even though they’d slept in the same bed at the castle, after what had happened today, he didn’t know how she’d react to waking up in a strange room with someone in bed with her. He’d give her some space for now until they could talk about their future.
Devon startled awake when the blanket was lifted from his shoulders. Addison lay on the couch and snuggled into his front, pulling the larger blanket from the bed over them.
“Hey,” he whispered. “You okay?” From the dim light filtering in through the curtains, it must be around five a.m.
“Yes. Why are you out here?” she asked.
“I didn’t want you to wake up in a strange place with a strange man in bed with you.”
The corners of her mouth tilted up. “You’re not strange. Thank you for coming after me.”
“I think Connie got to you first,” he said.
“Yeah, but you weren’t too far behind.”
“I wish I’d gotten there sooner so you didn’t have to go through any of it.”
“I know.” She ran her fingers along his jawline.
He grasped her fingers and kissed them. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” she said.
“I’m sorry I left Germany without talking to you.”
“Why did you?”
“I was in the hall outside Braedon’s room and heard you tell him we were only pretending, that none of it was real. It was easier to walk away than face you knowing you didn’t feel the same way I did.”
“Oh.” Addison slid her arm around his waist. “I’m sorry. I lied to him. It wasn’t pretend, but we hadn’t talked about our feelings or what would happen after the dust settled. I wasn’t ready to share the truth with him when I was only coming to terms with it myself. Especially when I wasn’t sure you felt the same way.”
Truth In The Lie (The Leonidas Corporation Book 2) Page 18
