They were freakin’ screwed. How had they not seen this coming?

Dani started with sit-ups. It hurt like hell, as she’d taken a good shot to her ribcage on the left, but it was all surface tissue damage; there was nothing bleeding or bruised under the skin as far as she could tell. The skin, however, was beginning to flower in vivid blues and greens, and the bruise itself was large.

Probably just as well she wasn’t getting married in a bikini. But she wasn’t going to let herself stiffen up either. If she needed to work with bruises and a small cut or two, so be it; she was still going to be ready if she needed to suddenly kick someone’s ass. The fact that they’d left her tied was irrelevant. Ankles tied. Wrists tied together. The sit-ups seemed to be working, with only a small struggle to get into position to do them.

In the meantime, she started a list in the back of her mind. All the potential people whose asses were going to be aligning with her foot.

Benny topped that list. Katie came a close second. But, on the other hand, the way she and Benny were snuggled in the girl may have already suffered enough. The idea of kissing a man older than Dani’s father, out of shape, and worst of all, Benny, turned Dani’s stomach and made her glad that she hadn’t eaten for a while.

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen... The pain of the swelling bruise interfered with her sit-ups to the point where she began to wonder if she was doing more damage than good. She paused a moment, twisting, and trying to assess. Keep going or stop? She bit her lip and considered the situation.

Not that it mattered either way. She wasn’t exercising because she wanted to be in shape. Nor was she prepping for some great fight. She was working out because she was pissed, and had no other way to get it out of her system. She was burning rage, not calories.

Sixteen, seventeen... with a groan she rolled over on the floor, curled up in a fetal position. It hurt to be wrapped up like that, it hurt a lot, but it was worse to try and stretch out again, so she dealt with the lesser pain and pressed her cheek to the soft carpet and ran through her list, coming to the next name almost reluctantly. David.

She stared at the weave of the carpet as her mind tried to wrap around what she’d heard. Even now she had no idea what to think.

What the hell? David on a... leash?

It was a horrible image, one she could have done without. She closed her eyes and counted to ten in Italian. Then in French. By the time she got to Mandarin she was almost calm. Which, of course, was when the door opened, and Katie walked in, waltzing into the room like the queen of the house. The rather imperious wave in the general direction of the guards was a nice touch. They didn’t seem to appreciate it, though, and departed sullenly, muttering under their breath.

Being left bound made a whole lot more sense suddenly. Exhausted to the point where struggling to sit up wasn’t even an option anymore, Dani groaned into the carpet without moving. “Tell me you’re just here to pick up your things.”

“It’s girl-talk time,” Katie announced and perched on the daybed, her ankles crossed and her hands in her lap. It looked like a housewife from the ‘50s having tea with a trussed-up wild woman. “I just thought we should chat,” Katie said, “girl to girl.”

“So you can lie to my face some more?” Dani closed her eyes, purposely closing her eyes so she didn’t have to look at Katie. It was that smile. That supremely unpleasant smile. She’d seen similar smiles on terrorists.

“I did have you fooled, didn’t I?”

Dani sighed and rolled over; she opened her eyes to stare up at the ceiling. Katie obviously wasn’t going to leave anytime soon. “I thought you were a victim. I thought you were going to say David... took advantage of you. You were only fourteen...”

“I’ve known you and David my whole life,” Katie said, her tone so chipper that Dani had to look after all. Sure enough, she was still smiling, though there was a desperate and even strained quality to it that she hadn’t noticed before. “I always admired you—I wanted so much to be like you. I decided to be tough and strong like you were. David liked that about me. I think that’s why he liked me—because I reminded him of you. I was his protector for most of school; when the other kids bullied him for being such a wimp I beat them up, just like you would have.”

“Lovely,” Dani said, and folded her hands behind her head.

“Only, of course, David wanted more. He wanted to be taken care of, to be led. He wanted me to make all the decisions.” Katie shrugged and leaned over. “One day, I found a pile of old comic books someone had thrown out. They were comics set in ancient Rome.” Katie laughed. “One of them went on and on about Romans taking prisoners from lands they conquered and making them slaves.”

Katie paused for so long, Dani assumed she was finished. She took a breath to speak, but Katie jumped back in like she’d never paused.

“There was one picture in there...” Her voice took on a far-off quality. “I just... I can still see it. It was a picture of a warrior, a captured one. He was stripped to a loin cloth, I suppose they couldn’t actually do naked because it was a comic book, but the way it was done you could tell, you know? He wore a collar and chains. I showed it to David.” Katie laughed. “I should have showed it to him while he was sitting down, I suppose. I saw him get hard, in his pants. He stared at it so long and got so hard, I gave him the picture. Then I asked him if he wanted to try it. Turned out, your little brother is quite the little subby-boy—”

“Katie, stop. I don’t need to know this. I don’t want to know. You’re sitting here blaming the wrong person. All this... it was my father’s fault. Not David’s. Not mine. And certainly not Luke’s.”

“Oh, no. No. No. You don’t understand at all.” Katie wagged her finger at Dani, the way you would scold a puppy for peeing on the floor. “See, when we went to tennis camp, I was bragging on David. He had a great body and he was anxious to please me. I was so proud of him. I snuck him out one night and paraded him through our cabin. On a leash. Naked.”

“Katie!”

“Oh, don’t be shocked. I was fourteen, he was sixteen. He wanted it. Dani, he loved it. To this day, I have never seen someone so turned on like that.”

Dani closed her eyes. She really didn’t want that image. She opened them again, mildly traumatized, and vowed to never close her eyes again. “Someone else saw you,” Dani stated, focusing on the details that were easier to manage.

Katie nodded. “Yeah. Ronald Stemple. He hates your family more than I do. See, David and I didn’t... have sex. No one in the cabin was allowed to touch him; he just liked being shown off. But Ronald had this habit of peeking through the windows in the girls’ cabins. He had a little camera he’d take with him.”

Dani rolled her eyes. Of course, he did. She wondered if he’d been tipped off or if she were really getting that paranoid.

“He tried to blackmail your brother, but I took care of that.”

“Wait.” Dani turned as best she could, twisting to see Katie better. “Stemple... I know that name...”

“There was a big charity event for them not long after,” Katie supplied, “Markland raised almost fifty- grand.”

Dani blinked. “For what?”

“For the expenses that the insurance company didn’t cover, silly.” Katie clucked, and waved her hand like the details didn’t matter. “There was a big deductible in their fire insurance.”

“You burned down their house?”

“Oh, please.” Katie’s foot nudged Dani in the sore area under her rib. “You didn’t even remember them, so don’t play like it matters to you now. Anyway, the evidence was destroyed, and Ronald managed to get out in time, so no harm done!”

Dani groaned, and shook her head.

“But then David had to open his mouth. He went running to your daddy just because he got scared. I would never hurt him! The rope marks on Ronald scared him, but that was different! He didn’t need to go running off like that.”

There was another long pause before Katie spoke up again. “I didn’t go away to boarding school,” she whispered, “not at first. I spent a year in a hospital. Only it wasn’t a nice place, you know? Because of your brother, I ended up locked away! I didn’t do anything! I just gave him what he wanted; I covered for him when someone tried to hurt him, and what do I get out of it? My family locked me away and tried to forget about me!”

I can’t even... it’s no wonder... “Katie, I’m...” Dani ended the sentence with a “humph” because Katie kicked her. Hard.

“If you’re sorry, I don’t care. If you’re not, you should be!” she snapped. “I’m done with my life hinging on your family! I am done with your family, and if you think for one moment that David’s little meat didn’t swell when I said that he was mine to play with, you weren’t watching.”

“That’s my brother you’re talking about!” Dani cried from the floor.

Katie bounced to her feet and stepped over the trussed-up Dani. “Whatever.” She waved her hand, dismissing the entire topic. “I just thought you should know. Don’t you hate it when the villains in books and movies just go on forever in the middle of the battle to explain everything? It so ruins the tension of the moment. So, since you’re getting married tomorrow, I thought you should know all the details. You know. Before the end.” She smiled and stretched, her smile satisfied and somewhat... predatory? “Anyway, I should get back. Benny-ben gets all needy without me.” She smiled, and opened the door. “I suppose you have to untie her, huh?” she asked the guard. “That’s a shame. I like boys better, but she’s kinda cute.”

Dani’s eyes opened wide in horror as that particular thought kicked in.

No. Way. In. Hell.

The guard knelt beside Dani. “I’ll cut you free if you promise to be nice about it. Or I can leave you tied. Your choice.”

Dani lifted her head and looked at him. His face was swelling around his eye socket. Dani suppressed a laugh. “Yeah, I really am sorry about that.” She turned a barked laugh into a cough. “Really.”

The man stood and walked out, leaving her trussed on the floor.

It was an hour before someone came and finally set her free. By then, all she wanted was to rest. And that was why she was working out. Because Katie was a monster, David was... it was an image she didn’t want and couldn’t get rid of. And because Luke... no telling how Luke was right now. She’d seen the dogpile. He had to be hurting.

The catch in her side eased up enough for her stretch again.

That meant it was time for push-ups.

***

EXCEPT FOR A FEW BRUISED ribs and the split lip, Luke was pretty sure he wasn’t doing too badly. Okay, well, that and it hurt to breathe. He studied the split on his fist where the goon’s chin had taken the punch. Or maybe it was his tooth. Luke wasn’t exactly sure. It could probably use a stitch or two. Otherwise, he was fine. Mostly.

Of course, the dresser he landed on when they bodily threw him in the room was going to require some work. That, though, had been a foolish move on their part. They’d given him a weapon now, lots of pointy shattered boards which would hurt like blazes the next time someone came in there. Only it had been a few hours now, and he was starting to think he wasn’t loved anymore; no one had so much as come near his door since they’d bounced him.

Still, he kept the best piece handy as he attempted for the forty-third time to circle the room. Pacing helped, even if walking was vastly overrated. Eventually he was limping too much for even that, and half crawled, half stumbled to the bed. Oh, yeah, that was better. Somewhat. He rolled over onto the mattress and tried to straighten. His ribs advised against it, so he lay in the fetal position to wait for the pain to hit.

He was no stranger to the process. During an adrenaline rush pain was often reduced, usually suppressed for up to hours afterwards. Taking a hit while in a fight always hurt worse when the fight was over, and you had time to truly appreciate the broken nose, or black eye. In this case, they did try to leave him picture-perfect for the big day so, other than the split lip, his face had been pretty much left alone. It was the places it wouldn’t show that really hurt. In truth, the busted lip was mostly due to him hitting the floor—it was as much his fault as theirs.

The only consolation he had was that he’d given as good as he’d gotten. At least he hoped so. He damn well hoped so. He hated to think they’d gotten into that little melee for no purpose whatsoever.

He wondered if they’d had the guts to beat on Dani after they had taken her prisoner. He hadn’t been able to see her very well as they’d said goodnight. But then they’d been hung up and tied at the time. He suspected they’d gone easier on her. At least she hadn’t seemed overtly bloodied and bruised when they’d hauled her away. He supposed it was a bit sexist of them, but here at least he would bow to old-world thinking. It killed him to think of someone hurting her. And he hoped like hell she’d done as much damage to them, if not more than what he’d been able to see before they’d rushed him out. From the look of it, she’d disported herself amazingly well. But then he’d never doubted for a minute that she had the capability. She only needed to be mad enough.

And she’d been absolutely furious.

He’d lain there for less than fifteen minutes when his bladder announced that it was taking over and it didn’t care where he was, or what shape he was in. He pulled himself to his feet, complaining and promising himself he would exact revenge on everyone he’d met since he’d taken this assignment, and that included Randy.

That was when he discovered the blood in the urine.

It wasn’t the first time. Usually it meant that he’d taken a shot that had busted something free inside. But it healed, it always did. Oddly, his crotch didn’t exactly hurt, so it wasn’t direct damage to his honeymoon.

He was able to make it back to the mattress and collapse. This time, he was able to walk, if bent over, so that was progress. It also meant falling into bed from a much higher altitude, and he clutched the extra pillow to hold against his stomach.

There isn’t going to be much of a honeymoon. It’ll be a miracle if Dani and I live to see the farce through. Once her father shows up it’ll all be over, the most public execution in mob history. Benny would gather together all the greats and near-greats and parade that poor fool in front of them all and BANG!

The only real worry was Dani. Though it might have been safe to say that David was at greater risk where Katie was concerned, Luke was fast reaching the point where he just didn’t care. The man was insane. Sure, he had reasons, even sociopathic homicidal maniacs had their “reasons”, but nuts is nuts. David was nuts.

And Luke wasn’t in love with David.

It keeps coming down to that. Love. He tried to berate himself, to make himself stop loving her. It did no good to be in love with a woman like her. She was too wrapped up in her family to see anything else. And even if she did, she’d never trust any man with her heart. She’d never be able to give him what he needed.

Only he was starting to revise the list of what it was he thought he needed. Maybe it wasn’t the suburban housewife with 2.3 kids and a minivan with stick figures on the back window. Maybe the kind of woman he needed in his life had a rather precise kick. Who would show you that amazing flash of leg and then put your lights out before you were even aware her foot had left the floor. And then there was the perfectly executed punch that she’d thrown. No holding back there. She’d broken that guy’s nose on the first hit, and had him down out cold in the follow-through. That was sheer poetry. He could only imagine her precision with small arms, and got hard just thinking about what she could probably do with a knife.

Watching her was like watching a deadly ballet. She was a precise dancer who broke bones and shattered teeth in her pirouettes.

Damn, she was beautiful. No, she’d never be a soccer mom, but as a lover she was intense. Each time they were together was as much battle as lovemaking. He remembered how she’d pinned him, how she’d fought him, and then how she’d melted in his arms. Such highly toned muscles. Such deadly precision. Making love to her was like... like that old story of riding a tiger. You’re probably safe if you don’t let go. Safer.

The hell with whatever dreams of suburban bliss and 401Ks that he’d been entertaining ever since his friends had started to marry and settle down. There was more to life than stability. And if he ever got out of this... well, they’d find something else. Something that wasn’t budgets and scheduled dates. They could be...

They could be dead.

He sighed and closed his eyes, his forearm over his eyes to keep the glare from the window from killing him. His head hurt, and they’d never given him so much as an aspirin.

Dani was... she would be all right. She’d gone down fighting, just the same as he had. They may not have taken the cheap shots on her like they did with him, being the boss’ niece and a pretty girl at that, but he wouldn’t be surprised if someone’s hand “accidently” slipped as they dragged her upstairs.

If that were the case they would be easy to spot, for once they got through this Dani would turn around and cut those hands off.

Strange, really. Despite everything, I still think there’s a happy ending where I get Dani and we both get away with our lives intact. I really am convinced that we will triumph, somehow. Though Randy riding to my rescue on a white charger isn’t in the works. Hell, right now, I’d be the damsel in distress, so long as it gets me and her out of this. And then we’ll see. Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll have... well, something together at any rate. Whatever it turns out to be.

They only needed to get out.

But there were no knights riding to the rescue. And Randy certainly wasn’t coming, in a Dodge Charger or otherwise; he’d made that clear. And what in the hell was up with that fixation on the guest list? Giving the DA time to organize paperwork was bullshit. Was that why Luke hadn’t left the stick with him? Something made him feel off about that, something prevented him, but he couldn’t place his finger on it at the time.

He remembered talking to him about it, surprised that he’d gotten word so quickly from the underground. It wasn’t unreasonable, really. A good rumor only takes a moment to cross the globe; hearing that didn’t leave an impression.

It was something else. Something... he lay there and worried at it, trying to rerun the complete conversation. In the darkening night, he lay and tried to remember everything.

Talking about rumors and Beyoncé... it was in there somewhere. How was he supposed to focus when he hurt like hell and Dani was so far away?

You focus because you have to. Because if you want the girl, you have to be alive to save her. Or, knowing her, alive to be saved by her. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time.

So think. What did Randy say?

The room was dark before he figured it out.

Luke bolted upright.

“I’m deeply invested, have been for years.”

YEARS?