TEN

 

Jennifer had the best dream. She was warm and safe, snuggled up in bed, but it wasn’t her little bed behind the kitchen. She was sleeping in the giant bed that took up most Rourke’s bedroom in his apartment. Rourke had taken her back to his place, where he insisted she stay with him forever. Dream Jennifer wasn’t at all worried about Rourke’s safety. Dream Jennifer was sure he could handle any situation that came their way. She was blissfully carefree for the first time in a long time and enjoying Rourke, who was in that big bed with her and was doing his best to wake her up using just his mouth.             

A loud crash ripped Jennifer unceremoniously from her pleasant dream. Startled, she rolled out of the bed. Thankfully, the bed’s unfolding legs had given under the strain of Rourke and her bouncing on it earlier, so Jennifer didn’t have far to fall.

Another commotion echoed around the kitchen, and Jennifer was on her feet. That sounded like someone had knocked over the cylindrical container where the cooking utensils were stored by the stove and sent the stainless steel implements clattering across the tile floor.

Jennifer looked around the dark room. It was late, and Rourke was no longer in bed with her. She vaguely remembered Rourke kissing her before he left to go meet with Luc. He promised to return for her as quickly as possible. How long ago had that been? Rourke must be back and stumbling around out there in the dark. She must have been sleeping hard. It was wonderful not to have her rest disturbed by the nightmare of reliving her time with Evan that woke her every night.

She picked herself up off the floor and pulled on her underwear and the men’s jersey she’d worn as part of her disguise earlier that day. With her most vital bits covered, Jennifer crept out into the storage room and padded on bare feet to the kitchen door to rescue her SEAL. She was imagining Rourke feeling around in the dark to pick up the scattered spoons and spatulas when a voice came out of the darkness to drag Jennifer back into her nightmares.

“I think someone is fucking with us. We’ve searched every church in the area. We’ve gone through this entire place. She isn’t here,” Tommy insisted.

“She’s got to be here,” Craggy-face snarled. “We haven’t searched this whole place yet. Only the kitchen. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you don’t want to find the little bitch. Either way, if we return without her again, Mr. MacGraff is going to have our heads. Considering you’re the one who let her get away in the first place, I’d be more eager to find her if I were you, boy.”

“I did not let her escape,” Tommy argued. “If you recall, I saved the boss’s ass and yours when I took out those two-faced fuckers who thought they could let us do the dirty work and steal all the fucking profits.”

“Yeah, and that’s the only reason he didn’t kill you when he realized his pretty piece of ass got away.” There was another crash. “Where the fuck is the light switch!” Craggy cursed.

“Here it is,” Tommy said, and the overhead florescent lights buzzed as they came to life.

“Finally. I’ll check through here?” Craggy was walking away to look around the dining area now that he could see. 

Jennifer was frozen mid-step just inside the storage room. The light from the kitchen poured into the open doorway. The light fell over Jennifer, and Tommy looked right at her.

She scurried backward into the shadows and slowly crept back toward her little room. Craggy hadn’t seen her, and Tommy was pretending he hadn’t either. Bless his heart. Tommy wasn’t really a bad person. He was just stuck in a bad situation. Finding her now would make Tommy’s life much easier, but he didn’t cry out when he saw Jennifer standing in plain sight. He was giving her another chance to escape.

Jennifer had no idea how Evan’s men had found her. They’d almost caught her earlier at her apartment, but how could they have known to check all of the churches? She’d waited too long. She hadn’t left when her gut told it was time to go. Now it was too late. They’d found her, and the church would surely pay for it.

“Let’s sweep the upper level. She has to be here somewhere. We’ve hit every church I can think of in this area,” Craggy grumbled.

“I hope there aren’t any silent alarms in this one. We almost didn’t make it out of the last one,” Tommy complained. His voice was growing more distant. As if he was walking down the hall toward the stairs.

Jennifer was almost to her hiding place. She was praying Pastor Davis wasn’t working tonight. He had a habit of coming back to the office when he couldn’t sleep at night. Jennifer would have to give herself up if the thugs found the pastor. She knew he’d never tell them where she was hiding. Jennifer wouldn’t allow the man of God who’d done so much for her to be harmed if she could prevent it.

“I doubt it. I checked the door for sensors after kicking it in this time. We should be good,” Craggy replied.

Jennifer took the last silent step toward safety and bumped into the door of her room. It creaked loudly on its ancient hinges. Her heart stuttered.

“Did you hear that?” Craggy’s voice came closer.

“I didn’t hear anything. Come on, man, let’s get this over with and get out of here,” Tommy complained.

“I’m telling you, I heard something. Did you check that back room over there?”

“Will you look at that, I didn’t even see that door,” Tommy lied.

Jennifer quickly stepped around the damn creaky door she should have oiled and into the darkness of her room. She was holding her breath, hoping Craggy didn’t notice the door behind the pillar. The storage room light bussed to life. They were just outside her door. Jennifer grabbed the lamp from the corner and crept back to the door. She stood poised and ready to swing the solid pole at the first thing that came through the door. She just hoped it wouldn’t be Tommy.

“I know I heard something in here,” Craggy said from nearby Jennifer’s door. It was silent for several long heartbeats while Craggy listened. Jennifer was sure her heartbeat was loud enough to be heard from the sanctuary. She began to think that maybe the men had left the storage room.

Suddenly a bright light poked around the corner to flood Jennifer’s vision, and she was blinded. She swung the lamp pole wildly toward the door, making contact with Craggy as he barreled into the small room, but it was only a glancing blow off his shoulder. The cellphone he’d used for the flashlight app to inspect the space went skittering across the floor to land face down, so they were left in darkness.

“She’s in here! Don’t let her escape,” Craggy shouted to Tommy.

“Fuck,” Tommy muttered.

Jennifer swung her pole again and hit something solid. Craggy grunted. Jennifer lunged for the door hoping Tommy would let her pass. If she could just get upstairs to the church office, Jennifer would barricade the door and call the police. At least had a chance with the cops if she were lucky. She might get one of the officers who were in Evan’s pocket, but maybe she wouldn’t. They couldn’t all be bad cops, right? Rourke said Luc knew plenty of good cops. What other choice was there? Rourke wasn’t there, and she wouldn’t make it far on bare feet if she ran for the outside.

Craggy tackled her to the ground just inside of the storage room. Her knees and arms took the brunt of the impact with the hard ground. Jennifer struggled to free herself from beneath his substantial weight. Craggy flipped Jenifer over on her back. She fought like a wild thing, kicking and punching with all of her might. She was a woman, but she wasn’t weak. Jennifer wouldn’t go down easily. She got in several good shots and avoided the massive mitts attempting to capture her hands.

Craggy cursed, “You asked for it,” just before a solid blow caught Jennifer squarely on the jaw. Her head snapped back and struck the floor. Pain exploded through Jennifer’s senses. He’d rattled her brain with that hard blow.

Craggy complained, “Dammit I hate hitting a woman.” Well, wasn’t that noble of him? They had her again. She was going back to Evan. She lost her fight to remain aware, and the cowardly hope that she wouldn’t wake was her last conscious thought.

Jennifer came around alone in the back seat of a sedan. She was bound so tight that the circulation was cut off to her hands and feet. Her head was pounding, and her stomach roiled. She opened her eyes, but there wasn’t much to look at in the shadowed interior of the car. She tried to look out the window, but there was nothing to see. Just black sky. She couldn’t even see any streetlights. Nothing.

“It’s was a lucky thing Pete was at the pub when that guy came around looking for information about Mr. MacGraff’s lady. We never would have known to check the churches if that idiot, Christianson weren’t sticking his nose where it doesn't belong,” Craggy practically crowed from the driver’s seat. “I bet we’ll get a reward for being the ones to bring her in. Now that Mr. MacGraff thinks Christianson wants his girl, he’s even more determined to keep her to himself.”

“Yeah, it was a lucky thing,” Tommy answered with no real enthusiasm.

“I still think we should have taken her to the condo before we headed out.”

“I’m more concerned about missing the drop. The boss has been waiting a long time for this shipment. After the cluster-fuck of the last encounter we had with these people, I don’t think it was a good idea to delay. What if it was the source, not the middleman, who ordered the hit on Mr. MacGraff? I was there in the wings to take those fuckers out the last time. I know the boss isn’t alone out here, but I’d feel better I were there to watch his back personally,” Tommy reasoned.

“That’s a good point you got there, kid. You’re a damn fine shot. We’re almost there. We won’t be late. I hate being out here in the desert, though. Too many fucking wild animals,” Craggy complained.

It was quiet for a long time while the miles rolled by under the wheels of the fast moving vehicle. Jennifer shut her eyes and played possum. She was absorbing everything she’d heard. The implications rattled around her brain like dice on a craps table.

Damn it. That explained how they'd found her. Jennifer already knew Rourke had Luc hunting for information about her. He’d told her that earlier. Luc must have remembered her from the club when she was there with Evan. Her connection to Evan would have given Luc something to work with in his search for her. Unfortunately, he’d also helped Evan find her. Luc couldn’t have known the wasp’s nest he was stirring up. She was just grateful Rourke had found her first. She’d had one last opportunity to love Rourke and be loved by him before Evan dragged her back into the shadows of Las Vegas.

Jennifer could only hope this mishap didn’t drive a wedge between the two men. Rourke would need Luc’s support because she was sure Rourke would blame himself for her death. There was no getting around it. Jennifer’s life would soon end. She was sure of that simple fact. While she didn’t want to die, neither did she want to be Evan’s property.

She would never willingly be intimate with the crazy bastard. Now that she knew real love in Rourke’s arms, Jennifer could never settle for anything less. Jennifer didn’t want to live on without Rourke. When it came down to it, and she knew it would, Jennifer would force Evan to kill her before she submitted to his madness. Before Jennifer knew Rourke, she could have pretended to be another man’s woman, and she had to a certain extent. Now that Rourke was in her life, she would never betray that love. Not even to save her life. This would end badly for her. She was resigned to it. There was no other way.

“Here we are.” Craggy pulled the car off the road for a short time. The car wouldn’t be readily visible from the road in the dark with the lights out.

“If we get hung up out here, it’ll mean extra trouble for everyone. I think this is part of a state park or something. It’s like a national park,” Tommy mumbled.

“Stop being such a pussy, kid. That last big deal still has you paranoid. Either way, if we did get tagged for possession of this much product, it won’t matter where we are, we’re going down the river. But that ain’t gonna happen. Mr. MacGraff has the cops under wraps around here. There ain’t no cops cruising out here. The boss made sure of it.” Craggy climbed out of the car and slammed the door. He walked to the rear of the car and popped the trunk.

Tommy whispered for Jennifer’s ears only, “If you’re awake back there, keep pretending to be asleep. You’ll be safer in the car. Stay down and don’t run. I promise this will all be over soon.”

Tommy climbed out of the car before Jennifer could reply. Had she imagined the change in Tommy’s voice? He didn’t sound like the obedient thug she’d come to know when he warned her to stay down. No, he’d sounded like a commanding officer who was used to giving orders. He was trying to protect her again, that was for sure. His cryptic warning was still ringing in her ears when the door by her head opened. Jennifer held completely still.

“What are you doing? We gotta go,” Tommy complained. “We have to hike a little way. We’re running out of time. Mr. MacGraff should be just on the other side of the rise.”

“She’s coming with us, kid. I’m not a fucking idiot. I won’t be leaving her behind so she can run off when she wakes up.” Craggy grasped Jennifer’s arms and hauled her out of the backseat to drop her unceremoniously on the sandy ground. Jennifer did her best not to react when her head made hard contact with the ground for the second time that night. Her stomach rolled.

“Fuck, man, why you gotta be so rough with her?” Tommy snarled.

“Shut up, kid. I’m sick of hearing you whine.”

Water splashed over Jennifer’s face, and she sputtered and coughed. Wide-eyed and gasping, she was pulled to her feet. “It’s time to wake up. Your fiancé will be ecstatic to see you.” Craggy bent and scooped her up, hanging her over his shoulder. His shoulder drove into her belly with every step he took; driving the air from her lungs and making her feel even more nauseous. Worse than Jennifer’s physical discomfort was the sure knowledge that Evan MacGraff was out there waiting for her. 

“This is not a good idea,” said Tommy from somewhere to her left, but Craggy didn’t reply and continued his steady, rapid pace away from the road and into the desert. Jennifer couldn’t see a thing between the hair hanging over her head and the blackness of the night, so she closed her eyes and hoped the queasiness would pass. Her upside down position combined with the ache in her brain and the shoulder in her gut worked against her efforts not to vomit.

The distinct sound of more than one diesel engine reacted Jennifer's ears. Craggy’s steps slowed. “It’s about to go down. We’re right on time. Move in slow so we don’t startle anyone,” Craggy instructed Tommy in a quiet tone.

Conversations came to a stop when Craggy approached the rumbling vehicles. He bent over and allowed Jennifer’s weight to slide from his shoulder. The world spun. Her legs gave out, and Jennifer ended up sprawled out on the desert floor staring up the clear night sky. Tommy rushed over to help Jennifer slowly to her feet. “Are you okay?”

Jennifer swayed and clutched at Tommy to steady herself. “I’ll be okay.” She released Tommy and brushed the mass of her wild, blonde hair out of her face. Eight men were standing nearby. She recognized all of them from her time in Evan’s home. These were Evan’s enforcers. His security team of thugs. They were all looking at her with expressions that ranged from amazement to pity.

“Here they come. Everybody get into position. I want this transaction . . .” Evan moved into the group from the far side of one of the two trucks. He was mid-sentence when his eyes landed on Jennifer, and he halted in his tracks. Evan’s men, however, went into motion, taking up their stations around the trucks and withdrawing their weapons.

“Jennifer, what the hell has happened to you?” he asked and strode quickly to her side. Jennifer backed away and thought of making a run for it into the desert night. She’d take her chances with animals. She backed into Craggy, who gripped her upper arms and thrust her back at Evan. “Where are your clothes?” Evan asked Jennifer and glared at Craggy and Tommy.

Jennifer looked down and was mortified to see she was still wearing the jersey she’d borrowed over her panties and nothing else. Her palms and knees were skinned from their rough contact with the concrete storeroom floor.

“We found her hiding in a church basement in North Vegas, just like the rumors suggested,” Craggy gloated.

Evan took in this information and latched onto the part that suited his sense of male pride. Forgiveness and understanding flowed from him as he brushed tender fingers over her bruising cheek. “Naturally, she was hiding in a church. My Jenny is a good Christian woman. She was frightened by the gunfight and ran for her life. She’s not used to violence. She’s been waiting for me to come find her when it was safe, weren’t you, Jenny?”

Jennifer’s mouth fell open, but no noise escaped. The man was a fucking lunatic. It was better to remain quiet than to say something that caused him to pull the nasty looking pistol she could see harnessed under his open jacket.

“Look at her. She’s in shock,” Tommy added helpfully.

Over Evan’s shoulder, a cloud of dust was moving closer to them. Was this was the big deal he’d been waiting for before she got away? Everyone was tense and ready.

“How did she get these bruises and scrapes? She looks like hell,” Evan asked the men since she was speechless at his insanity.

“She was frightened when we arrived to rescue her in the dead of night, sir,” Craggy explained, going along with the insane assertion that Jennifer had been hiding from the people who tried to kill Evan and just waiting for him to come save her. “She must have expected you to come in person. It became necessary for me to take her down and restrain her when she tried to flee. Poor thing must have thought we were the bad guys,” Craggy finished.

“I see.” Evan looked over his shoulder. The approaching trucks came to stop just yards away. “I have business to deal with now, Jenny. I need you to be a good girl. Stay quiet, and I’ll straighten this out as soon as we’re finished here.” Evan kissed the top of Jennifer’s head. He said to Tommy, “You stay with Jennifer. If anything goes wrong, you protect her with your life.”

“Yes, Mr. MacGraff,” Tommy agreed. Evan calmly strode to the suited men who were there to do business with him. Crime must pay, because not many people who were making an honest living dressed as expensively as Evan and his peers.

“Stay still and be quiet. This could go bad fast. If you hear any shots fired, hit the dirt. I’ll cover you.” Tommy stood next to Jennifer. He looked into her eyes and went on quietly, “Remember what I said. Don’t run. It’s almost over.” Tommy winked at her. He fucking winked. They were all insane.

Jennifer stood silently behind Evan and several of his men and watched Evan speak to the newcomers. She was shivering in the chill night breeze. Gooseflesh rose over Jennifer’s body in waves, and she longed for the baggy jeans that went with her man’s costume.

The boss for the opposing team was an Evan look-a-like in his tailored suit with his perfect hair, gleaming white teeth, and regal bearing. Clearly, he was a man used to being obeyed. For a drug deal, it was all very anticlimactic. If it weren’t for the fact that they were meeting in the desert in the wee hours of the morning to exchange drugs and money, Jennifer would have though the transaction was like any other business meeting held in a conference room in any ordinary office.

Polite words were exchanged. Several briefcases were produced by one of Evan’s men, and the contents were inspected by one of the men from the other side while Evan and his counterpart chatted about their golf games and the odds of the upcoming championship-boxing bout at The Mirage. The other man did look Jennifer over a few times. Seeing a half-naked woman with a fresh black eye who was missing skin from her knees must be an unusual happening for a major drug deal. The third time the man looked at Jennifer, Evan stepped into his line of sight, and that was that. Who could care about the safety of a stranger with so much money on the line?

Once everyone was happy that the terms had been met, the two men shook hands. The man who’d inspected the suitcases and found them full of cash spoke into his phone. In the distance, a truck fired up and ambled into view. The product on the new truck was quickly and quietly transferred to Evan’s truck by men from both sides. It was done in no time. The two bosses parted congenially. The other man was in his vehicle and driving away with no lights on into the predawn darkness of the desert. Evan’s truck, now laden with some unknown illegal substance, rolled off in the opposite direction. The rest of Evan’s men were standing by awaiting instructions.

Evan stood staring into the nothingness of the night. He turned slowly and gave Jennifer a more thorough head to toe inspection. She was a sight, and she knew it. Evan withdrew the pistol from under his jacket. Jennifer’s heart leaped into her throat. It seemed her death would come faster than she’d expected. She was terrified. She didn’t want to die, but neither would she submit to Evan. It was better to get it over with, right? That’s what she tried to tell herself as she watched Evan pop the clip out of his gun, check its contents and pop it back in. This was it.

In one swift motion, Evan brought up his weapon and fired twice. The percussion of the discharging weapon echoed in Jennifer’s head. Warm wetness covered the front of Jennifer’s shirt and splattered over her legs and face. Jennifer prayed that God would forgive her sins. She thought of her parents and her brothers and how her death might affect them. Her heart then cried out for Rourke with the painful lurch. She loved him so much. He should have been her world, her everything. She should have been his future. Now he would mourn her, and Jennifer hated that idea the most. She never wanted Rourke to hurt for anything, not even her.

Sheer heartbreak and loss made Jennifer’s legs give way. Tommy grasped her arms from behind, breaking her fall. She slumped against his legs. Jennifer closed her eyes and waiting for the pain of being shot to hit her, but it never came.

“Jenny, did Tommy hurt you during your rescue?” Evan’s voice stunned her into opening her eyes. Evan stood in the same spot with his gun arm still extended, aimed at the head of the man who supported her. The man who’d done his best to help her more than once.

Tommy didn’t move. He stood steadily at her back, keeping Jennifer from sprawling in the sand. At Jennifer’s feet lay the body of Craggy. There was a large hole in the back of his head. His blood, bone, and gray matter were splattered over Jennifer, who’d been standing behind him when Evan fired his gun, hitting Craggy once in the face and once in the chest. He was dead. And now Jennifer felt a sense of guilt for never having learned the actual name of the craggy-faced criminal who had threatened, ogled, and bullied her for weeks.

Something protective and numbing lunged to the foreground of Jennifer’s mind. She was coated in gore. She was covered in another person’s very life. A wall came up between her and gruesome scene before her eyes. Instead of feeling the full brunt of the murder perpetrated so near that she’d been sprayed with the evidence of it, Jennifer felt as if she were watching from a distance through someone else’s eyes. An interested but unattached spectator of a gruesome show.

“Jenny, I asked you a question.” Evan drew her attention away from the corpse. His face was a mask of rage. His weapon was still trained on Tommy. Her answer would save or damn the man.

“No, Tommy has never hurt me,” Jennifer heard herself say from a distance. Tommy didn’t deserve to die. Neither had Craggy. Evan lowered the gun. Tommy relaxed infinitesimally at her back. 

“Let that be a lesson to anyone who thinks to touch my wife without expressed permission from me. I will kill you where you stand.” Evan had started out speaking calmly but ended on an angry snarl. His chest was heaving. His nostrils flared with every breath. He was a fucking lunatic. The remaining members of his security force stood stock still, hoping not to draw Evan’s attention.

His wife? His wife? That’s right. Evan wanted Jennifer to be his wife. Her thoughts were scattered and disconnected. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She knew she was in shock and not behaving like herself. No matter, though, because she knew for sure she would never be Evan’s wife. She would be Rourke’s wife and no one else’s. With her sense of reality askew and the rest of her life looking like a nightmare, Jennifer got to her feet. Tommy helped her up, releasing her as soon as she was steady so as not to risk having his head blown off. Who could blame him?

She stood there staring at the gun Tommy had carelessly holstered under his jacket when the drug deal was over, and it looked like the danger was over. The weapon was resting loosely and unsecured in its holster. It seemed like a mean thing. Jennifer was afraid of guns. She’d never touched one in her life. There was a first and last time for everything, right?

“I’m sorry,” Jennifer apologized to Tommy and hoped her actions wouldn’t bring about the young man’s death along with her own. Tommy was a good person at heart, and Jennifer hoped he would find a way to crawl out from under Evan’s shadow. Jennifer was going to get out tonight, one way or another.

“It’s not your fault,” Tommy said, and he looked overhead to see what his boss wanted him to do next. Evan was watching Jennifer with avarice eyes. As if she were a prized possession he’d acquired and craved.

Jennifer snatched the gun from Tommy’s holster and spun to face Evan. Her only thought was to end the nightmare. She had to stop the madness.

“No,” Evan shouted, but it was too late.

Time slowed to a crawl. Jennifer ran at Evan and pulled the trigger hoping Tommy hadn’t engaged the safety. He hadn’t. Jennifer fired again. Evan raised his gun and fired in self-defense, just as Jennifer had expected he would. Her shots both went wide, as she had no idea how to aim the damn thing. Evan’s single shot struck Jennifer in the shoulder. She crumpled to the ground. The pain she’d expected earlier arrived in spades. Being shot hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

She watched in fascination as blood bloomed across her jersey to mix with the blood already coating the fabric. Evan shouted in anguish. He tossed down the gun and lunged for Jennifer, but never reached her. The world exploded. Gunfire rang out from the darkness of the desert taking down Evan’s men one by one.