Chapter 29
Rosie sat at the base of a tree, ankles bound, and willed her mind to hope. She fixated on the image of Cruz on the Facetime call, how his smile had morphed to ragged concern when he got an extra second to look at her. But that brief flash of his face was enough, along with the sound of his voice on the phone with one of her abductors. His rage was blindingly clear.
He’ll find me. He will.
Since she’d regained consciousness, her phone had rung so often that the men had switched it to buzz. She was certain Shane and Brenda had tried to call. She held on to hope, because it was a lifeline. That, and the knowledge that Cruz loved her.
“How long is he gonna take?” asked the first man, whose name she had overheard. Esau. He’d been the one to grab her. The one who had to be as strong as Cruz. A tattoo curled up from the neckline of his black T-shirt, showcasing tendrils of ink. Some of them formed a symbol she couldn’t quite make out from her spot on the ground.
“Relajate, man,” the other one said. “This town is so small, he’s gotta get here soon. I’m not worried. We got our little meal ticket right here.” He nodded at Rosie.
She didn’t dare respond. Saying either yes or no both seemed like they could get her in trouble. Her head pounded from the chemical on the rag, and her muscles were sluggish. Unfortunately they’d also bound her hands behind her back. Attempting to secretly undo the knots had been futile—she didn’t know how, and her fingers lagged behind her brain’s weak attempts at thinking it through.
“What do you say, Barbie?” The second man squatted before her. “Your man gonna come get you, or is you two not all that close after all?”
“He’ll come,” she whispered.
“See? Nothing to worry about.” He checked his watch and stood. “Any minute now.”
Esau shook his head and pulled a gun out of his back waistband. He turned it over, clicked something open and then closed it.
Oh no. She didn’t think Cruz had a gun. No, no, no. He was going to come here and try to save her. And he didn’t know what he was walking into. If he got hurt because of her, it would kill her.
He was the one person who knew all of her, the one who breathed joy into her heart, the one who had lavished a healing kiss to her pain.
He was the one.
The realization hit her hard. He was the man she needed to spend the rest of her life with. And if he wasn’t careful, he would die trying to help her.
A snapping twig in the darkness had her turning toward the sound. The men went silent, each moving away from the tree she was secured to. The area was thickly wooded. She couldn’t tell how far from any path they were, since she had still been out cold when they brought her here. Her eyes had adjusted as best they could but still, everything before her formed shadowy shapes.
Her breath sounded too loud in her ears. The second man pulled a gun from his pants. No! Her mind screamed a silent protest.
Another crack echoed in the silent forest. It had to be Cruz.
“Who’s there?” Esau demanded gruffly.
Now, she saw a thin beam of light bouncing among the trees to her left. It flickered and waned weakly, then pointed toward their group. Too far to even make her blink, but she had to warn him. She had to do something. “Cruz! They have guns!” she screamed.
“Fucking shit!” Esau charged her, fist raised. It connected with her jaw so hard, her head bounced off the tree behind her. Stars exploded in her vision, and she couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or if she had passed out from the pain. The whole side of her face was on fire. Her head slumped forward—
He jerked her head back roughly and tied a cloth across her mouth. Okay, not passed out. The rough fabric sawed at the corners of her mouth. “Fucking bitch,” he muttered, tightening the knot. It tangled in her hair, pulling sharp spikes of pain from her scalp.
He straightened, scanning the trees.
Tears sprang to Rosie’s eyes, not from physical pain, but from knowing she couldn’t do anything more to help Cruz. She only hoped he’d heard her. She searched for the light in the trees but found only darkness. One eye felt funny when she blinked. Was it swelling? A tear overflowed and trickled down, stinging.
The other man swore softly. “Who the fuck is out there?”
“I’m here.” Cruz’s voice came from the darkness straight ahead. Closer than she had expected. He flicked on his flashlight, illuminating the ground and sweeping it back and forth. The beam passed over Rosie’s feet. “What the fuck?” He shone it higher. “I said not to fucking touch her!” He darted toward her.
Esau lunged, blocking Cruz’s path to Rosie. A smack echoed as heavy bodies collided. Rosie could barely see through the dark and through her half-closed eye. The flashlight fell to the ground and rolled toward her.
The air filled with the sounds of fighting: the crack of a jaw, the thud of fists hitting flesh, grunting and swearing. The ground shook as they fell and rolled.
Abruptly the flashlight was picked up and brought toward her head. Then a click echoed off the trees and cold metal pressed to her temple. Esau’s partner spoke. “Game’s over, Zaffino.”
Both men stopped and looked.
“No!” Cruz leaped off of Esau, who also scrambled to his feet. “Let her go. I’m here. What the fuck do you want from me?”
Esau trained his gun on Cruz. “You fucking snitch.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” Esau went on. “You pissed off Big J with your story. His parole hearing was coming up and then it got yanked. Must be nice, snitching to walk free.”
“I didn’t snitch on anyone, asshole.” Cruz’s voice was low with menace. “I’m out because the witness changed his story. Told the fucking truth for the first time.”
“What witness?” Esau asked.
“From my trial. Juanito. Johnny Crazy Legs.” Cruz shifted his focus from Esau to the man by Rosie. “Maybe you should be talking to him.”
“Aw, shit. Crazy Legs?” Esau’s partner gave a half laugh. “He’s off the grid. No one seen him in months.”
“That piece of shit,” Esau muttered. “Heard he was arrested for dealing. Then…nada.”
“Maybe someone ratted on Big J, but it wasn’t me,” Cruz said. “Time to let us go. We’ll pretend we never saw you.”
“No can do, cabron,” the man by Rosie said. “Even if you didn’t do it, you both seen too much.”
Rosie’s breath came in short bursts. Her cheek throbbed, but terror coursed through her veins in a lethal takeover of her rationale. Both these guys had guns. They might be crazy. They probably shot people all the time. Please don’t let Cruz die. He couldn’t die, not tonight, not here in front of her. Not ever. I love him.
Cruz clenched his fists. “Let her go. She had nothing to do with any of this until you assholes dragged her in.”
“Too bad. Too late now,” the man said. “There’ll just be one less blond bitch down here in the sticks.” He moved his hand, and a click echoed from his weapon. “Any last words for your little lady?”
“If she dies…” Cruz spoke with eerie calm. Rosie wished to god she could see his face clearly. But he was shadowed and too far from her. “I’ll fucking kill you both and I’ll take days to do it. You’ll be begging for me to end you.”
Esau shook his head. “You fucking cocksu—”
A deep familiar voice cut through the night, bellowing a word she didn’t understand.
Rosie gasped. But before she could form a thought, a low dark shape hurtled into the clearing with blinding speed. It jumped on Esau with a growl.
A gagging sound came from the man next to Rosie. A thud and the rustle of brush. Air whooshed past her, around her, as the clicking of metal on metal reached her ear. Shane rattled off Miranda rights.
In front of her, Esau howled in pain from somewhere on the ground. More growling came from the low shape still connected to him. Denver.
“Rosie!” Cruz was right in front of her, cupping her uninjured cheek. “God damn it.”
Behind her, steady fingers worked swiftly to undo her gag, then moved to her hands. “Mother fuckers.” Shane cursed a streak as he took apart the knots. Then he was speaking to someone. “Move in. One subject in handcuffs. Bring the ambulance.” In his next breath he was up and running toward Esau.
“Rosie.” Cruz folded her into his arms. “Rosie. Christ. What did they do to you?”
“Just-just…h-hit…” Ow. Her jaw ached. “Cruz.” She clung to his broad shoulders as tears fell. “P-please don’t let go.”
He sat and shifted her onto his lap, sideways, her good cheek against his chest. “Never. Never letting go of you.”
She sagged into him, grateful for his strength as relief washed over her. He’s okay. She curled her fingers into his shirt. “C-cruz, I thought they were going to kill you. Whatever they said, I-I didn’t want you to do it—”
“Shh, baby, don’t try to talk.” He kissed her hair. “No one’s gonna kill me. I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
Several feet away, Esau moaned. Shane said something in German. Denver moved, then Shane was cuffing Esau, reciting Miranda rights.
The crash of many feet and male voices cut through Esau’s grunts of pain. Rosie jerked her head up to see dozens of flashlights coming closer. “What’s going on?”
“That’s the rest of the county sheriff department. They were on standby a mile away. Ambulance too. Can you walk—oh shit.” He glanced at her feet. “Damn it, I’ll—”
“No. Don’t let go. Please. Let them do it.” Her teeth chattered though the night was warm. Now that she was finally in Cruz’s arms, she didn’t want any space between them. Not even for him to undo the rope around her ankles.
The cops reached their group. Shane gave gruff commands. Someone set up a floodlight. Two EMTs rushed toward Rosie.
“Evening miss. I’m Andrew and this is Brandon,” one said. With close-cut hair and a baby face, he looked like he was right out of college. He knelt in front of her and set a bag on the ground. “Can you tell us your name?”
“Rosie Marlow.”
Brandon nodded. “All right Rosie, I’d like to check your pulse.”
She nodded and extended her arm.
“I’m gonna go ahead and cut that rope off your legs.” Andrew took a pair of scissors from his bag. Swiftly, he dispatched the bindings from her ankles.
Brandon cautiously examined her wrists. “Some abrasions here. I’ll be as gentle as I can.”
Only then did she peek at her arms. The rope had dug in, creating purple bruises and a web of tiny scratches. She winced. If this was what her arms looked like…how bad was her face?
“Sorry about that,” Brandon murmured.
“No, it didn’t hurt that much. It’s just…how bad is the rest?”
Andrew offered a kind smile. “Mind if I take a look at your cheek? Looks like a nasty bruise.”
Rosie nodded. “He hit me. I can talk okay…” She straightened up, but didn’t leave Cruz’s lap.
Andrew gently tilted her face. “Do you have more injuries?”
“I don’t think so but, um…” She tried to think back. What happened after they had her in their car?
An angry growl rumbled in Cruz’s chest. “Did they touch you?”
“They…they had a rag with something on it. They held it over my mouth.” God, that seemed like ages ago, yet it had been this same night. “They put me in their car and when I woke up, we were here.”
“Goddam sons of bitches,” Cruz muttered.
Brandon looked up from where he was checking her pulse. “If you inhaled a substance that caused you to lose consciousness, we should get you to the hospital just to check out your lungs. And run some tests, make sure whatever it was is out of your system.”
“Okay.” She didn’t like hospitals. But their words made sense. She held on to Cruz’s shoulder. “I want him to come with me.”
“Of course,” Andrew said. He pressed gently on her cheekbone. “Any tenderness here?”
“No,” she murmured. “It’s mostly my jaw.”
“It may just be a bad bruise, but the doctor can tell you for sure.”
Heavy foot falls came close and Shane lowered his frame to her line of sight. “Did you say doctor?”
Andrew and Brandon both straightened. Andrew cleared his throat. “Officer Marlow—I mean, Sergeant Marlow, sir.”
“Your sister was made to inhale a substance that made her lose consciousness. She agreed to come to the hospital to get checked out,” Brandon said.
Shane took her hand. “Jesus Christ, Rosie. You gonna be okay?”
“I just feel like I got punched really hard. The stuff they gave me…I don’t know.”
“We’ll search their car, any of their belongings, once we get a warrant,” Shane said. “We’ll find out what that shit was and call it in. You going to Central Redemption?”
Rosie caught Brandon’s eye. “Can we go there?”
“Anywhere you want, Miss Marlow.”
Denver trotted over, and both EMTs gave him a wide berth. “Hi, Denver.” She reached up to scratch his silky chin. “You were a good boy today.”
The big dog chuffed out a breath and shook his head side to side, making his silver chain collar rattle.
“On that note, I’m gonna need one of you guys to look at that piece of shit’s arm,” Shane muttered and hooked a thumb in Esau’s direction. “Denver took a chunk out of it. He didn’t like what they were doing to his aunt.”
“On it, sir. “Andrew hustled over to Esau, who was still on the ground, surrounded by officers.
“I have to stay here for a bit, but I’ll come over there as soon as I can,” Shane said. “Call me if anything happens. I gotta handle this. I’ll see you both soon.”
Cruz stroked her back. “You ready to get up?”
“Yeah.” It was silly but part of her wished he could just carry her. He shifted her toward Brandon and between them she stood up. She took a deep breath, relieved that her legs and feet felt absolutely fine. “I’m good. I can walk.”
Brandon handed Cruz a flashlight, then flicked on his own and led them through the trees.
Cruz slid his arm around her waist. “Not letting you go.” He kissed her temple.
Rosie leaned on Cruz and just breathed. Her mind was a tangle of emotion. She still didn’t understand all the details of why these guys had shown up in Sundown. But Cruz had come for her. Saved her again. He’d risked his life for her. She loved him, and that was all that mattered.