I struggled up out of the darkness. I was bound, tied down and unable to move and I began to thrash, trying to escape my bonds. Just as I came awake the bonds were released and thrust myself away… out of Cain’s embrace.

 

He looked at me, his concern written clearly on his face. “Are you okay?”

 

I had to pee so badly that couldn’t answer. I bounded out of the bed and all but ran to the bathroom. As I sighed in relief, Cain appeared. “Alex? Are you okay?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

 

“It?”

 

“Last night?”

 

“No. Nothing to talk about. I’m sorry Cain. It’s just…hormones…I guess. I’m afraid it’s going to get a lot worse for you before it gets better.”

 

“You’re not upset, are you?”

 

“About what you said? No. I’m sorry I acted that way. I don’t know what came over me.” I looked at him and said the words. “I love you, too.”

 

He looked at me, his eyes narrowing. “Don’t say that, not unless you mean it. I would rather you not say it at all than to lie to me. So, do you mean it? Tell me the truth. Do you love me?”

 

“Do you really love me?” I countered as wiped and flushed.

 

“I’m falling for you, yes. I want you with me all the time. You’re the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep. I find myself thinking about you in the middle of the day, wondering what you are doing, wondering if you are happy. It’s crazy.”

 

When he finished I looked at him. “I’m sorry.”

 

“For not falling in love with me?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Don’t be. Do you still want to be with me?” he asked, and I could detect a hint of fear in his voice.

 

“Yes.”

 

He relaxed slightly. “Then give it time. As I told you last night, I can wait. But, Alex…” he said as gently pulled me to him, “the next time you say that to me, I want you to mean it, and not before, okay?”

 

I nodded slowly. “Okay.”

 

“I have to go to the clubhouse this afternoon. Anything you want to do before then?”

 

“No,” I don’t think so. “I’m sorry.”

 

He looked at me strangely but said nothing. “I’m going to hop in the shower.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Want to join me?”

 

“No. Not this morning.”

 

“You want to go first?”

 

“Do you mind?”

 

“No. Just leave me some hot water.”

 

***

 

While Cain showered I threw a few clothes into my bag. I left most of the stuff he bought me on the shopping trip after I first arrived. I thought about taking the wad of cash he kept in his underwear drawer, but I left that, too. I wasn’t a thief. I hurried down to my car and locked the bag in the trunk. I had just closed the apartment door on my return when I heard the shower shut off.

 

“Can we take my car today?” I called from the bedroom.

 

“Why?” he answered, speaking over the fluff and pop of his towel.

 

“It hasn’t been driven since we got here.”

 

“So?”

 

“So, I don’t want the battery to go dead.”

 

“The battery isn’t going to go dead in a week. And if it does, you needed a new battery anyway.”

 

“Please?” I begged.

 

“Okay, sure. I think you just like to watch me squeeze my big ass into that little car. That, or you want the guys at the club to laugh at me.”

 

A small grin tugged at my lips. Hopefully he would give up the Hounds and join me because I did enjoy his company and I thought, given a chance, I could and would fall in love with him.

 

***

 

“Hello, Cherie,” I smiled as the woman sat down beside me. We had just arrived at the clubhouse and I was waiting for Cain to get involved with what he was doing before I made my escape.

 

“I haven’t seen you since the big announcement. How’re you doing?”

 

“Okay, I guess. Yesterday and today have been a little rough.”

 

“It will all be worth it when the baby comes. Have you picked out a name yet?”

 

“No, not really. I have turned a few over in my mind, but nothing had really jumped out and grabbed me yet.”

 

“May I?” Cherie asked as her hand hovered over my belly and she looked into my eyes hopefully.

 

“Go ahead.”

 

She stroked my stomach softly a moment before pulling her hand back. “It’s so amazing to think of what is going on in there. I want to have kids someday. I’m just waiting on the right time. It doesn’t seem fair to trap a guy, you know?”

 

“I know. This was a…surprise. Even though Cain and I were taking all the precautions…” I raised my hands in a what can you do gesture.

 

“Wow. It is like it was meant to be. I would have never picked Cain as the daddy type. I have to admit to being a little jealous of you. To have Cain, and have him be a good father, and perhaps husband, too? Somehow it doesn’t seem quite fair to have all that in one guy, you know?”

 

I said nothing. He might be coming back on the market for all I knew. “I need to get some air.” I stood and Cherie stood with me.

 

“You feeling okay?”

 

“Yeah. It’ll pass. Fresh air helps.”

 

“I’ll go with you,” she offered as she followed me to the door.

 

I stewed. I needed a head start with no one watching me. I had planned my route to take me away from New Orleans on the first leg home in case the Hounds came after me. I was going to take I-35 North then highway 82 to Texarkana, then South on I-49. It was a big loop out of the way that would add hours to the trip, but I was banking on the fact the last direction they would search be north when my home was southeast. But I needed that head start for my gambit to work.

 

I staggered, as if I were feeling faint. “Woah,” I gasped weakly.

 

“Alex! Are you okay?”

 

I leaned heavily on my car. “Yeah, I think so. Just a little light headed.”

 

“Let me go get Cain!” she said as she started to turn away.

 

“No! No, it’s okay. I’m better. It’s nothing, really. Probably just my blood sugar. Could you get me something from the kitchen? A piece of fruit, or something like that, and a glass of water?”

 

“Sure! Just wait right there,” Cherie said as she turned and ran into the clubhouse.

 

The moment the door closed behind her, I opened the door and dropped into the driver’s seat. I had left my purse in the car and I retrieved the keys from the front pocket. I stuck the keys in the ignition, started the car, and quickly backed out and turned around. As I turned out of the parking lot I glanced into the rearview. Cherie hadn’t reappeared. I wanted to smile at my clever escape, but I just didn’t have it in me.

 

I was only ten blocks away when my phone rang. I knew before I even looked at it that it was Cain. I tossed the phone back into the cubby in the console where it lived, downshifted, and punched the car through a yellow light.

 

***

 

I was twenty minutes outside of Dallas when a Ford F350 pulled out from behind me and bellowed around, black smoke pouring from the exhaust as the diver lead-footed it. Just as he passed, he dipped back into my lane, causing me to purse my lips in annoyance. That was one of the problems with driving a small car: nobody, and especially full-size trucks and SUVs, gave me any respect. I lifted off the throttle to allow the asshole to gain a little distance on me, but then he slammed on the brakes.

 

I didn’t even have time to swear before I slammed on my own brakes and swerved, trying to miss the rapidly approaching rear bumper of the giant truck, but it was too little, too late. I hit the back of the truck with a metal rending bang and the airbag went off with a deafening explosion.

 

When I regained my senses, I was sitting in the grassy median, facing the wrong way. Someone was yanking on my door, trying to open it. I reached up to my face, and my fingers came away bloody. “Ah…” I gasped as the pain began, then I went cold. The baby!

 

A pair of hands reached in, unbuckled me, and then began to drag me out of the car. I tried to help, but I was still woozy from doing a face-plant into the airbag. I reached for my face and pulled my broken sunglasses off and dropped them to the ground. I felt again, and I had a sore place on either side of my nose, and another above my left eye, probably from where my sunglasses had cut me.

 

The hands steered me to a waiting truck. I couldn’t hear as my ears were still ringing from the airbag, and the strong hands had to hold me steady as my legs weren’t working right, but I was beginning to get my wits about me again. As we walked toward the truck, I noticed that the bumper on the truck was badly bent.

 

I dug my heels in. “Wait…who are you?”

 

“I’m taking you to the hospital,” the man said, pushing me along.

 

“This is the truck that I hit! Are you okay?”

 

“Yes, yes, we’re fine. But you’re bleeding. We need to get you to the doctor.”

 

He opened the door and I started to get in, but then I paused. “Wait. We have to wait for the cops.”

 

“Just get in the truck. The cops are on the way. Everything is going to be okay, Alex.”

 

I started to get into the truck again when I felt a rush. “How did you know my name?” When the guy paused with a stunned look on his face, I started backing away from the truck. “I’ll just wait for the cops, okay?”

 

“Just get in the goddamn truck!” the man snarled, pushing me back toward the open door.

 

“No!” I screamed, bracing with hands and feet against the truck. “No! Help!” I screamed again as he tried to muscle me into the truck.

 

“Get her in here!” a voice called front inside.

 

“No!”

 

The man jerked me backwards, wrapped me up in a bear-hug to pin my arms, and shoved me head first into the truck. The moment he released me I twisted and started kicking as he tried to shut the door. That is when I felt the gun press to my head.

 

“Enough!” a woman yelled. I stopped kicking and the man slammed the door shut before he crawled into the driver’s seat. He was bleeding from the face where I landed a solid kick before he got behind the door.

 

“So, Alex, we meet again.”

 

I sat up in the seat as the man accelerated hard back onto the interstate. It took me a moment before I recognized the woman. When I had seen her last, she had blonde hair and was wearing a stylish dress. Now she was a brunette and wearing riding boots, jeans, and a man’s shirt, opened far enough to show off her ample breasts.

 

“You! What the fuck do you want!”

 

“Information.”

 

“You said I could go!”

 

The woman smiled nastily. “I lied.”

 

“You fucking bitch!”

 

“Yeah, I am.”

 

“How did you find me?”

 

“We’ve been watching you. Following you around, waiting for our chance. You’re a hard woman to catch alone.”

 

“What do you want?”

 

“I told you. Information.”

 

“I’m not telling you a fucking thing.”

 

The woman looked at me a moment then lowered the muzzle of the gun to my stomach. “Oh, I think you will.”

 

I swallowed hard. “You wouldn’t dare.”

 

“Want to try me? I’ve got nothing to lose here, sweetheart. I know the Hounds are moving against us, but I don’t know how, when or where. You’re going to tell me.”

 

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

 

“Oh please. I have Cain’s apartment bugged. Unfortunately the only thing you two talk about is a bunch of shit that doesn’t help me. But you said enough for me to know something is going down. Now tell me what!”

 

“You’re a liar!”

 

The woman smiled. “When it suits me. But not this time. How do you think I knew your name? Or where to find you in New Orleans? Or that we had missed you the first time?”

 

I thought about what she said. That would explain a lot. Cain thought they had a mole in the club, but he didn’t know who it was. It turned out it was him.

 

“Still don’t believe me?” the woman continued when I didn’t answer. “That was sweet of Cain to tell you that he loved you. Then you turned to such a bitch. That was some pretty hard fucking you two did last night.” She paused a moment before continuing. “So, are you going to talk, or am I going to have to kill you? But I warn you, your death will be slow and painful. And don’t bother lying. I might not know all the details, but I know enough to know if you are lying.”

 

“The information you sent me? Is it true?”

 

The woman smiled. “Every last word.”

 

I slumped in the seat. “What do you want to know?” I had just become a pawn in a deadly chess game…and pawns were always sacrificed for the greater good.