Charlotte
Glancing at the bedroom doorway, I couldn’t see a sign of Jake or the beam of a flashlight coming closer. He had been gone for what seemed like ages but was probably only minutes. How much longer would he be?
I jolted as another bolt of lightning sliced through the sky followed by a sharp crack of thunder. Nope, I was done waiting.
Doing my best, I navigated my way to my duffel and pulled out clothes. Dressed in a denim skirt, t-shirt and barefoot, I headed down the hallway, finally making it to the kitchen where I saw Jake, taking a call and standing with his back to me as he faced the entrance to the living room.
“Right.” Jake spoke into the phone. “Garcia still set to use his normal meeting point for payment?”
From his muttered curse, the reply didn’t please Jake.
“Our priority is Garcia. When he’s down, we’ll hand over Reed as arraigned. No special deals for that fucker. He’s going to face whatever he’s got coming.”
Icy dread filled my veins. I stared, unable to move, as Jake’s words ran through my mind.
Hand over Reed. To whom? Whatever he’s got coming? A beating? The nerves in my belly twisted. Oh. My. God. Something worse?
Jake was saying this.
Jake. The man I’d given myself to.
Trusted.
Loved.
I shook my head as the thunder blocked out all noise. A flash of lightning illuminated the room, casting Jake in a macabre blue shade.
The man I thought I was getting to know. But did I really?
How could he make those plans in that dispassionate, matter-of-fact voice?
Everything seemed to spin in my head.
No special deals for that fucker.
I needed to get out of here and warn Wyatt.
But how? Wasn’t the place alarmed?
Thunder sounded above us, like a herd of horses with their hooves beating against the ground.
The storm! The power was out, likely cutting off the alarm.
I glanced toward the back door and saw something glint on the kitchen table.
Car keys.
I checked over my shoulder, but Jake was still facing the living room and talking into his phone.
Holding my breath, I stepped to the table and slowly, so very, very slowly, I lifted up the keys. Not daring to glance back, I used the sounds of the storm to cover my going through to the laundry room, switching the locks on the back door, and getting outside. I slipped out, taking care to shut the door gently and not make a sound.
Rain slashed over me, blinding me as I ran around the house to the vehicles parked out front. I beeped the lock on the key fob, seeing the tail lights of a dark SUV flash.
Wrenching open the door, I climbed in and started the motor, and quickly adjusted the seat as my short legs didn’t match whomever drove the SUV last. I put the vehicle in gear and slammed my foot on the accelerator. Swerving so as not to smash into the side of the front gate, I turned the wipers on the fastest setting as the rain hit the windshield.
“Oh God, let me get to Wyatt.”
My cousin was a prick for handing me over to Jake, but I couldn’t allow him to possibly by seriously hurt or worse.
The rain made driving near impossible, but I didn’t care. I needed to get back to Longreach. If only I had a phone, but Jake had confiscated mine when he took me from Wyatt’s.
I part drove, part slid as I drove like a bat out of hell. Each bump in the private road felt like I was driving over boulders. With one hand on the steering wheel, I managed to secure my seat belt. Dying from being flung from a vehicle during a high-speed car accident would make rushing to warn Wyatt a pointless act.
I kept checking the rear view mirror, but no lights. At least not that I could see in the rain. Gripping the steering wheel I prayed that I’d get there in time before whatever Jake and his buddies had planned. Wyatt could take his truck and drive through the night. To Mexico or some other place where he could hide for however long he needed.
Once I hit the highway, I cried with relief, pressing the gas pedal harder. If there were any cops who chased me, then all the better to help save Wyatt.
Finally, after what seemed an age, I came to a screeching halt in front of Wyatt’s house.
There was a burgundy SUV in the drive, but not the black ones that were here yesterday.
So not anyone from Jake’s team.
Jumping out of the SUV, I rushed to the front door, flinging it open as I raced into the living room.
“What the fuck?”
Wyatt stood up from the dining table, his face blank with shock. “What are you doing here?”
“You have to leave. Jake and his buddies have something planned. I overheard Jake say they would hand you over to”—I held out my hands—“someone and you’d have to face whatever you had coming.”
Wyatt’s face paled. He cast a frightened glance to the men sitting at the table.
For the first time, I registered we weren’t alone. Three men, two Mexican looking, another white, stood from their seats.
The shortest guy, one of the darker men, was dressed in black pants and a white shirt. Aged in his late forties maybe, he wore a chunky gold chain hung around his neck. But it was his eyes, so cold, no emotion at all in their black depths, had me taking a step back.
“Who’s this, Reed?” The man moved closer, stopping a few feet from me. With an oily smile, his gaze roved over me.
Too late I remembered the rain that had soaked me as the cloying feeling of my wet t-shirt sticking to my skin hit me full force.
I wasn’t wearing a bra and the dripping wet strands of my hair hid nothing from these men’s gazes.
“She’s nobody, Mr. Garcia,” Wyatt said dismissively.
Garcia? Our priority is Garcia.
This was the man Jake and his team were after?
Whoever he was, Garcia wasn’t easily put off. At his hard stare, Wyatt rushed to explain. “She’s my cousin.”
Garcia turned back to study me. His eyes flashed with annoyance. “Why’s she rushing in here warning you some guy called Jake wants to take you down?”
“I don’t know. Maybe her boyfriend has a beef with me.” Wyatt ran his hands down the front of his jeans, his gaze flicking over the other men in the room as they stood close to Wyatt. “Why don’t you leave now and save yourself any hassle?” He waved toward a laptop on the table. “I can let you know when the bank transfer is received from the broker.”
“But I haven’t received my phone call from the drop-off.” His cold gaze flicked from me to Wyatt and back. “I’ve got five pretty white chicas locked in a truck awaiting collection from their buyers. I don’t go until I know my shipment has been handed off and paid for.”
Buyers? Shipment?
Broker?
My stomach dropped at the realization of what I’d overheard.
Slave trafficking.
I tried to mask my newfound knowledge, but Garcia’s gaze narrowed on me.
“That’s right, blondie. And your cousin is up to his fucking eyeballs in my operation. Creating false records online for my stock so their fucking relatives think these bitches ran away with another man.” He laughed as I stared numbly at Wyatt, who kept looking at Garcia’s men like they would jump on him any second. “He’s good with moving cash around online, too. Untraceable by the time he’s worked his magic.”
Wyatt was helping this evil bastard?
My cousin finally met my gaze as sweat now glistened on his upper lip. “I’m sick of working hard for what I want in life.” He shrugged. “Now I’m fucking people over before they can do the same to me.” Turning back to Garcia, he blurted. “Why did you tell her what we’re doing?”
Garcia’s tuned his gaze on me, his cold smile like a knife blade running over my skin. “Relax, we’ll take her with us. I’m guessing we can get a bit of fun out of her before I sell her on to a whorehouse across the border.”
A wave of sickening fear swamped me.
I couldn’t breathe as the full force of his horrifying plan sunk in.
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
Wyatt nodded. “As long as nothing leads back to me.” His voice was devoid of even one ounce of remorse.
A raging hot fury consumed me. I’d risked everything I had blossoming with Jake for this little fucker?
I needed to get back to Jake or die trying.
Blindly I turned and ran for the door.
I’d only managed a step before the glass windows on the front and side walls of the living room smashed as two men rolled into the room. Loud noises and blinding flashing lights filled the space. I dropped to the ground, crouching and covering my ears as I scrunched my eyes tightly closed.
I felt the thud of something heavy hitting the ground near me, but no sounds could be heard over the commotion around me. Trying to make myself as small a ball as possible, I hunkered down, feeling debris falling against me, some stinging my arm. How long I stayed there I don’t know, but I started to struggle when strong hands gripped my arms and tried to loosen them from the tight grip around my body.
“Charlotte, it’s me.” Jake’s face swam before me, but I couldn’t hear his words, only see his mouth move. I heard a ringing in my ears and blinked as I looked around, gasping at the bodies that lay on the floor.
Garcia and his henchmen were all lying on the ground, unmoving, their bodies twisted where they fell. Garcia’s white shirt was stained with a red splotch on the front as he stared with lifeless eyes up at the ceiling.
I saw Jake’s team moving about the room. Eli was pulling a handcuffed Wyatt to his feet and pushing him out of the room. Deke and Ryder were checking the bodies of Garcia’s henchmen and taking photos.
Two guys in windbreakers with FBI printed on the back conferred in the far corner.
“Sweetness, are you hurt?” Jake’s voice cut through my thoughts as my hearing slowly returned. He ran his hands over me, checking for any visible signs of injuries and inspecting a small cut on my arm, likely from debris as the room was shot up. “Jesus fucking Christ, woman, you scared the shit out of me.” Grabbing me to him, he wrapped me tight in his embrace, tucking my head against his neck as we stayed crouched on the floor. “I don’t know whether to give you the spanking of your fucking lifetime or make love to you until you don’t have the energy to get out of bed.”
“The latter,” I muttered weakly and snuggled closer to his strength. I curled my hands on his chest and felt something hard and firm at my touch. I leaned back and, for the first time, noticed he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
The enormity of the danger we’d both faced crashed into me.
“God, Jake, I’m such a fucking fool. I should have asked questions and not just run off into the night like that.”
Jake’s jaw hardened, but I watched in amazement as he beat his anger down.
“Charlotte, you can bet I’ll be delivering one hell of a fucking lesson on trust in your near future. The feds installed a tracking device on the SUV. I was tailing you the whole time, just not close enough for you to panic while driving in the middle of a fucking crazy storm.
“Right.” Shamed, I dipped my gaze to his chest.
“For now, I want you close, and that includes you giving me your mouth.”
Who was I to argue against Jake’s wishes? I lifted my face and closed my eyes as he kissed me with that wonderfully firm pressure that I’d come to crave from him. The roughness of his stubble on my face reminded me of the man who held me—gruff on the surface, but his touch commanded all the right feelings deep inside me.
As he ended our kiss and pulled me to my feet, a sudden thought entered my head. “I don’t know your last name.”
“It’s Carter, and you should get used to it since I’m putting a ring on your finger and making that name yours, too.”
I blinked at his words. “Is this you asking me to marry you?”
“You can take it that way if you like, sweetness.” He dipped his head and kissed the tip of my nose. “But the God’s honest truth is I claimed you from the moment I laid eyes on you in that diner. You just didn’t know it at the time.”
I gazed up at those deep chocolate brown eyes of Jake’s and laughed. “I’m glad, or I’d have missed all the fun along the way as I found that out.”
Jake tightened his arms around me and I caught my breath at the fierce look of love shinning in his eyes. “Like I’ve said before, we’ve only just begun, sweetness.”
Now that was a promise I could believe in.