Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
OUT OF THIS WORLD
My alarm went off, serenading us with a piece from the score of Gladiator.
Knox kissed my shoulder, moved the hair off my neck and kissed that, I thought he was starting something, but in my ear, he said, “My turn,” and he slid out of bed.
He told the alarm to stop, then I heard him get dressed, use the bathroom, and the front door open and close, all of this before I fell into a snooze.
I came out of the snooze when the mattress depressed, and a warm hand came to rest on my hip.
I opened my eyes and looked up.
“You tired?” Knox asked quietly.
I shook my head and pushed up to a forearm. “Just fell into a snooze.”
“It’s been busy. We’ll have a lazy Sunday,” he said.
“We can’t have a lazy Sunday. You’re on the rental return crew, and I’m on the flower dismantling and disseminating to nursing homes crew. Then we have to go to Mom and Dad’s for lunch.”
“Right. Then we’ll both put in for vacation time on Monday. Think of where you want to go.”
“You just had a medical leave of absence,” I reminded him.
“Another reason it’s good to have great bosses. They understand the difference between medical leave and a vacation,” Knox replied.
Yeah, Tito and Tex would understand that too.
I considered this suggestion, sleepily, at the same time considering my bank account, which was relatively healthy, but it probably wasn’t vacation healthy.
Before I could share that with Knox, he bent in, gave me a quick kiss and said, “I’ll make the coffees.”
He took off.
I pulled myself out of bed, did the bathroom thing and met Knox in the kitchen.
He handed me my mug, rested his ass against the counter, I rested mine against the other side, and we sipped.
Mm…good.
“I’m not sayin’ this has to happen soon,” Knox began.
“I’m just sayin’ it to put it in your head.
But I like it here. Last night, at that meeting, seeing how you all are pulling together for Jacob and Alexis.
The way you are together. The way you have your private space, but all you gotta do is walk out and you’re with family.
I wanna ask Harlow to do her magic with your storage spaces, and I’ll come here. We’ll rent out my crib.”
I stared at him, my heart having forgotten how to beat.
“Again, we can wait. A month. Two,” Knox continued. “But when it’s time, I want us here until we get hitched. Then we can look for houses where we’re gonna raise our kids.”
I kept staring at him.
“Luna?” he called.
“You know, I’m a take-life-as-it-comes girl,” I stated.
“All right,” he replied, watching me closely.
“As such, I never really thought of who I wanted my guy to be. What I wanted my wedding day to be like. Any of that stuff.”
He said nothing.
“I’m really glad I didn’t,” I whispered. “Because the surprise of what I got is out of this world.”
His coffee mug went down.
My coffee mug went down (and I didn’t put it down).
Then he was all over me while backing me to the bedroom.
After my back hit bed and my man hit me, I said, “Since Harlow will be in organization mode for Stella, we’ll get her on our space too. Right away.”
Knox confirmed he was at one with this plan by kissing me.
Thus commenced a session.
As ever, I abandoned myself to this session.
So again, I was late for work.
Worth it.
* * *
When I hit SC proper, the first place my eyes went was Byron’s corner.
I wanted an update on Cynthia.
I felt a five-alarm go off in my head when I saw he wasn’t there.
He was never not there.
Always, on the dot, the doors opened, and he was up in our business for a dirty chai.
What did this mean?
I walked direct to Raye.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Byron?” she asked back.
I nodded.
“I don’t know. I thought you would know.”
We looked at each other.
Then we went to Tito.
His sunglasses came up from his iPad.
He was playing Merge Magic.
“Hello, girls,” he greeted.
“Hey,” we replied in unison.
It was me who went on, “Have you seen Byron?”
His sunglasses slid to Byron’s table, they came back to us and he shook his head.
Raye and I looked at each other again and went to Tex.
He was obscured by steam.
Otis, who worked the cubby with him in the mornings (Hunter did it in the afternoons) asked, “Hey. You need coffees?”
“I’m next,” the person at the register said.
“I know they work here, but I’m after him,” the woman behind him added. “I’m sure it’s hard work being a server. And caffeine would help with that. Even so, they don’t get to cut.”
“I make coffee for who I make coffee for when I wanna make coffee for them, and I don’t take lip!” Tex boomed from behind the steam.
The customers shut up.
Raye told them, “We aren’t cutting.”
I asked Tex, “Have you heard from Byron?”
“Who?” Tex asked while wrenching a portafilter off the machine so hard, the entire counter shook.
“Byron,” I repeated.
“Who?” Tex asked, more irritably this time.
“You know, corner table Byron.”
“Oh, right,” Tex said. “No clue.”
Raye and I looked at each other again.
We stepped back into the restaurant, and I said, “He had a date with Dream last night.”
“Date three? In one week? Whoa,” Raye replied.
“I know. I think they dig each other.”
We shared a smile.
After we did that, I asked, “Even when he’s on a mission with this stuff about Knox’s mom, I don’t think he’d miss the date. Should I call her? See if he showed?”
“Wouldn’t hurt. I’ll connect with Cap. See if he knows anything.”
We took our phones out of our aprons and I called my sister.
“Oh. Hey. He’s here,” she said as greeting.
“Wait…he spent the night?” I asked in a happy-things-are-progressing-nicely way, and Raye stopped typing out her text to Cap.
“Hang on,” Dream said.
I hung on.
My phone went with a text.
It was from Dream.
I opened it and stared at a picture of Byron sitting at her kitchen table. His hair was standing on end. There were three empty coffee mugs by his laptop. He was bleary-eyed but fiercely focused on his laptop screen.
I heard Dream’s voice coming through the phone, so I put it to my ear and caught, “…all night, doing something important for you.”
“That’s so sweet,” I said.
“It is,” she agreed. “He’s sweet.”
“This didn’t mess up your date?” I asked.
“Oh no. He’s hot when he gets all focused and I got to make him dirty chais. He says I make great chais. Even if I use oat milk.”
Aww.
“I love this,” I declared.
No hesitation before, “Me too.”
Oh yes.
Things were progressing nicely.
“Too soon to bring him to Mom and Dad’s?” I asked.
It took her a sec to get back to me on that, and I knew she was getting out of Byron’s earshot when she answered, “I don’t want to freak him.”
This was a turnabout.
“So you’re not fighting it anymore,” I noted.
“I don’t know. It’s…nice to have him around. And it…it…” She put up a struggle, then nailed it down. “It feels good every time I put a mug by him, and he smiles at me like I’m his surgeon and I just told him he’s cured.”
“I’m loving this!” I cried.
“Don’t get excited,” she warned. “Anything can happen.”
I knew what was happening.
My big sis was falling in love.
“Okay, I’ll be cool,” I assured. “Do you have enough coffee and chai?”
“After we finished with dinner and my orders, we ran out to the store to get stocked up.”
“Awesome. I’ll leave you to it. Later.”
“Luna?”
“Yeah?”
“You were right. He doesn’t like vegan cheese.”
I didn’t say I told you so.
“So we got some regular cheese and, uh…other stuff when we were at the store.”
Dream was learning to compromise.
I was loving this.
I didn’t harp on it.
I just said, “That’s great.”
“Yeah,” she mumbled, then, “You gotta work, and the parents will be bringing their kids soon.”
“Right. So, talk to you later.”
“Later.”
We disconnected and I told a waiting Raye, “He’s been working on the Cynthia Chambers thing all night. Dream has been keeping him in dirty chais.”
Raye sat with this a beat before she said, “You know Dream isn’t my favorite person.”
I knew that.
“But she’s been getting herself together,” she carried on.
I knew that too.
“I wouldn’t have picked her for Byron, because he’s ours.”
I didn’t know this, except that last part, but it didn’t surprise me.
“But for some reason, I like this,” she concluded.
“I do too,” I agreed. “And I think she and I are finding our way. Not to mention, she’s just finding hers. When she and Byron went out to get the stuff for his dirty chais, they also bought regular cheese because Byron isn’t vegan.”
For a second, Raye looked stunned.
After that second, we shared another smile.
Nancy appeared out of the coffee cubby then jerked her head back to it.
That meant Tex knew we weren’t working, and he was about to boom something.
We nodded to her.
And got to work.
* * *
Honestly?
I should have seen it coming.
I mean, you couldn’t really predict stuff like this.
But we could have probably predicted this.
“This” being me getting kidnapped.
* * *
It happened after work.
It happened after a normal day at work where nothing crazy went down, no one crazy came in, and tips were good (not let’s-take-a-vacation good, but they would help).
It happened when I got home.
I was in the Oasis Square parking lot. I’d just parked my car, hooked up the juicer and was on my way to the gate to the courtyard.
That was when the van came tearing into the lot.
I knew immediately I was in trouble, and I made a dash for the gate.
I didn’t make the gate.
I heard the side door of the van slam open right before two strong arms wrapped around my middle and dragged me toward the van.
I struggled and shouted.
I managed to land a foot to his instep and his arms loosened.
But another guy was there, and regrettably, I didn’t get away.
I not only didn’t get away, it didn’t feel good when the new guy tossed me into the van like I weighed nothing at all.
And it felt worse when he zip-tied my hands behind my back, my ankles together and gagged me. Part of that worse was that I struggled through this, but the other guy joined in, and I was no match.
By this time, the van was motoring.
There were three guys. Instep guy. Toss me around guy. And a driver.
None of them looked like Knox, however they were of an age they could be his brothers, but not his father.
Though, again, none of them looked like Knox, or for that matter, like Cynthia.
Not good.
I didn’t know who these people were.
And the Angels had stuck our noses in a variety of people’s business.
But I still had my purse over my shoulder, and the Nightingale Men tracked my phone.
So I was both hopeful this kidnapping wouldn’t last long, and terrified because, when he was told I’d been taken, my guy was going to lose his shit.
And I didn’t want him to get shot again.
* * *
The ride was long.
My guess, two hours.
Another guess, our destination was Tucson.
We were in a panel van, one used for hauling since there were no seats in the back.
I’d managed to roll to my ass and get in a position where I could rest my back against the side of the van, but this was not in the slightest bit comfortable. Especially since my bag was jammed between me and the van.
My ass began to hurt first. Then I knew my muscles were getting tight. The ties were cutting in at both wrists and ankles. And every bump or turn wasn’t fun.
Tex had given us penknives for this very situation, and he’d told us to keep them in our back pockets.
This was a good plan, and mine was in my back pocket (I was in jeans and a burnt-orange, ruffly blouse today).
Except for when a guy was sitting across from you, keeping an eye on you.
And even if you managed to free your hands, you then had to free your feet, and after that, you had nowhere to go except, if you got past them, tossing yourself onto a highway.
Therefore, that plan was out.
But I was keeping that knife in the back of my head for later.
It was dark by the time we got where we were going, and I was both tweaked the van stopped because I had no idea what lay before me, and relieved because I was going to be able to move.
They hauled me unceremoniously out of the van, and yes, I could confirm my body was one big ache from being in a single uncomfortable position for two hours.
One guy clipped my ankle ties so I could walk, and maybe I could have made a play for escape, but I had no idea where I was and therefore no idea where I should go.
It sucked, but I needed to get the lay of the land.
Jessie got kidnapped, but Javi did that (long story), so she was never in any danger.
Willow and Harlow got kidnapped, but a United States Congressman called for that play, so that was a little worrisome, but in the end, that was about a negotiation, not a hostage situation or…whatever this was.
I had no idea what I was in for.
And I’d admit it.
I was scared.
Someone was always in the courtyard at the Oasis. Someone had to have heard me. Not to mention, the guys at NI&S would have seen me taken, and they tracked my phone, so I had no doubt they were close on our heels.
I was just not liking this, and not simply for the obvious reason that I’d been kidnapped.
We were at a warehouse, one that was remote. There was nothing but a Tarmac parking lot around it, beyond that, darkness, which meant desert.
The door was opened for us, and I started surveying when they pulled me inside.
The three guys from the van.
The guy that opened the door.
Four more loitering in a vast space that was empty, save for a seating section with folding chairs and a folding table on which were bottles of beer, overflowing ashtrays and a mostly empty bottle of Jack Daniels, along with a pimped-out Escalade and another van.
Metal stairs up to some rooms that overlooked the space, all dark, except one that had a window facing out to the warehouse.
Another guy stationed on the stairs to where they led me.
And up.
We went to the occupied office, and they knocked on the closed door.
“Got her?” a man called from inside.
One of the guys with me opened the door and yanked me inside.
He pulled me to a stop.
A man sat behind a desk.
He looked up.
And that was how I met Knox’s father.