Chapter 18
SABLE
"I'm so glad you're all right." I handed Savannah a cup of coffee and sat down beside her, my legs tucked up under me.
"You too." She curled her hands around the mug.
"I was so scared when they took me from my apartment.
I didn't know if they'd taken you when you were heading up to the roof, or…
" She shook her head. "I had no idea what was going on.
I was so scared. Between you and me, I don't know how I didn't pee myself. " She grimaced.
I offered her a smile. "When I saw you were gone, I almost lost my shit. There was blood." Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't pee myself too.
She looked at me for a moment before smiling slowly. "It wasn't mine. One of them put a hand over my mouth and I bit his finger."
I gaped at her for a moment before grunt-laughing so hard I almost blew coffee out my nose.
"Of course you did," I said. "You're a badass. I should have known it wasn't yours." After a moment, and with less enthusiasm, I said, "I hope your shots are up to date."
"They are, I had them updated a few months ago, otherwise I'd be looking for a doctor right now to administer them. Who knows what nasty germs they were carrying?" She wrinkled her nose.
She was probably lucky they didn't hurt her for biting, much less hard enough to draw blood. Apparently her value at the auction was greater than a bit of blood from a random thug. If not, they might have cut her throat and left her on the floor for us to find.
"I had no idea that kind of thing went on," she said looking out the window.
Forrest's apartment was a penthouse that occupied the entire top floor. According to Leif, it had a rooftop terrace of its own, but I hadn't ventured up there yet. I hadn't wanted to go too far from Savannah, not when she was still processing what happened to her.
Honestly, I was processing it too. It was going to take more than a few hours to get over all of it. Maybe a decade or three.
"You really came after me," she said. "You walked straight into the lion's den and offered yourself up so you could find me."
"I'd do it again," I told her. "No one takes my best friend and gets away with it."
"When I saw them there," she said absently, "Forrest and Leif? And they bid on me? I thought…" She blinked a couple of times, her gaze still on the view.
"You thought they were going to buy you and do things to you?" I said.
Her eyes flicked in my direction before looking back toward the window. "Yeah. I thought they weren't the men you thought they were. I was really fucking pissed off." Now she looked over at me and smiled.
"You were pissed off because you thought they were assholes?" I asked. "Not because you thought they'd hurt you?"
She shrugged. "After all the things you've been through, they shouldn't put you through more. Me, I'm big and tough. I would have dealt with it."
She said that now, but I knew she was terrified. She was a badass, but she was sensible. Anyone in their right minds would have been scared half out of their minds. Or all the way out of their minds.
"You might have bitten one of their cocks off." A smile slowly crept onto my face.
"If they came anywhere near my lips, I would have," she agreed.
"Lucky for them, they weren't there for that," I said. "Forrest said something about having someone on the inside." I tried to remember exactly what his words were: "Did anyone seem, I don't know, like they didn't agree with what was happening?"
She took a sip of her coffee, her brow creased in a frown.
"Sort of," she said finally. "I mean, the men in masks.
They were telling jokes, mostly at the expense of the 'customers,' if you want to call them that.
It didn't seem to me like they respected them very much.
" She raised one shoulder and lowered it slowly.
"They were probably in it for the money. "
"Yeah," I said darkly, "People like that don't have respect for anyone."
"I guess so," she replied. It didn't seem like she agreed.
"What is it?" I asked.
She let out a breath, along with a small hum. "I don't know. There was a moment there where I thought, if they could have let me go, they would have. But then some other man walked in and we were taken to that bar."
"Who was the other man?" I asked. Was this the one in charge of the operation? If she'd seen him, we might be able to find him and end his sorry ass after making him sorry.
"I didn't see his face," she said. "His voice was really deep, like he smoked a lot. He only said a couple of words. Then he was gone."
"What were those words?" I asked.
"'Get it together,'" she said. "He told them to get it together, then he left."
I toyed with the end of my hair, twirling it around my finger while I took a sip of my own coffee. "He must be powerful if that was all it took to get them to jump when he said so." Those didn't seem like threatening words to me. Although I knew well enough to know tone was everything.
"I thought so too," she agreed. "I don't know, maybe I'm reading too much into it. He might have been another thug."
"From the sound of it, those masked men would have ignored just another thug," I reasoned.
"Yeah, they would have," she said. She tapped her thumb against the handle of her mug. "The more I think about it, the stranger it was."
"I don't suppose you heard them say anything incriminating?" I asked. "Like each other's names?"
Wouldn't it be handy if they said, 'Hey Jonathan, come over and help me with this woman we've kidnapped.' Followed by, 'Okay Gregory, I'm on my way.'
"Not that I remember," Savannah said. "I was too scared to pay too much attention, if I'm honest. I thought they'd kill me. I was trying to keep a low profile."
"That's smart," I told her. "It's better not to provoke people like that."
I knew more than enough about provoking men into doing things I'd regret. Sometimes it was easier to be small and quiet. I hated that so unbelievably much, but sometimes self-preservation had to come before being a badass.
Besides, being a survivor was badass.
"If you think of anything else, will you let me know?" I asked.
"Of course I will," she said quickly. "Maybe when I've had some rest, something will come to me.
" She rubbed the tips of her fingers over her forehead.
She looked exhausted, like she hadn't slept in about a week.
In spite of that, I suspected sleep might not come easy.
She'd toss and turn, thinking about what happened.
At some point, though, she'd have to get some rest.
Yes, I know. I needed to say the same thing about myself.
"I'm sure it will. And if it doesn't, that's okay too," I told her.
"What do we do now?" she asked. "I don't feel safe going back to the orchestra."
"Not if somebody there was helping to orchestrate taking you," I offered, hoping she didn't mind the small pun.
She snorted. "Exactly. They did it once. Who's to say they won't try it again?" Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. The idea was unthinkable, but not illogical. They might come after her to cover their tracks.
They might come after both of us.
"They'll have to go through me and my guys," I said firmly.
"I'm sure you can stay here for as long as you need to.
Or you can stay with me. Until we find whoever's behind this, you'd be safer anyway.
" No way was I letting her go back to her apartment alone.
I'd tie her down if I had to. She'd fight me, but it was for her own good.
And mine, if I was honest. I'd feel better knowing exactly where she was, and that someone was with her, keeping an eye on her.
"So would you," she said. "I can't believe they took you right from the Halloran." She shuddered.
"Believe it," I said. "It was terrifying. There were four of them, they shoved me out the window. I was lucky I didn't face plant and land on my nose."
That made her laugh, but with me, not at me. "You wouldn't have done something so clumsy."
"Wouldn't I?" I reached over to the coffee table to place my empty mug down. "Sometimes I'm about as graceful as a baby giraffe."
Baby giraffes were cute, in spite of their long, gangly legs. Or maybe because of them.
"I don't believe that," she said. "Sable Kohl is very elegant and graceful. Besides, they wouldn't have let you fall on your nose."
I sighed softly. "No, they wouldn't want ruined merchandise." If only for that reason, they would have stopped me from tumbling over. That wasn't much consolation, if I’m being honest.
"I appreciate you," she said. "And I appreciate your guys. They could have left me there."
"No, they couldn't. I wouldn't have let them," I said. "I would have bitten their cocks off." That would take some doing, given how big they all were, but it would cause them a lot of pain in the process. Either way, they'd regret not helping her.
She laughed. "I believe you would." She looked back towards the window, blinking away tears she didn't want me to see. I saw them.
"Give yourself some grace," I said. "It's okay to feel what you're feeling right now. What you went through was terrifying. You wouldn't be human if you didn't let it get to you."
"I know," she whispered. "My therapist is going to have a field day. As if we didn't have enough to talk about already."
I wished I could have spared her from all of this, but I could and would do my best to help her through it, the way she'd done with me. Between us, we'd put all of this behind us and move on with our lives.
I hoped.
"I appreciate you too," I said. "You must be exhausted. I'll show you to the spare room."
I uncurled my legs and stood. My feet protested wearing heels for so long. Sneakers and a dress that covered them might be a better option next time, assuming there was a next time.
My therapist would also have fun with the whole situation if I explained it to them, which I wouldn't. Not because they wouldn't understand, but because they might go to the police. If whoever was behind the auction got wind of us coming after them, they'd come after us first.
No, this was something I'd have to keep to myself for now.