Chapter 21
Last Night Of The World
Mara winced as she woke up. Why was she so sore?
Sure, her body had enjoyed more sexual adventures in the last few days than she’d had in a lifetime, but that shouldn’t mean pain.
The worst was in her shoulders and wrists. Rolling out dough? It would take hundreds of batches to make her feel this bad.
As her brain cleared, Mara tried to squirm deeper into the pillows. Maybe if she fell back asleep, she’d wake up feeling better.
Or Seth could make her feel better.
The thought of the many inventive ways he had of making her feel spectacular had her smiling.
Except something covered her mouth, and she couldn’t move her lips. Something tight and uncomfortable that shouldn’t be there.
A gag?
Terror had her eyes flying open, but it didn’t make a difference. She was in the dark. Not dark like she was in her bedroom with the curtains pulled. Pure dark.
Mara tried to sit up and realized she wasn’t just gagged; her arms were tied behind her back, and her feet were bound.
What the hell?
Panic had her thrashing against whatever held her and screaming out, but the gag made that impossible. Her efforts made her head spin, and she had to swallow hard so she didn’t vomit even as her heart thudded against her rib cage.
Was this real or a nightmare?
She’d never been the type to have vivid dreams. They were mostly vague snatches of emotions that drifted away as she woke.
This was real.
Someone had tied her up and gagged her.
Who? Why?
Her heart pounded, and she squirmed, trying to free herself.
When lights appeared and danced in her vision, she forced herself to slow down, to breathe through her nose. Passing out wouldn’t be smart, but smart didn’t seem to be within her reach at the moment.
Tears pricked her eyes, and she squeezed them shut. No crying. Crying meant she’d need to blow her nose, and that wasn’t possible. She needed it to breathe—no tears and no screaming.
Could she die of fright?
Would she suffocate herself if she panicked?
Would that be better than whatever this person had planned? Who had done this to her?
Slow down. She had to slow down her heart rate. Find some control.
What would Seth do?
Well, first off, he wouldn’t be thrashing about in a panic. The man was as steady as the earth. Even while he’d been injured, she’d bet he’d been able to focus. To help others. He and his team had all been injured, but they’d worked together to complete their mission and get Maki’s body home.
She needed him, but until she found him again, she needed his courage and determination.
But she was a baker. Someone who played with sugar. Someone who loved to sing.
She needed Maria’s courage now—or Ariel’s. The mermaid had changed her species for a guy. Surely Mara could get out of whatever held her so tightly. Maybe using her playlist about bravery would help.
“Defying Gravity” was all about breaking free. Sure, Elphaba was breaking free from the past, but Mara could use that courage.
She closed her eyes against the enforced dark, and let the lyrics flow through her mind. Her heartbeat immediately slowed and her pulse beat in time with the song.
Once she was more in control, Mara realized she didn’t have a clue how to get out of the bonds. None of her favorite musicals gave her that information, and she never watched scary movies.
She should have spent more time with Seth honing her self-defence techniques. They’d talked about it, but with the focus on getting the No Phailed Apples Inn up and running, there hadn’t been much time.
They’d spent all their free time in bed, and she wouldn’t regret even a moment of that.
She wanted a lot more of that, so she needed to channel some of Seth’s training and get herself out of here.
The first step was to free herself from the ties that held her in place. She’d feel so much better if she could remove the gag. Was she somewhere with people nearby? Could she scream for help? Probably, or he wouldn’t have wasted time gagging her.
Why couldn’t she remember how she’d gotten here? The last thing she remembered was making love with Seth before he’d headed back to prepare his carnivore feast for the bodyguards.
What happened after that?
The memory gap was as terrifying as her present captivity. What memories had she lost? Would she ever get them back? She didn’t even know how long it had been since she’d been taken.
Frustrated with her lack of focus, Mara started the lyrics to “Hakuna Matata” in her head. No worries. She had this.
Well, she didn’t, but she wasn’t giving up.
She needed a tool to help her with the bonds and the gag. If she could free her hands, the rest would be easier.
Mara turned her attention to what she could sense around her. The ground was cool beneath her. No, not ground. Floor.
She was inside. That helped ease some of the panic. At least none of the predators they worried would bother her hens would start nibbling her toes.
Predators. Chickens. Had she been heading to Chick Inn Time? A vague memory tried to land in her brain, but she couldn’t grasp it.
It didn’t matter. Getting free mattered.
“Make Them Hear You”. The song from Ragtime was perfect with its strong, determined beat. The backstory didn’t match what was happening to her, but the desire to be heard was.
She had to tell Seth she loved him.
With a slow breath out and renewed determination, Mara twisted to the beat in her head, searching for something she could use as a tool.
Her feet clunked against something solid. A wall or a door?
More shifts, more explorations with her feet had her thinking it was a door because there were bumps about a yard apart. Doorjambs? A twist had her finding something softer. A large bag of something. Like flour bags, but larger.
More twists showed another bag, another wall, back to the front. She was in a tiny space. A storage room? The blank wall had to be the door.
Which meant she had a way out. All she had to do was get to her feet and open the door.
She refused to think about it being locked. She’d deal with that once she was upright.
The space was small enough, she hoped she could leverage herself to a standing position.
She had to stop several times to steady her breathing, but she managed to sit up. Then she shoved her feet against the bags and shimmied up the wall, a quarter of an inch at a time—more fractions for Charlie.
Her breathing was harsh in her ears, but she couldn’t slow down, not when she was halfway to a standing position. She didn’t want to face her kidnapper lying on the ground. At least if she gained her feet, she’d have a chance. Standing had to be better than being helpless on the ground.
The noise of metal on metal made her entire body flinch. Should she make noises around the gag? Was it Seth coming to help?
Another scraping sound sent shivers down her spine, and she shoved against the door and the bags again, trying to get higher.
If it were Seth, he’d be calling her name. It had to be the man who’d taken her. What was he planning? Why did he take her?
Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked furiously while trying to shove to her feet. Almost there.
The door behind her opened, and she stumbled backward. Without her limbs free to brace herself, she fell hard, thumping to the ground, forcing the air out of her lungs.
Dragging in as much air as she could through her nose, she blinked her eyes in the sudden brightness.
A man laughed, and the sound sent fear racing back.
The bright light shone directly into her eyes. A flashlight?
“You’re awake. Perfect. This way, he gets to see how scared you are before you blow up into millions of pieces.”
Seth studied the photos he’d taken as the others streamed into the kitchen. He tried to study the background for clues, but he kept returning to Mara’s unconscious face.
Unconscious, not dead. She couldn’t be dead.
Despair welled within him, and it took all his self-control to shut it down.
She was alive. This asshole wanted to freak Seth out, and he couldn’t let him. He sure as hell wasn’t risking Mara’s life because he wasn’t in control.
“What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Seth lifted his head to see Kadek, one of the bodyguards, looking at the group with concern.
“We can’t locate Mara.”
“The baker?”
Seth nodded, but went back to studying the photos while Gray explained.
Gray touched Seth on the shoulder. “Nash and Lawson are organizing a grid search starting at the back of the orchard.”
Kadek pulled out his phone. “I’ll call my buddies, and we’ll help. Just show us where you want us to look. Is there any known threat to her?”
Seth frowned. “An asshole harassed her back in New York.”
Amber sat beside him. “I checked his social media page. Anson posted a live video of himself in New York this afternoon talking about a new baker.”
Seth closed his eyes to tune out the noise. Something wasn’t right. The threat was aimed at him. Through Mara, but because of him. It wouldn’t be Anson.
Three other bodyguards arrived in the kitchen, armed and prepared. Stone Face wasn’t one of them.
Seth’s blood chilled. “Where’s the other guy?”
Kadek shrugged. “No clue. He’s in the same training as we are, but we don’t know him. He stays separate.”
Dread curled low in his belly, and all Seth’s instincts flared. “What’s his name?”
“He’s called himself Neil, but it’s MacNeil. Blake MacNeil.”
Seth froze for an instant, and then his stomach reared up in his throat, trying to cut off his air.
Maki’s brother. It had to be. The same name couldn’t be a coincidence.
The facts fit. The name, the way the man had glared at Seth.
Now, he wanted Seth helpless while someone he loved died. Shit.
The man had never replied to Seth’s emails after Maki’s death. He must blame Seth for Caden’s death. And now he was looking to exact revenge, with Mara as the focus.
Where the hell did he have her?
Gray nudged him. “Babs. Stay with us, man. What’s your connection to MacNeil?”
He wanted to run, to save Mara, but he didn’t have a direction, didn’t have an aim. “A kid on my team was killed overseas by an IED. Maki. Caden MacNeil.”
Gray’s gaze traveled to Seth’s leg. “Same explosion that banged you up?”
“I emailed Caden’s older brother, Blake, a few times, but he’s never responded. This isn’t a coincidence. Which car is his?”
A race to the vehicles showed Blake’s Jeep with the others, so he hadn’t taken her far. He wanted Seth to know he had her. He wanted Seth to suffer.
Where the hell would he take her? Had he told her a story to make her go with him willingly?
No. Mara wouldn’t have gone with the man she called Stone Face.
Had she headed to check for more eggs? To play with the hens?
Gray nudged him again. “Ford is leading a team with the ATVs to search the property. Thea is bringing our weapons here. What are you thinking?”
Seth nodded at Kadek. “Can you and your guys search the inn, top to bottom, with Amber and Boomer? Then the farmhouse, too.” He had to check there to see if he was wrong.
They nodded, and Gray narrowed his eyes at Seth. “You don’t think she’s in either of those places. Where?”
“Chick Inn Time.”
Gray’s eyes widened, and he nodded. “Isolated but accessible. He wouldn’t have to carry her far.”
Seth nodded. “Bring my weapon with you.”
And then he ran, leaving his friend behind. With the rage simmering through him, he wouldn’t need a weapon, but he’d be happy to have Gray and the others at his back.
For now, he needed to get to Mara. Get to Blake before he did something he couldn’t come back from.
While he ran, he pulled up every scrap of memory of what Caden had told him about his brother. Blake hadn’t been a troublemaker. He was a good man who’d been heartbroken about the health issues that kept him from serving.
Hell, the man probably knew Caden had joined up because he wanted to live out his brother’s dream for him. And then the kid had died.
Now that sorrow, that guilt had twisted him up and made him blame Seth, which wasn’t anything Seth hadn’t done himself.
But to put an innocent woman at risk meant the guy had crossed a line.
How far would he go to make Seth pay?