Chapter Five
E ntering the crummy hotel just off one of the main boulevards in Northridge, Crow dumped Rebel on one of the two queen beds.
He tossed his duffle in the corner and then secured the hotel door. He slid the desk in front of the door so Rebel couldn’t make a fast getaway.
As it was, the kid would need to slide the desk and unlock the door. That would give Crow time to apprehend him again.
Stopping by the bed, he checked the teenager’s pulse, it was strong, and his lids squinted.
Was Rebel faking it?
He couldn’t be sure so he wasn’t going to risk a shower. He should have brought a pair of handcuffs with him, but maybe he had something that would work just as well. Returning to his duffle bag, Crow rummaged around until he came up with bundle of zip-ties. He selected two.
Perfect.
Returning to the bed, he zipped one around Rebel’s wrist and lifted it over the man’s head.
Before he could get the other tie around the headboard, Rebel attacked.
The man’s legs wrapped around his hips and Rebel’s teeth snapped at him trying to find flesh.
“Fuck!” Crow growled and rolled, taking them both off the bed. They hit the ground with a loud thud, sending the small table rattling between the beds. The alarm clock toppled to the floor.
Crow grabbed both of Rebel’s wrists.
“Let me go, Crow! I’ll fucking kill you!” Rebel screamed, and Crow power lifted the young man to his feet.
Crow spun Rebel around and planted him face-first in the bed. Holding him there, he pinned the man’s hands behind his back with one hand and pushed his face into the mattress with the other.
Rebel fought like a wild thing.
Crow frowned. The kid was panicking. He released the back of Rebel’s head and the kid’s head turned sideways, sucking in huge gulps of air.
“I can’t…can’t…breathe.”
Shit! Crow released the grip of Rebel’s hands and flipped him over. Bringing him upright, he sat on the bed and pulled the shaking man into his arms. He smoothed his hands down Rebel’s back.
“Just take a deep breath,” he murmured.
Rebel obeyed and then took another, laying limply against him. Crow soothed the teenager with low murmured sounds and a hand stroking up and down the guy’s back.
After another long moment, Rebel eased back and looked at him.
Staring into Rebel’s dark eyes, Crow couldn’t even formulate a thought in his fucking head.
Then Rebel gave him a death glare that should have prepared him, but didn’t.
Rebel head-butted him.
Hard.
In the nose.
Pain spread across Crow’s face. Stars filled his vision and blood poured from his nose. Rebel sprang from the bed and flew across the room and Crow launched after the guy.
Just as Rebel tore the desk away from the door, Crow was on the younger man. He had Rebel in a headlock. The kid fought desperately, but he wasn’t getting away.
Crow knocked Rebel out for the second time.
Damn it.
When Rebel passed out, Crow released his grip and the young man dropped to the floor.
Out cold.
“Fucking hell,” Crow made his way to the bathroom and shoved tissue up his nose before he made his way back and lifted Rebel to the bed. This time, he was able to get the zip-tie to the bed and Rebel’s wrist locked tight.
He stalked into the bathroom, stripped, and stepped beneath the hot water.
The little fucker had gotten the drop on him.
That had rarely ever happened before.
Something about Rebel had him dropping his guard.
Crow decided then and there that he would be more diligent from now on.
No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Just as Rebel came to, he heard the shower shut off.
His fucking head hurt like a bear.
Why had Crow taken him from his mom’s house and why had he tied him up? For fuck’s sake, what was the assassin doing?
One thing was for sure, he was tired of the asshole knocking him out with a chokehold and the next thing on his list was to brush up on escaping said chokehold.
Not to mention, Crow was fucking fast. Faster than he’d ever seen and he’d seen a lot of killers in his eighteen years. Back at the ranch, Rebel had snuck through the fence and ended up watching the military assassins train. They were fucking lethal, but it was Crow that he focused on the most.
Rebel knew enough about the guy to know that Crow was a perfect killing machine. The man worked for an organization that called themselves Genesis, but even beyond that, there were signs of what Crow was. It showed in the way Crow moved and spoke, and Rebel was pretty damned sure the guy thought like a killer too.
When he went to sit up, he found his wrist zip-tied to the fucking headboard. He yanked and pulled, but no matter how much he tried to get loose, he was stuck. He slapped at his person, searching for the knife, but of course, the jerk in the bathroom had taken his weapon, his keys, and his wallet.
Not that the keys fit anything important.
Just his mother’s house…
Then it all came back.
Dory Miller wasn’t his mother.
Rebel sucked in one breath and then another, breathing fast and hard. He felt like he was hyperventilating. Hot rage and then cold shock coursed through him.
He had let men rape him.
He had let people use him over and over just to keep her safe.
And in the end, it had been her who had started his life into hell.
It had been her all along. Who had he been with at that liquor store? Had they run frantically searching for him after she’d taken him away? Had his mother and father cried?
Were they still searching for him?
He had to get out of there. He had to find his real family.
Right?
He pulled desperately on the zip-ties until they cut through his skin and blood dripped down his arm.
“Stop it,” Crow growled, coming out of the bathroom wearing only a pair of blue jeans. The man’s muscles were glistening wet.
Rebel gaped, his eyes involuntarily moving over that impressive chest.
Rounding the bed, Crow grabbed his arm, but Rebel was ready, he lifted his knee hard, but Crow deflected it. It bounced off the fucker’s rock-hard thigh. Rebel went for blood with his teeth. He’d bitten into a man’s neck before to keep the guy from killing him.
Crow grabbed him around the throat and kept his teeth away from his skin.
“If you don’t want me to gag you, then settle down.”
“Fuck you! Why the fuck am I here?” Rebel spat.
“You’re here because some people want to give you a chance.”
The man’s growl was low and lethal sounding and as much as Rebel wanted to spit in the guy’s face, the low rumble punched a knot of fear into his stomach.
That had to be a lie.
Nobody ever wanted to give him a chance.