Chapter Thirty-Eight
Laurie
“You don’t actually think you’re going to get away with this, do you?” I spat, struggling against the ropes that one of Eric’s goons used to tie me to the metal chair. “Please tell me you aren’t that stupid.”
Eric chuckled nastily, the sound echoing in the empty warehouse he’d brought me to on the edge of town. “Oh, I’m sure your father will be open to negotiating … eventually.”
“He’s not going to negotiate a thing with you, shit for brains. He’s going to hire a team of professionals to come here and blow your fucking head off!”
Eric lifted his hand as he stepped closer as if to backhand me, then decided against it. “We’ll see about that,” he said. “Though I suspect he might change his tune if we give him proof that we’re serious.”
I shivered at the malevolence in his eyes.
“Any response to our demands yet?” he asked, looking over at one of his other henchmen.
“Nothing. Not even acknowledgment of the message.”
“He doesn’t believe we’re serious,” Eric said. “We need to send him a more poignant notice that he should stop fucking around and pay up.”
“Like what, boss?” asked the same goon.
“I’m thinking maybe a finger. Start with her pinky, but we can work our way up. If he still hasn’t paid up by the time we’ve sent him all five, we cut off the other hand. That should be enough to show he should just pay us. Otherwise, we can go for the feet after that.”
“You’re sick,” I said.
Eric smiled down at me, a brittle thing plastered on his face by force. “Not sick. Just eager to be done with this.”
“What do you think is going to happen from here?” I challenged. “You get your money, let’s say, and off you go. Then what? He knows it’s you, Eric. You can’t stay here. You’ll have to leave the country.”
“I will,” he assured me. “Don’t you worry about that. I’ve got it all planned out. I’m not stupid.”
I laughed in his face.
He smacked me.
“Don’t you laugh at me, bitch,” he snarled, spittle hitting my face as he leaned over me. “This is all your fault. You fucking did this! If you’d just married me like a good little bitch, then this wouldn’t have had to happen.”
“You really have fallen far,” I said, licking my lips. I didn’t taste any blood, but I was sure if he hit me again, it would be harder.
“Just shut up,” Eric said, turning away to bark at the other men. “Why hasn’t he responded? Someone find me some bolt cutters. We’re going to take the bitch’s finger off.”
The shiver that ran down my spine wasn’t just from the temperature of the warehouse. I had to stay positive and believe my dad would send his team to extract me before anything bad happened. That was what I had to believe. I couldn’t let myself get wrapped up in fear.
“Do you have any water?” I asked, feeling thirsty. “I need some water.”
“Shut up.”
“You took me from the hospital, Eric. Use your brain. I was there for a reason. I need fluids. Unless you want me to start projectile vomiting everywhere again.”
He looked at me. I stared right back.
“Someone get her water.”
“A lot of it,” I said. “I go through a lot of it.”
“If this is some sort of ploy to get us to let you up so you can take a piss, it won’t work. You can go right there.”
I looked down at the hospital gown, glad I was still wearing my underwear, at least. My transport from the hospital hadn’t been overly polite, and I didn’t want any of these men getting a look at my lady bits.
“Whatever,” I said. If it came to that, it came to it. They could just smell my damn pee right along with me. As long as I got my water.
“Perimeter check,” Eric ordered into a walkie-talkie.
Someone appeared at my side, holding up a cup to my lips. I gulped it down, draining it dry. “More?” I pleaded.
A second cup was brought after a nod from Eric, who was busy staring at his walkie-talkie.
“Something wrong?” I laughed when he demanded someone check in who wasn’t.
The lights in the warehouse flickered. Eric looked around wildly, still yelling into the walkie-talkie.
“What’s going on out there?” he bellowed as if shouting would make the person on the other end more likely to respond.
“I told you this wouldn’t end well.”
Eric hissed, pulling out a pistol and pressing it to my temple. “Oh, trust me, it won’t. Because if I’m going down, it’s going to be after I’ve splattered your brains all over the floor.”
I stiffened at the press of cool metal to my skin. I hadn’t expected Eric to be quite so ready to take me down with him. Perhaps I should have been, but it was too late now.
“Show yourself, asshole!” Eric shouted. “Come out now, or I swear, I’ll put a bullet through her fucking brain!”
The only sound was his voice bouncing off the thin metal walls and some of his goons breathing a bit more heavily as they held their weapons up, looking nervously at the shadows.
One of them abruptly cried out and keeled over into a ball as his body shrank, his skin and muscle shriveling.
“Who was that?” Eric screamed. “Someone find him!”
I knew who it was now as the air around me grew damp.
Beads of water formed on my skin and were promptly absorbed.
I felt slightly icky, knowing that the water stolen from the thug’s body was being infused into mine, but my energy and strength were returning by leaps and bounds, showing me just how weakened I’d become from the lack of moisture.
Bearing a sea dragon baby is no joke, apparently.
“Try that on me, and I’ll pull this trigger before it’s over!” Eric shouted.
Another of his henchmen shriveled up and died. Then another. From somewhere out of sight, there was another cry, and a body sailed through the open space with a thud, crashing into a folding table and spilling papers and other items.
“What the fuck!” Eric shouted, whirling.
“Big mistake,” I muttered as his action pulled the gun from my forehead.
Wind whispered, and suddenly, Rip was there, moving fast as a bullet. Bones crunched as he crushed Eric’s hand.
“Rip!” I shouted as a previously unseen thug appeared from behind some boxes at the far wall, pointing his gun at me.
The dragon shifter spun to face me, giant wings sprouting from his back as they wrapped around me protectively. I heard the thud of several impacts as the bullets hit the leathery membranes and failed to penetrate.
“Hi,” he said as the rat-a-tat-tat of the assault rifle continued unabated. “How’s it going?”
“Oh, you know,” I said as Eric goggled at the giant wings protruding from Rip’s back, struggling to form words. “Swimmingly.”
Rip blinked. “Really? Puns at a time like this?”
“Sure, why not? You’ve got this under control, though I’m not sure why you’re drag-gon it out so long.”
“Unbelievable,” Rip said, sighing.
“What the fuck?” Eric got out.
“Shut up,” Rip growled, his mood instantly darkening as he shook my ex violently. “Wait. Why are you still here?”
He spun and hurled Eric across the warehouse straight into the shooter. I winced at the crunch, followed by them falling to the ground limply, though Eric was still alive.
“Okay, that was a bit much for me,” I said, shaking my head. “Can we go now?”
“I’m sorry I left you,” Rip said, tearing apart the ropes holding me down. “I am. I really am. I should have been there for you in the hospital and—”
I pressed a finger to his lips, quieting him. “If you’d done that, Rip, then you wouldn’t be the man I knew. The man I cared for.”
He froze, stroking my cheek as his wings folded back into his shoulders. “I care for you, too,” he said softly. “A lot.”
“Good,” I said, snuggling in tight to him.
“I had some time to think about it, you know. And I want you to understand that I will never like you going off to war. It’s not something I want, but I think I get it a bit better now.
You don’t have to worry about me not being there when you get back—under one condition. ”
The words were just tumbling from me as the shock of my kidnapping wore off. Or set in. I wasn’t sure.
“What’s that?” he asked, tenderly brushing my cheek with his knuckles while he stared adoringly down at me.
“You come back,” I hissed fiercely. “Every time. You go out there, and you be the strongest, fiercest, best prince you can be, and you come back. I don’t want to do this alone. I want you there.”
“I will always come back to you,” he promised solemnly. “Every time.”
“Good. Now, can we go back to the hospital? I’m sure my father and family are worried sick.”
“Of course,” he assured, leaning in to kiss me.
“I love you,” I said, mostly without thinking, just saying what was in my heart.
He froze.
“What is it?” I asked, panicking. “Did I say something wrong? I’m sorry. I just thought—”
“It’s not that,” he said as the warehouse lights abruptly went out, followed by the clank of chains as the wall of garage doors at one end started to rise.
Beyond, I could see headlights and hear the rumble of heavy-duty engines approaching.
“Rip?” I asked nervously as he moved to put me behind him.
He didn’t say anything.
“Rip?”
He turned to look me in the eyes, cupping my face. “I love you, too,” he whispered, fear in his eyes. Not for himself, but for me.
Then everything was swallowed up in a wall of gunpowder and lead.