Chapter Twenty-Five
Charlie woke up in the trunk. She wasn’t even sure how she got there to begin with.
One second, she was eyeing Mae’s gun and considering how best to attack, and the next, she was waking up here.
She moved, realized her wrists and ankles were zip-tied together, and cursed.
Apparently, Mae was taking no chances when it came to her.
Damn it. She tested the ties, but they weren’t in a good spot to try to break them and she didn’t have enough range of motion to even attempt it.
Her heart beat harder despite her best effort to remain calm.
She’d been in sticky situations before, but she couldn’t remember one this sticky.
As tempting as it was to pretend Aiden or her dad would ride in on a white horse to save her, she couldn’t plan on it.
She’d just gotten done telling her dad off, and as far as she knew, Aiden was still waiting for her to get over her snit and come back.
She was beginning to understand why Aiden wanted to eliminate Mae altogether.
Shouldn’t have been so single-minded. Should have stayed and talked to him—talked it through.
It was too late now to worry about making the crappy decision to walk away from Aiden.
She suspected that Mae had been just waiting for the right time to swoop in and take her.
If it hadn’t been tonight, it would have been the next time she and Keira ventured out, and then there would have been another potential victim in the mess.
Like Liam.
She pressed her lips together against a sob.
I hope he’s okay. So many mistakes, all hers.
But she couldn’t focus on that. If Liam survived, she was going to do something to make up for being the biggest pain in the ass in the world—just as soon as she got out of this trunk. If I get out of this trunk.
As if on cue, the car rolled to a stop. Charlie listened hard, picking out the sounds of the door opening and shutting, and heels on pavement circling around to the trunk.
She tensed, ready to spring out as best she could, but when the trunk opened, she once again found herself facing down the wrong end of a gun.
Mae flicked her a glance, not looking particularly impressed. “At least you didn’t piss yourself.”
“How about you let me out of these restraints and we fight it out like real women?”
“Do you think you’re funny?” She cocked her head to the side. “You’re not. You know what you also aren’t? A dim-witted gold-digging slut. I checked up on you, Charlotte Finch. What’s a dirty cop doing with an Irish mob boss?”
A man appeared at Mae’s back, his whole bearing translating to “hired muscle.” He lifted Charlie out of the trunk as if she were a paper doll and tossed her over his shoulder.
She couldn’t see Mae as they headed into what appeared to be a warehouse identical to the one they’d met in several days ago.
She didn’t know if she should be more terrified by their location or the fact that Mae Eldridge apparently knew her real name. Neither of the implications was good. Have to figure out a way out of this. She didn’t have a lot of options.
The muscle dropped her into a chair and shoved her shoulders back. She tensed, waiting for him to cut the ties and maybe try to attach new ones. As soon as her hands were free, she’d attack.
But he didn’t give her the opportunity.
Mae stepped up, wielding the gun almost casually. “Don’t make trouble.”
“You know, if my options are to get shot in the brain or to let you tie me to a chair and torture me…I think you can guess which option I’m going with.”
Mae shook her head. “What makes you think I’m going to shoot you in the brain, Charlotte?
All I have to do is shoot you in the kneecaps and you’d have to drag your body out of here.
I don’t imagine you’d get far enough to call for help before you bled out, even if you miraculously managed to kill both David here and myself. ”
“I think I’m up to the challenge.” It was sheer bravado, though. Charlie knew a helpless situation when she saw one. She’d lived through one before, but that was only because those cops wanted to hurt her badly—not kill her. Mae was most definitely planning to kill her.
That didn’t mean Charlie was going to give up.
It wasn’t her nature, and she couldn’t help but think that Aiden would never forgive himself if she died on his watch.
Ridiculous reason to keep living…There was so much she wanted to say to him that she wouldn’t get to if Mae went through with whatever she was planning.
“David, secure her.”
He struck Charlie in the head almost casually, but the blow stunned her long enough that he was able to cut her zip ties and retie her to the chair. She blinked and shook her head, but the pain blossoming from the point of impact wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. “Cheater.”
“What winner isn’t?” Mae finally lowered her gun. “You and I are going to talk, and at the end of it, if I’m satisfied, I’ll kill you quickly.”
“Painlessly, you mean.”
“Did I say that?” She smiled at David as he brought over a low tray filled with tools that made Charlie’s stomach try to wrap itself around her spine in fear.
Mae selected a scalpel and held it up so that it gleamed in the low light.
“Torture is an acquired taste, I’m afraid.
My mother started me young, and it turned out that I had a knack for making people divulge their secrets. ”
Charlie tried to swallow past her dry throat. “Secrets given out during torture are suspect as a general rule.”
“Indeed. Which is why I always verify the information before I finish the job.” She stepped forward and caressed Charlie’s face.
“You really are beautiful. Unfortunately, that’s going to be past tense.
” Mae forced Charlie’s chin up and ran the scalpel along her cheekbone, leaving a trail of fire in its wake.
“Now, Charlotte, let’s have a nice little chat. Just us girls.”
* * *
Aiden made it to New York in record time.
It didn’t matter. All he could think of was the wasted hours and how much danger Charlie was in.
Before he left Boston, he’d called Carrigan to inform her that shit was going down faster than expected.
She sent James to follow them and offer what help he could, but there was no telling whether he’d reach New York in time.
After a rapid mental argument with himself, Aiden also called Teague to warn him that this might all be misdirection.
Teague had his men up in arms, and all three families were prepared for any kind of attack.
Knowing that his people were as safe as they could be left Aiden to focus on the only thing that mattered—Charlie.
He followed his directions to the Romanov residence.
Aiden knew where the man lived, of course—everyone did—but seeing the place in person was something else altogether.
The O’Malley town house had been designed to create an impression, but this massive building was in another realm.
It was a town house, but Aiden had it on good authority that Dmitri Romanov owned every one on the block.
His father had purchased them when he first settled in New York.
He couldn’t imagine Olivia, one of the most down-to-earth women he’d come across, growing up in a place like this.
Mark parked the car, and Aiden barely waited for it to stop moving before he had the door open and was striding up the steps for the front door.
There was an honest-to-God gargoyle as the door knocker, the little creature’s face twisted as if daring someone to use it.
Aiden raised his hand, but the door opened before he had a chance to touch it.
Dmitri himself stood on the other side, looking as unruffled as he always did. “Come in.”
“Where is she?”
“I’m working on it.”
“You said you’d have the site nailed down by the time we got here.”
“Yes, well, the Eldridges have a horrible habit of complicating the best-laid plans.” He moved deeper into the house, forcing Aiden to follow or be left standing outside.
He kept his focus on the man in front of him, but he still got the impression of tall ceilings and a staircase that would look at home in a castle.
Romanov led him into a study, and Aiden stopped just inside the door to take in the room.
It was masculine in the extreme, all dark wood and cool colors, with a fireplace that matched the rest of the house completely.
There were also shelves and shelves of books, though he didn’t move close enough to pick up the individual titles.
“If you’re done with your perusal…”
“Tell me.” He moved to the desk—very similar to the one in his office—and looked at a map of the docks that Romanov had laid out. There were two spots marked on nearly opposite ends of the docks. “What’s this?”
“I have my people surveying the area for Mae and her people.” He pointed to first one location and then the other.
“Mae has been to both in the last hour and she’s got a perimeter in place for both.
It’s impossible to know which location contains your fiancée, and it’s likely that as soon as we attack one, there are safeguards in place to kill Charlie before we can get to her. ”
Aiden fought against the fear trying to take control, but he could only hold it off for so long. There had been too many close calls lately. Fate wasn’t kind, and it was only a matter of time before he arrived too late.
Not this time. Not with Charlie.
He couldn’t think about what pain she might be facing while they delayed. His grip on the edge of the desk went white-knuckled. “We have to hit both spots at the same time, and we have to do it stealthily.”
“Agreed.”
A man poked his head into the room and nodded.
“Thank you, Mikhail.” Romanov sighed. “James Halloran has arrived.”