Chapter 17
LIA
I hear something.
Mikey hears it too. He lifts his head and listens, a light whimper breaking past his toothless lips.
I scoot a few inches away from Mikey. He doesn’t seem to get that he’d be better off not snuggling up to me.
“Mikey,” I urge on a harsh whisper. “Go to your corner. Go.”
I’m afraid to talk too loud and attract the attention of the cameras, but I’d feel worse if those horrible people came back and Mikey got punished for wanting a little human affection.
A little love. He retreats into his corner and huddles in the dark, and my heart breaks.
The closer I get to freedom, the less afraid I am.
They haven’t hurt me, and I must be pretty far in the middle of nowhere if they left me here for any amount of time. Even with the threat of Mikey—who, let’s be real, isn’t much of a threat—how bad must they be, really?
But I remember they want to trade me for another person. Tim—Leo’s brother. A drug addict and dealer. So, who the hell knows what these people are or want?
All I know is I hear footsteps outside the building, and Mikey is starting to whine.
“Shh.” I urge him to be quiet.
No matter who it is, a stranger or my kidnappers, it can’t hurt for him to keep it down.
I lie still as a stone and close my eyes as the door opens.
“What the fuck’s going on in there? Did you not listen to what I said?”
I sit up as fast as I can, but it’s hard with my wrists tied. “It’s not me!” I cry out. “There are people outside making him crazy. You have to know I’m not doing anything.”
“You stupid bitch.” The guy grabs my arm and yanks me up to standing.
I don’t even think he notices Mikey, but if he does, he doesn’t care.
“Ouch!” I know he doesn’t care about this either, but he’s hurting me. “Stop it!” I shout. “I didn’t do anything.”
“I wouldn’t say things are fine… Someone set off the cameras.”
“It wasn’t me,” I say quickly, trying to get free from his grip. “I swear, it wasn’t me.”
The door swings open, and I flinch as B whirls around, tightening his grip on me.
“Leo!” I scream from excitement and fear. Tears are streaming down my face.
Leo looks me over, and I can tell he wants to run to me. His fists are balled up at his sides, and he’s glaring. He sees the bucket beside me. My hands in restraints.
B gives Leo a wicked glare. He pulls a gun from the back of his pants and points it at Leo.
I gasp as my knees buckle, but B only tightens his hold on me, no doubt bruising my skin.
“I don’t think you want to shoot me, Barry,” Leo says, using what I assume is the guy’s first name. “Considering I came to make that trade we agreed on.”
Barry lowers his gun away from Leo’s head. “I’m a reasonable enough man if you’ve got your brother nearby.”
“I’d like to make sure my girl is okay before we complete our business.”
“Some girl she is,” Barry sneers. “She was out with that bounty hunter asshole when we picked her up. I’m happy to give her back, but…” He looks back at me with an expression that’s pure evil. “She looks like an ungrateful whore from where I sit.”
“Leo,” I say, “there’s another one. A woman.”
Barry stops my warning with a swift slap across the face.
I’m stunned and drop to the concrete floor, bruising my knees.
“You motherfucker,” Leo hisses. “You really don’t want your money, do you?”
That gets Barry’s attention. “What money? What are you talking about? We were swapping your girl for your brother.”
Leo holds up one hand and pretends to count out loud.
“Fifty, seventy… No, I’m pretty damn sure it was seventy-five grand my brother stole from you.
That’s what you want back from him? Isn’t it?
You want the money? Or did you just want to keep my brother tied up here in your little love shack while I keep whatever it is that Tim stole from you? ”
Barry snarls. “Stop fucking around. You want what’s yours, you give me what’s mine.”
“Well, you have to choose, Barry.” Leo rocks back on his heels. “You want your stolen drug money, or you want the junkie who stole it from you?” He motions toward the door. “Cuz I found both. I can keep the money and give you Tim, or…”
“Give me the goddamn money!” Barry shouts, and in that second, the doors of the warehouse fly open.
A half-dozen police officers and DEA agents swarm the warehouse. Before I know what’s happening, Barry is on his knees and in cuffs.
Another officer has his female accomplice, the skanky bitch from Checkers, in cuffs too. I don’t know where she came from, but right now, I don’t care.
They got him.
They got her.
Leo rushes over and grabs me, pulling me close, but we don’t fit together with my hands still bound.
“I need something,” Leo shouts.
An officer comes up to me and cuts the ties from my wrists. Paramedics have arrived too, and they are wheeling in a gurney for me.
“I’m fine,” I promise, crawling into Leo’s arms and clinging to him, crying. “Leo, Leo.”
“Baby,” he says as he pulls his head back from mine and holds my face in his hands.
“And they drugged me, and I got sick. I have to smell horrible.”
“I don’t give a shit,” Leo says. He claims my mouth in a ravenous kiss, and I can’t resist him. His touch melts me, and I open my mouth, tears flooding my face and his.
He presses his forehead to mine. “I love you,” I whisper. “Leo, I always have. All that bullshit about being friends, just being roommates—”
“Stop.” He tilts my chin so I’m looking into his eyes. “Lia, I’ve loved you since that first day you and your girl crew came into town in your crazy van with all your glitter and green juices. And I will love you forever. No more roommates, no more playing house. I want you to be mine. Forever.”
We cling to each other, kissing until the paramedics interrupt to check me out. I sit on the stretcher and answer a few questions about what happened, what I’ve been through. They look over my wrists, and when they hear I was drugged, they insist on taking me to the hospital for a checkup.
“Fine,” I say, “but my boyfriend has to come or I’m not going.”
Leo stands beside the gurney, holding my hands between both of his. He’s not saying anything, but tears are streaming down his cheeks.
“Lia!” a voice barks from the far side of the warehouse.
“Dad.” I jump from the stretcher, squealing at the sight of Tiny. My knees wobble when I start to run, the pain from the bruising surprising me, but it doesn’t slow me down. Not by much.
I wrap my arms as far as I can around my dad, squeezing my eyes shut. “How did you get here?” I ask. “How did you know what was going on?”
“We’ll have plenty of time for explanations,” he says, releasing me.
He glares at Leo, and I know that because I’m out of harm’s way doesn’t mean that anything is forgiven. I feel terrible that Leo’s days in the MC might be over.
Again, because of me.
“You found your brother?” I ask. “Is he okay? What’s going to happen with the house? What about all the stuff you said to Barry? About the money—was that true?”
While the police take pictures and haul Barry away, Leo explains what went down.
“No,” I gasp, totally stunned. “Was that little lady who brought in the car Juliette? She was there all the time?”
Leo nods. “That’s why I couldn’t reach the client after she dropped off the car.
Burner phone. She’d checked out our shitty security cameras and figured they could pretty easily break in to the shop and get the cash when they were ready to go on the run.
We met her before we ever knew she was connected to my brother, and by then…
I didn’t remember her face at all. I was too focused on her fucked-up engine to remember her face. ”
“So, they were going to go on the run,” I say. The reality of that makes me really sad. And I know it must gut Leo. That fucking sucks.
Tim was going to leave his brother high and dry. He would totally have lost his house. “How did you find him? How’d you stop him?”
Leo explains that he’d gone into the shop while Tiny crashed at our place. Tim showed up, and they came up with a plan to swap the cash Tim had stolen for me.
“But the police?” I think I’m lost.
Leo grinned. “I had Dog come by and tow away the Cadillac with the rest of Tim’s cash in it.
I figured it was insurance either way. Juliette wouldn’t know where it was and couldn’t steal it and run off.
And if things went well here, the money and the car would be safe until Tim and I got back with you. ”
“What if things didn’t go well? What if they wanted to kill your brother or something?”
“That’s why they called me.” Josh stood back from the fray, but I motion him forward so he can fill me in.
“Lia…” he starts. “I don’t even know what to say.”
I step forward and wrap my arms around him.
“I’m sorry, Josh,” I say. “It was a stupid idea. I should have listened to my heart and found another way to help Leo. I put myself in harm’s way, and you, too.
And I wasn’t exactly playing fair. It was never really a love triangle.
I love Leo,” I say. “Am in love with Leo.”
“Oh, goddamn it.” Tiny sighs and storms away, muttering under his breath. “I goddamn knew it!”
I giggle even though Leo doesn’t look too amused. “He’ll get used to it,” I remind him.
“I’m not so sure,” Leo mutters.
“So, anyway,” Josh says, “Leo told Dog to call me, let me know about the money and the drugs.”
“Drugs?” I don’t remember that part.
Leo nods. “Yeah, turns out my brother didn’t only have cash in the trunk. He had a little travel insurance in the glove box.”
“Miss?” the paramedic interrupts. “We really need to go.”
I start toward the ambulance, my hand locked with Leo’s, when I see an officer taking Mikey away.
“I want him,” I tell the officer. “His name is Mikey. I want him.”
“I’m going to have to take him down to animal control,” the cop says. “If he’s cleared to adopt, you can take it up with—”
“I want him,” I insist and look to my father. “Dad, make it happen.”