Chapter 11 What Happened to Me
WHAT HAPPENED TO ME
Lachlan
I walk over to where Wes waits for Emery outside the ladies’ and knock the back of my hand against his arm to get his attention. “You’re relieved of your duty.”
“Thank fuck.” He glances over his shoulder at me.
At that moment, a loud bang sounds from inside the bathroom.
I stiffen and lunge for the door. Wes is closer and shoves through first. His hand on the gun tucked into the back of his pants. I reach for mine too and realize I don’t have it. I’d removed it so I didn’t scare Emery.
The first area is empty, but there are two doors leading to separate parts of the bathroom.
“You check that one.” I tell Wes. He nods and turns to the right.
I open the door to a large space with sinks and stalls. It’s empty too. “Emery?” I shout in case she’s using the toilet.
No response. “Fuck.” Again, I reach for my gun and find nothing.
“Wes?” I call out and glance behind me, even as I shove open the three stall doors that are closed. All empty.
He enters in a rush. “The other side is clear.”
“She’s not here.” What the fuck? Did she take off again? I swear to God when I find her, I’m chaining her to me by the neck like a fucking dog.
A door opening sounds around a nearby corner. “You left her phone, eejit. We can’t leave any evidence behind.” Her words and Scottish accent tell me all I need to know. She’s here for Emery, sent by a man who poses the most threat to me and anyone or thing that’s important in my life.
I race around the corner, Wes on my heel, and come face to face with a redhead. She freezes in her tracks. For a few seconds our eyes lock. The way her widen says she knows who I am. Her face pales, and her head turns toward the closed door. “Run!”
I charge her, grab her neck, and throw her against the wall like she’s trash. She crashes into it with a groan.
“Take her,” I say to Wes, knowing he’ll get what we need from her.
Wrenching open the door, I barrel around the corner of a private hallway. A built man in all black, nearly crashes into me.
His eyes stretch wide with recognition. He swings a right hook, but I dodge the hit and punch him hard in the ribs. I pummel him just like I do in the ring, tearing into opponents during underground fight matches.
“Where is she?” I demand when he gets a hit into my arm.
I don’t register the pain. It’s nothing I haven’t felt a hundred times over.
“Fuck off!” the man spits.
I tackle his waist and take him down to the ground. Landing on top of him, I sit up and rain hits on his face. Blood splatters—whether from my knuckles, his face, or both, I don’t know.
“Where is she?” I keep wailing on him.
Someone hauls me back. I turn to pound on the person.
Wes blocks the hit. “Do you want to kill him, or do you want to know where Emery is?”
If I reply yes to both, Wes won’t stop me. I usually have more control over myself when I fight. Emery has me off my game. The guy groans beneath me, barely moving.
“She’s here,” Wes says. “They drugged her and have a van, but Red”—he jerks his head toward the bathroom—“doesn’t know if Rian here”—he kicks the man’s foot—“put her in there yet.”
I grab Rian’s bloody jaw and squeeze.
He cries out, his eyes wide and filled with pain, letting me know I had broken his jaw. Getting him to tell me where she is with words, won’t be an option now.
I lean close to his face. “If she’s dead, you will be too. Now point with your fucking finger and show me where she is.”
When I straighten, he points to the left where there are two doors. One is open to the outside and the other is closed.
“I’ll get her,” Wes says about to step around me and the guy in the small hallway.
“No. Take these two out of here and send them back with a message.” I stand and race to the closest door, opening it.
Emery lays on her side on the ground in a supply closet.
“Fuck!” I race to her, drop to my knees, and place my finger on her neck.
Her pulse thumps but it’s weak. Carefully, I inspect her for injuries.
Other than pale, she looks fine, which means they drugged her.
I’ll need to call my doctor to check her out before we leave.
I won’t fly with her and risk something worse happening once we’re in the air.
How dare my cousin—my greatest rival—try to take Emery from me while we’re in negotiations.
He and his goons are fools to think they could.
The idiot Rian must have stashed her here when he heard his partner yell, run.
If he were smart, he would have taken off with Emery.
I’m thankful he’s a shitty kidnapper or else my wife would be gone.
I know what would have happened to her if they’d gotten away. She would have wished for death.
Before touching her, I wipe my bloody hands on my pants, then slide them under her limp body, lifting her with ease.
She’s small compared to me and thin, except for her voluptuous breasts.
She’s gorgeous, but she’d look even better with a bit more weight on her.
With how stubborn she is, I doubt I could force anything into her pouty mouth—least of all my dick.
I’ve been fantasizing about her sucking me off ever since I saw her in the ballroom at her family’s estate three years ago, licking icing off her finger during dessert. Those lips were made for sin.
The party was to celebrate me making partner.
Garyn, Emery’s father, offered me anything I wanted.
I almost asked for his daughter, but she was young—just turned eighteen.
I also knew Garyn well enough that he’d insist I take Pippa, the favorite daughter.
It was obvious that Pippa got her parents’ full attention and would submit however necessary to keep it that way.
She needed it like an addict needs their next fix.
Emery was different. Despite being ignored more than acknowledged, she stood in that ballroom with her shoulders back and her chin high.
Both daughters were beautiful and dressed to entice, like pretty dolls their mum had removed from her display cabinet for the night, but Emery was resilient in a way that worked best for my plan. That was why I chose her to be mine.
Emery
A jostle stirs me awake, but my eyes refuse to open. My whole body feels as detached as my mind, like I’m buried in deep thick sludge. Slowly, awareness creeps in. I’m cradled on someone’s lap with strong arms supporting my neck while gentle fingers caress my outer thigh.
White noise sounds, the kind you hear on a plane. Am I on the jet?
“I told you if you let him get close, he’d go after her,” a man says with an accent that sounds like Wes’s.
“That’s why I have you and Connal,” Lachlan retorts. “For fucks sake, she was under your watch.”
“You expected me to follow her into the Ladies’?” Wes snaps. “She would have flipped out.”
“She wouldn’t be drugged and passed out in my arms like a rag doll,” Lachlan fires back.
“Guys, try to relax,” says a Scottish accented man. Rory? “We got her back. He didn’t even get to take her.”
“But he could have,” Lachlan says, his voice quieter but no less lethal. “Without her, the plan goes south. Three years wasted. This can’t happen again.”
Plan? I wish my brain didn’t feel like thick mush.
“It won’t,” Wes says. “She doesn’t leave the castle once we arrive. No one can get to her there. It’s a fucking fortress.”
“I can’t keep her locked away for the next three months or more,” Lachlan says. “Having her this close to everything is a different kind of risk. She won’t stand for it, either. Look at how she acted already, and I barely cornered her. Imagine her trapped in the castle.”
“You should have picked the other sister. She’s equally as beautiful,” Wes says.
“I never would have chosen her,” Lachlan replies. “Beside’s she’s married now. And this has nothing to do with beauty.”
“No?” Wes mocks. “With the way you can’t stop touching her, I’d say it does.”
Lachlan’s hand stops rubbing my thigh.
“You could have strapped her in a seat and left her,” Wes goes on, “Yet she’s in your arms.”
Lachlan snorts. “Fuck off.”
“I think she moved,” Rory says with nervousness.
Did I? I can barely feel my body.
“Her eyelids twitched,” he adds.
Fingers brush my hair from my cheek and turn my head so that my temple rests against a strong chest.
“Emery?” Lachlan’s tone is as gentle as his touch. It confuses me. Once my brain is functioning normally, I’m going to sort out the conversation I overheard, if I can remember it. There’s something else I need to remember—something about my mom.
I try to seem unconscious and not to twitch my eyelids. It isn’t hard to do with how my body doesn’t seem connected to my brain.
“She’s still out,” Lachlan says with confidence. “The doctor said she could be out for a while depending on how much they injected into her. She should be fine by the time we reach the castle. When we get there, Rory, I want you to keep her company.”
“You want me to babysit her.” He doesn’t sound happy. “Why not have someone else do it?”
“She likes you.”
“She’s your fucking wife. If you stop forcing her into situations she doesn’t like, she could learn to like you too. Give her some choices.”
“I can’t give her choices and keep her safe,” Lachlan replies, his fingers brushing my thigh again. “Not until we resolve this ancient feud once and for all.”
“It’s my feud too,” Rory says. I can’t help you if I’m with her. Let Lorna handle it.”
“Lorna is busy running the castle,” Lachlan states in a calm voice.
“What about Tessa?” Rory asks.
“Are you fucking serious?” Wes snarls with bear-like rage.
“I would never do that to Tessa,” Lachlan says in a sincere tone. “In fact, I’d rather they not meet at all.”
“She works for you,” Rory says. “Seems inevitable. Plus, she still cares about you.”
My brain must be working better because one thing is clear. Tessa means something to Lachlan, and my gut says it was an intimate relationship.
Wes groans. “I need a drink.”