Chapter 19 Rob
ROB
I blinked.
“You’re not saying anything.”
“I’m…We’re married?”
The wince on her face said it all. “I should have told you sooner.”
“You knew?” I exclaimed. “Like, before we ran in here?”
“I wasn’t sure! I mean, my sister said that we showed up in town and announced it to everyone, but we could have been bluffing!”
“Right, because everyone does that as a joke,” I seethed. “God, this explains so much.”
“It wasn’t like I was keeping it from you,” she snapped.
Anger rose inside me as I turned to face her. “You didn’t tell me.”
“Right, but—”
“Therefore, you hid it from me!” I shouted.
The bride and groom turned from where they stood at the altar, giving us dirty looks.
“Please, continue.”
I shook my head, trying to wrap my brain around all this. How could we be married? That didn’t even make sense. We were on the run from bad guys, and now I was supposed to believe that somewhere in the middle of that, we decided to get hitched?
“You said you remembered. Tell me everything.”
Swallowing hard, she looked up at me with those gorgeous eyes, batting her lashes at me. Yeah, that wasn’t gonna make me any less angry that she hid the truth from me.
“I came out here for a change of pace. You know my brother got married.”
“I vaguely remember,” I said, my voice hinting at boredom.
“Well, everyone’s doing something with their lives. My sister was pregnant. Two of my brothers are married. And me…I’m just lost.”
“So, you decided to find the first available male and latch onto him for life!”
“That wasn’t how it happened,” she snapped. “You were just as complicit as I was.”
“Right, like I’d believe anything you say.”
Frustrated, she shook her head at me. “Do you want to hear what happened or not?”
I wasn’t entirely sure, but if I wanted answers of any kind, I had no choice but to listen. “Fine. Go ahead.”
“As I was saying, I came out here for a change of pace. I just wanted to have some fun. So, I came to Vegas. I checked into the hotel, and after lying in bed for a good half hour watching mindless TV, I decided to try my hand at the tables. When I left the room, that’s when I ran into you.”
Something clicked in my mind, and suddenly, it all came rushing back to me.
Whistling, I closed the door behind me, ready to blow off some steam for the next few hours. I didn’t have to be in Cali for another day at least, and while I could have found something to do, I decided a trip to Vegas was much more appealing.
I strode down the hall, but stopped when a woman came out of her room, nearly running into me.
Gorgeous brown hair flowed over her shoulders, but it was her face that struck me the hardest. There wasn’t a single thing that caught my attention.
It was everything. Her face was perfectly symmetrical.
Her nose was the cutest little button, and those plump lips begged to be kissed.
But those eyes. Brown as chocolate and lined with that shit women used to accentuate their eyes. It was the complete package.
And normally, a woman like that wouldn’t give me the time of day. But this woman smiled at me, blushing slightly as she stepped back.
“Sorry, I was just heading downstairs.”
“Me too,” I grinned. “Care for an escort?”
“To the casino?”
I shrugged, trying to act cool. After all, I didn’t actually know what I was doing, but if I pretended, she might stick with me for a while.
“It’s always better to appear as if you’re with someone in a place like this. There’s less of a chance you’ll get random drunks hitting on you.”
“Good to know,” she grinned. “I wouldn’t mind an escort, but I warn you, if you try to grab my ass, I’ll break your hand.”
And that made my cock swell harder than it should have. “Noted.”
“So, first time in Vegas?”
“Yep. You?”
“Never been here.”
I glanced over at her, trying to figure out where she was from. “You have a slight accent.”
“Montana.”
“Ah, I know a guy in Montana. In fact, I was just out there a few months ago for—” I looked at her again, frowning as I studied her face. “Krista?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Yeah. How do you—” She studied my face, and when she placed me, her eyes lit up. “Rob. The guy who kept hitting on me.”
“Hitting on you isn’t quite what I was doing,” I grumbled.
“You wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“I was the only single guy amongst all my married friends. I was just trying not to be the loser of the bunch.”
“By hitting on me?” she laughed. “You know, my sister was available.”
“And pregnant, as I recall.”
“You have a thing against pregnant women?”
“No, but I have a thing against getting my ass kicked by all her brothers.”
Chuckling, we continued down the hallway. “So, what brings you to Vegas?”
“I have to attend a trial in California, but I thought I’d stop off for some fun. You?”
“Just needed an escape.”
“Well, let me help you enjoy your night. I don’t know much about gambling, but I can provide hours of entertainment with my stupidity.”
A soft tinkle of laughter left her lips, sending a chill down my spine. Fuck, this woman was gorgeous, and I might have noticed how entirely amazing she was if I hadn’t been hitting on her left and right the entire time I was at the ranch.
We made our way to the casino and hopped from one table to the next, losing more money than we were making.
And every time she thought about what she wanted to do, her brows furrowed in this really cute way, and her eyes crinkled at the sides.
After an hour, I was paying more attention to her facial expressions than the cards on the table.
“Excuse me,” a man in a suit said, stepping up behind us. “I’m going to need you to come with me.”
The laughter on my lips died a little, but I was still riding that high just from being in her presence. That might have been a mistake.
“Why?”
“The boss wants to talk to you.”
I glanced at Krista and widened my eyes. “Ooh, the boss. Sounds dangerous.”
“Sir, we need you both to come with us.”
“Look, we’re just having some fun—”
“That wasn’t a request.”
“And what exactly do you need us for? We’re not cheating. If you haven’t noticed, we’ve lost, well, more than we’ve made.”
The man glanced to his right and nodded. More men in suits converged on us, all of them in the same stance that said they were not here for a friendly chat. And if I had a weapon, or even a second person who could help me fight my way out of this, I might have taken my chances.
But Krista was with me, and I wouldn’t risk her getting hurt.
“Sure,” I nodded, taking Krista’s hand in mine, giving it a firm squeeze.
I could feel her hand trembling in mine. She was scared, but there was no reason for that. We hadn’t done anything wrong.
But when they led us into the back room and then to a door beyond that, I started to worry that this wasn’t about counting cards or cheating at Blackjack. We took a long hallway to double doors at the end of the hall, and when the men pulled them open, I froze in my tracks.
Women were being held behind bars, all of them clearly drugged.
Fuck, this was a trafficking ring.
Clenching my jaw, I chastised myself for not getting Krista out when I had the chance. I had really thought it was all about the casino being pissed at us for something, but this…
“What the hell is this place?” Krista asked quietly. “Why are those women behind bars?”
“Keep moving!” the man shouted, shoving us from behind.
I grabbed Krista just as she was about to fall forward, holding her tight to me to keep her upright.
Two men grabbed us, dragging us over to chairs. There was no way I was going down without a fight. Just as the man started to push me down, I ducked and spun around, slamming my fist into his kidneys. He bent over, heaving in pain, and that gave me the opportunity to move on to the next guy.
Slamming my foot into his knee, I followed it with a fist to the face, knocking him to the floor.
I was grabbed from behind, and threw my head back, slamming my head into the man’s nose.
Another man came at me from the front, but my arms were still pulled back.
Struggling out of the hold, I wasn’t fast enough for the fist to the face, or the one that followed to the gut.
And even after all that, I would have kept fighting.
If only there wasn’t a man standing behind Krista with a knife to her throat.
I stopped fighting instantly, breathing hard as I looked her over.
By her appearance, she hadn’t gone easily either.
She was a fighter, and that much was clear from the blood on her knuckles and the way her hair was disheveled.
“Get in the fucking seat or I slit her throat,” the man growled.
It wasn’t in me to stop fighting back, but this was Parker’s sister. How would I ever explain to him that I got his baby sister killed?
Slowly, I raised my hand and stepped back. Just as I was about to the chair, something hard slammed down on my head. My eyes rolled back in my head and everything went dark as I crashed to the ground.
My head felt like a lead weight as I lifted my gaze and found Krista staring at me with worry in her eyes. Something dripped sluggishly over my temple, threatening to fill my eye.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I blinked until the blurriness moved to the edges of my vision, and I could see a little more clearly. Krista was strapped to a chair, her wrists tied to the arms and her feet tied with ropes to the legs.
“Are you okay?” I mumbled.
“Me? You’re leaking blood from your head! I’m pretty sure that’s not good,” she hissed.
Good or not, that wasn’t what was important right now. I couldn’t see anyone around us, but that didn’t mean they were gone.
“Where are they?”
Her head turned and I followed her line of sight to the cages. Men were in there…with the women, doing unspeakable things. The fear on Krista’s face couldn’t be faked. She was worried she was going to end up like them, and I couldn’t blame her, given the circumstances.
“I’ll get you out of here,” I swore.