Chapter 19 Rob #2
“Rob…something’s wrong. They kept asking me where it was.”
“You mean besides the fact that we’re tied to chairs and there are women in cages?”
She grunted in frustration. “I’m being serious.”
I wished I could joke my way out of this one. My head was throbbing, and I didn’t have a single idea at the moment how to get us out of here.
“Where what was?” I asked, wishing my brain could keep up with what was going on.
“I don’t know. They won’t tell me!”
Her lips snapped closed as footsteps approached. I hung my head, hoping for a few seconds to gather information before the interrogation began.
I wasn’t so lucky.
The man grasped my hair and yanked my head back, sliding a knife along my throat.
How cliché.
“Your little girlfriend isn’t talking. What did you do with it?”
“Do with what?”
The knife slid away, but his rancid breath took up residence right beside my face. “You know what. Playing stupid will only get you killed.”
“I know this may be hard to believe, but we’re not playing stupid,” I said, hoping to rationalize with him. “We both arrived today, and we were just playing poker for a little bit.”
“Blackjack.”
“Whatever,” I muttered. “We don’t have anything.”
“You might not,” he hissed, “but she does. And if she doesn’t hand it over soon, there won’t be any pieces left of her for you to take home.”
Krista’s eyes filled with fear, but I shoved down all emotion and focused on his words. He wanted something. He thought she had it. But why?
“What exactly do you think she has?”
“The product!” the man shouted. “This isn’t the first time. Do you really think you’re the first John she’s brought home, thinking she could hide behind her addiction?”
That didn’t sound like Krista at all, which meant not only did they have her mixed up with someone else, but she looked a lot like this other woman.
“Look—”
He stormed over to Krista and grabbed her by the hair, yanking her head back. Her screams filled the room as she struggled to contain her panic. “You want to sell it yourself?”
“I don’t! I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”
“Then maybe you need a reminder. You’ll end up just as mindless as them,” he said, jerking his head in the direction of the cages.
“No! I don’t know—”
He grabbed a needle, removing the cap with his teeth, before turning her elbow out.
“Stop!” I shouted, struggling against my binds. “She didn’t do it! I’ll give it to you!”
But it was too late. He plunged the needle into her vein and depressed it. Drugs instantly flooded her system, and it wasn’t more than a few seconds before I could see the drugs taking hold of her.
“You fucking asshole!” I shouted. “She doesn’t have them!”
“Maybe you need a reminder, too,” he said, chuckling as he walked over to me.
“I swear to God, I will cut off your balls and feed them to you!”
I struggled even harder as he pulled out a second needle, flicking the tip before shoving it into my vein. A swirl of colors and noise flooded my head, but it was the dizzying feeling that overwhelmed my senses.
It lasted only a few seconds before a bright clarity replaced it all.
“Think about it for a few minutes. A second dose would be near lethal. Tell me where they are, and I’ll make it quick and painless.”
I closed my eyes and breathed through the rapid beating of my heart. I was hot and cold at the same time, filled with a strong desire to do something crazy, but it was the swirling colors that really had me going.
That and the way Krista was looking at me.
Fuck, she was gorgeous.
I had to have her. Wanted to tear the clothes from her body and lick every inch of her. And the way she was staring at me, she needed the same thing. To feel my cock in her mouth and her pussy, pounding her hard until she got everything she needed from me.
The man slammed his fist into my face, reminding me why I was here.
Girls, locked in cages.
Krista was tied up.
Hell, I was tied up.
We had to get out of here now, and I was the only one who could achieve that. I had to start thinking.
I forced my mind to go through everything around me, anything that could help me escape the bonds. We were in a back room somewhere, but there wasn’t a weapon in sight. My gaze slid over the man. He had a knife, but how the hell was I supposed to grab it when my hands were tied?
I felt the smallest sliver of wood on the arm of the chair. If I started on it now, I might fray the ropes in the next week.
My head jerked up at the sound of a gunshot. So did the man’s. He took a single step toward the doors, and that’s when I made my move.
It was crazy. There was no way it would work, but I had to take the chance. I pushed as much as I could off the ground, flinging my body and the chair toward the man.
But I stumbled over my own foot and skittered forward, falling hard. My head slammed into the back of his knee on the way down, and he tripped, throwing out his hands to catch himself, but it was too late. His head slammed into the ground and he was out like a light.
“There is no fucking way that should have worked,” I muttered.
“The knife!” Krista hissed.
I wiggled and wormed my way over to his side, rearranging the chair until my wrist was close to the knife. It took a few tries, but I finally grabbed the handle and flipped it, facing the knife toward the ropes.
“Don’t cut yourself!” Krista cried out.
Pausing, I slowly cocked my head at her. “Thanks for the advice.”
I got to work, sliding the knife along the ropes until I finally felt some give. It was working. I chuckled to myself, wishing the guys could see me right now. I was in a dangerous situation, without any of them, and I was killing it.
Finally, my wrist broke free and I grabbed the knife, quickly undoing my bonds before moving on to Krista. The gunfire grew louder by the second until men finally infiltrated the building, going right for the cages.
The last rope came free around her ankle and I hauled her to her feet.
I had enough presence of mind to know that we did not want to get caught up in whatever this was.
As the men called out vaguely familiar orders, I grabbed Krista’s hand and dragged her to a rear exit.
It had one of those alarms above it, and the moment I shoved open the door, I knew we’d be spotted.
But it was a chance I’d have to take.
Pulling her along the wall, I stopped just shy of the door and turned, holding her shoulders and forcing her to face me.
“When I shove open that door, an alarm is going to sound. We run hard, and we don’t stop until we’re in a crowded spot.
If for any reason you lose me, get to someplace crowded and call your brother. ”
“But—”
“Just do it!”
Biting her lip, she nodded.
I must have been hearing things because I swore someone called my name just as I flung the door open. I dragged Krista out into the night, down a dark alley that fed onto the main street. We were almost there, almost in the clear.
We took off to the right and crossed the street when there was a gap in the traffic. I thought I heard someone shouting behind me, but I didn’t dare turn around to find out who was after us.
“There!” Krista shouted at the lit-up building in the distance.
It was as good a place as any, and I desperately needed something to clear the drugs from my system. Whoever was inside had to have a phone, and I’d call Cap. He’d know what to do.
We shoved through the doors and stopped in our tracks at the smiling woman behind the counter.
“Honeymoon special?”
Rubbing my hands over my face, I groaned. “Oh, God.”
“Yep,” Krista nodded.
“What the hell were we thinking?”
“We were drugged up. I’m pretty sure we weren’t thinking about anything.”
Leaning back in the pew, I stared up at the ceiling. We were married. Full-on hitched, and the only way to stop it was to get it annulled.
That was going to be a little difficult since the men who were after us before were after us again now. And then there was Derek, Sinner, and Claire.
We had to find them and figure out what to do from here.
“What do we do now?” Krista asked.
“We need to find Derek and Sinner. They’ll know what to do. And then we’ll call Cap and—”
“No, I mean, what do we do about the fact that we’re married?” she snapped.
Glancing over at her in confusion, I sat there with my mouth hanging open like an idiot. “Nothing.”
“Rob, we’re married! Up until this morning, you couldn’t even remember my name.”
Again, I just sat there until my brain finally processed that I needed to say something intelligent.
“There are men after us. Bad men. They want you because they think you stole something. They want me because they think I’m your John and I was in cahoots with you.
Being married is the least of our problems! ”
I was met with silence, which I greatly appreciated.
And then she opened her mouth. “Cahoots? Seriously, are you eighty?”
“It’s a good word. Not used nearly enough for my liking.”
“I’m just saying, I’m pretty sure that’s something my grandfather would have said.”
“Maybe your grandfather was a really awesome guy.”
The woman from the other day walked up, a gentle smile on her face. “I’m sorry, but was there a problem with the package you purchased?”
“Yes, you let us get married!” Krista said, her anger shining through.
“Well, that’s what people do in Vegas.”
“Normal people, yes. But we were under the influence. How could you allow that?”
The woman shot her an amused grin. “Honey, most of the people who walk through our doors are under the influence of something.”
“Everything was fine,” I said, cutting off any further argument. “We just came back to…see where it all happened.”
“Well, the pictures were amazing. Did you want to see them?”
“No—”
“Yes!” I said at the same time as Krista.
She scowled at me, but I just shrugged. “I need evidence to prove this happened to your brother.”
“Why? Do you have a death wish?”
“No, but this was my first marriage. Call me sentimental, but I’d like the memories.”
“The memories of the worst night of your life?”
I knew she was mad, that she didn’t want to be married or for any of this to be happening, but her tone cut me deep. I wasn’t so sure this was the worst thing that could have happened.
Yes, it was a mess and inconvenient considering we lived so far away, but it wasn’t all bad. I knew her brother. The sex was phenomenal. But most importantly, she was starting to grow on me. She was funny and cute, and she hadn’t really freaked out about any of this.
She actually seemed like just the woman I needed.
But yes, I could see her point. This was most likely a mistake.
I didn’t tell her any of that, though. I didn’t let on that I wanted to remember this for the rest of my life. Instead, I just shrugged.
“I’m sure I’ve had worse. Come on, let’s get our pictures and find a place to lay low for a while.”
As I grabbed her hand, she tugged me to a stop. “Rob, they keep finding us. How?”
It was a good question, one I didn’t have the answer to right now.