Chapter 14
Cora woke in the morning to Pipe kissing her forehead. He was standing at the side of the bed, leaning over, his arms caging her in.
“Good morning.”
“Morning,” she mumbled.
“We need to get up and get ready to go.”
“Okay.”
He smiled. “You awake?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
“Uh-huh.”
His grin grew. “Right. I’ll start the coffee. If I don’t hear the water running in three minutes, I won’t let you have any of the special black cherry brew that I’m gonna make.”
“Mean,” Cora grumbled.
In response, Pipe leaned down and kissed her on the lips this time. “Get up,” he repeated, then stood and headed for the door. Cora couldn’t help but admire his ass as he went.
It was then that she realized he wasn’t wearing anything but a pair of boxers. She should’ve felt embarrassed or shy or something, but instead she felt…mellow.
At the door, Pipe turned. “Cora?”
“Yeah?”
“Slept better last night than I can remember sleeping in a very long time.” He grinned at her. “Three minutes.”
Then he was gone.
Cora sighed and closed her eyes as she stretched.
She’d also slept like a rock. Well, after her nightmare, that was.
She hated the dreams she still had occasionally.
She’d tried really hard to put her past behind her, but there were times her brain still liked to dredge up her crappy childhood, as if to remind her that things can always go bad—or get worse.
The second Pipe’s arms had wrapped around her last night, she’d felt safe. Safe from the horrors of her childhood, from the taunts of other kids about her lack of a family, from the fear of being homeless, from all of it.
“Two and a half minutes!” Pipe called from down the hall in his room.
Cora couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped her lips. It was hard to believe she was finding anything humorous right now, considering what lay ahead of her and the others later in the day, but she did.
“I’m going!” she called back as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and headed for the bathroom.
Instead of dwelling on her nightmare, or the fact that Pipe had spent the night in her bed, holding her tightly, she let the tiniest bit of excitement flow through her veins.
She’d been doing everything in her power to get to this moment, to find out what was really happening with Lara.
And today it was happening. The police might not believe her, or Lara’s parents, but she was more certain than ever, especially after everything that Tex guy had found out, that Lara was being held against her will.
All she needed to do was get to her, get Lara to admit that she wanted to go home, and they were out of there. Ridge wouldn’t be able to stop them, not with Pipe, Owl, and Stone at her back.
Cora grit her teeth in determination. She wasn’t leaving Arizona without Lara. Whatever it took, she’d make sure her friend was safe.
Hours later, Cora’s determination had waned a bit and nervousness had taken its place. The flight had gone without any issues and the four of them had rented a Jeep Wrangler. They were now parked on the street, a ways from Ridge Michaels’s mansion.
“So I really am just going to go up and knock on the door?” Cora asked nervously.
“I’m thinking that’s better than skulking around the grounds and risking a trespassing charge,” Stone said with a shrug.
“I’m okay with it, but you aren’t going by yourself,” Pipe said.
Cora looked over at him and realized he was extremely tense. They were sitting in the back seat, while Stone and Owl sat up front. The latter had his attention on the house, taking pictures from the passenger seat as they waited for…something to happen.
“I might have a better chance of talking with Lara if I’m by myself,” Cora argued. “You guys aren’t exactly nonthreatening.”
“And Michaels could decide to grab you too,” Pipe countered. “If Stone or Owl is with you, that won’t happen.”
Cora tilted her head as she studied Pipe. “Why them? Why not you?”
Pipe snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“No, seriously, why not?”
“Look at me, love. A rich bloke like Ridge Michaels isn’t going to let someone like me into his home. He’ll take one look at me and know something’s up.”
Cora frowned, not happy at the way he disparaged himself. “Or maybe he’ll take one look at you and realize he messed up. He’ll poop his pants and let us have Lara without any fuss.”
Pipe’s lips twitched.
“This isn’t funny!” Cora argued.
“Poop his pants?” Pipe asked.
Cora tried not to smile, but she was so worked up, so full of nervous energy, that she couldn’t stop herself. “Yeah, well, cussing hasn’t exactly made me any friends, so I’m trying to tone it down.”
“We don’t give a shit if you cuss,” Owl said from the front seat.
“Nope,” Stone agreed. “We aren’t exactly non-cussers ourselves.”
“And, for the record, I agree with Cora,” Owl added. “Michaels will see you with her and know she’s got reinforcements. There’s no guarantee he’ll hand over his girlfriend, but—”
“She’s not his girlfriend,” Cora growled.
“Right, sorry.”
“Still don’t think this is a good idea, but all right. I’m not letting you go up there by yourself. But you should all be forewarned, if this Michaels guy tries anything, if he touches Cora, I can’t promise I’ll hold my temper.”
“Noted,” Stone said.
“Cool,” Owl added.
“So, what’s the plan?” Cora asked. “Do we have a cover story?”
“Cover story? Cora, he knows who you are, that you live in DC, and the fact that you’re suddenly on his doorstep, wanting to see Lara, shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Not with how close the two of you are. We don’t need a cover story.”
“Right. Sorry, I’m just nervous.”
Pipe reached out and took her hand in his. “I’ll be right there.”
Taking a deep breath, Cora nodded. “I know. And I appreciate it.”
“Owl, is there anything you can see that we didn’t get from the satellite pics Tex sent us?”
“Yeah, you know that large, flat space we saw that we thought were tennis courts?” Owl said as he stared through a pair of binoculars toward the house.
There weren’t a lot of trees in the fancy neighborhood to block their view of the house.
The perimeter was surrounded by a low brick wall, easy enough to see over and scale, if need be.
There were cacti sprinkled around the entire neighborhood, and the house they were surveilling had a gate across the driveway.
“Yeah? What about it?” Pipe asked.
“It’s not a tennis court.” He lowered the binoculars and turned to grin at Stone. “It’s a helipad.”
“No shit?” Stone asked, sitting up straighter and staring at the house.
“Yup. I can just see the blades of a chopper sticking out from around the house.”
“Ridge has a helicopter?” Cora asked. The base of her spine was tingling. She remembered Ryan’s words about stealing the chopper, just like Ridge had stolen Lara, and wondered anew if the other woman had somehow known about the helicopter or was just guessing.
“Apparently,” Owl said, lifting the binoculars again. “Looks like an R66 Turbine.”
Stone whistled low. “That’s not cheap. I mean, it’s not the most expensive civilian chopper out there, but it’s not exactly inexpensive.”
“How the hell can he afford that if he’s using Lara’s credit cards?” Cora asked.
“That’s what I’d like to know. Although, it could be Daddy’s. And why does he even need it?” Pipe added.
“Well, I guess right now it doesn’t matter. I’m getting more and more nervous sitting here. Can we just go and do this?” Cora asked. “I want to see Lara for myself.”
Stone turned around. “Be careful,” he said.
Cora wanted to roll her eyes, but instead she simply nodded.
“Intel only at first,” Owl added. “We need to know what’s going on inside that house.
If the hired help is assisting him with whatever he’s doing with Lara or if they’re clueless.
Best-case scenario, Lara leaves with you, but if he doesn’t let you see her, don’t lose your cool, Cora.
We’ll simply come back with another plan. ”
“You guys and your plans,” she mumbled.
Stone chuckled.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Pipe said.
He squeezed her fingers before letting go and reaching for the door handle.
Cora got out on her side and was having a hard time believing she was actually here.
And that she had three badass ex-military guys at her back.
It was so much more support than she’d dreamed she’d have.
“Please let this work,” she mumbled under her breath, then Pipe was there.
He reached for her hand, and the feel of his warm fingers around hers went a long way toward easing her nervousness.
Pipe started walking toward the house, talking under his breath as he went. “Stay calm, no matter what he says. Don’t let on that you know about the credit cards. Just say that you’re here because you’re worried about Lara, and you took vacation time to come out and make sure she’s okay.”
“I know,” Cora told him. They’d been over this before, but she was still afraid she was going to screw everything up by saying the wrong thing.
They headed for the long gate to the driveway. There was a walk-in entrance next to the gate, and to Cora’s surprise, it wasn’t locked. They walked right inside and down the driveway.
The house was large, but not as huge as some mansions she’d seen.
It had huge white columns on the front, which looked a little tacky here in the southwest, where something that blended in with the xeriscaping would be more appropriate.
There wasn’t a lot of grass in the yard, it was mostly crushed rock.
Cora saw one person to the side of the house, doing some work on the yard, but otherwise felt as if she and Pipe were the only people on the grounds.
“Deep breath, you’ve got this,” Pipe told her, squeezing her fingers.