Chapter Twenty #2
her hands out of the zip ties? She’d taken a class where they taught her how to
break the ties, but that was when they were in front of her, not behind. She
was going to complain to Ian Taggart about that.
Shit. Taggart was probably already on his way. Her dad would
panic and believe the police around here wouldn’t work fast enough, and that
was how there would be a military-style attack squad coming in to deal with two
dumb criminals. And then his daughters would hear the stories, and she was
right back to humiliation.
“Olivia, I’m losing patience. I understand that I hurt you.
I was wrong. You were right. I thought I wanted to make something of myself
without you. I worried about what people would say, but now I know love is
worth more than anything.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Scott. I didn’t love you. I wanted to
start my life and you were there. I thought I wouldn’t love anyone the way I
did my friend Bobby, so I was willing to settle for you. The truth of the
matter is I was relieved when you left.”
“I know you’re lying. I know what we had.”
“Please stop. Death might be better than having to listen to
you talk.” How long did she have to wait? Keane would have realized she was
gone very quickly. Would he put together the fact that Stephen Gunderson was in
on it? He’d been holding one of those stun guns.
“Don’t be such a bitch,” Scott said. “I can only be pushed
so far. I came back for you.”
“You came back because you failed and you realized you
couldn’t make it without me.”
That was when she realized it had gone quiet outside. They
were no longer arguing.
The doorknob moved, the door coming open slowly.
Olivia went still and closed her eyes.
“What was that?” Martin’s voice could be heard along with
the floors squeaking under his feet.
“I told you it wouldn’t take too long.” Jessica sounded like
she was right behind him.
She prayed Scott was smart enough to pretend to be
unconscious.
“Jessica, I’m so sorry. I made a terrible mistake.”
Asshole.
“Sure you did, Scott. I mean, you did make a mistake because
I’m a million times better than that nepo baby with all the freckles. I don’t
know what you ever saw in her,” Jessica said.
An hourglass figure. A willingness to have a lot of fun with
kink. That was probably what her guys would say. What Scott saw in her was
dollar signs.
“She’s nothing compared to you,” Scott insisted. “Baby, I
was looking for you today. I was ready to throw myself at your feet.”
She was going to let her father ruin this asshole. She would
let him work with her men. Bonding. They needed that time. And she would know
his body was forever buried here for her children to run across. Yeah, that was
a comforting feeling.
“She’s awake.” Scott offered her up with a quickness that
took her breath away.
Fucker. She kept her eyes closed. She had to buy her family
as much time as possible.
She felt someone poke her and she didn’t move.
“She seems out to me,” Martin said.
Then she felt a hard tug on her hair, her scalp burning, and
then she was falling.
She couldn’t help it. Her eyes came open as she hit the
floor hard, her head banging on the nightstand in a way that made her groan.
“She’s awake now.” Jessica leaned over. “Guess you’re not so
tough, bitch. Did you hear him? He’s still in love with me.”
“Good. You two belong together,” Olivia managed to say.
“Except he was telling me he loved me right up until that door opened. You
should do it. You should totally pin all of this on him. I might even go along
with you. Martin, I get it. You’re going to lose everything, and you think if
you hide the information I haven’t sent to my father yet, you’ll be safe. You
won’t, but it’s a plan. Jess, you are one of the worst human beings I’ve ever
met, and I know billionaires. Even then you’re doing it all for some screwed-up
sense of love. Have you considered therapy?”
A hard kick to her gut forced the air out of her lungs.
“I don’t need therapy. I need the world to be rid of people
like you,” Jessica snarled. “Everyone knows you’re a stuck-up bitch.”
She was so sick of this. She managed to get to her knees.
Thanks, BDSM training. She didn’t sit back because she could feel her phone
threatening to fall out of her pocket. That was the last thing she needed. If
they figured out there was a way to track her, they would likely shove her back
into the car and take her away again. “If you spent your whole life with half
the town looking down on you because you had an odd family, would you walk
around wide open, hoping to make friends with everyone? I’m not stuck up. I’m
protective of myself and my family. You are one of the people who used to talk
about my parents, but when you got back from college, I thought you had
changed. You didn’t. You’re still a small-minded bigot who can’t keep a man.”
Another smack. The girl knew how to slap. She was soap opera
perfection.
Olivia tasted blood, but she wasn’t backing down. “You think
he’s going to let you live? You’ll be the only one who could send him to jail.”
She looked to Martin. “You think she’ll be loyal to you? You’ve handed her a
massive weapon to use against you. If you think she won’t use it, then you
don’t know her at all. Are you ready for her to blackmail you?”
She could see the words hit their marks and the beginnings
of paranoia. That was good. She could use that.
Then a hard hand sank into her hair and she was pulled up,
pain flaring through her. She had to scramble.
Martin looked at her with narrowed eyes. “Where are the
pictures? I know you have them.”
This was going to get painful.
“Of course I have them, and I’m not going to tell you where
they are.” She looked at Scott and let her lip tremble. “Just don’t hurt him. I
couldn’t stand it if you hurt him.”
No one in their right mind would believe her given what
she’d recently said, but Jessica wasn’t completely stable.
Her face screwed up. “I knew it. I knew you were having an
affair.”
The slap came again. Even harder this time.
“Bring her in here, and bring him, too,” Jessica ordered.
Olivia spat blood, but she wasn’t one to waste an opening.
She looked to Martin. “Is she in charge? Or are you?”
Martin slapped her this time. He wasn’t as good at it as
Jessica, but a slap still hurt.
“I don’t want anything to do with that bitch,” Scott was
protesting.
Olivia was dragged to her feet by Martin.
“You’re going to tell me where you hid it one way or
another,” he vowed.
He was pulling her into the front room when a sound split
the air.
Someone was knocking on the door.
Martin dropped her, his panic starting to show, and she
hoped whoever was on the other side of that door knew what they were doing.
* * * *
Keane looked behind him as he stood near the door to
the exit. Gabe’s big SUV was sitting there waiting.
Garrett moved in behind them. “I found the address Abby sent
us. They’re still arguing about whose case it is. I don’t think they’re going
to move quickly no matter what Morgan argues. The sheriff is far more worried
about covering his ass than he is in finding Olivia.” Clearly, Garrett did not
have Jack Barnes’s presence.
It was okay because Barnes was sending something even
better. He was sending a security team. They were to pick up the team from
McKay-Taggart in a field Keane had coordinates for. Barnes had permission from
the property owners.
They just had to get out before the sheriff realized they
were going to deal with this on their own.
Or maybe the man would be relieved. He wasn’t sure, but he
couldn’t risk it.
Ruby was staying behind, monitoring the situation. She’d
promised to call if anything changed and wished them luck.
Keane gave Garrett a nod, and they slipped out, Keane moving
for the back seat while Garrett hopped in the passenger side. They had agreed
on this because Garrett had the address on his phone. Gabe would quietly drive
them out to meet the security team at a location close to where Olivia was
being held, and they would go from there.
“Gabe, I told you we have to work quietly,” Garrett said,
frowning at the two women in the third row of the SUV.
Gigi and Miranda frowned right back.
“We heard what happened,” Gigi announced. “We aren’t going
to let you leave us out of this.”
“You might be Olivia’s men, but we’re her girls. We promised
to never leave anyone behind,” Miranda said.
Gabe took off. “Sorry. They showed up as you texted me to go
get the car.”
“Aren’t you a Dom?” Keane asked. “They’re subs. You could
have ordered them to stay behind.”
Gabe snorted. “Yeah, you try that and see what happens.
Look, man, that kind of thing works on the dungeon floor, but they aren’t subby
outside of there. I assure you. You’re a Dom. You could try.”
Keane’s head turned, looking to the young women with his
hardest stare.
And then he turned back. “Fine. They’re her friends, but we
all are going to follow this Taggart guy’s orders.”
Gabe, Miranda, and Gigi all groaned at the same time.
“Couldn’t they have sent one of the younger guys?” Miranda
asked. “They’re so much less sarcastic.” Then she went pale. “I can’t believe I
said that. Olivia is going through who knows what and I’m complaining.”
“Do not start with the waterworks again,” Gigi said sternly.
“I told you. We’re going to cry our eyes out and eat all the Ben and Jerry’s we
can find in this town after we save Olivia.”
“You are not saving Olivia.” Gabe was the one who sounded
authoritative now. “You are sitting in this SUV until Taggart and his team get
her out, and then I’m going to have a long talk with your father. You’re
unruly. You won’t listen to reason, and you’re going to get yourself killed.”
Gigi’s eyes narrowed. “We have no idea how many people are
involved. Do you expect Big Tag to walk in with no intelligence? I don’t think
they’ll open the door to a burly guard who looks like he eats nails for
breakfast. That’s the only kind of dudes Big Tag hires. So he’ll need a
distraction.”
“We already figured this out,” Miranda explained. “Gigi is
going to go up and knock on the door, and she’ll find out how many of them