Captivating Her Racy Heroes [Racy Nights 13] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 13

  Brynn jumped as lightning flashed the same time as thunder crashed overhead. She would ruin her nails if she checked her phone. They weren’t quite dry yet. She glanced at the clock. Thirty-eight more minutes until the guys were due to arrive, and then she’d be safe.

  “That’s a doozy of a storm out there.” Felicia grabbed her phone and scrolled. “No warnings. Just a thunderstorm.” She placed it on the floor next to the chair, and Brynn asked if she had any children. She just wanted to keep her talking so the time passed more quickly. She didn’t understand her jumpiness right now, and that unnerved her even more.

  “No. We were never blessed with them. We tried and tried but nothing, and we didn’t have money to adopt or to try all those fertility drugs or tests.”

  How sad. And now her husband was gone. Brynn’s heart went out to this lonely woman. She was about to ask her another question when the door to the shop opened and a man walked in, holding something in his right hand.

  At first, Brynn thought it was Hugh or Ryder and that they were early, but then she blinked a few times as she realized the face didn’t belong to either of her Doms. The man was soaked, as though he’d walked a long distance in the rain. There was already a small puddle at his feet.

  When he reached behind and locked the door, then pulled the shades down completely, she started to get up, but then fell back into the chair as the reality of what and who she was looking at finally struck her.

  This wasn’t happening…It couldn’t be true…

  Felicia didn’t know who this was, of course, but she must have great instincts from being married to a cop for so many years, because she reached for her phone. She had actually punched in two numbers when Brynn screamed.

  The loudest noise she’d ever heard echoed around the shop and she covered her ears, glancing at the windows because she thought they’d blown out. It took her a few seconds to realize that it had been a gunshot, not thunder, and that Felicia now lay on the floor.

  “No…No! You shot her…”

  “Yes, I did.” Eddie’s voice was exactly as she remembered it from ten years ago. Every second of that horrible night came rushing back at her as if it had only happened yesterday, and Brynn couldn’t move. Her body was frozen to the chair. “And I’ll do the same to you if you move one muscle before I tell you to.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Hugh and Ryder finished their class earlier than expected, and Hugh asked Ryder whether he minded if they left right away. He’d had an uneasy feeling all evening and the storm outside had nothing to do with it.

  He and Ryder didn’t speak as they drove downtown. There was no need to. Neither man was now entirely comfortable leaving Brynn anywhere unless one of them was with her, and that included her job. But they also knew she was safe with Claude because the man had a shotgun under his desk in the trailer that Brynn didn’t know about. And Hugh and Ryder both knew that Claude would shoot Eddie in the chest without thinking twice about it if he dared to try and bother either one of them.

  They’d both told Claude what was going on, and he’d promised not to breathe a word to anyone, including Sean or Brynn. To hell with what the cops thought. They weren’t going to let anything happen to Brynn, and that silly trailer was just as vulnerable as any place in Racy. More so, because they were the only two inside it, and it was in a parking lot behind the store.

  Downtown Racy was practically deserted, which Hugh found unsettling for a Friday night. He imagined it was the rain keeping people off the streets, but he didn’t like it. They parked as close to the salon as possible, and as they sprinted toward it, the blood in Hugh’s veins ran cold. The shades were down and the lights were on inside, but he didn’t see anyone moving around. Where were they? Had they gone into the back to wait? Were they upstairs?

  He’d heard that Felicia Summerville, the woman who had bought the shop, lived upstairs. He glanced up at the windows but they were dark. “Is there a back entrance?”

  Ryder nodded, pointing toward the alley. “Yes, but why don’t you want to go in the front door?”

  “I don’t know. Something is wrong.” He had no clue where the feeling had come from, but he didn’t question it. He ducked under the awning of the shop next to the salon and took out his cell to call Sean. Thankfully, Sean didn’t question him. He told him to get someplace safe and to not try anything heroic.

  “What do you want to do?” asked Ryder, after Hugh disconnected the call.

  Hugh tried to shake the feeling that something was very wrong, but he couldn’t. He called Brynn’s cell but it went straight to voice mail, which made him all the more afraid. Why would she have it off? She’d be waiting for them by now, and he was surprised she hadn’t called or texted. The last thing she’d do was turn off her cell phone. “Okay. Let’s try the front door.”

  It was locked. Hugh had trouble breathing now. “Let’s go around to the back.”

  She had to be okay. She just had to be. He loved her more than he’d ever loved anyone in his life. He should have told her that. What the hell had he been waiting for? If he’d already fucked this up and never had the chance to tell her how much he loved her, he’d never forgive himself.

  * * * *

  Brynn reached for her phone but Eddie fired a shot into the wall behind her. She screamed again, and now the tears came before she could even think about trying to stop them.

  “Are you deaf, bitch? Toss that fucking thing over here now or I swear to high heaven I will fucking shoot you dead and not think twice about it.”

  She glanced at Felicia, who lay as still as a stone. “Let me call 911 to get her some help.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about her. It’s you I want. Now be a good girl and toss me your phone.”

  She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t even think straight. If Hugh and Ryder showed up now, Eddie would kill them. She couldn’t let that happen. She had to protect them above all else, even if that meant…No. She couldn’t let her thoughts go there. She had to stay in control right now. She knew what he was capable of, and she had to remember that.

  With another glance at Felicia, she threw her phone across the room, not even trying to aim for Eddie. To hell with him. As he sprinted toward the corner where she’d tossed it, she grabbed a handful of towels off a shelf and placed them over the bleeding wound in Felicia’s left shoulder. Felicia’s eyelids fluttered, and Brynn started crying again. She wasn’t dead. Thank God she wasn’t dead.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered, “Help is on the way.” She had to tell her something to give her hope. This wasn’t her fault. Eddie had no right to hurt her like this.

  “What the fuck are you doing? I told you to leave her alone!”

  She turned to watch him smash her phone against the wall. Felicia’s was across the room where it had skittered when she fell. She’d never reach it in time. “She’s bleeding. Let me help her. You said you came here for me. She has no part in this.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about her! I told you that!” He stomped across the shop toward her and Brynn froze, trying desperately to think of a way to stop him, just long enough to run outside. Surely someone was out there and would call the cops for her.

  But he reached her before she could even begin to formulate a plan, and pulled her roughly to her feet. She tried to free herself but he was too strong, and she was too afraid. She could hardly breathe. He dragged her into the back room and threw her against a wall.

  Brynn fought to stay conscious, but between the sudden pain in her head and the nausea that overwhelmed her, it was difficult. She swore she heard sirens in the distance, but Eddie didn’t react, so she realized she must be imagining them. He pushed the gun barrel against the side of her head where she’d cut it on something as she’d struck the wall. She knew she’d cut it because she smelled blood and felt its trickling down her face, sticky and warm.

  His breath was hot and foul against her ear, and Brynn recoiled in revulsion as icy fear swept through her. He was go
ing to rape her, and then he was going to kill her. Exactly as he’d done to Zakia, and exactly as he’d done to those other women in Ohio and Michigan.

  And she’d never see Hugh or Ryder again. She’d never look into their eyes and have the chance to tell them how much she loved them. And Eddie would leave Racy and would never be caught for this. He’d evaded the police for ten years now, and he’d keep doing so. They’d never catch him, and Zakia would never find justice. All this would be for nothing in the end.

  Overwhelming defeat and sadness engulfed her. She’d come to Racy for no reason other than to do a job she’d been trained to do, and had found love as well. True love. Love like no other, and one which she’d begun to believe couldn’t possibly exist. And now this man who didn’t deserve to live would take all that away from her, and he’d go on hurting others as well. And she was powerless to stop him. After all she’d tried to do, she had no way to stop him in the end.

  * * * *

  Ryder heard a crash inside the back of the shop and started to rush the door, but Hugh stopped him. “I hear a man’s voice. Hang on.”

  They listened, and when Ryder realized what was going on, he nearly retched. “Where the fuck are the cops? We have to get in there. I know who that is. We both do.”

  Hugh’s skin looked green under the streetlight. “I do, too. I hear them now. The cops. They’re on their way.” Both men sprinted toward the street and flagged down Sean’s cruiser as it nearly ran them over. Sean jumped out, his gun drawn.

  “Eddie has her in the back of the salon.”

  “How do you know it’s him?”

  Ryder ran his hands through his hair. “I don’t. But someone has her. For fuck’s sake, Sean! Get in there and save her!”

  “All right. Calm down. Stay here.”

  Sean took off for the alley as cops surrounded the building, but that wasn’t enough for Ryder. Brynn was inside with that monster, not out here. He glanced at Hugh, and they didn’t need to communicate. The fuck with this. They weren’t going to stand here and wait to see how this played out. They were going to help rescue the woman they loved.

  He and Hugh both ran into the alley and sprinted toward the back door, where two cops were poised to break it down. All Ryder wanted to do was run inside and pull her into his arms. He wanted to tell her how much he loved her. He should have done that. He should have done that last week. Why the hell had he waited? If Eddie touched one hair on her head he’d kill him with his bare hands. The hell with the outstanding warrants, and the hell with what the Racy cops did to him.

  He wasn’t going to lose her. He couldn’t. She meant everything to him and he’d die without her.

  * * * *

  Brynn heard the commotion outside, but it was as if she listened to it through a wind tunnel. She could barely focus her eyes, and her head hurt like a motherfucker. Eddie tore a piece of cloth from something that looked like a smock, and tied her wrists together. She protested, but he hit her across the face so hard that she gasped, struggling to breathe.

  He tore open her top as if it was tissue paper, and she tried to scream, but couldn’t seem to speak anymore. Voices from outside drifted in and out of her consciousness, but she didn’t know whose they were, or even if she was actually hearing them. She could still hear the rain, but couldn’t figure out what else she was listening to. Was the TV on upstairs?

  Eddie pulled down her pants and that snapped her out of her fog for a second. She kicked at him, but all that did was earn her another slap across the face. Soft tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched him tie her ankles to chairs on either side of them with her own clothes.

  This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. She had to get away. She had to scream. But she could barely breathe, and the pain in her head and face were now so severe that she fought to stay awake.

  Hugh and Ryder…where were they? She closed her eyes and tried to picture their beautiful faces as the horrible sound of ripping cloth once again reached her ears. It took her a few seconds to realize that Eddie had torn off her underwear, and she now lay naked and tied up.

  It was over. Or at least it soon would be. Brynn shook her head and tried to open her mouth, but his hand covered it. She forced her eyes to open one last time.

  “Zakia looked at me like that, too. All sad and defeated. She knew she was fucked.” He took his hand away. “And now you’ll end up just like her.”

  “What?” Her voice came out in a whisper as cold tendrils of fear danced across her skin.

  “Oh yes. I raped her that night. And then I killed her. But you’ve always known that, haven’t you? I’ve been waiting a long time to find you again, Brynn. It’s poetic justice that I eventually caught up with you here, of all places. Isn’t it?”

  She shook her head, but even that hurt to do now, and her stomach contracted like she was going to throw up. If she did, she’d choke on her own vomit because she was flat on her back. Eddie straddled her and began to unzip his pants, his dark eyes cold and hard. Brynn fought to keep breathing.

  This couldn’t happen to her. It couldn’t end this way. She had to survive this long enough to tell someone that she’d been right. Eddie had raped and killed Zakia. Her friend would have justice, even if she died giving it to her.

  She swore she heard Hugh’s voice, but that couldn’t be. It was in her mind. She closed her eyes and tried to picture his and Ryder’s faces again. She’d keep them in her head, no matter what happened. The sheer will of her love for them would reach them somehow. She would not die without them knowing that she loved them.

  A loud crash that at first Brynn thought was thunder shook the building, and then Eddie was no longer on top of her. She heard the same deafening blast that she’d heard inside the shop when Eddie had shot Felicia, but this time she couldn’t cover her ears or even scream. There were more blasts, and then her world went dark.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I think she’s awake.” That was Hugh’s voice.

  “Is she going to be okay? When will we know?” That was Ryder’s.

  They were alive? They were here? Had they caught Eddie? Did they know he’d killed Zakia?

  Brynn opened her eyes and moaned as the light burned them for a second. She blinked a few times until the fog cleared, but there was so much pain.

  “Don’t try and talk.” Hugh’s beautiful face loomed over her. “It’s all right. It’s over.”

  “No,” she whispered. “He killed her…just like I said he did…”

  Ryder shook his head. “Felicia isn’t dead. She had surgery and they removed the bullet from her shoulder. She’s going to be all right, and so are you. You have a bad gash on your head and a concussion, but that’s all.”

  “No. Zakia. He told me he killed her. Right before he…” Oh my God. Had he raped her? She couldn’t remember. She remembered being naked and tied up, but that was all. Why couldn’t she remember anything else?

  Tears spilled over her lashes as she struggled to make them both understand. “He told me he raped and killed Zakia. He told me in detail what her eyes looked like that night.”

  Sean was in the room. She caught the scent of his cologne before she saw his face, leaning over her. “He’s dead, Brynn. We shot him, but not before he fired off a couple of shots first at us.”

  “But he killed her.” Wait. What had Sean just said? “Oh no…did he hurt a cop? Did he…” She couldn’t finish the question.

  Sean shook his head. “No. Wounded one but only in the arm. He’s all right.”

  She swallowed hard and then nodded.

  “We’ll need your statement, but it can wait.” He glanced toward Hugh and Ryder. “These two need to tell you something first.”

  Sean left the room and Brynn reached for them. They each grasped a hand. She had to know. “Did he…did he rape me?”

  Hugh frowned. “What? No. No. The cops broke down the door before he got that far. Brynn, I should have told you this a long time ago. I love you. I love you so damn much
. When I realized he had you in there…I thought I was going to die. I want you with me forever. As my lover, my sub, and everything else we can think of.”

  “Oh, Hugh…I love you, too. I love you both. I should have said the words but I was so afraid to. I just wanted all of this to be over, and until it was, I didn’t know what to do. I love you so much. I want to be with you, too. With both of you.”

  She thought her heart was going to burst from joy. He gazed at her with so much love in his eyes, and she knew it was the same expression she’d been looking at for two weeks. How could she not have realized before now that he loved her as much as she loved him?

  “I love you, too,” said Ryder, his gaze overcome with emotion. She’d seen the same love in his eyes, as well. She’d been so blind. So foolish and so blind. “And I want you with me, too. As my sub and my lover. I want to share your life, and I want Hugh to share it as well. Nothing else will ever satisfy me from this point on.”

  “I love you, too. I should have told you that. I should have told you both. I want to be your sub and your lover, too. I want to be with both of you forever.” She was crying so hard now that she could barely speak, but this time they weren’t tears of sadness or fear. They were tears of joy and love.

  Ryder brushed a hand along her face and she winced. That must be where Eddie had slapped her. That memory came back to her now. He’d struck her twice. “That bastard will never hurt you or anyone else again.” Ryder’s voice was hard, but Brynn knew that was because he hated the fact that she’d been hurt by Eddie.

  “But Zakia will never have justice. And neither will the other women he hurt.”