Mistake Me Not

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

They’d driven for hours. The light outside was long gone. They’d been bumping and rocking for twenty minutes. They were off-road. Throughout the journey, Lacie had been groped, repeatedly, everywhere. So far, they’d stayed on top of her clothes.

When the car stopped and the engine was switched off, everyone sat in silence for a second. The rag was so far down her throat that breathing around it was difficult. She had to make a conscious, careful effort to keep her breathing steady. They had stopped. What would come next?

“Got to get you inside for the boss,” someone said.

Using her hair, the guy wrenched her head back at a painful angle. Duct tape was stuck over the rag still in her mouth.

“Do we need to cover her mouth?” the man she’d been face down on asked. “Few things I wanna do with that tonight.”

“Boss gets to see her first.”

Her hair was yanked again so they could cover her eyes with cloth. The knot was pulled painfully tight in her hair. As it was tied and secured, her breasts were being fondled again.

Sticky breath fogged over her cleavage, and a slobbering tongue delved between her breasts. Holding onto her sickness was getting more difficult by the second.

“Take your time, man. We got her for as long as we need her, ain’t that right, girl?”

Her n*****s were pinched from behind while the tongue continued to lap.

A door opened and a rush of pine air assaulted her in a cleansing sweep. “You two cool it, will you?”

She was s*****d before being hauled out of the car by her hair. Freedom from the vehicle was bittersweet. When she cleared it, she was dropped to the ground. Mud seeped between her fingers and through her jeans. She tried to clamber up, but a boot settled over her derriere and she was forced back down. The boot stayed there while the men spoke.

“Does the boss want her now?”

“He’s coming back in the morning. He says he’s got business.”

“What we doing with him?”

“Booth? We keep him out the way.”

“What about her?”

“Downstairs.”

“Can we have fun with her?”

The man who’d been answering the questions chuckled. “He didn’t say no.”

They enjoyed that fact and jeered her with promises of what her night would hold. Turning her face into the mud, Lacie began to wish she hadn’t been so careful with her breathing. Ryder would punish himself for this. None of it was his fault, but he would. Maybe if she was just dead, word would get back to Ryder. After that news, there would be no chance of him endangering himself for her.

Saving Ryder from a final fate was her objective. She’d put up with whatever these men wanted to do to her. She’d do what she was told and would do it to keep those she cared about safe.

“He didn’t say yes either,” a booming voice came from further away.

All the men stopped laughing immediately.

“Don’t be a bastard,” someone begged.

“Lock her up downstairs. You can have your fun tomorrow. Boss gives the instructions. You get the nod from him first.”

Whoever had spoken had authority over the other men. Although it wasn’t a full reprieve, Lacie might have one last night without fear… though that was probably a pipedream.

“I’ve got something.”

Ryder looked up from the desk he’d been staring for God only knew how long. Toby rushed in with Gabe at his side. They had tried to follow, none of them had found the car. Driving around without direction got them nowhere and prevented them from doing other things.

Sorcha was somewhere around, still in a puddle, crying and wailing. He didn’t have time for apologies now. She was happy in her misery. He was not inclined to help her, so he left her to it. Evening was drawing in. As the light faded so did his hope that Lacie had been left untouched.

“What is it?” Ryder asked.

Toby slid the laptop onto the desk in front of him. “You know we got the pings from the cell towers while the call was still connected?”

“Yes,” Ryder said. “But they only went ten miles out.”

“Yeah,” Toby said. “We’ve been trying all afternoon, but the phone was out of range.”

“Past tense?” Ryder asked, sitting up straighter.

Toby nodded. “It’s not much, and I can’t be sure, but I think we got a hit. The computer’s been searching on an ever increasing radius and we got something.”

“Show me,” Ryder said, turning the screen toward himself.

“It’s a big area,” Gabe said. “We’ve got the cell tower triangulation.”

“It gives us an area of around thirty square miles, cell coverage is sparse. But I’ve got a program looking for the GPS location. We’ll get it eventually. We just have to hope that they don’t destroy the phone… or move it too far.”

“We only have the location of the phone. They might have ditched it.”

“It’s the best we’ve got,” Ryder said. “Get together anything we need; we’re moving the base of operations.”

“Will’s already on it with Rocco. We’ll be ready to move in a few minutes.”

“How far out?” Ryder asked, pushing away from the desk.

“A couple of hundred miles from here.”

Ryder left the desk. “Which means they’ve not been there long.”

“Where are you going?”

“To talk to Sorcha,” Ryder said.

“She’s pretty cut up,” Gabe said.

“I know how she feels,” Ryder said.

Leaving his men, Ryder went to the front room of HQ. Sorcha was lying on the couch looking out the west window. When he entered, she didn’t register him at all, she didn’t move. Given all the activity going on around her, people coming in and out, she’d probably blocked it out.

“We’re moving out,” he said, sitting in the matching armchair.

“Have you found her?” Sorcha asked, sitting up in an instant.

“We got a hit on your cellphone,” he said. “We don’t have an exact location, but it’s better than nothing.”

“I should come with you,” Sorcha said, nodding. “I should come, and…”

“You don’t have to come,” he said, sensing that as much as Sorcha missed her friend, she knew she could be of little help. “I called Shep. He’ll come and look after you.”

“I don’t need that,” she said. “I’ll go home to my parents.”

“You can do that,” Ryder said. “Their security system is top notch. I know because we installed it.”

He managed a smile, which seemed to relax her.

“I am sorry about all of this. I had no idea that—”

“I should apologize too,” he said. “I was rude earlier. There’s no excuse for it.”

“You’re worried about her,” Sorcha said. “She wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for me. She trusted you… I wasn’t as confident.”

“Turns out you were right,” he said. “I haven’t done much to help her.”

“You’ll get her back,” Sorcha said. “Lacie’s never had much luck with men… I can’t really claim to have had much more luck myself… I’m such an i***t, I don’t know what to do.”

When her tears started again, he shifted over to the couch to hold her. “You care about Lacie, she knows that.”

“Without her, I don’t know what to do. I make bad decisions and she’s always been there to bail me out. Now she needs me and… I don’t know what to do.”

“She needs you to be here and she needs you to be safe,” Ryder said, letting her go. “She got in that car to save me and to save you.”

Sorcha nodded when he glanced at her abdomen. “She told you?” He nodded. “I told you I’m an idiot.”

“You aren’t an i***t. None of this is your fault. I was wrong to take my anger out on you.”

“I did cause this,” Sorcha said. “All of what has happened can be traced back to my decisions.”

“They can be traced back to Booth’s decisions. This is not your fault.”

“I can’t expect Bruce to marry me now, not after this. But if I go home to my parents without a father…”

“Their judgement won’t be harsh.”

“It will be,” she said. “But it’s what I deserve.”

“Everyone makes mistakes.”

“My friend is out there,” she said, welling up again. “She’s going through a nightmare and I’m sitting here with you talking about my problems. How can someone be so selfish?”

“I’m going to get her back,” Ryder said.

“I know,” Sorcha said. “Lacie has faith in you… and I do too.”

Rocco entered and gave him the nod toward the front door. “Shep’s outside.”

Ryder helped Sorcha to her feet. “Rocco will take you out, Shep will take you where you want to go.”

“Thank you,” Sorcha said when Rocco came to them. “All of you for… thank you.”

Ryder watched Rocco take Sorcha out of the building. Now he had to get his game head on. Every minute would be crucial. First, they had to get there, then they had to find her. As soon as they did, he’d get her out. Whatever it took.

Simple? Anything but. He’d never shied from a challenge in the past and wasn’t about to start now.

Wherever Lacie was, it smelled awful. She assumed it was dark too; the blindfold prevented her from confirming that. They’d dragged her into a building, down some stairs, and left her there.

Footfalls echoed like on floorboards above. The bass of men talking came from overhead too. Sometimes there would be a shout or a laugh. The voices faded and returned but didn’t broach the creaky door they’d opened to bring her down and closed after they left.

Now she lay in the corner on what felt like a mattress, her hands tied to something above her head. The sound of rodents scurrying and chewing shared her air. Would someone come back for her before she became their habitat?

Focusing on the sounds and smells only briefly took her mind from the people she’d left behind. No matter how hard she tried, she struggled to figure out how this would end. Either these men would finish her, and her fate would never be known, or someone would come after her…

Ryder.

He’d said he would find her before she got into the car, but she wasn’t eager for him to keep his promise. He would go to any lengths. And being in his arms again would be a dream. But she didn’t like the price that discovery may cost them.

If he found her there, Ryder would be outnumbered. Even if he brought all the StoneWall guys with him. The men she’d met at StoneWall had integrity. The men here did not. They would shoot first and ask questions later. Out there, civilization was a distant memory.

Sounds from outside weren’t urban or even suburban. Their off-roading in the car gave her the idea that they were somewhere rural, far off the beaten track. No doubt so secluded that no one would hear any screams.

The smell of trees, the mud, and the rodents told her it was a wooded area. Somewhere with plenty of places to dispose of a person no longer needed or someone who got in the way.

Her temporary reprieve had come on the orders of one man. The other men wanted to play with her. Who was the boss they referred to? Would he give the order to let his men have their way? Why wouldn’t he? If he had any respect for women, he wouldn’t have hired the men in the first place, or he wouldn’t have had them capture her at all.

On that sidewalk, there was no choice. Replaying the events of the last few days, the things she would change piled up. She wished she could make so many decisions differently. The only thing she wouldn’t change was her time with Ryder. They’d been cheated out of any future, but at least they’d been together for a flicker of time.

Tonight, she could only breathe and hope that the “boss” wouldn’t be back early or at all. A lot to hope for, but it was better than sitting torturing herself over what might, or might not, have been between her and Ryder. He was the first man, the only man, to provoke her in ways she’d always denied were possible.

Her experience with Ryder made her predicament easier. She couldn’t explain the rationale. Ryder was out there somewhere. Out there angry. He’d be punishing himself, blaming himself for her choice. If she could make this easier for him, she would, but was helpless to console him.

It was taking too long. StoneWall had hired a cabin in the epicenter of their search area. They’d set up their equipment and worked until after midnight with most of them out combing the streets. The area was quiet with just a few homes in the commercial center. The town consisted of a general store, a fishing tackle store, a diner, and a hardware place that rented bicycles to tourists. There was only one resort for twenty miles around, so they’d set up base there.

Trying to be conspicuous in a group of six men wasn’t easy when they rolled into town without a hint of recreational interests in mind. But the resort leased lodges, and when they paid twice the rate, the teen at the desk didn’t ask any questions. Ryder didn’t care about stirring up interest. Maybe if he did, the sloppy henchmen would get careless or come looking for him.

“You should get some sleep.”

Ryder turned to see Gabe outside one of the three bedroom doors. “I was talking to Jamie,” he said.

“Bet he told you to get some sleep,” Gabe said, seating himself at the large kitchen table.

It dominated the back of the room, standing in front of the glazed doors that led to the rear deck. Right now, the surface was covered with computers, local maps, and other paperwork.

“We’ve been the best at what we do for so long,” Ryder said, slipping his hands into his pockets. “Why am I no good when it counts?”

“It always counts,” Gabe said. “It’s just this time…”

“What?”

“You’re the client,” Gabe said. “We’re hired by husbands and fathers concerned about people who mean something to them. You’re the husband… so to speak.”

“I’ve told clients to trust us… I told Lacie to trust me.”

“She does.”

“She shouldn’t,” Ryder said.

“I don’t know Lacie, but a woman who has got your interest has to be something. Do you think she’d be impressed with your pity party?”

“I don’t care about me,” Ryder sniped. “I care about her. She’s out there! She could be right under our noses. She needs me! And goddamnit, I’m standing here staring out the f*****g window doing nothing!”

Ryder kicked a chair from the table, it shot across the room, splintering its leg on its sudden stop. All three bedroom doors opened and all his men appeared at once. Ryder held up his hands.

“Feel better?” Gabe asked.

“Go back to bed,” Ryder said to the men on ready alert with eager trigger fingers.

They observed the scene then followed his orders. Once they were gone, Ryder began to pace.

“We’re going to find her,” Gabe said.

“And what happens in the meantime?” Ryder asked.

“She’s tough,” Gabe said. “She stood up to Rocco and Toby when she found HQ.”

Ryder stopped pacing. “She’s a fighter.”

The message got through without any elaboration.

“You don’t want her to fight?” Gabe asked.

“I don’t want her to be in that position at all. But fighting could make things worse. What if they get angry at her? You weren’t there the last time. All I can hear in my head is her screaming. It’s deafening. It plays round and round, driving me crazy.”

“You’ve got the scars to prove it,” Gabe said, nodding at his wrists.

The scabs hadn’t healed, but the pain they had caused him wasn’t enough.

“Lacie’s different,” Ryder said, still looking at his wrists. “She’s not a quick fumble.”

“We know that,” Gabe said.

“We?”

“I spoke to Jamie this afternoon. The guys know she’s important to you. She’s a part of the team and we never leave a man behind.”

“We are going to find her,” Ryder said. “But… what will this do to her?”

“She’ll have physical wounds. She’ll be scared, worried, traumatized by what they’ve put her through. Are you saying you won’t take the time to get her through it? You won’t be patient if she’s not ready to jump straight back into bed with you?”

“No!” Ryder insisted.

“Right, so we concentrate on getting her back.”

“How long will it take?” Ryder asked. “They’ll get rid of her eventually. Could be a day or a week… how much time do we have?”

“We know Bruce Booth is working for them. We have to find out why. We have to find out what this is about and what they want with Lacie. What is this guy afraid of?”

“We’ll only be able to find that out if we get to the guy. For that, we need to find Lacie.”

“Get some sleep,” Gabe said, leaving the table. “You’ve got to be at your peak. She’s going to need you.”

Ryder watched Gabe disappear back into the bedroom and turned back to the window. She was out there somewhere, all he had to do was find her.