Intensity (24 page)

Ready to spill my guts, I spouted, “Anything.” Okay, maybe not. Apparently my cotton mouth decided to filter any testimony first to determine if it would be defensible.

“I don’t want you to worry. I’ll take care of everything.”

“Linc, n—”

Not letting me finish, he grabbed my shoulders and held me still. Then the worst possible doomsday prophecy happened. One I never could have predicted. “It’s Mylaynee, Serena. The job she was doing went wrong. We’re going to get her.”

Oh, dear God. No.

The pulse pounding in my neck and heartbeat thumping in my ears were precursors to the red-hot fury burning in my belly. “Where is that jackass? I’m gonna kill him. Jax!” I shoved his hands off me and made a mad dash for the office. Two sure-fire arms grabbed me around the waist and lifted me off my feet, flip-flops dangling from my toes.

“Settle down.” He urged without putting me back down.

I twisted around a teensy-bit, as far as I could move in his locked embrace. My eyeballing didn’t do much to intimidate, but I clenched his arms and pushed, putting me nose to nose and hopefully communicating the threat loud and clear. “You tell that SOB if anything happens to her. He. Will. Pay.”

“We’re loaded up. Gotta go,” Sal called out from the doorway and disappeared in a blur.

Linc set me back on my feet, took hold of my face and promised, “I’ll call you as soon as I have her.”

“Can I go?”

“No.”

“But—”

“I need you here. We have a full house and without Sal and me around you’re it. Will you do that?”

“Okay,” I said halfheartedly. “She’s not hurt, is she? You’d tell me, right?”

He cupped my cheek, and I leaned in to it, holding my breath. “I don’t know.”

I wrapped my arms around his chest, giving him a bear hug so gigantic it could stretch around Mylaynee no matter how far away. “
Please
bring her home, and be careful.”

When he vamoosed, I booked it the heck out of there too—warp speed.

Special request, Gram. Please watch over them.

My car idling outside the apartment building, it didn’t take long before I sighted my target—Linc’s SUV. As I coasted along some distance apart, I glanced at the dash. Two hours until the lounge opened. Just in case, I called Fallon on my way out and told her to hold down the fort. Linc would never know.

He drove to the West Side and turned onto Pier Street, swerving into an alley. Crap. Abandoned years ago, this section had one decrepit building after another lining the dock.

All three of them exited, taking off at a swift jog. Not far behind, I hoofed it too, praying they didn’t see me. At the next street, they turned out of view. That was when I picked up speed, sprinting faster than I ever had, rounding the corner in enough time to see them split apart and head in three different directions. Sal went left and Linc right, disappearing between two buildings.

Making a quick decision, I followed Jax. His case, his business, I figured he’d take the lead. Too many turns and blocks later, I lost count and had no clue how to get back. At the end of the street, Jax opened a door and entered a dilapidated warehouse that could be used for a horror movie. Double crap.

I got closer and ducked into a nook that might have been an exit at one time, but the graffiti-tagged particleboard and criss-crossed two-by-fours closed it off. The dimming daylight and eerie silence gave me the creeps. Okay, maybe this wasn’t such a bright idea.

Time stood still the longer I remained in the squished space. How in the heck did police put up with stakeouts? Whatever time I’d been here drove me bat-shit crazy. Antsy and determined to find out something, I crept away from my hiding spot. As I skulked around the corner, I rammed head first into a brick wall, my body bouncing backward and then yanked forward, coming face to scar-face with a man wider than a linebacker. “Lookin’ fa’ som’on’ missy?” A jagged slash marked the entire bridge of his nose, slitting the left nostril in half. Hash marks scored his cheek, its gashes etching slots down to his jaw and extending to his earlobe.

Note to self:
do not follow Jax. Ever.

He spun me around so fast I fell forward onto my hands and knees. Before I could dash away, he wrapped his arms around my waist and slammed a solid object into my lower back, surging an excruciating pain up my spine. I snapped my head back, ramming it into his chin. Sewer breath hit my nose as he growled, “Move, that’a way.” The gun jabbing into my kidney registered, classifying my idiocy as mistake #2: blondes
didn’t
do it better…they made you stupid. He clamped onto my upper arm with a fist of steel and hip checked me forward. Stuck together like glue, we shuffled in unison one foot after another, his steel-toe boots scraping my Achilles tendon. On my next step, the idiot’s knee butted into mine, buckling it. I stumbled, twisting my ankle. He wrenched my elbow and snapped me back into his chest, jamming the weapon into my ribs and launching a raging ache unlike any other I’d experienced before. Doubled over, I clutched my arms around my stomach, sucking in much-needed oxygen.

Jax crashed through a door at the opposite end, forcing my head to pop up from my hunched over position.

“Rick, let her go.”

“No can do, J.”

“Come on man, she’s no problem. Serena, come here,” he called out with exasperation, waving his hand and slapping it against his side like the puppy he’d been training hadn’t listened to his command.

My height and combined muscle from jogging every day had its advantages at times. But no matter how hard I twisted and jerked the outcome remained the same, a pitiful result even though I used my full body weight. The goon attached to me like a monkey on my back had his own solid mass, outweighing me by at least a hundred pounds and anchoring me to the spot.

Alright, Serena,
think.

In a blink, Sal and Linc appeared, apparitions materializing in the distance, but too remote to cast a spell on the evildoer who held me in captivity.

“Serena,” Linc yelled, taking off in a full-out run and charging toward me. A slower and shorter Sal trailed behind him.

The stabbing pressure on my back released, and in that instant my view shifted from a crazed Linc to the gun next to my ear, pointing right at him.

My brain, overwrought from the intense situation and exorbitant amounts of stress, splintered from rational thought, and in a split second I threw myself on Rick. Momentum, gravity, and forces unknown took hold, both of us caught in an unfortunate game of chicken. My side—unbalanced and steering empty-handed. Rick’s—laying on the gun power.

Fire ignited. The impact so jarring the implosion crumpled me to the ground, smacking my forehead into the cracked and crumbled cement. Hands and arms spread out, scraping flesh, I cushioned some of the blow.

Rick gone. Jax rolled me over, tore off his shirt, and pushed it down on my right side, knocking my gasping breaths out of me. Linc hauled me into his arms and dashed off at break- neck speed. His furtive glances and quick examinations assessed the damage while he hightailed it out of there. Sweat poured off him as he darted down one street and another. My aching head slipped off his shoulder, propelling my immobile weight backward and suspending my neck at an awkward angle that swayed with each stomp.

Linc propped open the back hatch and my body slid off his knee, rocking me from my stupor. He crawled inside, carrying me in his arms. My head cradled in his lap, he tossed his sweat-stained shirt off too. The force he used and the immense pressure building inside me drove my shallow breaths out in a gush again. His blurry eyes scrutinized and inspected every scrape, each bruise, and the bloody, gaping hole.

Jax and Sal hopped in the front of the SUV and sped us away. Linc barking orders, while Jax and Sal shouted, “How’s she doing?” “How bad?”

Transcendent effects happened not right away, but gradually. Body and mind separated, taking independent journeys, undisclosed and concealed from the other. Hazy blue eyes faded out, then in, and out again.

Memories flickered like a silent movie Kinetoscope, one flashback to the next.

The first encounter: the office—meeting Linc—a new job. Fate’s bearing encouraging, “Yes, this is the way.”

The sailboat: a changing tide—sharing beliefs, exposing a little bit about ourselves—destiny bringing two searching souls together.

The unsurpassable consummation: making love surrounded by nature—an unforeseen union—dream made reality.

Linc’s soft but insistent lips kissed…

my temple,

my eyelids,

my cheeks,

my lips.

Cleansing each with heart-wrenching tears.

Don’t cry, Linc.

Everything will be…

In a sterile room, slumped in a hard-back chair, a defeated man sat frozen in an endless, tortured stare.

“Boss, why don’t you go home for a while? I’ll stay,” Sal appealed, setting a discomfited hand on Linc’s shoulder.

“Don’t.” Linc’s gaze remained on the lifeless form in the hospital bed.

Sal shifted closer, squeezing his shoulder. “It’s been two weeks. Go home, get a shower, change clothes and come back.”

Linc buried his head in the stiff mattress, holding the motionless hand. “Go away,” he growled.

Sal glanced at Serena’s pale face and whispered, “Okay, boss.”

Not long after, a nurse followed by a doctor entered, positioning themselves on each side. “Mr. Jefferson.”

Linc gradually picked up his head, wet bloodshot eyes glaring at the intrusion.

“We have to take her for some tests now.”

Linc stood and leaned over, kissing her temple, eyelids, cheeks, and lips. He whispered in her ear, “I’ll be back,” and pressed her limp hand to his lips before exiting.

A book in one hand and the other caressing Serena’s, Linc read her favorite stories aloud for hours each day. His inflections deepened by his heartfelt tone, emphasizing each word with tender loving care.

The rapid knock had Linc looking up at the opening door.

“How is she?” Jax sat down on the opposite side, concern in his voice.

“The same.” He indexed the page he just finished and set the novel on the bed.

Jax’s gaze scanned Serena. “How you doing?”

Linc stroked her hand, staring at the wall without answering.

“Doc give you any updates?”

Linc whispered, “She needs time…” Closing his eyes he added, “to heal.”

“Why don’t you get out of here? You eat anything?”

No comment.

Jax sighed. “She’ll need you strong when she wakes up.” He stood. “Focus on that. Not the past.”

Linc darted a scowl at Jax and roared, “I should have protected her. She wouldn’t have come after us if I’d given her more information. Told her there wasn’t anything to worry about,” and then he directed an insistent wake-up gaze on Serena.

“Come on, man, listen to yourself…look at me,” Jax insisted, using a stubborn, knock-sense-into-you attitude.

Linc did, his pointed stare shooting bullets.

“It was
Mylaynee
. They had each other’s back from the get-go. No matter what you said or wanted it wouldn’t have made a difference.”

After the rant, Linc turned his weary eyes to the soundless body.