Jarod's Heart (King Brothers Stories #2) (28 page)

Nauseating pain.

Darkness.

Where am I?

The whine of tires on pavement and more pain as the car bumped over ruts in the road.

She mentally took an inventory of her body and found that the only pain she suffered was in her head. She could move her fingers and toes, which she thought was a good sign. However, her wrists were bound behind her back, and her face itched around her mouth.

Duct tape!

She was on her side in the trunk of a car, facing the tail lights. She could see the emergency release handle near her feet. It had been cut. She could also make out Jessica’s wide blue eyes and tear-streaked face.

She was nestled against Lauren’s chest, silently crying. Lauren tried to soothe her, but with the tape on her mouth her words were just muffled gibberish.

“Mommy!” Jessica cried and hugged Lauren as tightly as her small arms could reach.

“Mff mffkah,” Lauren mumbled though the duct tape, as she tried to swallow her panic at their situation. How the hell had they gotten here?

Jessica looked up at her again and said, “What?” through her tears. She then proceeded to rip the duct tape from Lauren’s mouth.

Lauren gasped. She wouldn’t need to see her aesthetician for a while.

But before she could ask why Jessica wasn’t taped up too, the little girl put her index finger to her lips and whispered, “Sshh. We hafta stay quiet or we getta nuther smack.”

Horrified that someone had hit Jessica, Lauren’s nausea turned to rage.

“Can you untie my hands?” Lauren whispered back.

Without a sound, Jessica reached over Lauren’s body to tug on her wrists. She was grunting and pulling, but the binding wouldn’t come loose. Jessica began to cry silently again as she slid back in front of Lauren.

“Can’t get it,” she whimpered.

“Baby, it’s okay. Don’t cry anymore. We’ll think of something.”

Jessica just cuddled up next to her again and silently cried herself to sleep.

WHAT MUST HAVE
been hours later, Lauren tensed when she felt the car turn onto a dirt road. Her body hurt from being in the same position for too long, and her head still throbbed. The temperature in the trunk had risen to a stifling heat, and Lauren knew the sun was fully up by now. She could see light coming through the seams of the trunk lid, and the tail lights were no longer lit up.

Then the car came to a complete stop and the motor was turned off.

Jessica stirred but didn’t make a peep. Lauren could hear her breaths coming in pants now, and she tried to calm her little girl down. “It’ll be okay. Daddy will come as soon as he can,” she whispered.

And then she heard a familiar voice. “We’re here, ladies.”

When the trunk opened, Brad’s handsome face peered in at her.

Her eyes opened wide in surprise. She was about to let him have it when he quickly reached in and placed one large hand over her mouth and the other roughly around her neck.

“Jessica. Did you take the tape off of Lauren’s mouth?” he scolded. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. You know what happens when you don’t do as I say.”

Jessica put her small hands to her own mouth and began to silently cry.

“I’ll tell you what. If Lauren doesn’t make a sound,” he was squeezing her neck to emphasize each word, “then I won’t punish you. But if she does,” he yanked Lauren out of the trunk by her neck and hair and brought her up to his face, almost nose to nose, “then I’ll have to smack you both.”

Lauren just glared at him.

“Okay, then,” he said as he let her go with a small shove. “Get out of the car, Jessica. You know the drill.”

Lauren winced when he roughly grabbed her bound elbow and pulled her toward an old house. It had chipped yellow paint and a squatty, flat roof that reminded her of 1950s military housing.

Lauren took stock of her surroundings. They were in an old neighborhood of some sort, with houses of similar condition, shape, and size. There were no sidewalks, and most of the driveways were dirt. The yard had probably had grass at some point because there were cement mow strips in different parts of the yard circling some of the old trees.

As they kept walking, the trees parted between the houses, and she could just make out the Las Vegas skyline on the other side of the valley.

“Hurry up, Jessica. You’re trying my patience, girl.”

Jessica scrambled to lift up an old pot left in the dirt next to the cement porch leading to the front door. Lauren looked around, but there were no other vehicles on the street and no movement from any of the homes. Jessica retrieved a key and reached up to the doorknob.

Brad pushed her out of the way to work the key and opened the door. He shoved Lauren inside, never taking his hand off of her arm.

Her shoulders ached from her arms being tied behind her back for too long. She wriggled her hands and fingers to find that they were tingling a little. She subtly pulled her wrists apart to loosen the awful tape. They were still held together tightly. The adhesive was strong, and she could feel all the hairs on her arm being yanked out of her skin. She ignored the pain and kept flexing.

“Get your little ass in here, Jessica, and shut the door!”

Jessica scrambled in and slammed the door.

Lauren, not really a patient person when she was being kidnapped, snapped. “What the hell are we doing here, Brad? And unbind my hands right now!”

With lightning speed, Brad backhanded her, causing her to see stars for a moment. Jessica ran to Lauren where she landed on her rear. Tears fell freely down the child’s precious cheeks.

“Jessica, explain to Lauren what happens when she speaks without being spoken to.”

Jessica looked her in the eyes and whimpered, “You’ll getta smack.”

Tasting blood, Lauren glared at Brad, who raised an eyebrow at her. He walked over to her and squatted in front of her, his hands casually resting on his knees.

“Now, Mrs. King, I understand that this is new to you, so I will explain the rules. It’s very, very simple, so listen up. You do what I say, when I say. You do not speak unless I give you permission to do so. And any attempt to leave my company will be met with harsh punishment.”

She looked at Jessica and saw the beginnings of a bruise on her temple. Lauren glared back at Brad and saw only his smug expression.

She summoned all of her will to remain calm and think this through without trying to kill Brad herself. She didn’t know how long it would take Jarod to get here, so she had to bide her time and remain alive until he did. She had no doubt that her husband was on his way.

She breathed through her nose and out her mouth very slowly. Then she gave Brad a curt nod, indicating that she understood his “rules.”

His smile would have been beautiful if it weren’t for the cruelty in his eyes. How had she never notice it before?

He reached down and toyed with her hair. “You’re a very pretty woman, Lauren. Jarod is one lucky son of a bitch.” Then he grabbed a handful of hair, his fingernails scraping her scalp in the process, and brought her up to his face once more.

“It would be a shame to have to rearrange a few of your lovely features, wouldn’t it? And make no mistake, Lauren. I will hurt you.”

He shoved her back to the floor and stood up.

“Well,” he clapped his hands once and rubbed them together. “Shall we get started then?”

S
low down before you kill us, Jarod.”

He gave Jason a hard look before he acquiesced and let up on the accelerator. He watched the speedometer needle fall to eighty-three miles per hour and grunted.

His brothers had been quiet for a while, and Jarod was thankful for the time to think. He knew the problem had been under his nose the whole time, but he just couldn’t make the pieces fit together. Or maybe he just didn’t want to. The uncomfortable theory that somehow Brad Anderson, his mentor and friend, was involved in a drug ring seemed too far-fetched to consider. The man had passed up being sheriff and basically handed the job to Jarod. Why had he done that?

“I know that face,” Jason said. “Out with it, Jarod, before you pop a blood vessel.”

When Jarod continued to stare out the windshield, he felt Josh’s hand on his shoulder.

“I want to find her just as badly as you do. If you have any ideas, spit it out. Maybe we can help figure this out.”

Glancing at his little brother in the rearview mirror, Jarod tried to sort out the situation as best he could. Before he could say anything, Jason’s cell phone rang.

“You find out anything, Dad? Yeah…. That’s good news.”

Jarod glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. “What is it?”

“Dane’s contacts say Jessica’s GPS signal has stopped moving. They have an address. Hold on…what, Dad? Say that again?”

Jarod sat impatient as Jason took his sweet time talking to James. Again, Dane had come to the rescue.

“What should we do, then? Okay, I’ll let him know. What’s the address?” Jason used a pen he’d found in a cup holder to write something on his hand. “Got it. Yeah, we just hit Indian Springs, and Jarod’s foot is getting heavier the closer we get to Vegas. Yeah, see you then, Dad.”

“Well?” Josh asked.

Jason actually chuckled and shook his head.

“You think this is funny?” Jarod asked disgustedly.

“No, it’s not funny at all.” Jason was shaking his head.

“I swear to God, Jason, I’m coming over this seat and kicking your ass if you don’t spit it out!” This was from Josh.

Jason turned in his seat and glared green sparks at their little blue-haired brother, whose glittering coiffure was a distraction, to say the least. “Yeah, like that’s going to happen, Bubblicious,” Jason tsked and shook his head.

“Charlie’s a deadman,” Josh muttered.

Jason rolled his eyes before turning back to Jarod. “Lawlor has been under federal investigation for several years.”

Jarod squinted at Jason. “For what?”

At the same time, Josh asked, “What does that have to do with Lauren and Jessica?”

“Shut up and let me finish. It seems that Derek has been padding his books. The few mines he still keeps operational aren’t producing as much as he’s been reporting. He’s getting money from somewhere, but no one knows where. Dad suspected something after Derek paid us his deposit in cash but then asked for the terms of the contract to be changed after we started work on Molly’s. The IRS suspects tax evasion and money laundering, but they don’t have enough evidence, whatever that means. They keep auditing him, but he’s been a clever bastard. Isn’t that lovely?” he asked sarcastically. “But because the feds had been focused on Derek and his business ventures, Timbisha became fascinating to the DEA.”

“Meth,” Jarod muttered.

“Exactly. And somewhere along the line, Derek’s name came up in an undercover sting in Vegas,” Jason paused. “When Miranda was killed, it started the whole thing in motion.”

“Are you saying Derek kidnapped my daughter?” Jarod was getting frustrated.

Jason shrugged and said, “Dane said two other names are also associated with the DEA task force investigating the Lawlors—Avery Decatur and your deputy mentor, Brad Anderson.”