Midnight Shadows (19 page)

Since she couldn’t respond verbally, she allowed her eyes to speak for her. Besides, what would she said? Sorry I escaped from a kidnapping? Please forgive me for trying to save my life?
 

Surprising her, Silva ordered, “Untie her hands.”

In seconds, the zip ties were removed.

“Take of your clothes.”

She froze, stopped breathing. She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. It’s what she’d been wearing when she arrived and she had no plans to take them off until she was home. No way in hell was she going to allow this bastard to touch her. He’d have to kill her first.

Maintaining a tough demeanor when your mouth is covered and your knees are shaking wasn’t easy. Sabrina reminded herself that she had worn bravado as a second skin for many years. She could damn well do this.

The sound of a chair rolling on the floor pulled her from her self-lecture. Silva stood, leaned over his desk and barked, “Do what I said. Now!”

Instead of taking her clothes off, she made use of her free hands to rip the tape from her mouth. “No way in hell, you freaking pervert.”

“Why you little—”

“Mr. Silva.”
 

Never had she been happier to hear Holden Marsh’s voice.

Without moving his gaze from Sabrina, Silva said, “You have a problem with my request, Mr. Marsh?”

“Not all, sir. She’s yours to enjoy as you see fit. It’s just the men are getting a little restless. One of your public performances might put them in a better frame of mind.”

A slick coat of dread spread throughout her body.
 

“That’s a brilliant suggestion, Marsh. And as defiant as this bit of fluff seems to be, she’ll make excellent entertainment.” He waved his hand as if he were some kind of emperor. “Set it up. Two o’clock this afternoon, in the main parlor.”

“Yes sir.”

A smile spread over Silva’s face, transforming it from attractive to demonically evil. Sabrina saw in him the man who had killed, raped, and destroyed lives without conscience.

“Take her back to her room. Tell the other girls to bathe and prepare her for a performance. They know what I expect.”

A hand grasped her arm to pull her around. When she whirled, she glared up at Marsh. What she saw didn’t reassure her. He looked almost as evil as Silva.

Hard hands pushed her forward toward the open door. On legs that were shaking now in relief, she was grateful to make it to the door without collapsing. Time enough to do that when she got out of Silva’s sight.

As she reached the door, she heard Silva’s voice as he apparently answered a phone. The urgency in the man’s voice made her want to stop and listen.

“What do you mean she— Slow down, dammit, and tell me—”

She was shoved out the door and as it closed behind her, she heard a vicious curse and the sound of breaking glass. Whatever news Silva just received had put him in a violent temper. She just hoped to hell the rescue team arrived before she was forced to face that violence.

“Here. You didn’t eat much when we came in.”

Ian twisted around from the window he’d been staring through for the past couple of hours and took the turkey sandwich Samantha held out to him. Instead of telling her that any food he tried to eat stuck in his throat, he just gave her a nod of thanks.

Returning his gaze to the window, he said quietly, “I can’t help but worry about her.”

“She’s going to be okay. Bri always lands on her feet.”

He didn’t bother to dispute her. It was true—Sabrina did have an amazing ability to extricate herself from sticky situations. But there were things her sisters didn’t know. Cases she’d been involved with that had come close to ending her life. What he had told her their last morning together was the stuff of his nightmares. One of these days her luck wouldn’t hold, he wasn’t going to be there to save her, and that bullet she’d been dodging would finally hit its target. The thought of the light dimming in her bright beautiful eyes tore at his gut.
 

No. Just no. That would not happen on his watch. He’d damn well make sure of it.

After doing a long distance observation and perimeter search, the team had returned to the house, grabbed some food, and reviewed their plan. Now all they could do was wait to hear from Marsh.

“Did she take wild chances when she was a kid, too?”

“A few.” Samantha grimaced. “After our parents’ deaths, we all changed in some way. Savvy buried herself in books, I buried myself in every school activity or social event I could. And Bri…” She swallowed hard.

“What? How did Sabrina change?”

“She shut down completely the first few days after it happened. Couldn’t talk…wouldn’t talk. Not to anyone. Not Savvy, not me. It was like something had died inside her.”

Her mouth tilted in a sad little smile. “She had always been the most mischievous of us. Had the wildest ideas and schemes but they were always done in fun, kind of lighthearted. You know?”

Yes he did know. He’d seen occasional glimpses of that lightheartedness. And then, as if she remembered something, a shadow would come over her, like a cloud passing over the sun, and the façade would be back in place.

“After their deaths, she buried her true self beneath a veneer of toughness…an attitude…” The struggle to explain something she didn’t understand apparent in her expression. “I don’t know. It’s like she started acting as if she didn’t give a damn. And the thing is, I think it’s because she cared so damn much. Even though it almost destroyed Savvy and me, I think Mama and Daddy’s deaths affected Bri even more. Like it killed a part of her, too.

“We thought, or at least we’d hoped, that when she met Tyler, we’d get the old Bri back. For a while we did. Not the lighthearted Bri we’d known, but some of the darkness seemed to have been lifted from her. Then, well, you know what happened.”

A familiar rage engulfed Ian at the mention of Finley’s name. “First dead man I wish I could bring back to life so I could put him in the ground myself.”

“Believe me, we all felt the same way. She’d always been so distrustful of people…always looking for a hidden agenda. And then when she finally lowers her guard…”

“The asshole proves her theory that people can’t be trusted.”

“Exactly. But you’ve been so good for her, Ian. Savvy and I had almost decided that she’d never trust another man again.”

“I wish I could get her to trust me with her heart.”

“Don’t give up on her. You’re exactly what she needs. Someone who loves her for who she is. You know her darkness as well as her light.”

Yeah, he knew her. And knowing her as well as he did, he had little hope she would ever change her mind about their relationship. Sabrina in many ways was still a mystery. She had secrets she wouldn’t share, demons that haunted her, day and night. It was hard to stay optimistic about a future with her when she refused to trust him with the deepest parts of herself.

The cellphone lying on the coffee table blared a loud chime. His heart leaping to his throat, Ian stalked over and pressed the answer key. “Mackenzie.”

Marsh’s tone was urgent, his words clipped. “Thirty minutes.”

Ian looked up at the eager, determined faces of the rescue party. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Eighteen

“What are you doing here?”
 

Lauren’s harsh whisper brought Sabrina’s head around. After being shoved back into the bedroom by Buck with the gruff words “Boss says get her ready,” Sabrina had been staring at the door, waiting. For what, she didn’t know. But something had happened, or was about to happen. The phone call Silva received when she’d been going out the door had infuriated him. Did it have anything to do with her? With Lauren?

Sabrina didn’t know if she needed to find out more or wait for the team to arrive. Had Silva somehow been alerted to what was about to go down? What if Silva had men waiting for the rescue team? It could be a slaughter.

No, she had to go with her gut, which told her that Holden Marsh was legit. If something had changed, he would let her know. She had to trust her that.

Turning, she gave Lauren a quick nod of approval, kept her voice low. “Good to see you.”

“What’s going on?” Lauren whispered. “How on earth did he get you, too?”

“Are you okay?” Claudia asked. “Why are you back so soon?”

The other women crowded around Sabrina and Lauren. Claudia and Donna wore expressions of concern. The suspicious expression on Ashley’s face made Sabrina cautious in her answer.

“I don’t know. He got a phone call and they brought me back here.”
 

No need to tell them about Silva’s plans to entertain his men with her later. She had every hope that the rescue team would be here soon. And if not, she’d find a way, no matter what she had to do, to make sure Silva never got his hands on her.
 

“You two know each other?” Donna asked.

Sabrina hesitated, her eyes darting to Lauren with questions. What had Lauren told the women while she was gone? Had she blown Sabrina’s cover? Maintaining their roles until this was over was the only way to ensure everyone’s safety.

Showing that she did comprehend a little of the situation, Lauren said, “I thought she looked familiar, but no, I don’t know her.”

Claudia touched Sabrina’s arm. “Come on into the bathroom. We need to get you ready. He doesn’t like it if you’re not prepared for him on time.”

Refusing to even consider what preparing for him entailed, Sabrina pulled away. “I’m not doing a damn thing to get ready for that asshole.”

Three sets of eyes went wide with fear and worry.
 

“But you have to,” Donna said. “He’ll make it hurt worse if you’re not prepared.”

Desperately wanting to tell them that soon they’d never have to worry about Silva ever again, Sabrina just shook her head again.

It was obvious they weren’t all right with her decision, but other than to forcibly make her go through whatever preparations Silva deemed necessary, they could do nothing.

While Claudia, Donna, and Ashley gathered on the other side of the room, whispering, Sabrina took the time to talk with Lauren. Still wanting to maintain that they were strangers to each other, Sabrina kept her distance and her eyes focused elsewhere. Her voice stayed low, without inflection. “So, how have you been?”

At Lauren’s soft snort, Sabrina spared the other woman a glance. A glittering light of amusement gleamed in Lauren’s tired, bloodshot eyes. “Oh you know, read a few books, saw a couple of good movies, got kidnapped by a psychopath. Same old, same old. How about you?”

Appreciating the woman’s sense of humor, Sabrina allowed herself a small, stiff smile. “Pretty much the same.”

Lauren shot a quick glance over at the women across the room and lowered her voice even more. “What are you doing here? How did he get you?”

“Would you believe I came willingly?”

“Hell no.” Breath shuddered through her. “Are you… Did you…” Tears filled her eyes. “Are you here for me?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Oh God, thank you.” She closed her eyes in relief but opened them quickly again. “How are we going to get out of here? Do you have help? We can’t just walk out the door.” And then, with a definite wobble in her voice, she asked, “Does Logan know?”

“Logan knows. He’s in on this, as is the rest of the Wildefire team. I don’t know exactly how this is going to go down. Be ready for anything but know that we’re getting out of here soon.”

“What about them?” Lauren nodded toward the other women.

“They don’t know yet, but they’re coming, too. No way in hell are we leaving them behind.”

Lauren sat down on the opposite end of the bed and wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t know what I’m going to say to Logan.”

Even though the other woman had been through some tough times, Sabrina couldn’t forget the deep pain in Logan’s eyes when Lauren had disappeared without any explanation. “Hmm, ‘I’m sorry’ comes to mind.”

“I am sorry. I just…” She shook her head. “I don’t know how to explain why I ran when I don’t really understand it myself. I think I just got scared that he was too good to be true. Trust is hard for me.”

That was something they had in common and since it struck a little too close to home, Sabrina didn’t offer any sage advice. “He’s never stopped looking for you…since you left.”

Lauren swallowed audibly. “Thank you for telling me that. It helps.”

“I hope you guys can work things out. He’s a good man.”

“Yes, he is. Is that how you knew Silva had me? Logan found out somehow?”

She was sure that Lauren could keep the secret, but she didn’t intend to risk anyone’s safety by revealing Holden Marsh’s undercover role. Lauren only needed to know that there were people working to get them out.
 

“I’ll explain everything once we’re out of here.”

“Silva won’t come quietly. He’s a powerful man.”

Apprehending Silva wasn’t even part of the equation, but explaining that to Lauren would only bring about more questions. Sabrina just said vaguely, “We’ll get out of here…that’s a promise.”