Theirs To Claim (Predatory Desires Book 1) (36 page)

Suck it up, Emily told herself. So far, he’d yet to really hurt her. Well, she conceded, not since the taser had rendered her immobile. He’d scared her, yes. But Eric hadn’t laid violent hands on her yet, and she had to keep him happy as much as she could stomach, until rescue came. Or until she saw a way to get through the sliding-glass door and run like hell through the woods he’d alluded to. Either way, she was getting out of there. Of that, Emily was sure.

CHAPTER 36

Noah sat in the back seat of the SUV and felt as though he was coming apart from the need to do something.
Anything
that might get Emily back. He looked down at his legs, noticed they were jumping slightly, and then stared out of the window into the darkness. Where was she, he wondered, and was she being brutalized by someone she’d trusted?

No, he fumed at himself! He couldn’t,
wouldn’t
think that way. It would undo him, and that was not going to help Emily in the slightest. No, now she needed him to be at his sharpest, at his most capable. She didn’t need a man who couldn’t hold it together and rescue her from unimaginable terror and torment.

“Noah,” Gabriel called to him softly.

Noah turned his eyes towards Gabe and nodded. “I’m still with you,” he muttered.

“I know you are,” Gabriel said, a sad smile gracing his lips.

“You?” Noah squinted when he really took a good look and noticed the sheer chasm of desolation shining in Gabe’s blue eyes. There was so much hurt there, that it made the reality of the situation a tangible living, breathing thing.

“I’m here, too,” Gabriel said and inclined his head slowly.

“Got a call coming in from Braden again,” Garrett said from the driver’s seat. He placed his phone on speaker and held it out to his right. “Talk to us, and give us something good, man.”

“I’ll go ahead and give you the bad news, then something that might prove helpful,” Braden replied.

Noah gripped the back of the seat in front of him and dug his fingers into the soft leather. He needed to choke someone, and the seat would do just fine for now.

“First, both of Eric’s phones are showing up in your current location. I’d guess they’re in his truck or that cabin you just searched.”

“He ditched them,” Kaden mumbled under his breath. “Son of a bitch!”

“Yeah, I’d say he did,” Braden agreed. “However, there’s another number that I think he’s been calling from. It’s a prepaid cell, just like the one Emily purchased before we found her. And from it, he’s called this local woman named Becca – a lot. People think those things can’t be traced, but when you know the number and the phone’s on, you can locate it just like any other. If it’s not on, then I can still track it to the last location he used it in.”

“Go on and give us everything you’ve gleaned, Braden,” Gabriel encouraged him, needing to hear it all to form a complete picture of what they had to work with.

“Absolutely,” Braden agreed. “We all saw that Eric had an incredible amount of emails to Becca and his fellow deputy, Ryan, while we were investigating today. I’ve been reading his and Becca’s correspondence further, and I’ve gathered a few things. First, Eric used her connection to the local hospital to get a hold of some pretty powerful sedatives. Becca’s a nurse there, and she thought she was doing Eric a personal favor by providing it to him. Fool said he couldn’t sleep and wanted to knock himself out for a while.”

Both Noah and Gabriel blanched at those words. They couldn’t help but wonder what Eric would do to Emily if she were completely unconscious and unable to defend herself. He was a tall man. Almost as tall as they. Strong too. And she… Well, Emily was not nearly as physically powerful as her abductor. But she was fast, and that thought gave them hope.

“Second,” Braden went on to say, interrupting their mental storm, “little Miss Becca seemed to understand that Eric was promising her something she had wanted for some time – namely the attentions of our own dear friend Noah.

“
What
?!” Noah barked, unable to contain his fury any longer.

“Sorry man, but it’s true,” Braden said heavily through the phone. “Eric alludes to their few dates as the beginning of a lovely friendship, but that he could tell her heart belonged to only one man. And that would be you, Noah. He fueled the flames she already had burning for you, and encouraged her to pursue you. Even going so far as to tell her when you and Gabe came home last and that Emily had given him word she was leaving town for a while, because she was really not interested in Noah at all.”

“No wonder she came to the house with food,” Gabriel sneered. “I take it you’re tracing this other cell?”

“I am, and in just another minute I’ll have its location,” Braden stated, though the hope in his voice was unmistakable.

“Thank you, Braden,” Gabriel said in praise. “Tell us what Eric’s been saying to Ryan while we wait.”

“Oh, that little moron needs his ass kicked to the moon and back,” Braden said in unveiled disgust. Everyone on the line arched an eyebrow at the sudden anger and vehemence in his voice. Braden rarely got riled, but when he did, it was something to behold.

“And we’ll be kicking it. Soon,” Noah said steadily.

“Ryan is the cliché kid who always gets left behind. The one who wants so badly to fit in, that he’ll be anybody’s friend or lapdog. And because of that, he’ll let anybody play him to their own advantage too,” Braden supplied. “Ryan’s the reason Heather also showed up with food, and he’s the one who has been funneling any and all information regarding Emily to Eric, though Ryan just thought he was helping someone with more seniority keep abreast of the case’s latest developments.”

“He’s a font of information it would seem, because he makes it his business to know everyone’s comings and goings, and he doesn’t mind telling what he knows if you praise him and make him feel as though he’s your friend. Fucking fool just opened Emily’s proverbial door to Eric, time and time again, by opening his big, fat mouth.”

“Every time Ryan drove by her house to check in on Emily, or went inside with Andrew to bag and tag a new envelope of photos, he reported it to Eric. But, his mouth has also given us insight,” Braden added, giving them all hope.

“Tell us,” Noah urged him.

“Ryan apparently was helping Eric locate a new hunting cabin. In one email I found from months ago, he gave Eric a list of six such places that were either up for rent, lease, or purchase. Six addresses which might lead us to his current location.”

“We need more than maybes or might haves tonight, Braden,” Gabriel said determinedly. “We need concrete evidence and we need it yesterday.”

“I know, Gabe, and I’m working as fast as I can to get it for you guys.”

“And we appreciate everything you’re doing,” Noah answered for them both. Inside however, he was begging and pleading with the computer he knew Braden was sitting in front of to give them the answers they needed, so he could have Emily back. Anything to have her back, he’d do.

Emily swallowed the last bite of food Eric pointed in her direction, and sat back in her chair, unsure of what would happen next. Eric forked up the final portion of the stir fry for himself and then rose to clean their mess away, but not before he patted her hand.

Ever so slowly, she eased out of her chair and walked into the small living room. He hadn’t said anything about her having to remain seated; and so she used the moments away from him to look at the sliding glass door more closely, hoping to find a way to open it that would not trip the sensor Eric had mentioned to her earlier.

Emily sighed when she saw the multiple locks and wires attached to it. It was well and truly secured. There was no way out, in the conventional sense, but as she walked around the room, Emily did note that there were three different lamps which she might put to good use. If she could incapacitate Eric in some way, she might use one of the table lamps to smash her way through the glass and then run like the wind.

“Emily,” Eric said from the edge of the room, “come here.”

She turned and saw that he had extended his hand to her. She swallowed back the bile rising in her throat and walked hesitantly in his direction. He seemed to sense her uncertainty and he took two steps forward to clasp her hand in his.

“I won’t hurt you, Emily. Stop looking at me as though I’ll pounce on you without provocation.”

‘
Without provocation
’ – she’d sure as hell heard the warning there. In other words, Emily thought, don’t piss me off and I won’t have to subdue you.

She searched his eyes, looking for some reason to believe that she wasn’t about to be physically harmed by willingly getting too close to his much larger body. Eric was almost as tall and muscular as her fiancées and Emily didn’t believe in the slightest that she would come out ahead in a hand to hand fight. He’d crush her.

Reluctantly, she slid her hand in his and let Eric guide her over to the sofa. They sat angled towards one another, each with a leg drawn up, and Emily waited to see what he would do or say next.

“I want to talk with you before we try to rest tonight, Emily,” he began, but her face must have betrayed her effort to remain calm, because Eric smiled and reached out to cup her cheek. “Yes, we’re going to go to sleep in just a little while, because you need it desperately, sweetheart. You’ve been burning the candle at both ends, as the saying goes, and your eyes are showing the stress and strain of the last week.”

The last week
?! She stared at him agog, astounded that he thought her recent flight from Whitford Falls was the reason for her fatigue. No you dumbass, Emily wanted to scream! I’m mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted because I’ve been stalked
by you
for the past two months!

“What do you want to talk about?” she managed to ask through the rage that was burning its way through her again.

“Us,” he said simply.

“What do you mean,
us
?”

Eric hummed lightly and smoothed a stray lock of her hair behind her left ear. Emily forced herself not to flinch when his fingertips trailed over her skin and she stared into his eyes.

“Us, means you and me. And I have plans for us that need to be discussed.”

“I’m listening,” she said cautiously.

“Yes, you are,” he smiled. Eric took her hands in his, forcing his fingers through hers and holding on tightly. “And I don’t intend to waste this opening for us. Not one bit, sweetheart. Quite the contrary. Now that we’re really together, I mean for us to stay that way. I want you, Emily. I won’t play coy here and act as though something profound isn’t right on the cusp of becoming real for us. I’ve wanted you for years, and I’m ready for more with you. Much more.”

“I can’t…” Her voice trailed away as he nodded and tugged her closer.

“You can, Emily. With me, you can. What do you really have here in Whitford Falls? Hmmm? Memories of your parents and grandparents who are no longer with you? A house that speaks of their life, but not one you created for yourself? Friends who use you to get closer to Noah and Gabriel? Yes, I know what their game is, and it’s perverse how they try to get to those guys through you.”

“But I plan to take you away from all that. I want to build a life with you in a new place, where we’ll both have a chance to start fresh. Our dreams are just too big for this small, backwards town. Especially with your career as a writer. We can have it all, you and me, and as I said – I intend to take very good care of you. You’ll never want for anything, Emily, I swear it.”

“Eric, just stop,” Emily breathed out, and snatched her hands from his. “I can’t go down this road. Not with you, or any other man.” Because, she wanted to say, I’ve already given my heart to the two most beautiful souls I’ve ever known, and there will never be anyone other than them in my life.

Emily stood before he could stop her and strode across the room, closer to the sliding glass door. She braced her hands on the cool surface and stared out into the darkness, wishing that she was on the other side of the thin barrier. So very little material separated her from true freedom and Emily cursed its existence.

Eric’s hands settled on her waist from behind and she tensed and leaned forward, trying to escape his hold. He only tightened his grip and pulled her back against his chest. Instinctively, Emily tried to duck away, but Eric’s arms became bands of steel and she was suddenly locked securely against his body.

“Be still, Emily. Now,” he ground out next to her ear.

She grimaced and fought valiantly to control her fight or flight response. It took everything she had within her, but somehow she managed to grow still in his hold, though her chest heaved from her fear and need to run. God, how she needed to run.

Ever so slowly, Eric moved one arm from around her chest and placed his hand on her shoulder. A whimper escaped her trembling lips as he caressed a path down her arm and to her hip.

“Eric, no!” Emily said through gritted teeth. “I don’t want this. You said you wouldn’t until I was ready, so stop. Stop!” she demanded and began to struggle again.

Eric took one step forward with her and forced Emily’s body against the glass, pinning her there to stop her movement. He swept her hands over her head and held them there, while he inserted a leg between hers and widened her stance. The abrupt motion caused his pelvis to mold against her backside, and when Emily felt that invasive touch, she went completely still. No longer fighting against his superior strength.

“I said… be still,” Eric panted.

Emily gave an abrupt nod, because she couldn’t have uttered a word if her life depended on it. She bit her lower lip so hard that she drew blood, but Emily was determined not to cry out from his tight hold on her hands or the feel of his arousal touching her through their clothing. Her breath began to fog the glass where her cheek rested, but he continued to press her against it.