Trusting Love (21 page)

“You didn’t push them away when things got too intimate?”

Carina shook her head.

“I trust them. It feels right with them, and I was tired of feeling like a victim, like I was stuck in one place and there was no hope of getting out. I realized that there is a point where you have to ask yourself if you’re ready to move on and make new memories, new happy thoughts, or just let the terrible, scary, depressing thoughts ruin my life. You need to do the same thing. Don’t run away from Repose, from Ledger just because having an attraction to another man makes you feel guilty. Stay and take the chance to see where this interest leads. Take it slow, there’s no time limit on getting to your happy point.”

Amber thought about what Carina said and she nodded her head and then leaned back to smile.

“I just don’t know if I’m ready yet. Maybe a visit to Fort Worth could help me to set some goals and start living my life again. My life without Gage.”

* * * *

“Did you have fun?” Jesse asked, pulling Carina into his arms and kissing her before he helped her get up into his truck.

“I had a great time,” she replied and then Jesse got into the driver’s side and began to pull out of Amber’s driveway. He had called earlier this morning saying that he and his brothers wanted to get together for dinner. So he dropped her off early to visit with Amber and then picked her up on his way back from town.

She looked at him as he drove the small pickup truck. It had a small cab in front so she was nice and close to him. She could inhale his cologne, take in the sight of his body and how handsome he looked today. Jesse wore a pair of dark blue jeans that clung to his very muscular thighs. Thighs she loved feeling wrapped around her, pressed against her from behind while they made love. Her cheeks blushed. He glanced at her and gave a smile then looked back and forth between her and the road.

“What’s that smile about, and those pink cheeks?” he asked.

She moved closer to him and placed her hand on his thigh. She saw the cords in his forearms flex from her touch and his face grew tight. It was like her touch alone aroused him, just as the sight of him aroused her.

“I’m thinking about us.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder and ran her palm back and forth on his thigh. She felt brazen, aroused, and playful.

“What about us, baby?” he asked, his tone taking on a softer, deeper, sensual sound.

She caressed back and forth along his groin and his cock hardened beneath her touch.

“Carina, baby, I’m trying to drive.”

“Am I distracting you?” she teased him.

“Yes.” He hissed when she applied more pressure to his cock and he shifted in his seat. She lifted up and kissed his neck.

“Damn, I can’t wait to get you home. I may just pull along the side of the house and fuck you right up against this truck,” he told her.

She chuckled.

“Really? But someone might see,” she said to him and continued to stroke his cock through his jeans as she sucked against his neck.

“No one will see. We own a lot of acres, Carina. That means lots of privacy, which is a good thing with you.”

“Why is that?” she asked and nipped his earlobe.

“You’re a screamer,” he teased. “Can’t be worrying about the neighbors calling the police thinking you’re being tortured by our big cocks fucking you so deep you scream the house down.”

She gasped, pulled back, and smacked his arm.

He started laughing. The sound lifted her spirits, made her smirk as the heat hit her cheeks.

She felt a bit embarrassed. She did tend to scream out their names a lot while making love, but they were big men, and the things they did to her would have a monk breaking their vow of silence.

“What’s this all about?” Jesse said, bringing her attention back toward the road. She immediately saw the dark sedan on the side of the road with a trunk open. There was a man standing there holding what appeared to be an infant in a blanket and another man bent down looking under the open hood of the vehicle. They caught sight of Jesse’s truck and waved him down.

He slowed down to come to a stop and Carina looked at them, wondering what their story was.

“What seems to be the problem?” Jesse asked, and got down out of the truck.

“Damn car started sputtering. Finally stopped smoking enough for me to look under the hood but I don’t know shit about cars,” he said to Jesse.

“Let me have a look,” Jesse said and glanced at the man with the baby. Carina got out too as the man rocked the bundle of blanket. She wondered why he was covering the baby up so much. It was pretty hot out, maybe he was blocking it from the sun.

As she came around the front he looked her over in a way that gave her the creeps.

She went to walk toward Jesse when she saw the man and him by the hood of the car and the man lifting the tire iron like he was going to hit Jesse.

“Jesse!” she screamed and ran toward him and he looked up then back at the man just as the tire iron hit him in the back of the neck and shoulder. Jesse fell to the ground and the man kicked him.

“No! Get away from him!” Carina screamed. As she got closer the man struck her across the mouth. She went flying back and hit the car.

Jesse grabbed the man’s leg and the man kicked him.

“You’re coming with us, Carina. Your men want you back. Now don’t make this worse for your boyfriend here,” the man said.

She put it together quickly. These men were sent by Steven and Collin.

She stumbled back.

“Cooperate,” the other man with the baby said to her.

She went to run and the first man grabbed her upper arm. She tried fighting him off and could hear Jesse moaning and telling her to run.

She kicked the guy with the baby and then he tossed the bundle toward her and she screamed, instinctively reached out to catch the poor baby when the blanket came undone in her arms and the doll fell to the ground. They took advantage of her shock and the man behind her gripped her hair and pulled back.

“You’re coming with us, whore. You’ll pay for cheating on your men and the order. Let’s go.” Just as he said that the other man pointed a gun and shot.

The man holding her let go. “Cole!” the man yelled and Carina looked back to see Jesse on the ground, his shoulder bleeding.

“No!” She screamed like crazy and began striking the men, but they were bigger and stronger. Even though she busted one’s lip and made the other one’s nose bleed, they overpowered her. She lowered down and then did a spin like Milton had taught her in the self-defense class. It worked and she started to run when the guy with the gun shot two more times. She screamed and slowed her pace out of fear when the second guy tackled her to the ground. They had her face in the dirt and her arms tied behind her back as well as her legs. She couldn’t move. Her shoes even came off in the struggle. Her legs burned and ached and she could feel the scrapes and bruises on them. Her skirt was all the way up and she screamed and grunted in frustration and fear. She prayed that Jesse would make it. She placed him and his brothers into this danger. She hadn’t been safe from her past, from the order. They were taking her back. They were going to torture her and kill her. She cried and screamed as the two men lifted her up and dropped her into the trunk of the car. She tried rolling forward and the one man shoved her back.

She screamed at him that he was going to die first when she had the chance. The other man, Cole, the first guy said his name was, smirked as he wiped the blood from his nose. She did that. She broke his nose.

“You won’t get the chance. You’ll be spending the rest of your living days with your thighs open and your body a plaything for the leaders of the order.” He struck her in the jaw then closed the door, locking her in.

The instant darkness was a telltale to her unknowing fate. She couldn’t move, all she could feel was pain from her injuries, and the pain in her heart for possibly getting Jesse killed.

* * * *

Jesse was losing consciousness. The distance from where he lay on the ground battered and shot to where the truck was seemed like miles. The adrenaline rush was keeping him going. He had to get help. Carina was taken and those men struck her and told her what their plan was.

He finally made it to the truck and then it was another struggle to pull himself up. If he had taken the other truck he never would have made it up that high. Thank God he took the small one. He reached across the seat, his chest throbbing, his neck and shoulder, too. He was a fucking mess, but was thankful that Carina warned him of the impending danger before the man struck him in the head with the tire iron. He would be unconscious right now or even dead.

He gripped the phone and fell back down to the ground with a grunt.

“Hey, are you and Carina home?” Cesar asked, sounding a little frantic to Jesse but he wasn’t certain because he was so fired up and scared.

“They took her, Cesar. They fucking pulled a fast one on me.”

“What? Where are you? What the fuck do you mean?” Cesar yelled.

“On the back roads of Chester Place. I’m losing a lot of blood. They shot me. Call my brothers,” he said and then fell to the ground. He fought to remain conscious, could hear Cesar yelling into the phone. He moaned and tightened up, begging his mind to hold on and going over the description of the men in his head, the make of the vehicle, the partial license plate. Each time he repeated it he felt his head throbbing more and more.

It felt like forever when he thought he heard sirens in the distance. It sounded like the entire Repose police department responded. Tires squealed to a halt and footsteps crunched against the gravel and dirt roadway then Cesar was on the ground next to him.

“Holy shit. Jesse, my God, Jesse, are you okay, what happened?” Jack asked.

“I’m going to pass out, Jack. Get Cesar. Get everyone. Take this information,” Jesse said and began to ramble off descriptions, make of the vehicle and bits and pieces of what happened. There were numerous people around. Including his other brothers. Then suddenly Nevin appeared and started looking at his injuries.

“Find her. They’re going to take her to the order and punish her. They know about us. They called her a whore. They’re going to kill her. Find her, Jack. Find her,” he said and his vision began to blur and he closed his eyes. He could hear Cesar giving orders, Nevin asking him things but the light from the sun against his eyelids began to fade and soon darkness completely overtook all sensations. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t hear. He couldn’t do anything more for Carina.

* * * *

“Is he going to make it, Nevin?” Jack asked him as the ambulance pulled up. Milton was talking to Kye, Aero, Leif, Mateo, and a few other men who were troopers, and soldiers from the dojo. As soon as word went out about Jesse, everyone came to assist.

“The gunshot hit his shoulder and chest. It’s a serious wound. We’ll get him to the ER. He was struck by that tire iron in the back of the neck and the same shoulder, causing more blood and trauma, but the faster we get him into surgery the better chances he has,” Nevin said.

“We’ll do everything we have to here and find Carina. You take care of Jesse,” Jack said to him and Milton stood by as the paramedics got Jesse onto the gurney and into the ambulance.

“I should go with you guys to find Carina before those men hurt her more,” Nevin stated.

“You take care of Jesse first. We can’t lose him,” Milton said to Nevin.

“You two keep me on top of things, you understand me? I’ll call my buddy and get him on this and put him in contact with you, Milton. You do as he says and he’ll ensure Carina makes it.”

Jack and Milton nodded and Jack watched Nevin get into the ambulance and head off, sirens blaring. He prayed that Jack would be okay.

“I’m really fucking pissed off now, Milton. I want these fucking men, all of them,” Jack said to Milton and their friends who gathered around and had already put out APBs on the vehicle, the men’s descriptions and were working the investigation into identifying them.

“We have to be smart about this. We’ll do as Nevin said and wait for that call and then we’ll get our woman back,” Milton stated.

“We’ve got your backs. We’ll help you any way we can,” Leif told Milton and then Milton’s cell phone rang. He looked at Jack and answered the call.

“Yes, this is. You what?” he asked and squinted his eyes and looked at Jack.

“We want in immediately and we don’t give a shit about protocol and rules because they don’t apply to us. That’s our woman, and we’ll kill any motherfucker who stands in the way of us getting her back.”

Jack listened and looked at his friends and their expectant faces. They were all on edge, all wanting to help and they knew the seriousness of this situation.

“You got it. We’ll be there, as fast as we can.”

“Well?” Jack asked.

“We’re heading to Missouri. That was Nevin’s contact. They knew that these two men Cole and Randy were here in Repose.”

“What?” Jack asked.

“It’s a complicated situation. Nevin’s friend works a different angle of the case and had just caught wind of the two men being here,” Milton said to them.