Careless (25 page)

He flexed his bandaged hand and winced.

When Tori saw the size of the first aid kit
buried in his trunk, it made her question why he thought he needed it and what
he intended to do with it. “Your hand still hurt?”

“Sometimes I act without thinkin’ things
through.”

No kidding.
“Those letters you left for me, you talked about all
the times we’d been together, but we’ve never, you know, been intimate. Why’d
you say all that stuff?”

“A thousand times I’ve wondered what it
would be like to make love to you…” He got a faraway look in his eye and Tori
cursed herself for reminding him of those letters.

“The tattoo, how’d you know about that?”
She was trying to gather as much information as possible to use against him
when he was finally prosecuted for what he’d done to her. She had no doubt
she’d get out of here one way or another. As long as she didn’t upset him, he
wouldn’t bind her and she still had a prayer of escaping on her own. Without
that, her life was resting in Mike’s hands.

“I had a hidden camera in your bathroom.”

Tori dipped her head to hide her disgust.
She wanted to kick him as hard as she could, but her legs were so much shorter
than his. Even with an injury, he could probably outrun her. “Why did you do
all this? If you had feelings for me, why didn’t you just tell me?”

“I knew we’d need a little time away from
everything and everyone else before you could see how good we’d be together.
That’s why I wanted to bring you here. No one to bother us or distract us. Just
you and me.”

Great, imprisoned in a dirty, smelly shack
with a delusional psychopath. Good times.
“You know we have to leave on tour today. People are
countin’ on me.”

He scowled. “Too damn bad. You’re mine
now.”

Those words echoed through her mind,
you’re
mine
. Mike had said that to her every time he touched her, looked at her,
made love to her. But the difference was she wanted to be his. The thought of
giving herself to this brute made her want to retch. She had to get Mike out of
her head. Thinking of him would only make her feel weak and vulnerable. It
would just remind her of how much she needed him, and she couldn’t afford to
let her guard down now. She had to stay strong and stick to the plan.

She’d keep him talking about himself, make
him think they were making progress, and earn his trust. He had to fall asleep
eventually, and as long as she could convince him she wasn’t a flight risk, she
may be able to slip out while he was sleeping.

Hotwiring a car was one of the tricks her
older brothers had taught her when they were teenagers. Not that they’d ever
planned to steal a vehicle, but they claimed it was good to know in case you
ever lost your keys. Like she believed that. She wasn’t the only one in the
family who had a little too much fun joyriding. Their daddy still had a ’57
Chevy in the barn with too many miles, thanks to his unruly kids.

She looked around the one room cabin. It
seemed no one had been up there in years. The furniture was covered in a thick
layer of dust, it looked like little critters had been nesting in the old, worn
furniture, windows were broken, curtains were hanging off broken rods, and a
dank, musty smell hung heavy in the air. “How’d you find this place?”

“Me and my daddy used to come up here when
I was a kid. We’d spend our weekends huntin’, fishin’, talkin’. It was great. I
sure do miss him.”

Tori remembered Joe telling her his father
had passed away recently. “My daddy and I are close. It must have been hard on
you, losin’ him.”

He looked her in the eye. “It was. No one
understood. Things weren’t too good between us toward the end. He was pretty disappointed
in me because of some stupid mistakes I made when I was on the force.”

“Everybody makes mistakes sometimes. Why
should you be any different?”

“I knew you’d understand.” He smiled as he
set the poker down on the stone hearth.

They were sitting on the stumps of old trees
someone must have hauled in from outside. Tori was all for the rustic look, but
this old stump was bound to leave a big bruise on her bottom by the time she
got up. She glanced at the mouse droppings littering the old plank floor. A
sore behind beat the alternative. “You never did say, why’d you leave the
force?”

“Got mixed up in a mess coverin’ for some
buddies who were on the take.” He held his hands up. “I never crossed any lines
myself, but the powers that be weren’t buyin’ it. It never went on my record or
anything, but they made it known they intended to make my life a livin’ hell.”

“That sucks.” He’d probably gotten exactly
what he deserved, but telling him so wouldn’t serve her purpose. Fortunately,
Avery had schooled her well in the fine art of diplomacy. Tell people what they
want to hear, but don’t say it if you don’t mean it, because those lies will
eventually come back to bite you. In this case, she didn’t think a little white
one would hurt. Not even Reverend Ross could hold her accountable for her bad
behavior today. 

“You’re tellin’ me. My old man was a career
cop. Never made it past walkin’ the beat, but he sure was proud to wear that
uniform.”

Tori couldn’t help but wonder if that was
part of the reason Joe harbored so much animosity toward Mike, because he’d
moved through the ranks quickly and maintained a position of honor, something
Joe and his father had never been able to achieve during decades on the job.
“How ’bout you? Did you like bein’ a cop?”

“Sure, until I realized I was gonna be just
like my old man, makin’ next to nothin’ puttin’ my life on the line out on
those damn streets every night.”

“How do you know you wouldn’t have been
promoted eventually?”

“Once they figured out some of the boys
were on the take, they lumped me in with them, just ’cause I wouldn’t rat ’em
out.”

He wouldn’t betray his friends, but
apparently stalking and kidnapping were allowable offenses in his mind. Good to
know her abductor knew where to draw the line. “Doesn’t seem fair.”

“You’re damn right it doesn’t.” He smiled.
“Anyways, it all worked out for the best. When I left the force, I started
workin’ security at concerts for Titan Records.”

Lucky us
. “So, you worked your way up from security guard to
my head of security. That’s impressive.”

“As soon as I saw you the first time, I
knew I had to do whatever it took to get close to you. I worked double-shifts,
trained the new guys, took on more responsibility… Hell, I was the model
employee. Josh had no choice but to take notice.”

Tori swallowed. It felt like someone had
poured gritty sand in her mouth, but she didn’t dare drink the wine he offered.
She needed to stay focused and alert, and since he’d already spiked her water
in the car, she had every reason to believe he’d do it again. “That’s when he
promoted you?”

“Yeah, he was burnin’ the candle at both
ends back then, tryin’ to take care of your stuff, plus doin’ his own job. I
think he was grateful when I offered to shoulder some of the burden for him.”

That explained how he had slipped through
the cracks. Tori knew Josh was vigilant about his background checks, and he
still had a lot of friends on the force who had probably been there around the
time Joe had been on their payroll. If he’d had any suspicions, he would have
taken the time to do some digging, and it wouldn’t have taken him long to
realize things weren’t as they seemed with his new golden boy. But Tori knew
she couldn’t hold Josh responsible for overlooking the obvious when she’d done
the same. She’d counted this man among her friends, believed he was someone she
could trust to watch her back, and all the while he’d been plotting her
abduction.

It made Tori shiver just thinking about it.
How was she supposed to trust anyone again? She’d be looking sideways at every
security guard, roadie, and engineer they hired from now on. Assuming she
escaped this alive. No! She wouldn’t allow herself to go there, not now. She
needed to stay focused on her plan. There was no room for doubt or fear to
creep into her head.

“You cold?” he asked when he saw her
tremble.

She shifted back when he moved his stump
closer. “No, I’m good, thanks.”

He picked up the iron poker and prodded the
crumbling wood. “It’s gettin’ pretty dark out there. I should light a few
candles.”

Finding her way out of here in the pitch
black, with the threat of wildlife looming, terrified her, but waiting around
while he decided what his next move might be wasn’t an option. As soon as he
closed his eyes, she was out of here. 

By the time morning rolled around, Mike was
surviving on caffeine and hope. He’d finally mapped out the location of the
cabin after wasting hours tracking down Joe’s older brother, and he and Derek
were on their way up there with Smith and Jones riding back up in the car
behind them.

“We’re gonna find her, man,” Derek said,
crinkling the paper map in his hand.

Apparently, GPS didn’t work when you were
traveling to the far end of civilization. At least that’s what it felt like to
Mike as he eased his truck up the steep hill. He hadn’t seen a house for miles.
Dread tightened his gut when he realized there was no one out here to help her,
no one to hear her screams.

“Jesus,” he whispered as he rolled down his
window and allowed the desolation to settle over him. “Talk about bein’ out in
the middle of nowhere.” He cursed softly. “How the hell do we know his brother
isn’t sendin’ us on some wild chase? Just givin’ that lame-ass brother of his
more time to get away.”

“They didn’t seem close.” Derek smirked.
“Besides, I think you made it pretty clear what would happen if he didn’t
cooperate.”

Mike had slammed Joe’s brother into a brick
wall as he recited the penalties for harboring a fugitive. When he still seemed
reluctant to talk, Mike kneed him in the gut and threatened to give him a
little lesson on police brutality while his boss promised to look the other
way.

“If he lied to me, I’m gonna hunt him down
like a goddamn dog just as soon as I find that worthless brother of his.”

“Listen to me,” Derek said, gripping the
door as Mike took a sharp turn too fast. “You can’t bend the law to suit your
purpose. We gotta play by the rules, same as anyone else.”

“You think I give a shit about the law,
Derek?” Mike asked, gripping the steering wheel. “If he hurt her, I swear to
God, they’ll be carryin’ him out of there in a body bag.”

Derek winced. “Man, don’t say stuff like
that. You know it would kill your mama if—”

“Don’t you get it, man? Knowin’ Tori’s out
there with him and there’s not a damn thing I can do to help her is killin’
me.” He pinched the bridge of his nose as he blinked back the moisture clouding
his eyes. He could not afford to lose it now, not when they were so close.

“You really love this girl, don’t you?”

“She’s the one, not a doubt in my mind. I
have to tell her, first chance I get.”

“Smart decision,” Derek said, smiling.
“Ladies like Tori don’t come along twice in a lifetime. Trust me, I know. You
let her go and you’ll spend the rest of your life lookin’ for someone to replace
her. You’ll make it through half your life before you realize you’ll never find
her ’cause she doesn’t exist.”

Mike spared a sidelong glance at his stepfather.
“Thanks, man.”

“For what?”

“For everything. Bein’ there for me and Jay
growin’ up, lovin’ my mom as much as you do, havin’ my back today and every
day. You don’t know how much it means to me.”

Derek cleared his throat as he glanced out
the window at the trees and brush lining the dirt road to hell. “You and Jay
are like my own kids, always have been, always will be. The fact that you guys
let me back into your lives means everything to me, Mike. There’s nothin’ I
wouldn’t do for either one of you. Don’t ever doubt it.”

“I know.”

Derek pointed to an opening in the brush.
“Hey, I think this is our place.” He pulled out the binoculars he’d stowed
under the seat. “Hang back a minute. Let me see if I can catch a glimpse of
anything.” He scanned the area before lowering the binoculars slowly and
turning toward Mike.

He didn’t even have to say anything. Mike
already knew. “They’re not here, are they?”

“There’s no vehicle in the drive, but it
doesn’t mean they’re not here. He could be parkin’ it out of the way to throw
us off, in case we come lookin’ for him.”

Mike wanted to believe that more than
anything, but his instincts told him they were too late. Tori was gone. “I
can’t believe this,” Mike said, smacking the steering wheel with the palm of
his hand. “How the hell did we get this close, only to let him get away—?”

“Sssh,” Derek said, holding his hand up to
silence Mike. “I think I see someone movin’ around inside.” He drew a deep
breath. “Looks like it’s go time. You ready?”

Mike reached for his gun. “Hell, yeah.
Let’s get in there.”