Her Alpha Saviors [The Hot Millionaires #2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (23 page)

* * * *

When Jay got back to The Fox
there was no sign of Skye or Luke. He was about to go in search of them when Skye’s car screeched to a halt in the parking lot.

“What’s got her panties in a knot?” he wondered aloud. “Always assuming she’s wearing any.”

He chuckled at the thought as he went to meet her. But it wasn’t Skye behind the wheel. It was Luke.

“Whoa, buddy, where’s the fire?”

“Where’s Skye?”

Jay furled his brow, his
trouble
antennae on high alert. “What is it?”

“We’ve got problems,” he said curtly. “I’ve just been into town and sweet-talked a clerk in the council office into letting me see any draft-planning applications pertaining to this area.”

“You can’t see them online?”

“Only if they’ve been posted, and for obvious reasons, the one I was interested in hadn’t been. That guy Talbot, the one talking so animatedly to Patrick Storey yesterday, is head of Planning—”

“Let me guess,” Jay said, his blood trickling ice through his veins. “Storey has applied for permission to convert his land into housing.”

“Exactly, and it can only be done if they have access to Skye’s parking lot.”

“So Storey’s responsible for the sabotage?”

“Looks that way.” Luke glanced about him. “Where is Skye? She needs to know.”

Both men ran through the pub, but no one had seen her for over an hour. Hannah ambled past, dragging the vacuum cleaner behind her.

“If it’s Skye you’re looking for, she’s gone to the stables. Patrick rang. Her mare’s injured herself.”

“Jesus!”

Jay and Luke exchanged a horrified glance and ran for the back door. They made it to the stables in record time, saving their breath for running rather than talking. There was no sign of Skye, and Rio’s box was empty.

Jay grabbed the arm of a girl who was mucking out a box in the opposite row. “Where’s Skye?” he asked frantically.

The girl shook her arm free and shrugged. “Gone out riding with Patrick. Rio took a knock, and they were checking her out.”

“How long ago?”

Another shrug. “Dunno. Half an hour, perhaps.”

“We have to get to her.” Jay tugged at his hair, feeling like a spare part. Feeling like a bigger fool for leaving her unprotected when he knew someone was out to get her. “Storey can’t afford to let her out of this alive and has to act now.”

“Because he thinks we’re going to bail out The Fox, in which case we’d take a charge on the building and it would never come up for sale?”

“Exactly. He can’t let that happen, and he’s arranging a little accident for her as we speak.” Jay ground his jaw. “Before his get-rich-quick scam with Talbot becomes history.”

“Where will they have gone?”

“The same way we did the other day. All those rabbit holes. A perfect place for an injured horse to catch a hoof and throw its rider. No one would question it.”

“How can we get there quickly?” Luke scowled off into the distance. “If we don’t get there soon we’ll—”

“There!” Jay ran toward an outhouse and pulled a tarpaulin off a quad bike. “This’ll do it,” he said. “I noticed it here the other day. You won’t get any other vehicle up that track, other than a horse.”

“Keys,” Luke shouted. “I’ll check the office.”

He returned almost immediately, clutching the required keys. He threw them to Jay, who already had his leg over the saddle. Luke climbed on behind as the machine roared into life.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going with that?” the girl Jay had accosted shouted.

Neither man answered as they left the yard at breakneck speed. Jay knew without bothering to ask that Luke would be as determined as he was to save the woman they’d both fallen in love with.

* * * *

Patrick released his hold on Skye’s neck and instead took a firm hold on her right arm, twisting it painfully up her back.

“Don’t try anything stupid,” he said, speaking in a vicious tone that curdled her blood.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked, digging her heels in and turning to face him, desperately trying to think of a way to help herself.

“Not so very clever after all, are you,” he sneered.

“You might as well tell me,” she said, taking a few steps forward when he gave her a sharp prod in the back.

“Sorry we couldn’t have fun together like you did with those two the other day.” He shrugged. “Still, time waits for no man.”

Skye half turned to look at him. “What do you mean?”

“Like you don’t already know.” He threw her a mocking glance. “We couldn’t figure out why they’d even consider investing in a hopeless proposition like The Fox. Then, when I followed the three of you up here the other day and saw what you did for them, it started to make sense.” His laugh was ugly. “Quite a display you gave me. Turned me on so much that I had to whack off. Always wondered what you were packing beneath those tight jodhpurs you like to wear.”

“I…er, didn’t see you.” Skye couldn’t believe she felt embarrassed. She had far graver concerns right now.

“Honey, you wouldn’t have seen a battalion of soldiers if they’d marched ten feet in front of you. You had other things on your mind. Well,” he added scathingly, “not your mind exactly.”

“Just so you know, they haven’t made any investment in The Fox,” Skye said, knowing he wouldn’t believe her. “But why should it matter to you if they have?” She already had a pretty good idea—everything had tumbled into place the moment he made a grab for her—but she needed to hear Patrick admit it.

“You’re so clever. You figure it out.”

“Okay, here’s what I think. You and that councillor are working a scam, aren’t you? He’ll get you permission to build on your land if you have access to The Fox’s
parking lot.” She shook her head. “You did all that damage. You pretended to be Dad’s friend, kept coming round offering a helping hand when his mind started to go, and all the time you were stabbing him in the back.” She turned to glower at him, mindless of the painful prods he kept giving her. “How could you?”

“You just don’t get it, do you?” He curled his upper lip, clearly enjoying disillusioning her. “Your dad was in on it with us.”

“Never!” Skye was totally stunned. It couldn’t possibly be true. Not her gentle, easygoing father.

“We’d been planning it for years, just waiting for the right person to get into a position of authority on the planning committee so we could swing it. When that finally happened you’d come back from university, filling your old man with bloody unrealistic ideas about what could be achieved at The Fox, which is when he started having second thoughts.” Patrick rolled his eyes. “Bit bloody late to acquire a conscience.”

Skye shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”

“And we didn’t believe it when he got that fucking loan from the bank. Had to make sure it got used up in other ways so he couldn’t turn the pub round. We managed that, and bugger me if something didn’t go right for once. Your dad lost his marbles, and the game was up. It could only be a matter of time before you buckled under that mountain of debt.” He glowered at her. “Then you got those fucking Yanks involved, dropped your knickers to get them on your side, and I’m expected to stand back yet again and watch all my plans disappear into the ether.” Patrick made a scoffing sound at the back of his throat. “I don’t think so.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

Skye wasn’t sure why she asked because she’d probably be better off not knowing. Still, it seemed her only chance of escaping this nightmare unscathed was to keep him talking in the hope that he’d relax his guard. She couldn’t rely on anyone rescuing her. If Jay and Luke wondered where she was, Hannah would say she’d gone riding, and they wouldn’t worry about her.

Shit, she was in trouble.

“You had a fall.” He shrugged. “Happens all the time even with the best riders, as you well know. Rio’s injured hock gave out midgallop, and you were thrown.”

Skye rolled her eyes, deliberately goading him. “Bit unlikely, isn’t it?”

“Not at all. When Rio’s leg gave out, she got too close to the precipice and you tumbled out of the saddle, straight over the edge.”

“Why didn’t you rescue me?”

“You bashed your head and were unconscious. Mobile phones don’t work up here, so I had to ride back to the yard. Won’t do that for a bit, of course. Have to leave some time to make it look like I tried to help you.”

“All this so you can build a few houses. Is it really worth it?”

“You think I want to spend the rest of my life scraping a fucking living in that bloody crappy stable yard, freezing my balls off in the winter, up to my ears in mud and muck. Too flaming hot in the summer, flies everywhere, bloody kids and their overprotective parents complaining about the state of the place—” He shuddered. “This is my pension fund, and now that the time’s right no one, not even you, is gonna stop me from grabbing it.”

“Please tell me Peter wasn’t involved in all this.”

“Don’t be daft. He’s too sweet on you to do any such thing. Besides, he don’t have the balls for it.”

“But, even if The Fox
comes up for auction, it’ll still cost a pretty penny.”

“Oh, we don’t want The Fox. Just a strip of land down the side of the parking lot and the paddocks.”

“It would come up as a complete lot,” she said, pretty sure from his smug expression that she was missing something vital.

“Nah, Mason’s with us. He’ll recommend to the bank’s auctioneers that it’ll do better as two lots. Why would a modern pub need a sodding great field next to it? They’ll listen to him because he’s local and they’re anonymous pen pushers sitting miles away in their ivory towers.”

“But he gave Dad that loan. Why would he do that if he wanted him to fail?”

“Not him, love, his predecessor.” He gave her another prod. “Come on now, no point hanging about.”

“Do you really think I’m just going to calmly let you push me to my death?” she asked incredulously.

“Way I see it, you don’t have a lot of choice. You weigh what, one-twenty max, and I’m twice that, plus a damned sight stronger than you. Now move.”

“You’ll never get away with it. Jay and Luke know you’re involved.”

“Jay and Luke can go fuck themselves.” His laughter was ugly. “Well, they’ll have to now you’re no longer available to them, won’t they.” He pushed her a step closer to the edge. “Your death will be ruled accidental, and they can’t prove otherwise.”

Skye stumbled forward, aware that she was running out of options. She was terrified but alert, determined not to die. She had just to wait for the right moment to do something, anything, that would give her a fighting chance. Her heart was thumping against her rib cage, her pulse racing at twice its normal speed. Perspiration speckled her brow and trickled between her breasts as she willed herself to remain calm.

“Patrick, you really can’t expect—”

Rio suddenly whinnied and snapped at Satan when he encroached on the patch of grass she was cropping, startling them both. Patrick relaxed the hold on her arm for a fraction of a second and glanced over his shoulder to see what was wrong. Skye pounced on the opportunity, yanked her arm free of his loosened grasp and planted her elbow in his spongy gut, fear lending her additional strength. He bellowed with rage, but her efforts didn’t hold him up for long. He was on her again almost immediately, and she only just managed to evade his outstretched hand.

Skye’s mind whirled. She was a few feet away from the precipice and couldn’t run forward without doing Patrick’s work for him. She couldn’t run back either. He’d cut her off way before she reached the horses. She absolutely didn’t want to be at the bottom of the precipice, by whatever means, especially since it would take her so close to the caves. Even so, she had no other options, and survival instincts kicked in.

She made a dash for the steep downward path, almost tumbling over the loose rocks that slipped beneath her feet on the hard-packed earth. She used her hands and crawled down like a crab, adrenaline and sheer terror spurring her on. She ignored the bashes and cuts she received from jagged rocks and sharp thistles, just as she ignored Patrick’s thunderous roar as he started down the path above her.

“There’s nowhere you can go,” he yelled, cursing as he slid several yards but gained precious ground on her.

Skye reached the slippery rocky ledge that led to the caves by leaping the last few feet where the path had been washed away. She absolutely didn’t want to enter those caves, and the only other hiding place was behind a few large boulders at the bottom of the path. She slid behind them, her breathing sounding like thunder to her own ears. She’d been stupid in coming here and had only made his work easier for him. She should have bashed him harder when she had the chance—debilitated him for long enough to get to the horses.

Damn it, hindsight was a bloody irritating bedfellow.

The loose rocks that Patrick dislodged as he made his clumsy way down fell about her like a hailstorm. She picked up a few of the sharpest specimens for use as weapons, and waited. She heard Patrick’s heavy tread as he reached the rocky floor and tensed. He’d know where she was and was too arrogant to assume she might outsmart him. That proved to be the case and he walked round the boulders with a smirk on his face, one large hand reaching out to grab her collar.