up and stretched, he watched her as she pulled the gun out and put it on the back of the
head of the man right behind him. Dalton entered the melee just as one of the other men
was reaching into his jacket.
“Move and I kill you. Not a threat, in the event that you’re wondering.” Emma
asked Vance to take their weapons, and he moved to do so. He was surprised to find
not only were they armed with a gun each, but two of them had switch blades as well as
a long thin piece of wire. He tossed those across the room with the weapons. She
winked at Vance as she continued. “Check their boots. I saw that on a movie once, and
always wondered if the bad guys really carried guns there.”
Vance wanted to ask her if all of this was from a movie she might have watched,
but was afraid of the answer. Instead, he reached into each man’s boot and came up
with three more guns, another knife, as well as a pair of brass knuckles. When one of
the men’s phones rang in his pocket, the man spoke for the first time.
“I think you need to answer that.” He was looking at Emma when he spoke. “It’s
for you. Please answer it. It will go a long way to you understanding why we’re here.”
Her hand was trembling when she reached into his pocket. Vance wanted to tell her
no, not to do it, but the man even leaned back and didn’t say a word as she pulled it
out. When the ringing stopped, so did his heart pounding, but only for a second. But
the man smiled and said it would ring again. When it did, Emma answered it.
As soon as she sat down, he knew something had happened. Then the door opened
from the outside and a woman stood there, a phone to her ear as well. Emma didn’t
move when the other woman put her phone away and didn’t move either.
“These men work for me. If you’ll let them go, we can help you with the two in the
office with Doctor McCade.” He and Dalton both looked at Emma, and when she
nodded her head, the woman spoke again. “I assure you, they won’t harm any of you.
We will, however, take care of the men that are holding that young woman hostage.”
“Let them go.” Vance didn’t want to do what Emma said, but when Dalton did, he
backed away as well. As the men moved by them and to their weapons, he wondered if
they had just made the biggest mistake of their lives. When the men moved again, this
time to the hall and to the office that Kenton was in, he started to follow. “Don’t. I have
a feeling that we don’t want to know what goes on down there.”
“It’s been a while, Emma. I was hoping we’d be able to sit down and talk.” Emma
said nothing, and Vance wanted to ask what the fuck was going on. “I’m her mother.
She’s having a hard time realizing that I’m not as dead as everyone believes.”
“No. I’m having a hard time thinking why now? And why did you leave us? Not to
mention, how did you know to come here, just when this was about to go down?” The
woman sat down, and Vance stood by Emma. He could sense the tension between
them. And when Kenton and a pregnant woman came into the room with them, Vance
wasn’t surprised to see Emma go to Kenton and hold him.
“What’s going to happen with those men?” The woman, Mrs. Gentry, didn’t
answer. Vance had a feeling that Dalton didn’t really want to know, but because of
what he did for a living, he needed to know. “Am I going to have to explain this to
someone higher than me?”
“No. No one will ever question you about what happens to them. The men, my
men, will take care of everything.” Mrs. Gentry looked around the room. “My name is
Anderson Gentry. I’m Emma’s mom and have been presumed dead for about seven
years now.”
“Did Dad know about you?” Anderson nodded. “I see. And were the two of you
ever going to let me and Bart know? Or was this, too, one of your sick, twisted plans?
You were good at them, if I remember correctly.”
“No. I mean yes, but not Bart. Not until we had proof of his part in what happened
to me.” Anderson stood up. “If we could move to somewhere less conspicuous, I think I
can explain this. My men need to move things around, and it would be better for all of
you if you didn’t know anything.”
“You mean when they move bodies out?” Anderson didn’t answer Vance, and he
looked at Kenton. “You okay with this? This murdering spree that this woman’s men
are doing in your office?”
“They brought in a woman who is seven months pregnant, telling her that if she
didn’t cooperate they were going to cut her child out and then make her watch while
they cut it up and fed it to the dogs. They threatened my life and that of Emma, as well
as my entire family if I didn’t do as they said, which was turn Emma over to them and
keep my mouth shut.” Kenton stood up, still holding onto Emma, and nodded at him
before continuing. “Yes. I have no problem whatsoever in letting them do whatever it
takes to make sure that no one is hurt by them again.”
Vance looked at the sobbing pregnant woman, who had a bruised cheek as well as a
large round belly. He said nothing to them as he moved to her, holding her upright as
he told the rest of them he was taking her back to her home. After listening to Kenton,
Vance decided he didn’t have a problem with it either. But that didn’t make it right. As
he moved out to his car, he thought of all the things that were going on and wondered
if love—if that was what it was—between Kenton and Emma was really worth all this.
As he drove her home, he noticed that Cindy, the woman, had a thick envelope in
her lap. When she noticed him glancing at it, she smiled at him and told him that one of
Anderson’s men had given it to her.
“It’s money. Enough that I don’t have to worry about my child having diapers
when he comes. Food on the table for my daughter. Nor will I have to fret about how
I’m going to pay my rent when I’m off work. They told me that I should take this and
start a new life, one that didn’t involve being here anymore.” She opened it up and he
could see a huge pile of money. “They said it’s $50,000. I only have to not tell anyone
what happened. I can do that. I was afraid and hurt, but I’m safe now, thanks to you
and your family, and I’ll never tell a soul what you did for me and my children.”
“She did it all. Mrs. Gentry.” Cindy nodded and said she didn’t care who it was, she
was going to be safe. “I’m happy for you. But those men, they’re dead now.”
“Yes. And I for one won’t lose a bit of sleep over it. They came into my home, hit
me and my daughter. Then they made me make a phone call that had me lying to the
most honest man I’ve ever met in order to use me to get him dead.” She rubbed her
hand over her belly and smiled at him as she continued. “Kenton helped me get
medical care that I could afford. He helped me get out of an abusive relationship with
my ex-husband, and he helped my daughter get into a daycare that didn’t cost me more
than I was making. She’s safe too. No longer worrying about if her father is coming
there to take her from me again. He helped me when no one else would. I’d do just
about anything for him. And I know that he would me as well.”
After Vance dropped the woman off, he could see what she meant about being safe.
The neighborhood she was in was middle class. There were fenced-in backyards and
swings in every one of them. He knew that looks could be deceiving, but he also knew
that wherever she’d come from, Kenton had made this happen for her because he knew
it was the right thing to do. Vance had admired his brother before this. Now he thought
of him as his own special sort of hero.
Going back to his mom’s house, he wasn’t surprised to see that they all had
gathered there. His mom would want that, being a part of whatever was going on. As
soon as he entered the house by way of the kitchen, he was handed a drink and a plate
and told to head to the living room. When he entered, he sat down and thought about
the dead men again and realized that Kenton was right, that was the only way to handle
this. He listened to Emma tell them what had happened seven years ago.
“Mom had been out with some friends. It was a weekly thing, something that she
did to have her own time. Dad did his thing on Wednesday. Then on Saturday, they’d
date. That Tuesday, there was a phone call from the police. An accident, they said. They
told my dad that my mother was dead, died at the scene.”
Emma started pacing, and Vance watched Kenton. He knew then that his brother
was in love with the woman and smiled. Better Kenton than him was all he could think
about.
“I’d been on the phone with your father. He and I were making plans for our
weekend out when I was broadsided. I had only just hung up my phone when it
happened, and I tried to reach for it to call your dad back. But two men got out of their
car and came toward me. I don’t think they expected me to have a gun.” Anderson
stood up and lifted her shirt to just below her breast. “I was shot twice. My leg had been
broken in the accident, and I had hit my head. I killed the men, then called…. I had
meant to call my husband, but I dialed my father instead. I was out of my head in pain
and I believe he thought I was telling him that Bartholomew had killed me. It took me
some time to recover, but I laid low until about three years ago. Bartholomew thought it
best that we kept things quiet for a while. I think he thought that Bart set me up. Then
we started looking for you.”
“Me?” Emma looked around the room when her mother nodded. “I’ve been buried
in that fucking building for years. Bart was my only contact. He told me that Dad
wanted me there, out of his sight. I suffered all kinds of abuse at his hands, and why?
So you could be safe and sound in Dad’s arms?”
“No, we had no idea where you were. I never…we searched too. I thought for sure,
and so did your dad, that Bart had killed you. As he tried to do me.” Emma denied ever
being anywhere but in the same building that her dad was in. “Bart said you’d run off.
That you’d…. I guess we shouldn’t have believed him about that either.”
“I guess not.” Emma stood up and then nodded to Kenton when he stood. “I’m not
sure what is going on here. And right now I don’t care. I’m sorry about…I have no idea
why I’m sorry, but I am. I just need to think. When I’m ready, I’ll contact you. Or
someone will.”
Vance looked at Anderson and could see that she was upset. He supposed she had
a right to be, but he knew that he might be too if he was in Emma’s shoes. This was just
too bizarre. He decided that he was going to refrain from judging just yet. If she fucked
with his family, which as far as he was concerned included Emma, she was going to be
hurt. But for reasons that he could not fathom, Vance thought that Emma would die
before hurting any of them. Anderson, however, he wasn’t so sure about.
Kenton followed Emma out of the room and to the front door. When she turned to
him, if she was going to say anything at all, he didn’t give her a chance to say it. Kenton
pulled her into his arms and kissed her, giving her all his pent-up need and rage rolled
into one. When she lifted her leg up, wrapping it around his own, he lifted her by her
ass and took her to the wall. His need, like hers, felt too out of control for niceties. When
she jerked his head from her mouth, he growled low.
“Do you have a room here?” He nodded and started to kiss her again. “Take me
there. I don’t want to have to worry about being caught again. Now, Kenton. I want you
to fuck me on a bed where there are no witnesses.”
The stairs were giving him problems that he’d never had before. As he held her and
tried to navigate them, he kept getting distracted and missed steps nearly taking them
both to the floor. Every time she touched him, kissed his bare skin, he had to stop. He
knew it was either that or take her right there on the stairs. As they made their slow
progress to the top of the longest staircase he thought he’d ever been on, he tore at her
clothing too.
Her breasts, like before, were bared to him. He took one of the morsels into his
mouth and suckled at her while turning the knob to his old bedroom. As soon as he was
inside, he turned her to the now closed door and pulled the rest of her clothing off and
set her on her feet.
“I want to do this right.” When she reached for him, he backed up. “If you touch me
now, I’m done. I mean, I’m so close to coming now that I can hardly breathe around it.”
“I want you to take me.” He nodded, then shook his head. “You don’t want me? I
thought…I guess I don’t understand then why we’re here.”
“Christ, I want you. I’ve never wanted…. I don’t want to just fuck you against the
wall. I want to make love to you. In a bed. Properly.” She grinned at him and he felt his
cock burn with need to simply be free. “You’re going to hurt me, aren’t you?”
“I hope so.” She moved to the bed, her body swaying in a way that had him