Love's Taming (The Love's Series) (34 page)

“Not so tough are you bitch?” he said as his free hand drifted across her breast again. Pulling her to a standing position, he gave a sharp push between her shoulder blades, moving her away from the van.

She forced herself to take her eyes away from his face and glance around. The van was parked next to several identical vans in a clearing with thick woods all around. The tall trees created the perfect screen from prying eyes. Near the vans was an old barn and to her right was a small cabin. The sound of dogs barking could be heard much louder now that she was outside. Wooden and wire crates were stacked behind the barn toward the woods and the smell of feces was strong. She felt the bile rising again and forced herself to try to breathe deeply, but with her mouth taped shut each breath through her nose just brought the stench closer.

Men were moving around the compound, seemingly attending to unknown tasks, but eyeing her with undisguised interest.
They don’t seem scared that I’m seeing them.
Because they know I won’t leave here alive.
That thought nearly brought her to her knees as she stumbled.

Her arm was roughly grabbed from behind. “Fuck bitch, get moving,” Marco ordered as he shoved her along the path toward the cabin.

Annie’s legs moved automatically as her mind raced with thoughts of escaping, staying alive, and wondering what was going to happen. The door to the cabin swung open as they arrived and she was given no choice but to keep walking.

“Oh, Jesus fuck. Annie, Jesus no!” came the expletive from the man standing at the entrance to the cabin.

Carl.

Her eyes sought out his as her mind raced to understand his presence in this place. He was forced to step to the side as Marco shoved her forward once more, propelling her through the cabin door.

Her eyes blinked as she entered the room, Marco’s knife still pressed to her side. As her eyes became accustomed to the dimness of the front room, she saw a desk piled with papers, a laptop, and several cell phones. A man was sitting at the desk talking on one of the phones.

He turned toward her as she neared, his cold eyes scanning her from head to toe before coming back to land on her chest for a moment, then sliding back up to her face. “Gotta go. We have a guest,” he said with no warmth. “Yeah. She’s much prettier than the other vet we were using.” A deep chest chuckle came from him as he clicked off the call.

A hard-back chair was placed in the center of the room directly in front of the desk. Marco moved her around to the front and with a hand to her shoulder pushed her down into the chair. Annie wasn’t sure her legs would have held her up anyway, but the pain in her shoulders reached an agonizing level.

The man sitting behind the desk stared intently at her before speaking. “Cut her.”

Annie’s eyes widened in fear but before she could react, she felt the ties on her hands being cut, and for the first time in a couple of hours she could move her hands from behind her back. The numbness in her arms was replaced with tingling as she gripped her hands and rubbed them together.

She brought her eyes back to the man at the desk again just in time to see him jerk his head to Marco. Not interpreting the head jerk, she was once again caught off guard when Marco’s hand grabbed the end of the piece of tape over her mouth and ripped it off.

The pain was intense and her hands involuntarily flung up to hold her stinging lips. “Aughhh!” she yelled, unable to contain the utterance.

Carl moved toward her and covered her mouth with his hand. Pressing tightly against her lips, he mumbled, “The pressure will take out the sting.”

She looked up into his face, still not understanding his presence.
Did they get him too?
Her eyes darted about, but the cabin’s interior gave no answers.

“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Xavier Thomas. You, my dear Doctor Donavan, have caused a great deal of trouble for my organization.”

Annie sat, trying to still the shaking she felt all over.

“We have had a nice business here until your cop boyfriend infiltrated to take us down. And then, my innocent Doctor, you have continued to make things difficult by your curiosity.”

Carl spoke tentatively, “Xavier, you shouldn’t have done this. You’ve kidnapped a cop’s girlfriend. Jesus, you’ll have them crawling all over the place.”

Xavier’s eyes cut upwards toward Carl’s and his thin lips curved into a smile. “Exactly.”

Annie glanced up at Carl but could tell he didn’t understand Xavier’s comment any more than she did.

Just then the driver of the van walked in and moved to the man behind the desk. Leaning down, he whispered in his ear. The cold look in the man’s eyes became even frostier.

“It appears that Marco has not been as hospitable as I would have required. I have just been informed that he touched you. Is this correct?”

Annie sat still, not understanding anything that was transpiring, while Carl’s hand stayed loosened against her mouth.

“Answer him,” Carl whispered in her ear.

Glancing up to his eyes, she saw fear in his face as well.

“Don’t keep him waiting,” came the next whisper.

She turned her gaze back to the man behind the desk, her heart pounding so loudly she was sure they could all hear it.

Slowly nodding her head, she heard a croaked “Yes” before realizing it was her own voice.

Xavier growled, “When I give an order I expect it to be obeyed. I can’t trust a man who can’t control his baser urges.”

She saw Marco move toward the door with his hands up in front of him. “What the fuck, man? She’s just a piece of a…”

Annie’s eyes grew large as she saw a man approach Marco from behind and with the flash of a long knife slit Marco’s throat. He crumpled to the ground and twitched for just a moment before stilling with a pool of blood seeping from the open gash.

Jumping off the chair, she stared horrified at the vision in front of her. The sound of screaming, howling animals filled her ears as she dropped to her knees on the floor next to the chair. Carl rushed over, grabbing under her arms to haul her up against his body as he moved to shield her from the sight on the floor, gently making shushing sounds.

Gasping for breath she finally realized that the animal sounds filling the cabin were coming from her. Her body continued to shake as Carl tried to still her.

“Xavier, what the fuck? Jesus, did you have to do that right in front of her?” his voice bit out.

With a flick of his wrist, Xavier motioned for one of the other men who had quietly entered the cabin to remove the body. The sound of it being drug across the floor and outside had a new wave of tremors flooding Annie’s body.

“Sit,” came the order. Another hard-back chair appeared and Carl sat pulling Annie down next to him.

Forcing her eyes to look at the man who had so effortlessly ordered the killing of another man, she sucked in a breath to try to clear her head.
Focus. To stay alive. Focus.

“As to why you were brought here, my dear Doctor, the answer is very clear. We need to move our operation. Or rather I should say we have to move our operation because of your boyfriend’s and your interference.”

“He’s…a detective. It’s…his job,” she said with a shaky voice.

Xavier’s look quieted her immediately. “I assure you, Doctor Donavan, that gives him no points in his favor with me.”

Carl squeezed her leg as she licked her still stinging lips. She understood his silent message to be quiet, but anger was slowly taking over fear.

“You’re…a criminal. A…drug…person.”

At this definition, she noticed his eyebrows raise. “A drug person?” he asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. “Is that the best you can come up with?”

“You’re…a murderer. You have dogs killed. People killed.”

Xavier’s head reared back as deep laughter emanated from him. He looked over to the men still standing just inside the cabin. “Do you hear that? I am a murderer of dogs?”

“Annie, shut up,” Carl whispered.

Her head whipped around as she speared him with her glare. “And you. What the hell are you doing here?”

Xavier’s mirth over, he speared her with his unwavering gaze again. “I’ll tell you what he is doing here, Doctor Donavan.”

She felt Carl stiffen next to her.

“I needed someone to make sure the dogs were healthy enough to travel. Someone who could assist with easier ways for them to ingest their…cargo. I needed a professional who, shall we say, could be persuaded to work for me and keep his mouth shut. And throw in one who would keep an eye on you at the same time, well Doctor Ogden fit the bill perfectly.”

Annie suddenly felt as though all of the air had been sucked from the building and was aware of Carl throwing his arm around her shoulder to anchor her.

Breathing deeply, she pushed away from him. “Keep your hands off of me,” she growled.

“It’s not what you think,” his voice pleaded. “It’s not like what he said.”

Xavier’s voice cut into their stare-down. “It really doesn’t matter why either of you did what you did. All that matters now is that I am moving forward.” He paused as their attention came back to him. The smile that Annie now recognized as dangerous grew as he continued. “We are being forced to move our operation and I will be removing all obstacles. You two are obstacles.

“I will, of course, be leaving your bodies in plain sight here for the police to find.” Hearing Annie gasp, his smile deepened. Leaning over his desk, malice twinkling in his eyes, he spoke, “Did you think for one second that his undercover infiltration would go unpunished? I took care of Rocky and your death will make sure that other such agents will be less willing to play the hero. He will eventually find his way here, and your body will serve as a reminder that no one fucks with me.”

His eyes cut back over to Carl’s horrified expression as he continued. “And you, Doctor Ogden, have served my purpose and I find that I do not want to chance having you with us in our new…location.”

Moving around the desk, he ordered, “Lock them up for now.”

Annie and Carl were roughly hauled up and propelled back outside, this time forced to walk to the barn that was located on the opposite end of the clearing. Maneuvered through a door, they were forced to climb a rickety ladder to the former hayloft and tied to a post near the back of the building. The cracks between the planks of the old barn loft allowed sunlight to filter in and afforded them a view of the activity below.

“Annie, I’m sorry,” Carl started. His voice carried a pleading tone as he willed her to look at him.

Anger poured off of her as she kicked out at him. “How could you? Jesus, you’re a vet. You gave an oath. You’re supposed to protect and heal. Not drug, maim, and kill. I can’t believe you are a part of this.”

“Let me explain. Please,” his voice ragged.

The look on his face stilled her. “Why Carl? Why?” she asked, her voice quiet and full of pain.

Hanging his head for a moment, gathering his thoughts, he looked back into her face. “A year ago I was practicing in another state, but had been applying for jobs here in the area because my mom was sick.” Seeing the doubt in her eyes, he continued, “Yes Annie. I did have a mom in the area and she was sick. I received a communication from what I thought was another vet and came in for an interview. When I met with Xavier for the first time, I had no idea who or what he was.

“He said he needed a veterinarian to help with dogs that were part of his business. He made it sound like they were guard dogs in training. He made it sound so legitimate.” His voice trailed off as though his thoughts had moved into the past. Remembering.

“He offered a lot of money and I thought it would be a great transition. I could make decent money, help with mom, and keep practicing veterinary medicine in a private setting for a while.” Shaking his head, “Jesus, I thought I’d found the perfect solution.”

“When did you realize it wasn’t what you thought?”

Sucking in a huge breath and letting it out slowly, “It only took a couple of weeks. At first they had me just seeing dogs they brought in. They made sure I got paid and they even took over mom’s medical expenses which had drained her bank account dry and had almost drained mine dry as well. By the time I ever saw this place I was firmly in their control.

“Annie, you have to believe me when I say that the first time I was brought here I became physically sick. I barely made it to the woods before I lost my lunch.”

“Why did you stay? You could have told the police. You could have done something.”

“I did do something, Annie.” He saw her angry glare but plunged on. “I needed the money. If I said anything, they would kill me, and then where would mom be? I had to play their game to keep things going. But I did the best I could. I inoculated these dogs, I treated their injuries, I made sure they had food and water. And I tried to get them to do surgery to remove the drugs without hacking them open.”

At that, Annie’s eyes filled with tears, all of the fight going out of her.
How can I judge him? Would I have done differently?
“How is your mom now?”

Looking her directly in the eyes, he confessed, “She died a few months back. I had money to pay off the creditors, pay for a funeral, and get her affairs settled.”

The questioning look she gave him had him nodding in understanding. “You’re wondering why I didn’t stop then?”

He gave a rude snort before answering. “By then, they had me in your clinic. I had gotten close to you, Suzanne, and Leon. They manage to get people to do things they want by threatening things that matter.”

“Oh my God. They threatened you by using us?” her voice shook.

Nodding, he looked sadder than she thought she had ever seen anyone look.

“Yeah. That kept me doing their dirty work while still trying to do the best I could for the animals.”

Seeing her look of understanding, he quickly replied, “Oh Annie. I’m no hero. I’m probably just a huge coward, but I knew I was already damned. I might as well keep being damned to keep them away from you all.”

Looking around, she began to wiggle seeing how tightly she was tied. “Can you move your arms at all?” Annie asked.