Redemption Rains (14 page)

Was that what all this was about? All
those years he had just pretended to be her friend. In truth he
hated her, hated her for coming in and stealing away his father’s
love and attention. Long forgotten memories flashed in her head.
Times when she saw Samuel glaring at her with hate in his eyes when
Edward paid attention to her. Alexis was never a threat to Samuel,
Elizabeth knew this. Alexis never stirred anything more than mild
interest in their step farther. It was Elizabeth who Edward had
taken too. Seeing the lost little girl and longing to fill her sad
eyes with happiness. There was nothing that Edward wouldn’t do for
her and realizing this now made her love him even more. Looking at
Samuel, she knew that she had been blinded by his charm. He had
always hated her and now he would be rid of her.

Elizabeth felt whipped; she could not
fight these monsters anymore. Her shoulders sagged in defeat and
when Rocko reached down to lift her off the ground, she did not
fight. Hope drained from her, leaving her empty as a
shell.

Rocko half carried half-dragged her
lifeless body into the house, Mr. Smith walked ahead unlocking the
door and turning on lights. Samuel trailed behind, limping and
swearing.

“Tie her hands and put her on the bed
in the other room,” Mr. Smith gave the order to Rocko.

“Lindsey, you will sit as guard, I
have a few details to take care of before we finish with this
business,” he left the room without a second look.

Rocko dumped Elizabeth on the bed and
tied her hands behind her back. She sat with her back straight and
her shoulders stiff, watching as Rocko walked over to Samuel and
mumbled something to him. Samuel looked up at her with disgust in
his eyes and responded to Rocko’s comment.

“I wouldn’t touch that fat cow with a
ten foot pole!” his mouth turned up in a scornful smile that left
Elizabeth feeling cold. At one point during the drive she had
thought that she might be able to play on Samuel’s sympathies and
convince him to help her escape, but now, looking at his face she
realized that he was more dangerous than the other two men. Mr.
Smith and Rocko saw her as a liability, nothing more. Samuel saw
the person and hated her. With a sudden sense of determination,
Elizabeth raised her chin and looked down her nose at Samuel,
gritting her teeth. He walked slowly toward her.

“It seems Lizzy, that Rocko here
thinks you are quite a handful of woman. Do you know what he just
said to me?” he cocked a single eyebrow. “He wanted to know if you
were a good bang.” He sniffed at her in distaste. “But I’m not
surprised at the interest; you seem to be attracting a lot of
brutes lately.” He saw her flinch at his referral to Devin. He
latched on to her sign of weakness and dug his claws in
deeper.

“You really are a silly girl to give
yourself to that man. Don’t you know that he would do anything to
bring my . . .” he paused as he searched for the right word “. . .
companions down? Even sleeping with the likes of you; the poor chap
deserves a medal for going through that horrifying event.” He bent
down to peer into her eyes. “Tell me Lizzy, how did you keep from
suffocating the poor bastard?”

“For your information, Samuel,” she
smiled smugly at him. “I have no doubt he enjoyed the experience.”
Elizabeth jerked her leg up, landing her knee in his groin. Samuel
slumped over holding himself.

When he struck her across the face
with the back of his hand, Elizabeth did not crumple, instead she
sat perfectly still with her head held high. She told him with her
eyes that she was not afraid of him and when he backed down and
walked away, Elizabeth’s feeling of victory encouraged her even
more. She was not going to just lie here and let them kill her, she
was going to fight them every step of the way.

Elizabeth had sat so long on the bed
her muscles ached, but still she refused to relax. Her mind running
through ideas for escape, she focused her attention on Rocko. For
some reason he had taken an interest in her and now he sat across
from her in a chair. He had laughed at Samuel when he staggered out
of the room holding his crotch.

“Mr. Lindsey, I think you no good at
guard,” his English was broken and laced with a thick accent. “I
will guard now.”

Rocko had then placed his large body
in the wooden chair across from the bed, sitting quietly, watching
her. At one point he stood and pulled a linen handkerchief from his
pocket, reaching across and wiping the blood that trickled from her
nose. Elizabeth stiffened at his touch, holding her
breath.

When he sat back down replacing the
handkerchief, she studied him through her lashes noting the way he
looked at her. His expression was one of a child admiring a new
toy, it repelled her, but she stifled the shudder that threatened
to rack her body.

Now she pondered the possibility of
turning him away from Mr. Smith and helping her escape. Elizabeth
opened her eyes wide and smiled directly at him.

“Mr. Rocko,” she batted her eyes for
good measure and lifted her tied hands behind her back. “These
ropes are so tight; they are cutting into my wrists. Do you think
you could loosen them just a little?” her eyes were wide and
pleading. Rocko looked at her with skepticism. “I don’t mean you
have to untie them, just loosen them.”

Without saying a word, he stood and
walked across the room. Reaching behind her he loosened the ropes
around her wrists. Elizabeth felt the blood flow through her hands
and her fingers tingled. The look of gratitude she gave Rocko was
real.

“Thank you. It is very kind of you.”
She had leaned closer to him and turned up the wattage on her
smile. She watched the blush creep into his face.

“You are welcome, senorita,” he
stepped back from her and then reached out his hand to touch her
tousled hair.

“It is so lovely,” he admired. “The
curls are so soft.” He rubbed a curl between his finger and thumb
before dropping the strand of hair.

Elizabeth grasped at the chance in
front of her and threw caution to the wind. In a slow seductive
move, she raised her leg and crossed it over the other one, causing
her skirt to ride up on her thigh. This caught his attention and he
licked his lips and reached down to touch her knee with his large
fleshy fingers. Elizabeth fought the nausea threatening her stomach
and pasted a seductive smile on her face as he squeezed her knee
and then moved his hand up along her exposed thigh, pausing at the
hem of her skirt.

“Senorita, you are a fine woman,” his
voice was raspy, his eyes ogled her.

She uncrossed her legs then and felt
him shudder as his hand traveled up under the skirt and felt the
lace of her garter. He dropped down on his knees and buried his
face in her neck, placing sloppy wet kisses there. She shuddered in
repulsion and leaned back away from him.

“Now Rocko,” her voice was husky. “Do
you really think it fair that you get to do all of the
touching?”

With a groan, he reached around and
untied her hands pressing her back against the bed with his
enormous body. Elizabeth felt panic grip her as he took her hand
and placed it against the hardness of his arousal. She took her
other hand and laid it on his chest under his suit jacket. She felt
the cool metal object sticking out of his inside coat pocket. This
is what she was searching for. She slid her fingers closer to the
knife. In an attempt to distract him she squeezed his arousal with
her other hand causing him to shudder uncontrollably against her.
She wrapped her fingers around the handle of the knife and slowly
withdrew her hand.

“What is going on in here?” Mr.
Smith’s usually monotone voice blasted from the doorway. Elizabeth
quickly palmed the object and placed her hand against her side.
Rocko was off her in an instant, stepping away from the bed and
turning to Mr. Smith.

“We don’t have time for this Rocko.”
Mr. Smith flicked a disgusted look her way. “Bring her.”

Fear gripped her throat as Rocko
picked her up and threw her over his shoulder and carried her out
of the house. They walked a short way out into a field and then
Rocko placed her on the ground, gripping her arm to help steady her
wobbly knees. She held the knife in her hand, the tip covered by
the sleeve of her jacket.

Elizabeth looked around and could see
that they were several yards behind the house, and then her gaze
fell on the shallow grave to her left. Samuel was standing beside
it holding a shovel. He looked at her with malice.

“I hope it meets your approval Lizzy,”
he laid the shovel on the ground and picked up his discarded
jacket. “The least I could do, provide you with a decent burial, we
are family after all.”

She kept her silence, waiting and
watching for the perfect time to make her attack. She knew that
Rocko would be the one holding the gun. Judging the distance
between them, Elizabeth knew that it would be a gamble. The sound
of a low flying helicopter off in the distance caught their
attention. As it approached, hope flared in her heart. Maybe help
had come.

“Well, well, well,” Mr. Smith directed
his attention on Samuel. “It appears, Lindsey that you were not
quite so convincing when you snatched away our little package
here.”

“No. I was convincing.” Samuel sounded
scared and his voice cracked slightly. “Kane suspected nothing when
I took her away. In fact he looked quite relieved to have her off
his hands.” The remark struck Elizabeth’s heart causing a deep
pain.

“You underestimate Detective Kane,”
Mr. Smith spoke calmly. “His hate for our mutual friend runs deep.
He would not give up finding the man who killed his wife and ruined
his father that easily.”

The statement stunned Elizabeth.
Servano had killed Devin’s wife. That was why he was so cold and
bitter. Samuel walked closer to Mr. Smith.

“I don’t know and don’t care about
Devin’s story; I just did what I was told.”

“But if you had done the history, you
would have known what kind of adversary you were up against.” Mr.
Smith looked at Elizabeth with cold eyes. “The father had been a
detective for almost twenty years when Kane first became a cop. But
the father was not just any detective; he was a mutual friend who
took care of business for us on the inside. One day Kane came
across evidence of this and confronted the father. As the story
goes, the father was remorseful and promised to go to the FBI with
his knowledge and testify, making him a marked man. When the hit
went down though, it was not the father in the car that exploded.
It was Kane’s young wife.” Mr. Smith shook his head. “It was an
unfortunate thing losing your wife and unborn child that way. Kane
went crazy and went after Servano with a vengeance, refusing to
forgive the father for bringing this down on their family. The
father was still a marked man, but in the end he shot himself, too
weak to live with the guilt.”

Elizabeth felt the tears flowing down
her cheeks. Oh Devin. Her heart cried out for him. The pain he must
have went through. At that moment the helicopter flew over them
without pausing. It wasn’t him. He would not be coming.

“I told you that it was nothing
Smith,” Samuel said with more assurance in his voice now, watching
the helicopter grow smaller in the distance. “Now, do you think
that we could get this over with? I have an appointment with a
lovely little blonde and I do not want to miss it.”

“But of course Lindsey,” Mr. Smith
paused, looking Samuel up and down. “I have just had a wonderful
idea.” He turned his head in the direction of Rocko. “Why don’t we
let Lindsey here do the job? What do you think Rocko?”

Rocko grunted his agreement and walked
over to Samuel handing him the gun. Samuel raised the gun up to his
face, which held a look of fear.

“I don’t know if I can do this.” His
voice was small.

“Sure you can.” Mr. Smith said
confidently. “Just point and shoot.”

This was it, Elizabeth told herself as
Rocko moved to stand to her right and Samuel stood directly in
front of her. She knew that Samuel would have trouble as she
watched his hand waver. Swiftly, she struck out at Rocko with the
knife she held in her right hand. The steel blade sliced across the
immense girth of his stomach causing him to double over and fall to
the ground. A shot was fired and Elizabeth stepped to the side
crouching down to dodge the bullet. She raised her head and watched
as Mr. Smith fell to the ground, a gaping hole in his forehead. She
looked to Samuel in shock and realized that he had not fired the
gun.

“Drop the gun Lindsey,” Elizabeth
heard the dark voice and turned to stare at Devin standing a few
feet behind her. He did not look at her. He focused his cold stare
on Samuel as he cocked the hammer of the gun in his hand. He was
here. Devin had come to save her.

“Kane,” Samuel’s voice held surprise
and horror. “How the hell did you find us?”

“I followed you from the hotel.”
Devin’s voice was hard. “Did you really think I would let you take
her away so easily? Now drop the gun. You stand no chance getting
out of here. There are a dozen officers surrounding the place as we
speak.”

Samuel looked around in panic,
searching for evidence of Devin’s statement. He focused on the
sounds of sirens coming from the farmhouse. Without warning, he
reached out and grabbed Elizabeth, wrapping his arm around her
throat and placing the gun at her temple. He spoke with more
confidence now.