Authors: Anna Mara
Chapter 34
Friday – 9:42 p.m.
126 Preclude Road
The sun had
set 25 minutes ago, dusk having fallen on the lonely, desert highway. Tori had been driving for about a half hour and the route had taken her outside of Las Vegas towards the Lake Mead area. Lake Mead was a 112-mile long, manmade lake/reservoir, created by the colossal Hoover Dam.
The slip of paper where she’d scribbled the directions lay on the passenger seat. According to the Google map instructions, the next exit on her right should take her to Preclude Road.
Slowing down, she saw the street sign showing her the way. Flipping on the turn signal, she took the right and continued travelling along the dark, deserted road. Not far down she spotted a mailbox atop a metal pole with the number 126 on it.
So, there it was—the turnoff leading to the driveway, which led to the cabin where Joe Sorelli and her crazy grandmother were probably hiding out in! Tori’s temper rose all over again. Boy, when she got her hands on those two, there was going to be hell to pay.
She went a little ways on the road before stopping the car, her gaze following the beam from her headlights. In the distance, she made out the dark outline of a well-hidden, small cabin situated at the end of the very long driveway. Even though the surrounding area was all flat, empty desert space, plenty of bushes and shrubs obscured the view, obviously intentionally planted all around the property to give the house a sense of privacy and isolation. And it was true; no one would be able to find you here unless they knew where they were going.
Tori parked to the side and got out. She would leave the rental here and walk the rest of the way. If she drove up to the house, Sorelli would certainly hear the vehicle approaching, giving him a heads up; and she didn’t want that. Because, what if, after her grandmother had gotten here, the slimeball was holding her a prisoner or she was hurt in some way because of him? After all, Tori didn’t know this guy, or where he came from, or what kind of trouble he’d gotten himself into.
From her own wild adventure through the streets of Las Vegas today, she could certainly testify to the fact that Sorelli associated with some pretty shady characters. Nana may have felt her ‘tingle’ and pronounced him a good man, but Tori had never met the bum.
Her heart banged erratically in her chest at the thought of her precious grandma maybe being in danger. That’s why she needed to first make sure that Nana was all right before announcing her presence, even if every instinct screamed at her to go pound on that front door and demand that the both of them come out pronto!
Slipping her purse diagonally across her body, she trudged up the lonely road leading towards the cabin, her white runners barely making a sound in the dry, sand-packed dirt. A chilly breeze cut through her thin, yellow sweater and she wrapped the garment tighter around her chest. She hadn’t realized how cold the desert got once the sun went down.
Near the front porch, Tori could now see that the cabin was a small, one-story abode with a flat roof, probably housing a couple of bedrooms in the back. It clearly was a home away from home, when someone needed to get out of Sin City for a while—or to hide out in!
Her eyes darted around the desolate property. There were shrubs and bushes everywhere but she couldn’t see any cars. The place look deserted. Gazing back at the house, she noted how shadowy and mysterious it looked, keeping its occupants well-hidden and protected. It was completely dark, with no light shining from within. Shades were drawn down over the two windows on either side of the front door, preventing anyone from peering inside. It was obvious whoever was in there didn’t want any intrusion from the outside world.
Suddenly, a thought flashed into Tori’s mind. What if this wasn’t the right house? What if this place belonged to some stranger and not Sorelli? Oh no, she hadn’t thought of that! But she shoved the doubt away. No, this was the right cabin, she was sure of it. 126 Preclude Road; that’s what that weasel, Rat had said. But just in case, she fished in her purse for the steak knife she’d bought at that pancake restaurant yesterday. Yup, it was still in there. Her fingers brushed against the wooden handle.
Reassured, she pulled her hand out of her purse, and instinctively, her fingers went to the gold crucifix—the one that Nana had given her this morning—hanging around her neck. Yes, she still had the sweet Lord Jesus with her for protection too. A brief smile flitted across her lips. With both Jesus and the steak knife, she could take on the world!
Tori tiptoed towards the back of the property, curious to see if she could get inside that way. Her eyes widened in the dark as she crept around the side of house, trying to get her bearings.
Suddenly, she bumped into something and gasped. She looked down. Whew! It was only a plastic patio chair. She let out a breath of relief. Thank God, it was only a stupid piece of furniture; and thank God, she hadn’t made too much noise—or at least, she hoped she hadn’t.
Resuming her mission, she went forward a few more feet and came to the back door. Okay, so how was she going to get in? Maybe the shaded window beside it could be opened somehow and she could squeeze through? Or what if she tried jimmying the lock on the door with a credit card like she’d seen them do in the movies? Maybe that might work? She grasped the doorknob to test the lock when, to her utter surprise and shock, it turned in her hand! It wasn’t locked after all!
Pushing the wooden door open, she peered into the cabin. All was pitch dark inside except for what looked like a bedroom light coming out of one of the rooms in the back. She eased the door shut and began walking towards the light.
Suddenly, goosebumps rippled up her arms and Tori froze in mid-step. Someone was in the room with her!
“Don’t move or you’re dead,” a low, male voice whispered from behind her.
Tori knew, as sure as she knew there was a God in heaven, that there was a loaded gun pointed at the back of her head.
Chapter 35
Tori felt her
blood turn to ice and a sickening shuddering went through her. Her breathing grew quick and shallow, matching the frantic drumbeat of her heart, and she remained frozen to the spot. If she moved a muscle, she’d be shot dead; she knew it in the deepest recesses of her soul.
The voice behind her spoke again. “Okay…put your hands up and turn around slowly.”
Ever so slowly, Tori raised her hands up in a pose of surrender and turned around, facing the stranger. The cabin was pitch black and she couldn’t see a thing, not even the gun she knew was now pointed at her forehead a mere couple of feet away. All of her senses heightened at the danger. She could actually feel the stranger’s body heat emanating from him and blasting her way. But all that did was to make her feel even colder and more terrified.
Suddenly, the lights in the room flicked on and Tori gasped. There standing in front of her, holding a loaded gun to her head, was Savage Matthew Monroe!
He was dressed in jeans and a black biker’s leather jacket, with his club vest beneath, overtop his white t-shirt. His long, brown hair was held back in a low ponytail; and his eyes were the coolest, meanest, deadliest pair she’d ever seen on a man.
“Tori?” Savage grated, his voice telegraphing his surprise. He lowered the Glock and clicked the safety back on. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Tori stared at him dumbfounded, her vocal cords paralyzed. She lowered her shaking hands but they immediately went of their own volition to her chest to feel her heart still racing away inside her.
“I—I…” she stammered, trying to catch her breath and get the words out now that the black fright that had gripped her was beginning to subside. “I—oh, thank God, it’s you!” she finally squeezed out, as she closed her eyes in relief that it hadn’t been some deadly stranger who’d been about to shoot her for trespassing.
Savage stared at her in disbelief. There hadn’t been one fucking second since they’d said goodbye at the hotel that he hadn’t thought about her. Now, to think that she was here, in the flesh, was just so unbelievable that he took an involuntary step back. It was like having your deepest wish granted by fate—and fate had never granted him anything in life—ever.
Was she real even, or just some sick hallucination his desperate mind had conjured up? His hungry eyes roamed over her beautiful face before lowering to her hot, little body. His pulse began spinning all over again, making him hard. Hell yeah, she was fucking real! Because when it came to little Miss Preacher’s Daughter, only the real thing could do that to him.
He narrowed his eyes on her and a shot of anger went through him. What was she doing here, all by herself and at this time of night? She could have been hurt or shot dead even, if it had been some other asshole pointing a loaded gun at her. His jaw clenched and his mouth thinned with displeasure at the raw, scary images running through his brain.
“What the fuck, Tori? Are you crazy breaking and entering into some strange house? You could have gotten yourself killed, not to mention it’s against the law!” he blazed.
A rush of indignation coursed through her. “Against the law?” she shouted back, finding her voice again. “When have you ever been concerned with the law?”
“Never because I’m lawless, but you’re not, and that’s the point. Man, how could you do such a stupid thing like this?”
“Because my—”
She’d been about to say that she was here because her grandmother had run off with Joe Sorelli but something stopped her.
Don’t give him any more personal information than you have to because maybe you shouldn’t be trusting him,
her little voice shouted.
Besides, why was he here anyway? What was it to him? She’d paid him for the job he’d done for her already and he was now officially off the case.
“Because why?” he pressed her.
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously on him. Half of her brain was screaming not to trust him while the other half noticed how incredibly gorgeous he looked in his black leather jacket with his solid six foot, muscular frame overpowering the confines of the small cabin’s living room. He oozed sex, but danger too. And yeah, he was handsome—handsome as the devil, though—and that was something she would never let herself forget.
Tori straightened her spine with resolve. “Because that’s my business, Mr. Savage. It has nothing to do with you anymore. Which bears the question, why are you here, sir? I believe this job ended for you back at the hotel when I paid you your last installment.”
He casually shrugged his shoulders. “Even though we—ended—our association, I felt I owed it to your grandmother to follow up on this one last lead.”
A long, silence fell between them as Tori’s suspicious eyes narrowed even further on him; and no, she wasn’t buying one word coming out of those wicked, sensuous, lying lips of his.
Savage threw her a mischievous smirk. “What’s the matter, Tori? Don’t you believe me?” he taunted.
She ignored his question. “I didn’t see your bike outside.” She threw him another withering, accusatory stare.
“I parked it behind some bushes. I only got here ten minutes before you did.”
“So how did you get in? Let me guess, the open back door was your handiwork? Is B&E another one of your specialties, along with collections? ”
He smiled. “Something like that. Only thing is, I forgot to lock the door behind me.”
“Lucky for me then that you make mistakes, Mr. Savage.”
He frowned suddenly. “You shouldn’t be here, Tori.”
“Neither should you, but here we both are. What a coincidence.”
“Yeah, a real fluke,” he mocked and took a step towards her. She instinctively moved a step back. His sharp eyes narrowed with annoyance. “Has your grandmother heard from Sorelli since I last saw you?” he asked nonchalantly, sounding as if he couldn’t care one way or the other what the answer was.
“Would I be here if she had?” she evaded, just as casually.
He gave her a slow, appraising glance from head to toe and back again before settling on her full mouth. “No, I guess not.” His searching look returned to her defiant eyes. “So, what do you want to do now?” he asked, the question filled with a raw, sexual energy that promised her everything.
She looked around the small cabin and suddenly realized how alone they were, here in the middle of nowhere, in what she sensed was an empty house. No, she wasn’t afraid of him. He wouldn’t force himself on her like Wizard had tried to do, but she was afraid of herself. Because even as she stood only a few feet away, she was already feeling the crazy, electric pull to him. It was like coming home to a place where you knew you were meant to be. Yes, it was insane, irrational and dangerous but that didn’t make it any less real.
He was staring at her now with a smoldering intensity and she knew that he wanted her; she only had to say the word. A hot flush crept over her face and she admitted to herself that yes, she ached to touch him again too. But it wasn’t right, not with him being who he was and all.
Tori turned away, and dropping her purse onto the couch, walked towards the open kitchen, pretending to look around. “Was anybody here when you arrived?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“No, the place was empty and locked up,” he mumbled, and she sensed him following her. “I was just about to start looking around for clues to Sorelli’s whereabouts when I heard someone bump into something outside.”
Tori smiled. “That would have been me and the patio chair. Unlike you, B&E is not one of my specialties, Mr. Savage.”
“I’d be disappointed if it was, Snow White.” He flashed her a sexy smile that softened his features with boyish charm. Tori’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of it and a sudden longing for him coursed through her at lightning speed all over again.
She hurried past him, trying to regain some composure. She couldn’t let him see how deeply he was affecting her.
Savage caught a delicate trail of her intoxicating perfume as she’d floated past him and a longing unlike anything he’d ever felt for any other woman rushed through him. Man, she was beautiful and he just couldn’t get enough of her. He loved the way she looked and smelled and spoke and teased and frowned and…everything. He just loved everything about her.
Whenever he was this close to her, it was like there was a primitive force snaking itself through him, stirring him to life and waking him up. In her presence, he felt hopeful and clean and good—things he hadn’t felt in years, things he’d been starving for and hadn’t even known he had been.
His thoughts raced back to that amazing kiss on the roof. It had felt so right, no matter what she’d said afterwards. In fact, if that had been slumming, then he’d gladly live in a ditch forever. He refocused his attention on her and watched her walk towards the rooms in the rear section of the house.
“Are these the bedrooms?” She poked her head into one of the open doorways.
“Yeah, there’s two of them, and a washroom over here.” Savage pointed to another open entryway off to the side of the living room. “I think we should see if we can find anything that might lead us—I mean—lead you…”
He slyly corrected himself but Tori had caught the slipup.
He continued, “…to Sorelli.” He moved around the open living room/kitchen area, his keen eyes taking in everything, like an animal who was hunting his prey in the wild. “Don’t touch anything. Just look,” he instructed. “See if anything sparks something in you, like a thought, an idea, a hunch, whatever. Trust your gut.”
Tori nodded and followed his lead, moving around the large room, studying every cushion, every piece of furniture, every dish, anything that might give a clue. But everything was neat and tidy, as if a maid had just finished cleaning. She remembered what her grandmother had said about Joe, that he was a bit of a clean freak. His house back in Vegas had certainly attested to that fact.
She walked into one of the bedrooms and saw that that too was immaculate. The bed was made and there wasn’t a speck of dirt anywhere. Throwing open the closet, she saw that it was empty—no clothes of any kind hanging there.
A wave of disappointment washed through her. She had hoped to see some of Sorelli’s shirts or pants in there because that would have meant that maybe the senior had just stepped out and would be back with her Nana in tow. But from the spotless and vacant look of this place, she knew that whoever had been here had already left and had no intention of coming back.
Dejected, Tori walked out of the bedroom and crossed the living room. She could hear Savage moving about in the other bedroom.
Approaching the washroom, she crossed its threshold and flicking on the light, took note of the white toilet and oval-shaped antique bathtub beside it, with matching white towels hanging on a bar nearby. Everything was spic and span clean, and tidy.
The white sink was to her right. Suddenly, she gasped as her eyes alighted on the one solitary object out of place on the countertop. Rushing forward, she grabbed it. It was the small can of hairspray that her grandmother always kept in her purse and never went anywhere without! This meant that her Nana had been here, probably where Joe had asked her to meet him before the two of them had disappeared together to who knew where.
Now what was she going to do? How would she find her Nana? She had had such high hopes about this cabin and now it was turning out to be another dead end. And what was she going to say to her parents about her grandmother running off like that? How could she even go back to Gideon, Texas without her? No—she couldn’t and she wouldn’t. She just had to find her!
The hand holding the hairspray trembled as the enormity of the situation hit her hard. She should have been at home this weekend, relaxing in that damn, stupid bathtub like she’d told all her friends she would be. Instead, here she was in the middle of a desert, in the middle of nowhere!
To top it all off, she’d almost been raped yesterday. Today she’d fallen off a roof. And now, her precious grandmother had vanished in a place that was so far away from home, far away from everything she knew and loved. Tori was all alone here and she didn’t know what to do next. How much more was she supposed to take?
A lump of fear about Nana and what had happened to her coiled itself in the pit of her stomach, choking the breath out of her. Where was Nana, for God’s sake? Was she all right? Hot tears burned the back of Tori’s throat and pooled there until a dry sob escaped her lips. A tear rolled down one cheek, and then another tear and another. All of a sudden, her vision blurred with a waterfall of them cascading down her face. She swiped at them with the back of her hand but they flowed too hot and too fast. Try as she might, she couldn’t will them to stop.
“Tori?”
She wheeled around at the sound of his soft voice and was immediately mortified that he should catch her crying like this. She was supposed to be tough and strong and brave, and here she was making a humiliating spectacle of herself in front of him.
Within a flash, Savage breached the gap between them. He put his hands on her shoulders, bringing her forward. “What’s wrong? What happened?” His brows creased with worry.
“I—I…” she whimpered, unable to get any words out and unable to stop the tears still blinding her eyes.
He gently tilted her chin up. “Tell me.” His voice had an unusual edge to it, like someone whose heart was breaking because yours was.
Tori stared at him through her hot tears and suddenly, because of the way he was holding her ever so tenderly, and because of the way he was looking at her with such kindness in his eyes, and because she completely forgot who he was—a criminal who was bad news to anyone within his orbit—she did something she shouldn’t have—that her little voice had told her not to…
She told him the truth.
“It’s—it’s my gr—grandmother. She’s gone,” she choked out in between sobs.
“What?” Savage was stunned.
“She—she ran away—with Joe. I don’t know where she is and—and I have no idea where to look next. She was already gone when I got back to the hotel.” Tori held up the small can of hairspray. “This is hers. They were here—but I don’t know anything anymore.”