Курок Дуглас Пенелопа

“I’ll go, too,” Kai moved around Banks. “Some inventory came in that needs to be sorted.”

“See you at home,” Rika told Michael, leaning up to kiss him.

“I’m heading out, too,” he said.

Kai kissed his wife as he, Michael, and Rika started to leave the room, but then Rika stopped and looked over at me.

“I would say ‘I’m glad you’re okay’,” she told me, “but I’m still deciding.”

I quirked a smile, and she shook her head, probably more at herself than me.

They left, but Will and Banks stayed, Banks handing me a bottle of water.

“I’m going to get you some real food and pick up some clothes,” she said, smirking. “I gather you won’t be here for long.”

Damn straight.

“Thanks,” I told her.

She leaned down and did something she never does… she kissed me on the cheek. But before she could rise again, I grabbed her arm, keeping her eyes level with mine.

“I, um…”

I trailed off, wanting to say something, but I didn’t know what.

Before my friends and before Winter, Banks was my safe place. She could read me, take care of me, and just be there with no talking or expectations. She was the best thing in my life for a lot of years. I was tired of disrupting hers with all my bullshit.

I wanted to tell her that I…

I didn’t know.

The words tasted like sand on my tongue, and I knew they’d come off disingenuous and unnatural sounding, because I never said shit like that, but...

I finally just met her eyes and shrugged. “Ya know.”

A soft smile crossed her beautiful face and her eyes started to glisten. “Yeah, I love you, too,” she told me.

Will sniffled at my side, feigning heartbreak, and I jerked my chin at him.

“Go. Both of you,” I told them. “Get out of here.”

He laughed as Banks walked around my bed toward the door.

“We’ll be back with food,” Will called out, leaving the room with her.

 

 

I hadn’t meant to fall asleep again, but one minute I was looking over at Winter, knowing why she’d chosen to distance herself all the way over on the other bed instead of curl up on mine, but I was still relieved she decided to stay at all.

What a fucking mess. Every time something good happened…

I needed to take her to Maine. Out in the woods, away from everyone else, no WiFi. Maybe then we’d get some time.

The curtain was drawn again between us, the nurse probably pulling it closed for privacy or to not wake Winter, and I sat up in bed, noticing a brown bag on the tray and some clothes on the chair.

Had Banks and Will already come and gone?

I grabbed the bag, opening it. Looking inside, I inhaled the scent of Marina’s piroshki and groaned as my stomach rumbled. Grabbing one of the buns, I popped it in my mouth and ate it before tearing off the sheet and swinging my legs over the side.

“Winter,” I said, not bothering to whisper.

She didn’t respond and I didn’t see her move behind the curtain.

My body ached like hell, but I forced myself to stand anyway, stretching and rotating limbs to wake them up.

Reaching over, I whipped the curtain aside, the rings sliding across the track, but when I looked at the bed, it was empty.

Where was she?

“Winter?” I called.

Was she in the bathroom?

I tried to walk, but the cords attached to me stretched taut. Reaching down, I pulled all the plugs out of the wall, yanked off my monitors, and slid out my IV, a stream of blood following and spilling onto the floor.

“Fuck,” I mouthed.

Walking over to the chair, I stripped off the gown and pulled on some jeans Banks brought, a T-shirt, and shoes and socks.

“Winter?” I called again.

I looked around, not seeing a clock or my cell phone. I couldn’t remember where I’d left it, but it was dark outside, so I knew it was late. Or really early.

Stepping across the room to the bathroom, I knocked on the door, straightening my back and not feeling as sore as I thought I would be. Will was right, I guessed. It wasn’t that serious.

When there was no answer, I opened the door, not finding her in the bathroom, either.

I opened the door to the room and entered the hallway, looking both ways for Winter or a nurse.

“Hello?” I called.

Where was everyone?

All the doors were closed, the corridor was dark, and the only light I could see was from a desk up on the right.

I headed up to it, finding the chairs behind the nurses’ station empty.

“Hello!” I shouted, getting pissed off.

What the hell? It was the evening, but there had to be someone here.

Blood trailed down the back of my hand from the IV injection, dripping off my fingers, and I spotted some gauze on a cart, grabbing it and wrapping some around my hand before tearing it off and tucking the end inside the rest.

“Hey!” I barked into the dark.

Something was wrong.

Heading back toward my room, I passed it and rounded the corner for the elevators.

But as soon as I did, someone caught me and shoved me against the wall, putting their hand over my mouth.

I grabbed their collar, ready to shove them off, but Rika pressed her finger to her lips, telling me to be quiet.

Will stood behind her, both of them peering around the corner from where I just came.

Finally, she took her hand off my mouth and backed away.

“What the fuck?” I whisper-yelled.

“Someone tried to take Alex from the dojo tonight,” Will told me. “She was able to fight them off and run, but…”

He looked down at Rika.

“What?” I hissed, losing patience.

“One of them was Miles Anderson,” Rika said.

Miles Anderson. One of them. Which meant there were several, including him.

It wasn’t hard to figure out motive. And then suddenly everything dawned.

“My father,” I said what I was thinking out loud.

She looked up at me, fear in her eyes. “Yeah, I can’t find Michael, and…”

“And Winter’s gone,” I added. “Shit.” I ran my hand through my hair and then met her stare. “He knows.”

She nodded, agreeing with me.

“We hired security to guard your hospital door,” Will told me. “We’ll deal with this—”

“Fuck you,” I cut him off. “We’re leaving now.”

“You’re not well enough.”

“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” I glared at him. “Go get some fresh air!”

Clear your damn head, because you’re confused.

He cocked an eyebrow, looking displeased, but then shared a look with Rika, and let out a laugh. “Yeah, we thought so.”

And he tossed me a black backpack.

I opened it up, finding some clothes, a pullover, and a cell phone.

I grabbed the hoodie, dropped the bag, and pulled it on.

“Where’s Banks?” I asked.

“She and Kai are with Alex, talking to the cops,” Rika said. “She’s safe. They’re waiting for us.”

“Do you have a plan?” I snatched up the bag, digging out the cell phone, already finding Rika, Will, and everyone else already programmed in.

“No, that’s your domain,” she answered.

My domain. So since we played our little mind games, she thought I was that good?

Not when I was aching, hungry, and distracted, though.

Jesus. Winter. If he hurt her…

I scrolled through, trying to call her just in case.

“Damon,” Rika spoke up as I let the line ring. “Gabriel will give me Michael, because of his respect for Evans Crist and a sign of good faith, but Alex is disposable to him. She saw the information we were looking for. He’ll find her and kill her.”

I knew that. I knew what our problems were, Rika.

But she kept talking. “And he knows that even if we give him the evidence we have about my father’s accident, we were smart enough to make copies. He’ll want assurance we won’t use it. He’s going to keep Winter.”

“The hell he is.”

No one answered, so I hung up and led the way to the elevators. Adrenaline was taking over, and I barely felt my stitches at all right now.

“He’s going to ship her off somewhere you can’t find her and do who-knows-what with her.”

“Fucking hell, Rika!” I growled over my shoulder.

What the hell? Was she trying to give me a heart attack? Winter was with my father right now. Every second was a risk.

We rushed into the elevator and Will pressed the floor for the parking garage.

Rika stayed silent for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was calm and soft. “Absorb it,” she said. “Process it. And then get your head straight again. When you do, tell us what the hell we’re doing.”

She was right. I needed to calm down. I couldn’t fucking think with my mind racing and spinning like a tornado.

My father would have Michael and Winter at his house. He wasn’t trying to hide them from us. He wanted to bring us to the table.

But Rika was right. In the digital age, there were no guarantees. He knew we had the evidence backed up.

He couldn’t get his hands on Alex tonight, and he couldn’t hurt Michael.

Winter was his assurance.

Think.

Negotiation was useless. I would never let him keep Winter.

We needed to get on the property, undetected, and he wasn’t going to be dumb enough to fall for Banks as a diversion again.

Fuck, fuck, fuck…

My mind started wandering from one scenario to the next, and finally, I had it.

“David and Lev,” I said. “They’re still working for Banks, right?”

My father’s old employees who left on bad terms, hated my father, but knew the lay of the land and everyone who worked for Gabriel. They worked for my sister now, who also stole my father’s cook, Marina.

“Yeah, you want me to call them?” Will asked.

I nodded, all of us charging out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened. “Tell them to meet us at the hilltop gate. Tell them to bring something good from Marina. Something my father’s men would miss.”

 

 

 

Damon

 

Present

 

Since we knew my father’s men would be keeping a closer eye on the woods that we escaped through last night, it seemed less of a risk just to get them to open the rear gate for us. With a little finesse and guts, anyway.

“Thanks for coming.” I walked up to David and Lev, meeting them as they stepped out of their SUV.

“Banks made us,” Lev spat out.

Pissant.

Both of them used to work for my father, but now they worked for Kai and my sister at their home in Meridian City. Doing what, I wasn’t sure, but they stayed, so there must be something exciting going on over there.

I jerked my chin at the tin Lev was holding. “What did you bring?”

He popped the lid, but David answered, “She had some vatrushka already made. There’s zephyr in there, too.”

“Fuck, yeah.” I reached in, snatching one of the berry marshmallow things and popping it in my mouth. My taste buds exploded, making my mouth water like crazy, but it was probably more because I hadn’t eaten in two days rather than them tasting that good.

Although, they were good.

Marina also worked for my father before Banks stole her away, too. She and my sister were the only things I missed about this house, and now that they were no longer there, I had no reason to visit unless I was forced to.

I grabbed a vatrushka bun, barely chewing it before I swallowed it down, and led them over to a tree. I peered around it, the hilltop gate my father used for deliveries, caterers, and employees sat a hundred yards away, lit up by two lanterns.

Rika stood near, blowing into her hands to warm them up, while Will put on a sweatshirt, pulling the hood over his head.

“We just need you to get the gate open,” I told Lev and David.

If we could get them to come out, they’d shut off the cameras, not wanting a secret meetup caught on film.

“And then distract them, so we can get in,” Rika added, tucking her hands under her arms.

“And when you need to get out?” David retorted.

I exchanged a look with Rika, neither of us having an answer. “We’ll deal with that later,” I said.

Grabbing our backpack off the ground, I led Rika and Will to the edge of the tree line, waiting for the tiny lights on the cameras to go dark so we could move.

Behind us, I heard David on the phone.

“Hey,” he said.

He was silent a moment and then he laughed. “Aw, you still mad about that?” he joked. “Well, David and I aren’t here as friends. We come with a drug deal. We got some of Marina’s vatrushka. Bring us a bottle of Mamont, and we’ll call it even.” And then he added, “We have a little zephyr, too.”

He was quiet, and I looked over at him, seeing him hang up the phone and nod once at me.

Good. They were going for it.

I dug out some surgical tape, quickly tearing off three pieces and adding them to my wound to reinforce the stitches and hold the cut together. I’d be lucky if this shit didn’t tear open again before the end of the night.

I zipped up the pack, but Rika took it, putting it on her own back instead of letting me carry it. I almost argued, but I didn’t need another trip to the hospital, so fuck it.

After another moment, the power lights went off, and we bolted, running across the dirt road, jumping over the low hedges lining the wall, and crouching down, waiting for the gates to open.

Steam from our mouths billowed into the air, and we plastered ourselves against the wall to wait.

Luckily, my side didn’t hurt at all, and I didn’t know if it was because of the drugs they gave me still lingering or the adrenaline, but I just wanted to get in there. Rika’s fucking ideas were thrashing around my head, and every second Winter spent inside that house…

I squeezed my fists, trying to calm down.

A deep creak filled the air, iron bars clanked together, and the gate opened, a black Chevy Tahoe pulling through, its lights flashing on the forest ahead. They pulled to a stop, dust kicking up from the road underneath, and opened the doors, one guy from each side stepping out.

I waited for them to move around the front of their car, out of our line of sight, to talk to our guys, but before I could shoot off, Rika grabbed me.

I jerked my head, glaring at her.

No time to lose. What the fuck?

But she just shook her head, grinning. “I know this trick.”

And she rushed forward, crouching down and running for the back of the SUV.

What?

Will and I had no choice. We followed her, racing to the rear of their car as she pulled the back door open and climbed inside.

I shot a glance around us and inside the car to make sure it was empty. The dome lights were already on since the guys left the doors opened, so they didn’t notice when she opened the hatch.

Jesus. This was stupid.

“Looks good,” I heard one of the guys say in front. “Only she makes it right.”

Gingerly, Will and I climbed in after Rika, all of us sitting and slouched, staying down and out of sight.

“This is dumb!” I mouthed to Rika.

She rolled her eyes and pulled the door closed but not all the way.

“Try some,” someone said outside.

“Think I poisoned you?”

There was a pause as David or Lev probably taste-tested the food for my father’s men, and then I heard David speak up again.

“Where’s the vodka?” he asked.

The car rocked under us as someone dug in it for the bottle they were trading.

“Splendid,” David finally said.

“New employers too good for the black market?”

“At least I’m getting fed well,” David replied. “You?”

There was silence and then my father’s guy asked, “This time again next week?”

Come on, come on, come on…

The car jostled under us as the men climbed back in, and I watched Rika as she waited.

As soon as their doors slammed shut, she pulled ours closed, masking the sound, and the interior went dark as the guys shifted into gear and shot off in reverse.

I let out a breath.

If that hadn’t worked, I would’ve killed Rika.

But it did, so... Fine, whatever.

The car turned around, and I heard the gate start to close as we sped down the back road toward the house.

It was only a few hundred yards, but this was faster and we travelled undetected. Good plan.

Once the car slowed, we got ready, and as the guys killed the engine and opened their doors, we slipped out, quietly pushing the back door closed again and diving off to the side of the garage where my father kept his cars and motorcycles.

“Go!” I whisper-yelled to Will, letting him lead us to the next building which would curve us around the side of the house for a better view.

We crept over, hiding in an alcove on the side and taking in the surroundings. I heard the guys in the shop, doing whatever they did in their downtime, but I knew there was another shift on the property, making the rounds.

“Now what?” Rika asked.

“The armory is in the clubhouse,” I told them.

“Guns?” she blurted out. “That was your plan?”

“You got a better one?”

“We take him,” she said.

“Huh?”

She sighed, looking impatient. “We have no idea where they are or if they’re even here?” she explained. “After we got you out, he might not think right under your nose is a great spot to hide them. We take him, and we have leverage.”

So take my father, if we can, and hide him somewhere, threatening and/or torturing him until he gives up her fianc and my…Winter.

That sounded like a lot of waiting.

“I don’t have all night,” I told her. “We’re getting some guns.”

“Yeah,” Will laughed.

She growled under her breath, exasperated.

We started to move around the side of the next building, but she pulled us both back.

“Look,” she said under her breath.

We shot our eyes up, seeing men leave the house, Winter and Michael in tow and leading them to a car. Miles Fucking Anderson gripped her by the back of her hair, force-walking her into an SUV with her hands tied behind her back.

She squirmed and fought, and I inched forward, ready to kill.