Sophie Oak - Pure Bliss

The cowboy Trev had hired just a day before kept a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “She’s on her way to see her husband. And I’m not about to let you two screw up that little reunion. Your wife never met me, but I’ve worked with the boss for a long time. He’s obsessed with that dumb bitch. We aren’t going to move on and get back in business until he deals with her, and I would really like to get back in business. So I’m afraid I can’t let the two of you go after her.”

James met his brother’s eyes.

“Jamie, she’s more important and you know it,” his brother said.

“Shut up,” the cowboy said, shoving the gun deeper against Noah’s back. “We’re going to wait here until I get the all clear. It won’t take long, and then we can all go about our business.”

The man with the gun was lying. There was no way he would leave them alive. He was simply waiting until he was sure he didn’t need them for anything else. James could wait and pray that he was wrong, but he knew he couldn’t.

“She’s out there, brother,” Noah said, his eyes fairly pleading with James.

Damn it. Did he know what he was asking James to do? Fuck yeah, he knew. He was asking James to make good on the promise they had made. They might not have said it out loud, but they had grown up knowing this was the way a family worked. Hope was theirs. And Noah was willing to sacrifice himself if it meant James had any shot at saving her.

“I forgive you,” James said, letting go of all of his anger in that moment. He loved his brother—the man who shared a life, if not blood, with him, his constant companion, the other odd half of his soul.

Noah nodded and closed his eyes as though he didn’t want to see it coming, wanted his last moment to be something private. He would be thinking of Hope.

James braced himself because if he could save his brother, he would try, but there was no way he could stand there as Hope got further and further away.

James felt the yell build inside, and then his eyes widened.

“I would drop that if I were you.” A calm voice cut through the tension. Jesse McCann came from the left, his feet moving far more silently than any man who weighed somewhere over two hundred pounds should be able to.

The cowboy who held Noah flushed, his breath panting in and out. “I’ll shoot him. I will.”

“And then we’ll shoot you,” Cade Sinclair promised. He moved in from the kitchen, his SIG Sauer aimed at the cowboy’s head. “Look, we don’t really care about the vet. We’ve been tracking your boss for eight years, ever since the minute we figured out he hadn’t died in that fire. Once we found Hope McLean, we knew it was only a matter of time. So don’t think we’ll kill you. We’ll just incapacitate you, and then the torture begins until you tell us exactly where he is.”

“I’m really looking forward to the torture,” Jesse said, his lips curling in a faintly cruel smile. “It’s been a long op. So, what’s it going to be? Are you going to let the vet go and we’ll have a reasonable discussion, or do I prepare to cut your balls off very slowly? Don’t think I won’t. I’m very comfortable with my sexuality.”

“Fuck.” The man dropped the gun and shoved Noah away.

Noah stumbled, but got to his feet. He turned back to Jesse and Cade. “You two are assholes. Who the fuck are you?”

“Men who have been waiting a long time for revenge. Christian Grady hurt someone we cared about. And we’re going to bring him to justice. Now, where can we torture this guy?” Cade asked.

“He’s in a cabin. He had Jay take her to a cabin.” The cowboy was talking quickly now.

“There are hundreds of cabins, asshole,” James pointed out. “You’re going to have to narrow it down.”

The cowboy swallowed. “I don’t know. I…it was close to the lodge. Yeah, it was close to the ski place. The boss found it a week ago. It’s supposed to be a summer cabin.”

Jesse looked at James. “Ring a bell?”

“There are summer cabins all across the valley and up the mountains.” He wracked his brain. “It’s late in the season. Most of them are empty. We could ask Mel. He often checks in on the cabins to make sure they’re locked up for the winter.” And to check for aliens, who apparently loved empty vacation homes.

“I know the road it was on. I don’t remember the name, but I remember where to turn,” the cowboy said, the words pouring from his mouth. “Don’t kill me.”

“We won’t if you’re not lying,” Cade promised. “Let’s head out. We need a quieter vehicle. You can hear the Camaro from a mile away.”

“We’ll take my truck,” James offered. “I need to call Cam. The sheriff needs to know. If we can’t find her, I want everyone else looking.”

“Call him while we’re on the road,” Jesse said, holstering his weapon.

“I’ll get the guns,” Noah said, his voice still shaking. He looked at James and took a deep breath. “We’re going to get her back.”

“I don’t know if we should trust them.” James wasn’t sure he trusted anyone but his brother at the moment.

Cade pulled a gun out of the back of his jeans. “Use this on me if you have to. Look, we’ve been tracking this man for a long time. He hurt the woman we consider to be our mother.”

“And he has the woman I consider to be my wife.” James wasn’t going to let anyone’s need for revenge cost Hope her life.

Jesse and Cade nodded at each other, and Jesse finally spoke, his hand on the back of their prisoner’s neck. “We would be doing our mother a great disservice if we were willing to sacrifice someone like Hope. I promise we will help you get her back. I promise. We won’t allow this asshole to kill another woman.”

James nodded and looked at his brother. “We’ll get her back.” He took his brother’s hand and finally did what he should have done the minute he’d seen him. He pulled his brother in and hugged him. This was his baby brother, and it would always be up to James to be strong. “We’ll get her back.”

Hope wished she’d managed to keep hold of her cell phone, but they had taken it from her when they put her in the car. Jay kept his gun trained on her, and she wondered why they hadn’t tied her up.

“Don’t try anything.” Jay turned up the unmarked road. There were many such roads all over the county. This one ran up the mountainside that held the Elk Creek Lodge. Bliss was surrounded by mountains, but this particular one was mostly used by tourists, and it hadn’t started snowing yet. It would be isolated. It would be perfect for a man with his mind on murder.

“He doesn’t want you to hurt me, does he?” Hope asked. “He wants me pristine and perfect.”

It would play into his deeply disturbed psyche. No one could hurt her except him.

“If you run, he’ll kill your friend. And by now, Brad will have those two dumb cowboys under control. If I don’t call him in ten minutes, he’ll kill them, too. Do you want that?”

She was in a corner, and she didn’t see a way out.

“What does he want?”

Jay frowned as he drove the truck up the steep hill. “You, though I have no idea why. He could have anyone he wanted. I guess he’s mad you left. Did you really try to kill him?”

“No. It was an accident, though I did leave him to die.”

“He said as much. He seems to think you’re some perfect little princess who couldn’t handle seeing his masculine side.”

Hope shuddered. “He killed a woman. He slit her throat.”

Jay shrugged. “I don’t give a fuck, sweetheart. I’m in this for the cash. I’m going to drop you off and then go help Brad out. I have no idea what Chris wants to do with you, but he wants some privacy to do it.”