“Her best friend set her up to take the fall in case things went south?” Sam sounded horrified. He looked over at Jack as though his whole fucking world would crumble if anything happened to him.
“Gretchen was never her friend.” Jack put an arm around his partner. “I wonder if she’s seeing this as some form of revenge on Natalie.”
“Because Natalie killed her Master,” Ben concluded. Gretchen was mentally ill, but it wouldn’t stop Ben from taking her out. “And now Tate has set up Gretchen as the one who killed Melissa, and he’s probably got a decent case for her killing Stan. If he can just get rid of us, he’ll likely get away with it.”
“But Natalie will still be missing,” Sam said, leaning into Jack just a little.
“And Natalie has a history of problems since her kidnapping,” Chase pointed out. “The sheriff will decide she’s run off or that she’s killed herself. He won’t look for her. Tate will find a way to smuggle her out of the country. He’s probably got the money for it now. He’ll likely kill the two girls he’s taken or find quick buyers. I see a South American brothel in those girls’ futures. They’re always looking for cheap, exotic women. If we don’t find her, it’s where Georgia will end up.”
Barnes moved toward Chase. “One of those girls is my hand’s niece, and that means she belongs to this family. She might have gotten herself in trouble on a couple of occasions, but that damn straight doesn’t mean I’ll let her be sold. We have to search for her, and we have to do it now. They’ll hunker down while the heat is on, but they’ll move or kill those girls in the next forty-eight hours.”
Barnes was right. They had very little time. “How far away are these places?”
Chase set out the printouts. “They’re all over the place, but each within driving distance of both the resort and the strip club. Tate can’t be gone for too long. Someone at the resort would notice and question his absences. He needs time to train these women. It’s what he loves to do. The drugs are a sideline, a way to make money. Breaking women to his boot, that’s what he loves.”
“And he has my Nat?” A soft, but firm voice broke through the office.
“Joshua, I told you to stay close to your momma.” Jack Barnes turned to his son, who looked so like a mini version of himself.
“I heard y’all talking. We need to find Nat if someone has her. We need to find all of our women and bring them back. I can get Liv’s BB gun.”
Sam picked up his son, hauling him close. “Not on your life, buddy. You’re staying here, but I promise you those two men there are going to find Nat and bring her home. They won’t ever stop.”
Maybe Chase was right about one thing. The kid needed to understand. He was too much like his dad, too serious and a little ruthless, even at four. “We’ll find Natalie because she belongs to us.”
Josh frowned, his small brow furrowing. “She don’t have a ring on her finger yet.”
Yep. The kid would prove an admirable adversary. But not today. “She will as soon as we get her back.”
She would have a ring on her finger and one day a pretty collar around her neck because he would show her that belonging to the Dawson brothers wasn’t a cage. It was a haven and one from which she would never want to leave. They belonged to her as much as she belonged to them. They were a family. Those ties would bind but never chafe.
“Let’s go find our wife.”
His brother was at his back as he walked out of the house.
Chapter Nineteen
Natalie came to in utter darkness, her head pounding.
God, no. Not again.
Cold concrete sat under her. She reached about and found the bars. She could feel them, cold under her hands.
“Nat? Are you awake now?” A quiet voice called out for her. Hands touched her body, but they were soft, feminine. Georgia.
Oh, god, they’d taken Georgia. She’d pulled Georgia straight into her nightmare. Nat forced herself to sit up. She had to find a way out. She had to save Georgia. Georgia was innocent. Georgia was her almost family, and she had to save her.
“Shhh, it’s all right. I think we’re alone. That crazy creepy chick is gone. I know this sounds weird, but I think we might be underground. I don’t know. When she left, the light was overhead and then it closed off. It was weird.”
“Keep quiet. We can’t know if we’re alone.” Her hands were shaking. Violently.
“We can. I think it’s worth the risk.”
A flash of light startled Nat.
“Holy shit.” She kept her voice quiet because they had to have some way to watch them. Maybe not. She got the feeling that her kidnapping was one of extreme opportunity. “You still have Logan’s phone?”
“Yeah. I’ve been afraid to pull it out because I don’t want to lose it. We might only have one shot, and I don’t exactly know where we are yet. I think we’re a couple of miles away. I counted the turns, too. Two lefts. One right. Then another left. Then we went straight for a long time. I think we were on a highway. Then another left and we were here. It took about twenty minutes. You’ve been out for forty. Then up some stairs and down a ladder, but I couldn’t risk opening my eyes. And also they kind of flung me over some smelly guy’s shoulder and then used some weird pulley thing to get me down. I had to pretend to still be out. I’m sorry. I was scared. I should have risked it. They put that cloth thingie over my face, but I didn’t breathe. I pretended to and that Gretchen chick isn’t as thorough as the dude.”
“Don’t apologize.” Nat forced herself to sit up. The dim light of the phone showed that they were indeed alone, but the small room was far from empty. There were stacks of white-colored bricks.
The drugs. This was where they kept the drugs.
“Is that what I think it is?” Georgia asked, shining the light in the direction of the small desk.
“I would say that’s heroin. It could be cocaine, but they found heroin with Stan. God, what has Gretchen gotten herself into?”
The light went out and they were left in utter darkness. Nat hated the darkness. Except for last night, when she’d been wrapped in their arms. She’d been able to sleep, nestled between Ben and Chase. Every now and then, they would turn and she would find herself in the other’s arms, but she was always cuddled close.
The darkness hadn’t been scary then.
“I heard them talking. Gretchen was on the phone with the douchebag. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she was crying and begging him to keep her. I think she screwed something up because it doesn’t sound like they were ready to do something, whatever it was they were planning on doing, but the dead lady screwed it up and Gretchen killed her.”
What the hell? “I can’t believe it. Call Chase. His number has to be on there. Tell him about the turns and stuff. He can find us.”
“Okay. Sorry I didn’t do it before, but I was scared someone might still be watching, and I wanted to wait until you woke up before I did anything. I can’t carry you out. And I was also contemplating how crappy this cage is. There’s not even like one of those little gerbil feeder things. I’m kind of hungry, and I could definitely use a drink. Vodka. I bet they have crappy vodka here.”
She had to keep Georgia on task. “Georgia, phone.”
“Oh, okay.” She pulled it up and a little light came through. “Wow. He’s getting a call. OMG. It’s totally Logan’s mom. Well, Mom Number 2. What’s up with that? Maybe it’s his stepmom. I’ll put her on speaker.”