Chapter 9

CHAPTERNINE

Pipe had no idea what had gone down in the kitchen while he’d been bringing his friends up to speed, therefore he couldn’t decide if it was good or bad. He hadn’t liked how emotional Cora looked, especially when she’d spoken with Robert, but the other women looked fairly relaxed. Seemed as if they were glad to have met Cora. He could’ve told her that would happen. Had told her, in fact. But with her history, he wasn’t surprised she needed to see for herself that the other women wouldn’t turn their backs on a stranger.

Admittedly, he’d been a little worried at first, because Alaska had spoken to Cora, then seemed to leave her standing in the middle of the room alone while she went and sat with Henley and Reese, but after Ryan brought Cora into the kitchen, they’d followed soon after.

He’d wanted to go check on her, to make sure all was well, but he’d needed to convince his friends to help. They’d gone into the conference room, and it hadn’t taken Pipe long to realize Cora needed to share the details herself. His friends would be able to hear and see her concern for Lara. He hadn’t been able to deny Cora his assistance, and Pipe knew without a doubt that the others wouldn’t be able to either, once they heard her side of the story.

Pipe and his friends weren’t mercenaries. They hadn’t started The Refuge as a cover for continuing to do what they’d done while in the military. But it couldn’t be denied they had certain skills. They’d used them when they were searching for Jasna, and when they’d raced after Reese. Hell, Owl and Stone had climbed into a helicopter—something they hadn’t done in years—to prevent Reese from being taken across the border.

And to be honest, using his skills to rescue an innocent woman from an abusive situation was something he found he was itching to do. It had an appeal he hadn’t expected. If he could use what he’d learned from years of hunting down and killing bad guys, to help a civilian, it made what he’d done in the service feel…more worth it.

Pipe followed Cora into the conference room and gestured to a chair. She sat, and Pipe took the seat next to her.

Brick cleared his throat. “It’s good to meet you, Cora, although I wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.”

She nodded. “Same. Before we start, can I just say that I’m very impressed by what you’ve all done here. The world needs more places like The Refuge. Places where people can go and not worry that they’ll be looked down on if they have flashbacks. Where they can be around others who can relate to what they’ve gone through.”

“Thanks. And I agree. So…you think your friend Lara is being held against her will?” Brick asked, not beating around the bush.

Pipe mentally winced. The way his friend had phrased his question made it clear that Cora had an uphill battle to get the others to believe her.

Instead of intimidating her, though, Brick’s question seemed to make her even more determined to convince them. She sat up straighter and once again her shoulders tensed.

“I don’t think. I know she is,” Cora said. “Look, I get it. Lara’s an adult. She’s allowed to move across the country with whoever she wants. And if I truly believed she was safe and happy, I wouldn’t say a word. But she’s not. I know that without a doubt.”

“How?” Tiny asked.

To Pipe’s surprise, instead of directly answering the question, Cora began to tell a story.

“When I was seventeen, I was kicked out of yet another foster home. It wasn’t because of anything I did. There was a twenty-eight-year-old son who needed to move back home because he was fired from his job and wanted his old room back. The couple who fostered me didn’t think twice. One day I was there, and the next I was back at social services with my stuff in a tattered old suitcase. I was embarrassed and frustrated. I didn’t tell anyone at school about my situation, but Lara could tell something was wrong.

“She eventually got me to admit that once again, I didn’t have a place to live. And since I was about to age out of the system, the situation was even worse. It wasn’t as if anyone was lining up to take me in for five months. I was ready to quit school. I’d lost all respect for adults in general. I wasn’t a very happy person, held a lot of resentment and bitterness inside. But Lara talked to her parents, and they agreed to let me stay at their house until I graduated from high school.

“She saved my life. I’m fully convinced of that. And it wasn’t the last time either. Every time I’ve been down on my luck, needed a place to stay, needed a friend, she was there without hesitation.”

“She sounds like a great friend…but that’s not what we’re questioning here,” Spike said gently.

Cora took a deep breath. “Sorry, I know. I’m just trying to illustrate how close we are. Lara and I share everything. Everything. I know when she’s sad, when she’s happy, when she’s pissed off—which isn’t often. I know what that woman has for dinner every night. She’s also unbelievably dependable and conscientious. There is zero possibility that she decided to move to Arizona without notifying her job weeks in advance, and without talking to me about it first. She would’ve made a list of the pros and cons, given at least a month’s notice at her job, and she probably would have asked me to move with her. Because that’s the kind of person she is. That’s how close we are.

“We talked on the phone every day. She called me on her way to work, and then we’d text throughout the day, and usually talk when we got home in the evenings too. We haven’t gone a day without talking practically since we’ve met. And now it’s been weeks, and I’ve gotten just a few texts and one video chat that was basically moderated by her boyfriend.

“I woke up one day and she was just gone. Yes, we had a fight before she left, but Lara doesn’t hold grudges. I fully expected to have a text from her when I woke up the next morning, apologizing. She left without one word to me. Without a word to anyone. Some people have said it’s possible she fell head over heels in love and decided on the spur of the moment to move across the country without a word to even her parents, but those people don’t know Lara like I do. Something is terribly wrong. And every day that goes by, and I don’t talk to her, I’m more sure of it.”

Pipe wanted to comfort Cora, but he was afraid she’d break down if he touched her. She was breathing fast and glaring at his friends so ferociously at this point, it was somewhat alarming.

No one said a word, the only sound in the room was Cora’s harsh breathing. Then she took a deep breath and cleared the emotion from her voice.

“Before she disappeared, we’d had a few conversations about Ridge. I told her about some of my concerns. He didn’t want to meet any of her friends, didn’t seem interested in her job. He was also possessive, and not in a good way. She wasn’t happy with me, and said I was just jealous and bitter. Then she disappeared. He took her away from DC, away from her friends, her family. That’s what abusers do, right? They take away a person’s support system. Isolate them.”

“We had a friend who’s very good with computers look into Ridge Michaels,” Stone told her.

Cora nodded. “I hope he was able to find more than I did.”

“Ridge is actually his middle name, he uses it casually, for social media and apparently for his personal life. For professional purposes, he goes by his first name…Peter. He’s the CEO of a bitcoin company. He has a sister who lives in France, who’s a successful model, and his parents are well respected in California. He’s thirty years old, never been married, no children. His company gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities every year, and he’s a regular attendee at political gatherings at the White House. Well…his father donates money, and as a result, Michaels gets invited to the political shindigs.”

Cora stared at Stone, then sat back in her chair with a disbelieving huff of breath. “How the hell did I not find that out when I did my research?” she asked under her breath.

“Apparently he keeps his professional life very separate from his personal one,” Brick told her. “From what we were able to find, there’s nothing that says this guy is an undercover kidnapper. He’s seemingly an upstanding businessman who’s apparently invested in starting a life with your friend. The Michaels family has a large estate in the Phoenix area, and they employ a dozen or so people who work in the house every day. It’s highly unlikely all those people—maids, cooks, landscapers, drivers, and bodyguards—are all in on some nefarious plan to keep Lara hostage.”

“There’s also no reason why he would do something like that,” Tonka added. “He’s had several girlfriends over the years, and none have claimed he’s been abusive or done anything to harm them.”

Pipe kept his attention on Cora. Her bottom lip trembled for a moment, before she shook her head slowly. “I don’t believe it,” she whispered.

“Maybe Lara has found her prince charming,” Owl suggested gently. “You said yourself that she was a romantic.”

Cora let out a little growl as she stood so fast, the chair she was sitting in flew backward and hit the floor with a loud crack. “No!” she exclaimed, her hands in fists by her sides.

Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, struggling to regain her composure.

When she opened her eyes a moment later, Pipe could see she was still upset, but had gotten control of her emotions. “You’re wrong. You’re all wrong,” she said, disappointment easy to hear in her voice.

“About what? About the information we found online?” Brick asked.

“No, that’s probably true. You’re wrong about thinking Lara is with this Ridge guy because she thinks it’s true love. I don’t disagree that she probably thought she was in love, but she’s not the kind of woman to up and leave without a word to anyone. Lara’s in trouble. I don’t care what your friend might’ve found online about him being an upstanding businessman. Peter Ridge Michaels is holding her hostage for some reason. And if I’m the only person who believes that, so be it. I appreciate your hospitality, and I think you’re doing great work here. I’ll get out of your hair and you guys can keep doing what you do. Thank you for your service to our country…and yours too,” she added, looking at Pipe.

Her eyes were full of tears she refused to shed, and she was breaking Pipe’s heart.

“Sit down,” Brick said. It wasn’t a request.

Snapping her head to look at him, Cora didn’t move for a long moment. Then she slowly bent over, picked up the chair, and sat. She didn’t scoot up to the table though, and perched on the edge of the seat as if prepared to bolt at any second.

“Like I said, nothing we were able to find indicates he’s holding your friend against her will…but it’s been my experience that no one is as squeaky clean as Michaels seems to be,” Brick finished.

Pipe looked at his friend in surprise. In the short conversation he’d had with the others, no one had hinted they might not be buying the good-guy image Tex had found.

“I understand from Pipe that you’ve looked into us?” Brick asked Cora.

She nodded.

“So you know what happened to Alaska.”

She nodded again.

“If she hadn’t managed to call me while she was in Russia, if she hadn’t been able to trick the asshole who’d taken her, she wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t be the man I am today. So…what exactly is it that you want us to do?”

Cora swallowed hard. “Help me find her. Make sure she’s okay.”

“We have the address of the property the Michaels family owns in Arizona. So finding her shouldn’t be an issue,” Brick said.

“We aren’t mercenaries for hire,” Spike added. “Or bodyguards.”

“We’re just a bunch of former military guys who own a retreat in the woods,” Tiny explained. “We can’t exactly cross state lines with AK47s and RPGs and storm his house,” he finished with a small smile.

Cora looked down at her hands, and her shoulders slumped. “Yeah, I know.”

“This is a tricky situation,” Brick went on. “But for what it’s worth…we believe that things don’t seem quite right.”

She glanced at Brick, and Pipe could see the hope in her eyes.

“You seem to have made an impression on Pipe, and trust me, that’s a hard thing to do. It’s because of my loyalty to and trust in my friend that I’m agreeing to help you.”

“Thank you,” Cora whispered.

“Don’t thank me yet. I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and I believe you probably know your friend better than anyone…but like Spike said, we’re not bodyguards or mercenaries or security specialists. We aren’t going to Arizona in any official capacity. We’ll do what we can to help you see Lara, but if she says she’s okay, that’s all we can do. Understand?”

Cora nodded.

“Any volunteers to go with Ms. Rooney?” Brick asked with a small grin.

“I’ll go,” Pipe said without hesitation.

Brick’s smile grew. “Duh.”

“Me too,” Owl said.

“Hell, if Owl’s going, I will too,” Stone said with a shrug.

Pipe wasn’t surprised. The two men were very close. Almost dying in a helicopter crash, and then being held hostage and tortured together, forged an unbreakable bond.

“Right. Stone, I’m putting you in charge,” Brick said.

Pipe frowned. It wasn’t as if they were a special forces team, and Brick wasn’t their team leader. Then again, he was basically the driving force behind the reason they were all in New Mexico in the first place.

“You’re not as close to the situation as Pipe and Owl, since they met Cora in DC. I expect you to be the voice of reason here, to not get emotionally involved. If you think things are hinky, then you report back to us and we’ll decide on a next course of action. And you,” Brick pinned his gaze on Cora, “do not do anything to put my friends in danger. Or yourself. Or Lara, for that matter. You want to know if she’s okay? Then that’s the plan. Talk to her, alone if possible, and see what she’s really thinking. If she loves this Michaels guy, you’re going to have to learn how to deal with the fact that she now lives on the other side of the country. Okay?”

“But what if she isn’t? And what if Ridge won’t let her leave?” Cora asked.

Brick frowned and sighed. “Then we’ll figure out how to extract her at that point.”

Cora looked relieved. “All right. But if I can make a suggestion…”

Spike laughed. “Sure.”

“Maybe it would be good if you guys started thinking of some sort of plan to get her out while we’re gone…you know…just in case.”

Most of the men around the table chuckled.

“Don’t worry, we will. Has anyone told you that you’re really stubborn?” Brick asked.

She smiled. “Yeah. Lara.”

Brick nodded. “Right. I’m thinking you guys can leave the day after tomorrow.”

“Wait—what? Why not now?” Cora asked, the humor wiped off her face.

“Because we need to plan,” Stone told her. “We need the layout of the estate, we need to figure out our best course of action. We need more intel.”

Cora sighed in frustration. It was obvious she wasn’t happy with the delay, but she seemed to understand that she’d gotten what she wanted—namely, their help—and if she pushed her luck, she might lose that.

“We’ll see if Tex can get us some satellite images of the estate and some sort of schedule of the comings and goings of the people who work there. Maybe we’ll get lucky and figure out Michaels’s routine, or actually see Lara out and about,” Tonka said. He’d been mostly quiet, but that wasn’t unusual for the man.

“I’d love to find out if Lara goes for coffee, or to a gym, or to do yoga every morning or something, so we could catch her away from the estate,” Stone agreed.

Cora snorted. “She hates coffee and is allergic to working out.”

“Right. Of course she is.” Stone grinned.

Pipe hadn’t said much during the discussion, but he couldn’t keep quiet anymore. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this, Cora,” he told her.

She turned to look at him. He could see the worry in her eyes, but she simply nodded. His respect for her rose. What they were doing wasn’t exactly dangerous, at least he didn’t think it would be, but she’d need to control her emotions if she wanted Lara to talk to her. That would be Cora’s biggest struggle. He knew that without a doubt.

“Okay, so…Cora, are you okay with staying with Pipe?” Tiny asked. “He mentioned he’s volunteered the spare room in his place while you’re here. We’d offer you one of the cabins, but we’re completely booked.”

“That’s fine. I can’t afford your prices anyway,” she said with a small smile.

“That’s not what I hear,” Spike said, grinning. “Heard you had six K at your disposal.”

“Oh, but that’s to pay you guys,” she said with a straight face. “It’s in my bag, which I left in the car. I can go get it now and—”

“No,” Brick interrupted her. “Did you not hear Spike when he said we weren’t paid mercenaries or bodyguards?”

“Yeah, but—”

“No buts. We aren’t taking your money,” he said firmly.

“Especially not after we heard you sold all your stuff to raise it,” Tonka added.

“Any chance you can get everything back?” Spike asked.

“Or maybe you can buy better stuff,” Stone said. Then he actually blushed. “I mean, I don’t know what you had, so that might’ve been a stupid thing to say.”

“Wait. Is it cash? You shouldn’t be carrying that much money around,” Owl interjected.

“We can exchange it for a cashier’s check,” Brick offered.

Cora looked from guy to guy, seeming a little shell-shocked at the concern being shown to her—and it pissed Pipe off. No one should have cause to be that surprised when people were being nice.

“I…I’ll need it to get Lara and I back to DC, when I get her away from that prick,” Cora finally said.

Pipe couldn’t help but smile. She was so sure she’d be able to convince her friend to return to DC. He just hoped it would be as easy as Cora wanted it to be.

“No, you won’t,” Pipe blurted. “I’ll take care of it.”

“You can’t do that,” she told him.

“I can, and I will. Consider it part of the deal of winning me at the auction, since you never got your fancy dinner.”

“But I didn’t win you,” Cora said with a frown.

“Didn’t you?” Pipe asked, raising a brow.

She stared at him for a long moment, and Pipe felt like they were the only two people in the world at that moment. He would’ve given anything to know what she was thinking right then.

He was ninety-nine percent sure that she wasn’t playing him and his friends…but what if she was? What if showing him an empty apartment, the cheap dress and shoes she’d worn to the auction, even the nasty confrontation with Eleanor that he’d overheard…what if it was all part of some elaborate plan?

But as soon as he had the thought, Pipe dismissed it. Cora’s emotions were too real. No matter how good an actress she might be, there was no way she could fake everything. Besides, he couldn’t come up with a single good reason why she might lie about her friend. If she wanted to get to Arizona for some reason, there were a hundred easier ways to go about it.

“I’m so sending those flowers to Eleanor,” Cora finally whispered.

Brick cleared his throat. “So…Pipe, if you want to take Cora and show her around the place, explain how things work around here, Stone can get back in touch with Tex and see what else he’s found for us.”

“Can I…can I see Melba? And Chuck and his girlfriend?” Cora asked Tonka. “I mean, since I’m going to be here for a day or so…”

Tonka smiled, and Pipe was glad to see it. The difference Henley had made in his friend was amazing. Instead of hiding out in the barn all day and night, Tonka had made a concerted effort to be more involved in the running of The Refuge.

“Of course. I’m pretty sure Wally and Beauty will be in the barn too,” Tonka said.

“Wally and Beauty?” Cora asked.

“You mean your stalker research didn’t go that far?” Pipe teased.

Cora turned appalled eyes his way. “Pipe! Your friends just agreed to help Lara, I don’t want them to change their minds.”

“I already told them that you stalked us,” he said without a hint of remorse.

“Great. Just great,” Cora said with a sigh.

“Come on,” he said, finding that he was actually enjoying himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d bantered with a woman. Usually they were either too nervous around him to talk at all, or they wanted the bad boy his physical appearance projected.

Cora stood once more and turned to Brick. “Thank you,” she said fervently. “I mean it. I was planning on going to Phoenix myself if the auction didn’t work out. But I know with you guys at my side, I have a much better chance of actually being able to talk to Lara and getting her out of there.”

“If she wants out,” Stone reminded her.

Cora simply rolled her eyes. “She does.”

“You’re welcome,” Brick said. “But again, we aren’t planning on storming his home as if he was a terrorist planning the assassination of the president or something.”

“I know,” she assured him.

Pipe wasn’t sure if she was agreeing simply to be amenable, or if she truly thought Ridge Michaels was up to something sinister behind the walls of his estate. Either way, he supposed they’d find out in a few days. In the meantime, he was looking forward to showing Cora around The Refuge. He was as proud of it as the rest of his friends. They’d worked hard to make it what it was today.

Cora headed for the exit with Pipe at her heels. They left the room and found Alaska sitting behind the front desk, checking in a guest. She looked over and smiled at Cora and Pipe before turning her attention back to the woman in front of her.

Pipe made a mental note to talk to Brick about the fact that Cora had emailed and called, and had gotten no response. But first he had a tour to give.

“I’ll bring her bag to your cabin,” Owl told them as he passed.

“Thanks,” Pipe replied.

“Can we see the barn first?” Cora asked, and for the first time, Pipe saw the woman Cora probably was on a daily basis. The fact that he and his friends had said they’d help made her seem relaxed in a way she hadn’t been in the short time he’d known her. And he had to admit that he liked laid-back Cora a lot. Not that he didn’t like the other Cora. No, her stubbornness, her loyalty to her friend, the front she showed the world of the fierce woman who didn’t care what others thought of her…it all added up to someone Pipe wanted to get to know better.

While he was anxious to get to Phoenix and check on Lara, he couldn’t deny he was looking forward to the day or so he’d have to get to know Cora before leaving. “Far be it from me to stand between a woman and the cow she wants to meet. One of these days, people will want to come to The Refuge for more than the animals.”

Cora giggled, and the sound shot straight to Pipe’s heart. It was a carefree sound, one that he had a feeling she didn’t make often.

He held open the door to the lodge for her, and when they started walking toward the barn, Pipe was shocked when Cora reached out and took hold of his hand. Looking down, he saw his tattooed fingers intertwined with hers, and once again, his heart jolted in his chest.

“Thank you,” Cora whispered as she squeezed his fingers.

It hit Pipe then. In this moment, Cora was just as worried about Lara as she’d been in the middle of the discussion in that conference room. But she was letting her guard down, allowing her vulnerability to peek through again—which felt damn good. It was another show of trust.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of what’s going on,” he reassured her.

“I know. I just hope that you and the others won’t have to use your super-secret military skills in the process.”

Pipe hoped the same thing. But he was beginning to realize that if he had to bust out some of the things he’d learned over the years to keep this woman and her friend safe, he’d have absolutely no regrets.

Spike was right, they weren’t mercenaries, weren’t hired guns or bodyguards, but when it came to keeping Cora safe, Pipe suspected he would do whatever it took…and damn the consequences.