Chapter 18

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

Owl was tired, but not exceedingly so. He’d gone more than one night with only a few hours’ sleep before, and while he’d gotten used to sleeping throughout the night lately, his body could still operate on little rest.

He’d been extremely worried about Stone last night, but somehow Lara had managed to not only pull him out of the depression his nightmare always caused, but she had him smiling and joking not even half an hour later.

He’d always known she was amazing, and last night just proved it all over again. She had a huge heart, and he’d do whatever it took to protect it, no matter what the cost.

Lara had fallen asleep during the movie, and seeing her lying so trustingly next to his best friend had Owl feeling more content than he’d felt in a long time. Lara had turned in her sleep, snuggling against Stone as if she’d known he still needed comfort. There was no jealousy in Owl’s heart as Stone placed a gentle hand on the back of her head and continued to watch the movie.

They’d talked quietly so as not to wake her, about the helicopter they were buying, about how well the trip was going, about when the hangar back at The Refuge would be completed, and other mundane things.

It wasn’t until Owl had carried Lara back over to their bed and turned off the light once more that Stone said, “You’re a lucky man,” in a soft voice.

“Trust me, I know. There’s someone out there for you too,” Owl had felt compelled to say.

But Stone snorted and said, “I doubt it. Who would want to put their life in their hands, just by sleeping next to me night after night?”

Owl wasn’t sure what to say to that, but Stone had shut down the conversation by adding, “Maybe we can get an hour or two catnap before we have to get up and get going.”

So Owl had curled up behind Lara and held her in his arms as she slept. He didn’t fall asleep again, and he didn’t think Stone did either, but they were both more than ready to head toward home.

They’d returned the rental car the evening before and were taking a taxi to the regional airport that morning. They got up at the crack of dawn and packed their bags and showered before heading down to the lobby to check out. The taxi pulled up just as they exited the hotel, and they all climbed in.

When the car pulled up to the airport, Owl noticed that there wasn’t anyone around. It was early, but it seemed odd that there was no movement inside the main building. Just when he was contemplating asking the taxi driver to hang around for a moment, Ricky Norman appeared from around the side of the building. He waved at them as he approached.

“Good morning! It’s going to be a great day to fly,” he said jovially.

“Figures he’s a morning person,” Lara mumbled under her breath.

“If you’ll follow me to the hangar, you can help me get the bird out and ready to go,” Ricky told Stone and Owl.

Nodding, Owl fell in step beside Lara as they headed through a gate in the fence surrounding the runway and toward a hangar a short distance from the main building.

“We’ll get the paperwork done first and by the time that’s finished, and you guys have done the preflight checks, the tower control employees should be here,” Ricky told them.

“Is it normal that they aren’t here yet?” Stone asked.

“For this airport? Yeah,” Ricky said with a nod. “There’s a larger airport not too far away that most people use, but I’ve always liked this one. It’s not as hard to get on the flight schedule and it’s a lot quieter.”

Owl would normally agree, but something about how deserted the place was at the moment didn’t sit well with him. Lara must’ve felt the same way, because he felt her move a little closer to him. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it in reassurance. She shot him a grateful smile. Owl would feel much better once they were in the air.

Ricky led them into the small hangar. It was very dim inside the building without the big hangar door open, but Owl saw the chopper waiting. Pride welled up inside him. Soon this beauty would be theirs.

They all walked over to a tiny administrative area alongside one wall, and Owl tried to be patient as Ricky shuffled through a pile of papers.

Owl wasn’t sure what made him turn and look behind him. Maybe some kind of subtle sound…clothing rubbing together as someone moved, a light footstep.

But by the time what he was seeing sank in, it was too late.

A muscular man wearing what looked to be a black three-piece suit was swinging a large rubber mallet at Stone’s head.

He opened his mouth to yell a warning to his friend, but his shout came out more as a grunt when he felt Lara’s hand ripped from his own.

Spinning, he saw Lara against Ricky’s chest. He had one arm around her neck and the other held a syringe. Owl froze as Stone fell to the floor with a loud thud. The man with the mallet had obviously managed to take him off guard.

Owl’s blood ran cold. This was literally his nightmare come true.

His mind raced through his options, which were pretty damn bleak right about now. He should’ve paid heed to his uneasy feeling earlier.

He wouldn’t let his mistake be Lara’s downfall.

“I wouldn’t,” Ricky warned as he gripped Lara tighter when Owl took a step, ready to leap at the man who held the woman he loved. Lara’s face had leeched of all color and she was trying desperately to struggle out of Ricky’s grip.

“Stop moving unless you want to get stuck with this,” he growled.

Owl swiveled slightly, keeping everyone in sight. His attention wavered between Lara and Ricky, Stone—now lying motionless on the floor—and the man with the mallet.

“I suppose you’re wondering what the hell’s going on,” Ricky said almost conversationally.

“Let her go,” Owl seethed between clenched teeth.

“Sorry, can’t do that. I’m getting a lot of money for her. She’ll be taken reeeeeal good care of though.”

Lara whimpered, and the sound nearly broke Owl’s heart. They’d all been so careful! And now it was clear the very person they’d trusted with the sale of the chopper had been working with a serial killer.

Owl had no doubt that’s what was happening here. Carter Grant had found someone to do his dirty work for him. And if he didn’t figure something out in the next few seconds, it was highly likely she’d be thrust right back into her worst nightmare. And he knew she wouldn’t rebound so well a second time.

“They’re all yours,” Ricky said to the man who’d knocked out Stone.

“Boss only wants one.”

“What? That’s not the plan!” Ricky bitched, the irritation clear in his voice.

“Plans change,” Muscle Man said, not sounding like he cared about Ricky’s anger.

Owl had to take out Ricky. It was dangerous, especially with that needle so close to Lara’s skin, and he didn’t know what was in it. If it was something like fentanyl, it could kill her in minutes. If it was a sedative, her being knocked out would make escaping from this clusterfuck a challenge.

Who was he kidding? Escaping was already highly unlikely. Because there was no way Owl was leaving Stone in these assholes’ clutches. If he was conscious, Stone would order Owl to get the hell out of there with Lara. But he couldn’t leave him. Not after the hell they’d been through together in the past.

If he could at least get Lara away from Ricky, she could run. Get help. He’d hold out as best he could against the two men…and hopefully that would be long enough for someone to come and help.

Even as his muscles coiled to leap at Ricky, he heard another subtle sound—and just as suddenly, the man in the suit had a gun pointed at his chest.

Before Owl could blink, the man pulled the trigger.

He expected to feel the pain of a bullet tearing into his body, but instead, when he looked down, Owl saw a dart sticking out of his chest.

Howling in anger, he yanked it out, but already he could feel whatever sedative the dart contained moving through his veins. He tried to force himself to remain standing. It was no use. He fell to his knees, but didn’t feel any pain as he hit the concrete.

Looking up, he saw horror in Lara’s expression and it reverberated in his soul.

He’d failed her. And Stone. Then he knew nothing more as he fell face first onto the concrete floor.

* * *

Lara screamed as the man in the fancy suit shot Owl. She expected to see blood, but the dart lying on the floor at Owl’s feet told her all she needed to know. He’d been drugged. When he crumpled to the concrete, she fought even harder against Ricky’s hold.

“No!” she yelled as Owl lay motionless at the other man’s feet.

“Sorry, but yes,” Ricky said gleefully in her ear.

“I’ll give you a million dollars if you let us go!” Lara said desperately.

“Sorry, honey, but I’m already getting that much to deliver you. Besides, I don’t need Carter Grant on my bad side.”

Lara shivered at hearing confirmation that Carter was behind this. She’d been terrified this might happen, and she’d been right.

The man in the suit tucked the gun back into a holster at the small of his back, then bent over Stone. He grabbed him under his armpits and began hauling him toward the dark end of the hangar.

“It was good working with you,” he said, as he dragged Stone away.

“Wait, you’re coming back for him, right?” Ricky yelled as he nodded toward Owl’s body.

“No.”

Ricky continued yelling threats, but the man in the suit didn’t seem to care. He simply continued dragging Stone. Now that Lara’s eyes had adjusted a bit to the dim light, she could see what looked like a black sedan on the other side of the helicopter.

“Shit, fuck, damn!” Ricky swore.

Lara squirmed harder against him. She had to get free. Had to help Owl and Stone. Could not let herself be taken to wherever Carter was waiting for her. She wouldn’t survive being his prisoner again. No way. Remembering what he’d done to her before was too much to contemplate right now.

“Calm down!” Ricky shouted.

Lara wasn’t going to calm down. No way in hell. She knew what was at stake.

Just when she thought she might manage to get away, she felt the prick of a needle in her upper arm.

Ricky shoved her suddenly, and she fell to the unforgiving floor on her hands and knees—hard. But she didn’t hesitate to scramble away from Ricky, toward Owl. She shook him frantically. “Owl, wake up!”

He didn’t even twitch.

Ricky laughed behind her, and Lara felt sick to her stomach. She slowly turned and stood, putting herself between Owl and the evil man who had no problem delivering her to the hands of a serial killer. As far as she was concerned, he was as bad as Carter.

“Hate to tell you, sweetheart, but he’s not going to wake up anytime soon,” Ricky said with a sneer.

Lara hated hearing Owl’s endearment for her on this man’s lips. “You won’t get away with any of this.”

He simply laughed harder. “I already have. Look around, you see anyone coming to your rescue? No. Because they aren’t here. They won’t be for at least another hour. And by then, we’ll be long gone.”

The bay door on the other side of the hangar lifted, and the black car slowly drove out.

Panic welled inside Lara and she felt her heart beating frantically in her chest. Stone! He was being kidnapped, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it! “If you think I’m going with you quietly, you’re dead wrong,” Lara seethed.

He stood just feet away with his arms crossed over his chest and that damn smirk on his face. “You’re the one who’s wrong. That sedative I gave you should be taking effect any moment now.”

Lara’s insides froze. She’d felt the slight pain in her arm but had dismissed it, too relieved to be out of Ricky’s grasp and closer to Owl. But even as she had that thought, she realized her body felt…weird. As if she was looking down on the scene from above. She swayed on her feet.

“Why don’t you sit before you fall down?” Ricky said helpfully.

Lara glared at him. Information. She needed information! Somehow, she’d find a way to share it with someone from The Refuge. Brick. Pipe. Maybe even that tech guy everyone was friends with. Someone.

Her thoughts were sluggish now, but she remembered her phone. She needed to get it out of her pocket, try to call someone without Ricky noticing. Cora! No, not her best friend…maybe Tiny?

She thought she was being sneaky, but Ricky laughed again as he came toward her even as she reached into her pocket. Lara tried to back away, but she tripped over Owl. She fell on her ass and moaned in pain, and Ricky easily manhandled her onto her side, groping her ass as he pulled her cell out of her back pocket.

“Too bad I can’t keep a nice piece of ass like you for myself,” Ricky mumbled as he dropped her phone to the floor and stomped on it.

Lara stared at the pieces as if she was in a trance. The room was spinning, and she knew it was only a matter of time before she passed out. But thinking about where she’d wake up, and with who, had her fighting the effects of whatever Ricky had given her.

“Where are you taking us?”

“Well, it was only supposed to be you, but there’s no way I can leave your boyfriend here to be found. That’ll ruin everything. So I guess he gets to come too.”

Hope clawed its way upward from Lara’s belly. Her odds were better with Owl by her side. She refused to think about what might happen to him at the hands of Carter Grant, but she was selfish enough to be relieved that she wouldn’t be alone. At least for a little longer.

“Someone is going to know we’re gone,” Lara said as confidently as possible, although she had a feeling her words were slurring and she wasn’t quite getting her threat across as well as she wanted to.

“Of course they are. But not anytime soon. The chopper your friends bought will be gone, and everyone will assume you three left as planned. It’ll be hours before anyone realizes something’s amiss, when you don’t arrive at your stopping point for the evening. And yes, I have no doubt your plans were discussed and passed on to the others at the stupid retreat you were holed up in for so long.”

“Refuge,” Lara corrected. “Not retreat.”

“What the hell ever. It doesn’t matter. You don’t matter. You’re a means to an end, and that end will be a lot sweeter for me than it will be for you and your boyfriend.”

“Please,” she begged. She wasn’t above begging if it would help. Would keep her away from Carter Grant. “Please leave us here.”

“Nope. Not happening. I’ve got a sweet payday waiting for me.” Ricky crouched down two feet in front of Lara, studying her with a smirk. “I can see why Carter’s so obsessed with you. Blonde hair, blue eyes, tall, slender…you’re a wet dream, sweetheart. Which I heard is his kink.” Ricky laughed at his own joke. “Let go, Lara. It’ll make what happens next all the more easier if you’re unconscious.”

“Carter’s not gonna give you any money. He doesn’t leave loose ends. He killed the last guy who delivered me to him…what makes you any different?” It was getting harder and harder to keep her eyes open, and she had a feeling her words were slurred, but she couldn’t give up. Both her and Owl’s lives were on the line.

“You should be more worried about yourself than me, sweetheart,” Ricky said.

Lara blinked, and it took more than a few seconds to force her eyes open again. The drugs in her bloodstream were doing what they were made to do. “You won’t get away with this,” she repeated feebly.

“I already have. The only wrench in my plans is boy-o here. Carter isn’t going to be happy when he joins the party, but as I said before, I can’t leave him here to be discovered. Doesn’t matter. I’m sure he’ll be fish food not too long after we land.”

“Where’re we going?” Lara managed to ask.

Ricky leaned in and palmed the back of Lara’s head and lowered her almost gently to the floor. She felt boneless, completely unable to fight back. The unscrupulous man hovered—then leaned down and licked her, from the corner of her lips, up her cheek, stopping beside her eye. Lara desperately wanted to wipe his touch away, get rid of the slimy feel of his saliva on her skin. But she couldn’t move. Her limbs felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds.

“To Carter’s brand-new island. He lives there all by himself. No servants, no neighbors. He wanted to make sure you couldn’t run away this time.”

Lara whimpered. At least she thought she did. She didn’t hear any sound escape her mouth.

“It won’t be hard to throw your boyfriend’s body into the ocean. The sharks will take care of him,” Ricky said. Then he stood suddenly, and he looked like the devil himself as he stood over her and Owl.

“And your friend? He’s as good as gone too.”

“Where?” Lara whispered with the last of her strength.

“Sold. That wasn’t part of Carter’s plan, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Got a pretty penny for him. I met a guy…real asshole. Loves money almost as much as I do. And he needed a man. Didn’t say why, and I didn’t ask, but I’m guessing he doesn’t want him as a guest at a tea party. And my bank account got a lot fatter thanks to that transaction.” Then Ricky glared at Owl. “Fuck. Can’t believe that asshole left him here for me to deal with!”

That was the last thing Lara heard before the drugs overwhelmed her.

* * *

Ricky ran an arm across his brow and swore under his breath. The boyfriend was heavier than he looked and it wasn’t easy getting him into the helicopter. He didn’t bother strapping him in, simply got him up and on the floor of the back seat. He didn’t care about the broad either, but he knew Carter did. And if he delivered her with any bruises, or if it looked as if he hadn’t taken great care with her, he’d pay the price.

He’d strapped her into the front seat and even went so far as to put a set of headphones over her ears. Time was running out, and he needed to get going before people started showing up at the small airport. Though, he took a moment to run a greedy hand over Lara’s tits, squeezing and groping.

She really was pretty. It was a shame he wasn’t able to take her for a spin before he delivered her. Ricky wouldn’t have cared that she was unconscious, pussy was pussy, and he preferred that his women didn’t fight when he took them. But Grant was expecting his property to be delivered without a mark on her…and Ricky liked to make his marks.

Slamming the passenger door, Ricky ran around to the front of the chopper and picked up the handle of the platform dolly the helicopter sat on. He took one more look around the hangar, making sure nothing seemed amiss. He’d put the three suitcases into the chopper, picked up the pieces of the cell phone he’d taken from Lara—that she’d been dumb enough to think he’d let her use—and had packed the papers from the sale of the chopper.

The money The Refuge had sent to purchase the helicopter was already in his account, and along with the money Grant was paying him—and what he’d gotten from Jason Feldman, the man who’d bought Jack “Stone” Wickett—he was more than set.

He’d fly his packages to the island, get the rest of his money, then take off, flying south across the border. He’d sell the chopper once he got to Mexico, maybe to a cartel; those assholes had plenty of money and would probably love having a helicopter in their arsenal. Then he’d spend the rest of his life drinking, fucking, and enjoying the shit-ton of money he’d accumulated, most of it thanks to this single job.

In a few hours, it would be done. He wouldn’t think about the woman sitting next to him and what she was about to go through. Or the unconscious man in the back. They weren’t his problem. Ricky Norman only cared about money. And he was about to have more than he could ever spend. Retirement was only one delivery away.

Satisfied with himself, Ricky pushed the helicopter out of the hangar, removed the dolly from underneath, and rolled it back into the building. Then he closed the bay door, climbed into the chopper, put a pair of headphones over his ears, and smiled as he started the process to get into the air. The sooner he delivered the broad to Grant, the sooner he could get the hell out of the country.