Chapter Twenty-Three

The Worm

Alexander Bennett

Anger pulsed through Alexander's veins as he put down the phone, his stare traveling past the men seated on the oversized couch to the enormous window.

Fucking Bowman.His free hand balled into a furious fist. I should never have got Ella involved with him, should never have borrowed from him in the first place.

"How did the old man take it?" Chris Peyton's eyebrow arched as Bennett moved toward the panoramic view.

The suite with the mountain vista should have been well out of his price range now that he'd fallen on hard times, but as it turned out, Bennett still had generous friends prepared to help him out—for a price.

"About as well as I expected." Bennett didn't glance back as he replied, his racing heart demanding he calm down before he made the inevitable next call.

"Shit." Darius O'Neill clapped his hands together as he laughed. "Same old, Bowman! Did he tell you to go and fuck yourself?"

"Something like that." Bennett turned to face his oldest pals. "He never did like being told what to do."

But then, who did?

"So, what's next?" Paul Williams' voice was more serious as he lifted his glass to his lips. "Are you going in to get your girl?"

Bennett didn't much care for Williams' sarcastic tone or the implication that he was somehow a bad father. Hell, Bennett hadn't even known he was a father until around ten years ago. Ella had been grown by the time he'd met her. True, in a moment of weakness, he had offered his only daughter to his ex-friend, Bennett. That hadn't been his finest hour, he had to admit. But still, he was doing his best to claw her back. He'd begged, borrowed, and stolen the cash he owed Bennett and was even prepared to pay interest on the loan if it would appease the brute who'd happily accepted his child as collateral.

"Damn right, I am." Maybe it was the whiskey talking, but standing in the plush suite, Bennett was more than happy to contemplate rescuing Ella with all guns blazing. The same friends who'd seen fit to open their doors to him in his hour of need had also offered the weight of their armory.

Not only could he be the hero who got his daughter out of Bowman's grasp, but he'd enjoy sending the smug bastard a message—preferably at the end of a military-grade barrel. If Bowman ended up wounded or dead as a result of his resistance, that was too bad. Bennett would keep the money and have Ella back.

"When?" O'Neil's question snapped him back to the sophisticated confines of the suite. "When is this mission happening?"

"I'm calling the troops now." Bennett lifted the phone and searched for the number he needed. "The sooner, the better."

"And do you need us there?" Peyton's reluctance was obvious from his tone, but Bennett couldn't say he blamed him.

He also didn't fancy charging into the forest with grenades and guns, but he'd do so to come out of the mess as Ella's champion. He reckoned he could appease her understandable anger with sufficient spin and enough treats. A stay in the swanky hotel where he was currently holed up would be a decent start.

But what if Bowman has hurt her?

Bennett's back straightened at the chilling idea. He hardly knew the guy anymore, and what he did know wasn't great. The man had gone off the grid for years and Bennett hadn't heard a word from him until the call had come demanding his money back. Bowman was unhinged, and Bennett had been a selfish fool to send Ella his way, but he couldn't dwell on what might have transpired in the days since he'd left her unconscious in the woods.

He'd do what needed to be done.

He'd get her out and make sure he took chunks out of the man who'd been holding her.

All guns blazing.

Glee resonated as Bennett hit the call button.

Bennett and his friends were coming for Ella.

Bowman wouldn't stand a chance.

The End

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Ella

"So, where do we go, sir?" She blinked at him as his gaze rose to meet hers. "What happens now?"

Tucker had started to plan straight away, his attention turning to finding and filling his backpack as soon as he'd cleared most of the broken phone from the floor. But in the frenzied bustle of reacting to Alexander, he hadn't discussed anything with her.

Typical.

He seemed to be under the illusion that she'd be going with him—wherever that was. She inhaled at the confusing thought, unsure how she felt about that.

She did want him. Or, at least, she knew she wanted to spend more time with him, but that didn't mean she'd consented to being hauled around the forest to the next grim cabin he owned. She knew she must seem superficial, but frankly Tucker's residence was starting to grate. Ella was used to better living standards. She deserved better.

"I haven't had time to decide yet." His expression faltered for a second as though he too, had only just realized this. "But I'll take care of you, little girl."

"You could just let me go?" She shrugged, nibbling her lower lip as she waited for his verdict. One of his dark eyebrows cocked at her apparent audacity.

"I'm not letting you go."

His voice was firm and clear, and while a vague part of her recognized that she should resist and be riled at his adamant assertion, another aspect of her craved his approach.

A man who was in charge. A man who, after all of this time, might finally look after her, rather than disown and abandon her.

It meant something.

Tucker had a commanding aura about him. She couldn't recall power looking so good on anyone else before. He'd ignited something in her soul that she'd never given any attention to until he'd found her in the woods. Suddenly, she realized she longed for a man she could depend on, for someone who would hold and care for her. For someone who would listen. Wrapping her arms round her body, she shivered as she recalled how natural their conversation had been in bed. She hadn't expected that. Naturally, it helped that he was not only easy on the eye, but able to send her into a sexual spin with apparent little effort.

As rugged captors went, she'd really fallen on her feet with Tucker.

"Okay." She pulled in another breath, tensing as the apprehension stirred inside her. Was he angry with her for suggesting they separate? Her pulse quickened at the thought. If he was angry, what would he do? How would he make her pay? "It was just a thought, sir," she back-pedaled. "If you need to get away, all I'll do is slow you down."

The smirk that lit his face was both reassuring and sexy as hell. "Very considerate of you, little girl." Leaving his pack, he rose from his crouch and closed the distance between them. "But you're still mine until your useless father brings me my money."