She just fled.
"We'll set up a flight and fan out. She won't get far," Greyson said. "And when you find her, you'll just have to show her the way things get handled."
I nodded. I was going to get her handled, all right. I was going to put that woman over my knee for this nightmare.
Chapter Eighteen
Kathryn
I wasn't at the bus station for ten minutes before I got my senses and realized what I'd done. It was stupid. It was useless. A moment of panic that I let rule me. I'd taken off without a word, and I knew it wasn't going to last. They'd just find me and bring me back anyway. And I didn't want to run again. Not really.
I was just scared of all the changes. The world was spinning with all the possibilities, and the truth was, I'd completely fallen for Janson. And I was afraid he wouldn't catch me.
"Can I help you?" the teller asked. I was in line and next to purchase a ticket.
"I need to stand up for myself," I said as I turned away from the office. The woman called after me, but I kept walking. I could take the metro back to the apartment and clear my head. Hopefully, the boys wouldn't be too worried, but I knew I was in trouble. As soon as I got out onto the street, I pulled out my phone and looked down at the number of messages I had. Thirteen calls and twenty texts. Shit.
It's why I didn't see him when he came up behind me. Why I didn't realize what was happening when he grabbed me and threw me into his car.
Why I was still in shock when I saw his face as he grinned down at me.
"Hello, sister." I'd recognize that voice anywhere.
David.
"What, isn't this a little bit of a tired routine for you? Kidnapping innocent women?" I asked, fear turned into biting wit. It was my only defense mechanism.
"From what I know, you haven't been acting like a lady lately." He grinned. "But you are still useful."
"What do you plan on doing?" I asked as I reached into my jacket pocket and fished for my phone. I knew some of the buttons by memory. I just had to get a message to Janson.
"Oh, no you don't," he said as he reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, but not before I could press send. It was only one word, but I hoped it would be enough. "I'm not as stupid as you somehow think."
"You got caught once," I said, still acting smug. "They'll come and find you again."
He didn't strike me, but he looked like he wanted to. "That's what I'm hoping, but this time … this time, I'll take their lives."
"What about Dad? Do you want to piss him off, too?" I asked.
"Oh, child. Who do you think put me up to this? He wants to teach you a little fucking lesson. I've been tracking you since you went to Chicago. Who do you think his eyes were?" He grinned, the evil in them sparkling up at me, but what he didn't know was that this was telling.
I knew exactly what my father saw now. Which meant I had an idea of what David perceived. Knowing what your enemy knew could be quite powerful.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"You'll find out soon enough. But until then, you keep your fucking mouth shut. I don't want to hear jackshit out of you." He glared at me. "Father told me not to harm you, but I'm sure he would forgive a few slaps to the face."
We drove for what felt like forever, up I-95, then along some back country roads until we were lost in the woods and farm fields of what looked like the countryside. I saw that because new developments encroached on them at every turn, the cookie cutter mansions leaving tell-tale signs of the city. We weren't so far away that no one would find us.
It was a matter of time. I didn't know what David was hoping for, but it seemed like he wanted a confrontation. I wanted to ask him, but the look on his face told me that I was better off keeping my damn mouth shut.
We pulled into a long drive and up to an old farmhouse. Was this where he was keeping me?
I was really getting sick and tired of being fucking shuffled around without a goddamn say.
"Get out of the damn car," he said as he opened the door.
"You first," I said, my mouth clenched shut.
"Oh no, not in this place. Ladies first."
"I thought you said I wasn't a lady."
He pulled me up and kicked me out. "I said get the fuck up and go."
It wasn't polite, but it didn't hurt. I tumbled out into the driveway, then stood up, determined not to let this asshole get to me. He might have been a biological half-brother, but he was no family of mine.
This was too fucking far. And at my father's own request.
I was vibrating with irritation. I didn't know how I was going to get out of this, but I promised myself I would.
"Why did you bring me here?" I asked.
"That's an easy question. Because it's far enough out of the way and during hunting season, that if I shoot your rescuers, no one will hear me."
"Father wants them dead?"
"Not them, but Greyson. Doesn't want him to be the heir. Not tough enough. Can't say I blame him."
"But the baby."
"Will be raised the proper way. With Joanna and me. Just like I always wanted. He might not be my blood, but I'll raise him that way."
"She," I corrected.
"What?" he asked.
"It's a girl. Don't you know anything?"
"No one told me, I just assumed," he started, but trailed off. "A girl. Even better. Then the legacy can still be mine. I'll fight for her. My Joanna."
I rolled my eyes. "Why in the fuck are you so obsessed with her? It isn't like she wants anything to do with you."
"Maybe not yet, but she will. I've wanted her from the first time I saw her. She was kind to me when she had no idea who I was. I just never got the chance, and then I saw her again, and I knew that I had to try."
"By being a psycho?"
That earned me a smack in the mouth. Fuck. It hurt like hell, but I just looked up at him and smiled. "You think you are going to hold me here? You think this is going to be easy, that I'll just bow down to you?" I asked. "You are an idiot, David. You'll never run this fucking family because you have no idea what it would even take to do it."
He grabbed me by the arm and shoved me into the house. "Shut the fuck up. Tie her up boys. At least for now."
Men that I thought I'd known my entire life grabbed me and tied me to a heavy steel chair, their eyes on me as I struggled. I wasn't going to make it easy for him.
"If she doesn't knock that shit off, I'll fucking knock her upside the head to keep her quiet," one of them said.
"No, we cannot leave any marks or bruises. Nothing permanent," David barked. "Those are our orders."
"Fine," another man said. I swore I knew him, but I just could not remember his name. They called him something. It was on the tip of my damn tongue.
The Butcher.
They brought the fucking Butcher to handle me. How would I make it out of this alive?
"Why is he here?" I asked, my voice shaking.
"Because he is good at killing and your father wants a very tricky man dead. It's pretty simple, really," the first man, the one who threatened to smack me, said. He grinned at me now, leering at me. "She's a pretty one. You sure I can't just have a go?"
"You want Fitzgerald to lop your fucking dick off?" the Butcher said to him. He was serious as he said it, too. Fuck. This was too real.
"You're fucking dicks," I said as I sat there, the binds finally on me. "I fucking hate you all."
"I don't care. It'll work," David said as he grabbed my phone out of his pocket and hit dial. He turned on the speaker.
"Hello?" Janson was on the other line.
"It's a trap!" I screamed, but a hand covered my mouth right away.
"Get your master, dog," David said. His voice was nasty and terrible.
"I'm here," Greyson growled. "What the fuck do you want, David?"
"I'm sure by now you've gathered that I have our sister?" he asked.
"Yes. What do you want?" Greyson barked.
"You and your little minion. Bring no one else. We'll settle our shit once and for all."
They'd be outnumbered. Greyson's two against at least five that I could count of David's men. It would be a fucking slaughter.
I tried to call out, but no one would uncover my mouth.
"We'll meet you, just tell us where," Janson said this time. He sounded positively filled with rage.
"I'll message you the coordinates. Remember. No one else or she dies."
It was a fucking bluff.
"We fight it out the hard way," Greyson said. "No one else?"
"No one else."
"Fine."
It was going to be a damn bloodbath.
Janson
When I got her all to myself, I was going to put her over my knee for sure.