“What the hell are you doing? You’re Elijah’s business partner.” Cherry fought the man holding her, scared for Mindy’s life. The younger girl looked terrified.
“Well, it’s time I ventured alone in the world.”
She saw a blue truck several feet from her car. Slamming her foot down on the man’s foot, she elbowed him in the face, charging at Mindy’s captor.
“Go, Mindy.”
It was useless. Marcel grabbed her around the throat, dragging her back as another man wrapped his arms around Mindy’s waist.
The back of a blue truck was opened. Mindy was lifted up, and rope was wrapped around her wrists to bind them. Cherry kept her gaze on the young girl, wishing there was more she could do to get her out of trouble.
“Leave her alone.”
“No,” Marcel said. “It’s time for Elijah to move over. Once he knows I’ve got both of his women, he’ll come.”
“What then?” Cherry asked, angry and scared.
“I kill him. I’ve been planning this for a long time. I needed for him to get comfortable thinking he was in control. Elijah’s not the kind of man you just take shit from. I bring him in, make him trust me, and then, I take from him.”
Marcel slammed the truck door closed. No one was in the truck, and Marcel had bound her wrists up as well. She moved to sit next to Mindy.
“It’s okay, honey, everything is going to be okay.”
“How can you know that? We’re alone with a madman,” Mindy said, sobbing. “I don’t want to die. He’s going to kill Dad, and then he’s going to kill us.”
“We’re not going to die. Elijah will come for us. I promise you, Mindy. He will come. That crap he said, it’s wrong. Elijah doesn’t trust him.” She believed with all of her heart and soul that Elijah wouldn’t leave her or his daughter to die. They meant too much to him for him to just leave them.
She reached over to try to grab Mindy’s hands. It was awkward, but she did everything she could to soothe the other woman.
“I’m so scared.”
“It’s okay to be scared. I’m scared.” Her heart was racing. Marcel was insane. He wanted to kill Elijah to take his place? The man was insane. Marcel had underestimated Elijah.
Cherry didn’t know how long they were in the truck. After a time, the truck finally came to a stop, and she heard doors opening then closing.
The truck door was flung open. Two large men jumped in. One roughly grabbed Mindy as another grabbed her. They were passed down to two other men.
Mindy fell on the floor, and the men laughed at her.
When Elijah found them, he was going to make them all pay. Cherry couldn’t wait until he got here.
****
“Rewind it now,” Elijah said. He was losing his temper and was prepared to kill any bastard who got in his way. The moment Tom called him to tell him that he’d been ambushed, he’d lost it. When he got to the supermarket to find the trolley full of food with Cherry’s bag on top, he knew something bad had gone down.
The problem he had, he didn’t know who had his girls and where they were. Tapping his fingers on the desk, he stared at the screen.
“There, stop,” Elijah said.
Caleb and Henry were with him, staring at the screen.
“Do you know these?” Caleb asked.
“Oh, I do.” Elijah stared at Marcel along with four of his men. The bastard really thought he could betray him? Marcel didn’t know who he was dealing with. “I know them, and their time on this sweet little planet is about to come to an end.”
He handed several hundred dollars to the man and headed outside. Pulling out his cell phone, he dialed Marcel’s number.
“You have something of mine,” Elijah said, walking toward his car. No one fucked with him. It seemed Marcel needed to learn a lesson.
A feminine scream came over the line.
“Yes. I’ve got something of yours. My little gift, I think I’d like to take her back.”
Cherry’s cry filled him with anger. He’d sworn to protect her, and now, they were all going to die.
“What do you want?”
“I want you here at the warehouse in three hours. Don’t try anything funny.”
Elijah hung up the phone. He’d be at the warehouse in two and he was going to burn the warehouse down to the ground.
“What’s happening?” Caleb asked.
“I can’t ask either of you to help me with this.”
John climbed out of the car along with Tom. “I fucked up, boss. I’m coming with you. I want a little payback for them coming up behind me.”
Caleb and Henry looked at each other. “We’re all friends here. They’ve taken your woman, and I think it’s only fair that we take them back.”