Chapter Twenty

I knew something was off as soon as Billy came running through the door. He looked pissed off, and he was out of breath. I stood up automatically.

“Cass,” he wheezed.

I glanced at Leo and replied as calmly as I could manage. “What about her?”

Billy put his hand on his chest and inhaled deeply. “Where is she?”

“What?”

“Where the fuck is your wife?”

“I sent her out so I could talk to Leo.”

Billy glanced at the other man. “I’d like to talk to him, too. His guards should be shot. If they haven’t been already.”

Leo raised both of his eyebrows.

“They kept me out,” Billy elaborated. “But let Monato in.”

My heart dropped, and I had a moment of utter panic. I rounded on Leo. Forget shooting the guards, I wanted to kill him. But I turned back to Billy. I needed find Cass more, to make sure she was safe.

“Go,” I commanded, and drew my gun.

Leo put his hands up wordlessly, and I followed him out into the hall and down the corridor. We stopped in front of a closed door, and Billy moved in front of us. He leaned against it, listening intently.

“Nothing,” he said under his breath.

He swung the door open and called out, “Coming in. Back the hell up or get shot!”

He moved cautiously into the room, and I pushed Leo forward with my gun at his back.

Four men were lying unconscious on the floor under a table. They’d been roped together with thick wire.

“Where the hell is she?” I hollered. “Where’s Cass?”

“She’s not in here,” Billy told me. “At least not that I can see.”

“Jesus!” I swore

I kicked over a chair and rounded on Leo again.

“I thought you had control over the situation,” I said coldly.

“I thought I did, too,” Leo replied, sounding unconcerned.

He moved toward the men under the table and untied some of the knots. I grabbed him by the sleeve.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

The other man shrugged. “I’m going to wake them up. See what they know.”

“Don’t bother,” I said. “If I find out one of them let something happen to my wife, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”

“Hey, John?” Billy was frowning.

“What?”

“Where are the girls?”

“Maybe Monato took them back,” Leo offered.

A sudden thump from the other side of the room caught my attention. I lifted my gun.

“What’s back there, Leo?” I asked.

“Storage closet,” he told me with a casual shrug. “Linens.”

I shoved him out of my way and stalked over to the wide door at the end of the room. I twisted the handle carefully, keeping my weapon ready. I swung the door open slowly, and stared into a mass of silk cloth, hanging from a series of racks and wide metal bars. I pushed the fabric aside and bile rose in my throat.

All three of the women who had been brought in for entertainment purposes were hanging from one of the racks. They were stripped down to their underwear, eyes closed. Each of them had a zip cord fastened tightly around her neck. I couldn’t tell if they were alive or dead.

There was a blood-spattered knife at their feet, and without thinking, I grabbed it and cut the girls down. They landed, unmoving, on the floor.

“They alive?” Billy asked.

“Maybe,” I replied doubtfully.

Goddammit. Where is Cass? I clenched my teeth desperately.

A bang came from the far end of the closet and I turned my attention toward it. I pushed aside more reams of the silk, and drew in a sharp breath.

Oh, God, no.

I froze. Cass was there, eyes closed, feet dangling. Her pants and tank top were in a pile beneath her. A piece of paper was pinned to her bra.

MINE, it read in bold capital letters.

She moved weakly. One of her legs came up, thumped against a box there, and slid down again.

Billy moved before I could even react. He grabbed her around the waist, pulled a knife from his pocket, and sliced through the zip cord.

“Gimme your shirt, John,” he ordered as he lowered her to the floor.

I just stared at him.

“Now!” he yelled.

I finally shook myself, yanked off the shirt, and handed it over. Billy pulled it onto Cass, and pressed his ear against her chest.

“Breathing,” he said tersely.

She groaned almost inaudibly, and I felt crazed mix of emotions. Guilt. Anger. Relief. I stared down at Cass’s beautiful face and growled.

I stormed out. Leo was sitting beside his men, working on their ropes.

“I told you to stop that.”

“I don’t think finding their inside man is going to be a problem,” Leo told me, and handed me a Polaroid.

“Shit,” I said.

It was a picture of Gary, my very own money man, with a knife—the same one I had used to release the girls, in fact—sticking out of his abdomen. A telltale sign was hanging around his neck, too.

MINE.

Bile rise in my throat. Even though he had betrayed me, I was responsible. I’d taken Gary in after one of the bosses had tossed him out. He wasn’t much more than a kid.

I went back to Billy and tossed the picture at him.

“We are going to find Monato. And we are going to kill him,” I told him. “Wait here.”

I spun on my heel and strode past Leo again, ignoring the curious look on his face, then marched out into the hall. I kept going until I came to an emergency exit. I shoved the door open and took a deep breath of fresh air before reaching into my pocket and drawing out the slim, pink phone.

I had been going to give it back to Cass, to show her I trusted her. But right now I needed it for another reason.

I hit speed dial one and waited.

“Oh my God!” Blair answered. “When you said you’d call me in a few days, I didn’t think you meant literally. I was getting ready to call the police!”

“Please don’t do that,” I replied.

“Um, hello?”

I smiled a little in spite of my terrifically bad mood.

“This is John.”

“No shit. This is Blair.”

“Yeah, I called you,” I reminded her.

“With Cass’s phone,” she pointed out loudly. “If you’ve killed her and are using one of her boobs as a purse, so help me, I will hunt you down myself.”

I burst out laughing and it probably sounded a little hysterical. I fought to control it.

“It won’t be so funny when I make my own purse out of your—”

I cut her off before she could put an image in my head I’d never get rid of.

“I need your help,” I told her.

“Carnations, not roses. Peppermints, not chocolates. That’s all I’m telling you,” Blair replied firmly.

I cleared my throat. “I’m not much of a romantic guy. But I was hoping for something a little more dramatic. I’d like to take Cass somewhere special.”

Safe, I added mentally.

“Like…Vegas special?” she replied suspiciously.

“More special than that,” I replied in a deadly serious voice. “I want to take her somewhere she would never expect, but somewhere she’d love.”

Blair went surprisingly silent. She was probably trying to process what kind of man I was, and how much of a break I deserved.

“You still there?” I asked after a full minute of silence.

“I’m here,” she said reluctantly.

“Do you think you can suggest something?”

“I swear to God if you even think about hurting her, I will cut you,” Blair threatened.

I chuckled. “I’m the guy who saved her, remember?”

“I’ll be the judge of that. I’ll need to give you the keys to the cabin. And a map. It’s not on GPS yet. And we’ll do it in person or not at all,” she said. “Can you meet me in twenty minutes?”

“A cabin?” I managed to get out.

Perfect. Isolated, hard to get to, and unrelated to anything to do with my business.

I hastily committed the address of the coffee shop to memory, sent a text to Billy, and took off.