Colters' Gift (Colters' Legacy #5)(78)

She’d walked out on him. She’d refused to recognize her good fortune in landing a man like him. He’d never forgive her for that transgression.

Ron hoisted her up and tossed her over his shoulder. As soon as his body made contact with her ribs, she screamed in agony. The sound was horrible, muffled by the tape over her mouth, but it was the sound of agony that couldn’t be disguised.

“What the hell did you do to her?” Joel demanded as Ron climbed the steps into the plane.

“Not a damn thing,” Ron defended.

Ron tossed her down onto the couch in the back of the plane, and she let out another garbled sound, nearly passing out. She couldn’t get enough air in through her nose.

“Be careful damn it,” Joel barked. “I don’t know what those dumbasses did to her. Swear to God if they touched what is mine, I’ll cut their dicks off and force-feed them to each other.”

“You’re not going to find out much until you get the tape off her mouth,” Ron said dryly.

“Give the order to take off,” Joel said tersely. “Then find me something to cut the damn tape off.”

Hysterical laughter bubbled in Lauren’s throat. He’d just nearly knocked her teeth out and he was pissed because the ass**les he’d hired may have hurt her. Apparently only he was allowed to abuse her.

She rolled back against the couch when the plane started forward. Ron returned a second later, holding a knife out to Joel.

Joel pulled her over onto her belly and panic blew up. It was worse because she had no way to fight. She hated being pinned down this way. Hated it!

He sawed at the tape around her wrists and finally worked it free. Her arm flopped forward, falling over the edge of the couch, and her shoulders protested the sudden change in position. She moaned against the tape over her mouth and tried valiantly to keep the tears at bay.

Next he freed her ankles, and then he began working on extracting the sticky tape from her hair. She was surprised he didn’t grow impatient and just hack her hair off, but then her hair has always been something he liked and hadn’t wanted to change about her.

She braced herself to have half her skin and lips taken off when he ripped the tape from her flesh, but he was surprisingly gentle, working it a little at a time until finally it came free.

She automatically licked her cracked, dry lips. Then she pushed herself upward, refusing to remain in so vulnerable a position.

Joel assisted her, nothing forceful in his touch. It only made her fear him more, because she knew how quickly the pain could come. It was almost as if he liked to keep her aware at all times that he could do as he chose. He liked to follow tenderness with brutality, and then he’d always follow up pain with a caress.

“Would you like some water?” he asked, frowning at her appearance.

She nodded, not trusting her voice not to crack, and the last thing she wanted was to demonstrate her terror. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction.

Ron appeared with bottled water, and Joel took it from him and carefully held it to her lips, refusing to let her hold it.

She drank greedily, closing her eyes as the cool liquid soothed the rawness of her throat.

When Joel took it away, she lifted her gaze warily, waiting for whatever came next.

Joel frowned. “What happened to you? What did those idiots do to you?”

Since he seemed concerned, at least on the level that someone had possibly damaged something he viewed as a possession, and he was exceedingly possessive of things that belonged to him, Lauren didn’t provoke him and instead played his game.

“They forced my vehicle off the side of a mountain,” she said in a low voice.

Joel’s frown turned to an all-out scowl. “They caused you to wreck?”

She nodded.

“Fucking morons,” Joel exploded. “They had explicit orders to deliver you to me. Alive. How the hell could they possibly be certain you’d survive a plunge over the side of a mountain?”

She lowered her gaze as questions bit at her lips. She wanted to ask him if he was the idiot since he didn’t seem to get that she wanted nothing to do with him. But she was hurt and the last thing she wanted was to enrage him to the point he got violent. At the moment, he seemed genuinely concerned—or at least inconvenienced—over her injuries.

“Where are you hurt? I heard you cry out when Ron carried you onto the plane.”

“My ribs,” she said slowly. “Hurts to move. Hurts to breathe. I’m worried they’re broken.”

Joel swore and then bellowed for Ron to return. When the man appeared in the sitting area, Joel said, “Call ahead and have my personal physician waiting for us when we arrive. Give him the rundown on Lauren’s condition and tell him she needs pain medication and X-rays.”

Ron nodded and disappeared once more.

“I’m not happy with you, Lauren,” Joel said coldly. “Look at me when I’m talking to you!”

Swallowing back the rage building in the pit of her belly, she slowly lifted her gaze to meet the eyes of a demon.

“You wouldn’t be in your present condition if you hadn’t been stupid and tried to walk away from me. No one walks away from me. Do you understand that? There is not a place on this earth you can hide from me. I will find you. I’ll never stop looking. And I’ll kill anyone who helps you, who is with you, who interferes in any way. Do you understand?”