Hell Breaks Loose (Devil's Rock #2)(18)

Reid already had that same thought. They weren’t acting like men who were trying to protect their identities around her.

Zane gave a reluctant nod and scratched his scraggly attempt at a beard.

Rowdy cracked open a jar of queso and swirled his finger inside the orange goop. Sucking his finger clean, he looked at Reid. “If you want another go at her, you better hurry up, man. Looks like I’ll have to do it. Zane has never had the stomach for this.”

Reid knew Rowdy wouldn’t blink over ending her life, especially if that’s what Sullivan wanted. That guy always followed Sullivan’s dictates. For all that, it felt like he had swallowed a box of rocks. Reid kept munching on chips, clinging to his poker face and acting like this didn’t touch him.

His mind raced, groping, searching for something to say to knock Rowdy off this path. “She’s the president’s daughter. You really want to off her? That’ll get you the chair.”

Rowdy’s lips curled. “I’m not scared.”

His brother went pale. “I don’t know. I’m having second thoughts, man.”

“There ain’t no going back now. Might as well go rough her up like Sullivan wanted.” Rowdy started forward.

Reid’s hand shot out to push on his chest, stopping him. “He wanted her abused for days. If her body turns up later today, he’ll know you didn’t listen to him.”

“What do you suggest?” Rowdy demanded, thrusting his chin out at a belligerent angle.

“Take her someplace else . . . go to ground with her. Head west.” Reid nodded at his brother. “Our grandfather had that house in the mountains. Use it,” he suggested, still trying to act like he didn’t care that much. Right now his goal was simple: delay them from killing her.

Rowdy glanced around the house, his gaze pausing on the guy near the door snoring beside his own vomit. “Guess we could send Mike off with her.”

Thankfully, his brother snorted at that proposition. “Mike? He can hardly take care of himself. Even with a map he probably couldn’t find the place.”

The two of them started debating who should go, who should take the First Daughter out west. To the middle of nowhere. Isolated from the world. Which dangerous, drugged-out criminal among them would be alone with her and have her totally at his mercy?

A bitter taste coated his mouth. The promise he’d made to Grace ran over and over in his head as he stood there holding a bag of chips in his hands. Before he could even think about what he was saying, he heard himself speak. “I’ll do it. I’ll take her.”





Seven




Grace didn’t wait for daylight to get dressed again in her badly wrinkled clothes. Dressed, she sat on the edge of the bed, hands clutching her knees as she stared at the closed door, and tried not to jump at every sound that came close to the door barring her from a room full of criminals. Her knees bounced anxiously until darkness faded. She wondered what was going to happen to her. Wondered if the Secret Service were closing in even now. Wondered what her parents thought had happened to her. Holly must be out of her mind. Even Charles had to be concerned. Their relationship might lack sparks, but she knew he cared about her.

By the time daylight arrived, her nerves were drawn tight, imagining every worst-case scenario that might happen. The worst was Reid leaving, abandoning her among these men.

Tired of sitting, she paced the small space, stopping several times to attempt to open the wedged-tight window. Each time she failed and she cursed the lack of hours she’d spent in the gym, pumping weights so she could be stronger.

She examined every corner of the room, opening the closet and exploring every drawer, thinking she might find something she could use as a weapon. She listened at the door and walls as voices rumbled from somewhere in the house. The words were impossible to identify. She was near the door when she heard footsteps, and she scurried backwards, fortifying herself with a deep breath for whatever was about to happen.

The door opened and Reid stepped across the threshold, shutting the door behind him. As much as the sight of him discomfited her it relieved her, too. He was the lesser evil.

With the morning light streaming through the window, she was forced to confront his good looks again. Not that she had forgotten. Nor had she forgotten her shameful reaction to him in that bed. Two facts that only made her more uncomfortable.

She stood in the center of the room, well away from that bed. Humiliation washed over her as his hazel eyes raked her. His expression revealed nothing but she knew he had to be thinking about what they did, what she let him do, what she had encouraged him to do. She’d told herself to submit so she could win his favor. She’d told herself that was the only reason. And then he had touched her and she came out of her skin and forgot everything logical and right and sane.

In that moment, she forgot why she’d told herself it was okay to fool around with one of her abductors. She forgot because the only thing that mattered were his hands on her and the throb between her thighs. God. She was all kinds of messed up.

Thankfully, that was behind her now. Sanity had returned.

She hugged herself, chafing her hands up and down her arms. Lifting her chin, she asked, “Are you getting me out of here?”

A corner of his mouth kicked up for the barest moment before disappearing and flattening into a hard line again. “That’s not what I promised you.”