Triple Beat-nook(43)

“I’ll come quietly,” she said at last.

Her father smiled evilly, and then dragged her up the stairs.





Chapter Seven


Aiden sat on the couch, watching as Bryson made his twenty-eighth trip across the room, pacing from the baby grand to the kitchen and back again.

“Where the hell is she?” Bryson asked.

They’d woken up half an hour earlier to discover the sun setting and Dani gone. Aiden had called her cell half a dozen times, but she must have turned it off. It kept going to voicemail.

“You think we came on too strong?”

It wasn’t the first time Bryson had asked that question.

Aiden’s answer didn’t change. “No, Bry. She liked it. She wasn’t afraid of us or what we did. Something’s been upsetting her. We both know it’s not us. It’s whatever brought her back to New Orleans.”

“She was going to tell us.”

Aiden lifted his head. “What?”

“You passed out right after you came. Dani told me she wanted to talk to us later, that she had something to tell us about her past. She’s ready to open up to us.”

Aiden prayed that was true. Dani’s uncharacteristic moodiness, the distance she’d put between them the past few days, had eaten at him like a cancer.

They both jumped when the penthouse phone rang. Aiden got to it first.

“Dani?” he said as he answered.

“What? No. It’s Jett.”

“Oh, shit. Sorry, Jett.” Aiden sighed. He’d really hoped it was Dani.

“Dani’s not there?” There was no mistaking the concern in the man’s voice, which sent a chill through him.

“No. We’ve been trying to call her but she’s not picking up.”

“Fuck,” Jett muttered. “I’ve tried too. I was hoping her cell was dead. That’s why I called the apartment complex. Manager was only too happy to patch me through to your penthouse.”

“Why would that be a problem? What’s going on, Jett?” It was apparent from the man’s tone he was worried and that he knew something.

“I think her dad took her.”

“Her dad?”

Bryson scowled. “I thought her parents were dead.”

Aiden raised his hand as he repeated the same query to Jett.

“No. Her mother died when she was twelve but her dad’s still around. Listen, he’s bad f*cking news. If he’s got her…”

Jett paused and Aiden sensed he didn’t want to finish his statement, didn’t want to admit how bad it might be.

“Where can we find him?”

“I got his address from Blake. You got a pen?”

Aiden gestured for Bryson to bring him a pen and paper. Once he did, Aiden wrote down the address Jett provided.

“I’m on my way there, but you guys are closer. Blake’s on his way too, but he was on the other side of the city when we talked. It’s going to take him time. If you get there before me, be careful. Her dad’s been in prison a couple times. He’s mean as a snake.”

Aiden forced himself to ask the most important question despite his desire to get to Dani immediately. “What does he want with Dani?”

“Revenge,” Jett said. “She was the reason he went to jail the first time. He tried to rape her when she was fifteen.”

Aiden slammed down the phone and dashed for the door. He didn’t even have to tell Bryson to follow. Once they were in the elevator, Aiden related everything Jett had said. Bryson’s expression morphed from fear to murderous rage within seconds.

“We have to get to her,” his friend said before the elevator doors opened and they ran through the apartment lobby. Mercifully, there was a taxi parked by the curb. They gave the man the address and promised him an extra fifty if he could get them there in five minutes.

The driver accepted the challenge. Aiden held on as the man made one sharp, fast turn after another. Fear of a car accident was nothing compared to the terror he felt for Dani.

“We’ll get her,” Bryson said, his voice deep, determined.

It calmed him. Aiden wouldn’t be any good to Dani if he gave in to panic. He shut down the part of his brain that kept replaying Jett’s words.

He tried to rape her. Her father tried to rape her.

Suddenly he understood Dani’s reticence about coming back to New Orleans, but something must have compelled her to return. Something she hadn’t told him and Bryson. Once they got her back—please God, let them get her back—they were going to sit down and have a long talk.