Unchained (Hogan Brothers 3)

Morgan’s vile hands roamed her body freely as he sat next to her in the large van that was used to take crops to the farmer’s markets around the county. The smell of wheat she once found soothing, now brought bile rising into the back of her throat.

“I’ll make you a fine wife, yet.” Morgan’s lecherous words and the intent in his body language made Sage wish the snakes had killed her on the first round.

She had known…had just known that everything happening with Lochlan was too good to be true. She wasn’t meant for love and babies and happily ever afters. She was meant to succumb to pain and degradation.

Morgan was going to make her life pure hell before she had a chance to live. His hand began to slither up her exposed thigh; they hadn’t even let her get dressed before carting her away under duress.

Kirsten was the only nurse who knew just how deep her family’s depravities had become. She was the only one who would have been strong enough to stop them from taking her, but she wasn’t there. Everyone else, from staff to patients, and even security, had watched as Sage struggled silently. Tears streamed down her face as she had been dragged through the hospital’s corridors and into the waiting van.

“Please don’t do this. Let me go; I won’t tell anyone.” She could do nothing but beg.

They all ignored her. Treating her as though she were nothing and no one. The pain vibrating within her heart made breathing nearly unbearable.

Not because they had hurt her in any way.

But, because she lost Lochlan only as she’d found him.

Strolling back into the hospital, Loch felt lighter than he had when he left just over an hour earlier. His mind and heart were settled in peaceful harmony while he made his way

up to Sage’s room. More than ready to bring her home, even if it was to his mother’s.

There was a weird commotion throughout the building as he made his way through. People were looking frantic as he passed nurses stations and there was whispering. Reaching the wing where Sage’s room was located, his spine began to tingle, and his hair stood

on end.

Something was wrong.

“Lochlan!” Kirsten called as he was about to enter Sage’s room.

“What’s going on?”

“Her father…he took Sage. That son of a bitch Dr. Stanley called the man, and they were here and gone before I came in. I would have stopped them, I swear I would have.”

Took her.

Gone.

His heart stopped beating for what felt like minutes. He couldn’t breathe. Full-blown panic consumed every cell in Loch’s body as he tried to process what he was being told. She couldn’t be gone. He was supposed to take her home at lunch. She had to be there. Ignoring Kirsten’s words, he went in search of Sage.

Inside her room, it was empty and a mess. The bag of clothes his mom had brought sat dumped upside down in a corner, and the breakfast she hadn’t wanted to eat that morning was tossed on the floor like garbage.

“Where is she?” Loch’s voice was jagged like sharp rocks. He hardly recognized it.

“I don’t know,” was the whispered response.

“When?” His throat was tight.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, what do you know?” he yelled. The room filled with personnel from around the hospital. “Where the fuck is Sage?” The strain in his muscles as he tried to hold himself back from ripping the hospital to pieces was felt in every fiber of his being.

“The police are on their way,” Kirsten whispered from his side, her hand reaching out in comfort only to pull away at the last second when a deep snarl vibrated from his chest. “I don’t know if they’ll do much because she’s an adult.”

A ferocious roar tore from deep within Lochlan at the idea that no one would do anything to help his precious broken angel. She was his. Fuck what anyone else thought they could tell him. He would find her with or without the authorities’ help.

“Get out,” he snapped. When no one made an effort to leave, he levelled them with a glare. “Get…out!” They jumped and moved with alarming speed.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he sent a text to both of his brothers with a simple 911 to the hospital. He knew they would understand what he meant. There was trouble, and they needed to get there. Next, he called Frank. Two rings later, and the older man was answering. “I’m already on my way. Keep calm and don’t break nothing.”