Take the Heat

It never occurred to me that the assholes would shoot me full of drugs. Blow to the head? Maybe.

He reached for my arm, and I jerked away. Oh Christ. “What the hell is that?”

His voice was slow and soothing. “Just a little sedative. I asked the boys to bring it with them. Much more efficient way of knocking you unconscious. Never know when it might come in handy.”

“You can blindfold me or, um—”

“There is no telling what you might pick up, just from listening. I’m truly sorry to have to drug you, but I can’t have you remembering the exact location of my hideout, can I?”

“I—”

He reached for my arm again, and I didn’t struggle this time. The fight would come later. “Don’t open your mouth and lie to me. There won’t be any lies between us, Ivy. Not ever,” he warned as he shoved the needle in.

I didn’t like the way he kept using my name or how intently he watched me.

And with that last thought, I tumbled into blackness.

* * *

What the hell?

I had cotton mouth, and my head pounded like a stampede of horses had just clomped over it. Not ponies either; big fucking Clydesdales. Hadn’t felt this bad since the morning after my twenty-first birthday. I forced my eyes open, but I felt dizzy. Room spun around me, and my surroundings weren’t familiar. Scratchy blanket beneath my cheek and I slept on a bed with a quilt. Space heater beside the bed. I didn’t own one.

Then it hit me.

I shot up. That’s right. I was being held captive by Royal and two of his MC brothers, who would remain anonymous until I personally yanked their ski masks off and hauled their sorry asses to jail. I glanced down. Thankfully I was still fully clothed; no one had gotten molesty on me while I visited dreamland.

“Good morning, sunshine.”

I startled, turning around to see Royal in a small ki

tchen a few feet from me. He had changed out of his prison jumpsuit in favor of a pair of blue jeans and a black cable-knit sweater. He looked more like a model than a criminal in his street clothes.

I started piecing together our new location. Wooden doors, wooden floors, wooden walls, and even the ceiling. We were in a cabin, not a hotel room. Definitely close quarters. One queen-size bed, a fireplace, a couch, and a tiny kitchen. There was another door that I assumed led to a bathroom.

“You slept nearly twenty-four hours. Would you like some coffee? I just made some. I’d offer you food, but my companions thought provisions meant bags of Cheetos and Spam.” He sighed. “I never thought I’d long for prison food again.”

“I’ll pass on the Cheetos, but I’ll take coffee with cream and sugar.” God, I needed coffee. Hopefully that would help me out of my stupor. I watched him prepare it, lest he shake in any “special” ingredients that would put me to sleep again, then made my way to the couch.

I sat, pressing a hand to my forehead as though I could keep it from pounding. “So does this cabin belong to you? Maybe you hunted in northern Kentucky during the fall?” I peered out the window and saw only woods around us and snow, which fell at a good clip. At this rate we would be getting a couple of inches an hour. Bet the weather hindered the manhunt too. Slowing down the vehicles, covering any tracks.

Had to hand it to Royal. Laying low in a place that wouldn’t be investigated was a damn good plan. A hunting cabin in an isolated forest fit the bill. Standard procedure was to patrol highways, airports, and other modes of transportation to chase down a fugitive. They wouldn’t be tromping through the woods without good reason.

He laughed as he handed me the coffee, then sat on the sofa beside me. “Yes, this is a cabin. No, it is not mine.”

I thought for just a moment about throwing the hot liquid at him, making a run for it, but I needed more information. Where were his cronies? Did he have a vehicle I could swipe? Or did he dump the van and hoof it here? He also handed me a bottle of aspirin, and I gulped down two of them.

He set his cup down on the table in front of us. “Decided against scalding me, huh?”

Evidently I shouldn’t be a poker player. I smiled, showing a row of sharp and shiny teeth. “For now.”

“That brings us to our current predicament. I can’t have you trying to incapacitate me and making a run for it. We have several options to solve that particular problem.”

I nearly choked as I imagined the worst way to solve it.

He grinned. “Ivy, if I wanted to harm you, I would have done so after I got free. I meant what I said. I’m not going to kill you.”

I was probably going to kick myself for asking this question. “Why didn’t you?”