“Well?” Archie said.
“She’s real surprised we’re here. No one’s ever done anything like this for her.”
“And?”
“Tomorrow morning at nine thirty, she wants us to come and meet with her stepfather, give him our best case and see what he says.”
Gabe frowned. “That doesn’t seem right. She knows he won’t bend.”
“Well, maybe she’s desperate and hoping for a miracle. All I know is we can’t say no to her request.”
“We’ll be there. It’ll take every bit of willpower not to punch that stepfucker right in the face,” Gabe said.
“If the level-headed one is resorting to violence, we’re all doomed.” Vinny laughed.
Their situation was so fucked up it really was laughable. He’d never begged for anything in his life, and now he had to bow down to that piece-of-shit Davenport so he wouldn’t force Annalise to be his sex slave. How had this happened?
“We’ll have to get a room for the night,” Gabe said. “It’s getting late. Call the ranch hands and tell them we won’t be there in the morning.”
God willing, all four of them would be home enjoying one of Annalise’s dinners tomorrow. They’d laugh about all this bullshit and move on with the rest of their lives. But deep down, he wasn’t so certain of anything anymore.
Chapter Eleven
Archie didn’t like this. Everything in his body screamed for him to get as far away from all of this shit as possible, but he couldn’t leave without Annalise.
None of them had talked that morning. Each of them going through the motions as if their lives weren’t in the hands of an evil fucker.
Vinny looked ready to murder, while Gabe had been quieter than usual, which was really strange, seeing as he already wasn’t much of a talker. As for himself, he’d spent most of the night tossing and turning, waiting for the right answers to come and take him.
Nothing helped.
He didn’t know how to go up against a man with money and everyone in his pocket.
They arrived at a café in the city near their hotel. This one was so busy, and none of them stood out as they ordered some breakfast.
Archie sat at their table, sipping his hot coffee but not really tasting it. There was nothing to enjoy right now.
Everything rested in the hands of an obsessive man.
“You know, I was thinking,” Vinny said.
He turned toward his friend.
“Annalise has been on her own ever since she got out. She doesn’t strike me as a woman who would try to face this shit on her own. That means she told her mother, and the old bat didn’t do anything,” Vinny said.
“That’s a pretty big leap,” Gabe said.
“Do you see her calling her mother?” Archie asked. He’d already figured out that Annalise had tried to tell her mother what was happening and wasn’t heard. No one would just go straight to running away from their problems unless no one was willing to help. “She has no one.”
Gabe shook his head. “What kind of woman doesn’t believe their daughter? We’re jumping to conclusions.”
Archie shook his head and took another sip of the rancid coffee. Considering the price, he expected it to be like liquid gold or something. It was disgusting. He’d much rather be waking up with Annalise in his bed and waiting for her coffee to finish brewing.
He missed her so damn much.
“You know he’s not going to agree to us taking her,” Gabe said.
“I know.” This came from Vinny.
“It’s not going to stop us from trying,” Archie said.
Gabe sighed. “You know, I thought all women were the fucking same. They were only interested in causing trouble. I was happy to live alone, to not give any thought to what I was missing out on. Until you guys brought a new housekeeper home and nothing was ever the same.”
“Annalise has helped us all see what we were missing,” Archie said.
“We’re not giving her up. We’re going to win this,” Vinny said. “One way or another.”
He couldn’t see Vinny’s hands, but he would bet his life savings the guy had his fists clenched. Out of all of them, he had a feeling Vinny would be the one who would put a person into an early grave. If it wasn’t for Gabe, the guy wouldn’t have any kind of control.
Finishing his coffee, he checked the time on the clock above the café’s counter.
They still had two hours to get to the meeting.
None of them ordered any food but drank their weight in coffee.
“I miss her,” Gabe said. “We can’t give her a good life.”
Archie rolled his eyes. “Are we seriously going to do this?”
“Look around you. We all know that her stepfather has money. He has the means of giving her a good life. The perfect life.”
Vinny shook his head. “You’re willing to give her to a pervert? That’s what he is. He was supposed to see her as a daughter. Who’d want to hook up with a thing like that?”