Vengeance (The Protectors 5)

“Why would he do that?” Tristan asked. “I mean, he wants money, right? The money Ray borrowed. Wouldn’t the picture be for my dads?”

“I don’t think it’s about that,” I said as I looked around the room. It was dark with just a few quickly fading rays of brightly colored light coming in through a stained glass window. There was no furniture except for what looked like a ratty mattress and a kerosene lantern next to it. I could see some food wrappers lying on the floor next to the mattress. Someone had clearly been living in the dingy room.

“The guy with the gun – he’s the guy who came into the shop about the Camaro…the one Memphis said he and his fiancé were going to get for themselves one day.”

“Oh my God,” Tristan whispered. “No…no, it can’t be. He’s dead. Memphis said he died in prison!”

We both fell silent and I was sure Tristan was contemplating the realization of how much more danger we were actually in. Because if we hadn’t been taken in the hopes of being ransomed back to our families, it meant we were there for one reason only.

“Brennan,” Tristan whispered as the last of the sunlight faded. “It’s so dark.”

I knew immediately what had caused the panic in Tristan’s voice besides the obvious nightmare we’d been thrust into. “Baby, I know, but you need to stay calm, okay? I promise, it’s just us.”

I didn’t even want to mention the word “rats” for fear that it would send Tristan into a full-on panic. I hadn’t seen his reaction to being in a darkened room, but Memphis had told me about it.

“Tristan, do you have your phone?” I asked as I tried to shift my ass to see if I could feel my phone in my back pocket.

“No, he took them when we were in the van.”

I frantically looked around the room again, but couldn’t see all the corners since it was so dark. “Tanner, buddy, I need you to do something for me, okay?”

“O…Okay,” came the terrified response.

“Can you go look around and see if you see anything sharp like a knife or scissors?” I said. As much as I hated to ask the little boy to leave the relative safety of his brother’s side, he was the only one of us whose feet weren’t tied and he wasn’t secured to the wall like we were.

“Okay,” he said again.

But before he could get up, the door on the opposite wall opened and light filtered into the room before going dark again. Tanner cried out and pressed his head against his brother’s armpit in an effort to hide himself away.

I heard the door lock and then light flooded the entire room as the single overhead bulb was turned on. Fear curdled in my blood as my suspicions were confirmed and the same man from the shop walked towards us, his pale eyes shifting from Tristan to me. “I see someone’s awake,” he murmured.

Instinctively, I had no doubt the man was Memphis’s former lover. He was as beautiful as Memphis had said he was with his muscular body and white blond hair, but even so I sensed his cruelty. Which made me realize he could no doubt play the charming lover if he wanted because I’d had no sense of his evilness the day he’d come into the shop. This version of the man was the true one – the one who’d viciously raped a young woman with the mind of a child and then slowly killed her just so he could torture a man he’d once claimed to love.

I also knew that was exactly why he’d taken us and terror clawed at me as I thought of Tristan and Tanner at this man’s mercy.

Because he had none.

“People will be looking for us,” I said as I frantically tried to come up with a plan in my head.

“I should hope so,” Drake said as he fiddled with the gun in his hand like it was some kind of toy. “I mean, I couldn’t just tell my boy where we were, but he’s smart. He’ll figure it out eventually.”

I bristled at the possessiveness in the man’s tone, but remained silent.

“He may even get here in time to save you,” he murmured as he lowered himself to a crouch just a few feet from us. “One of you,” he added. “Assuming he and whatever little friends he brings get past the many friends I brought.”

He chuckled and then shifted his eyes back and forth between me and Tristan. “But in the meantime, I thought we might get to know one another.” He walked up to Tristan and rested a gloved hand on his head. Tanner had his eyes closed and was crying quietly against Tristan, but luckily the boy didn’t seem to draw Drake’s attention his way. Tristan remained quiet, his eyes down until Drake fisted his hand in his hair and yanked hard, forcing Tristan’s head back until he cried out in pain.