Chapter Seventeen
Worthy
Sleep was hard to come by, but it did finally come. You’d think that with being drugged and knocked out, I would have slept enough, but lying in that bathtub, I nodded off. It was a blessing, so I didn’t have to listen to the guys in the next room fucking each other blind. I figured that when I got up, I would be more clear-headed for a plan of escape if I rested when I could.
I wasn’t planning on World War III breaking out in the room sometime in the night. Forgetting my hand was still cuffed to the bathtub plumbing when the door to the room busted in and the yelling started, I startled so hard I nearly pulled my arm out of the socket.
Fuck that had hurt.
I heard screaming and begging in the other room, and had no idea what could be happening. I knew what I hoped, though. I’d lain in that tub, dreaming in the twilight between sleep and awake that Crow would somehow find me and come to the rescue. I had no idea if he could find me or how he would even begin to track me. I had still dreamed about him and hoped. My time with him had been the happiest I’d known. I wanted to find my way back to that place, at any cost.
The door to the bathroom burst open, and the light flipped on, blinding me. I threw my free hand over my eyes, holding it up in case an attack was coming. I waited, but nothing happened. The attack I was expecting never happened.
“Worthy.”
With that one word, said in his low growl of a voice, I knew I was finally safe. I dropped my hand so I could see his handsome face, needed to see him, even though we’d only been apart not even an entire day. His face was pale, and there seemed to be wrinkles I hadn’t noticed before. He’d aged five years in the last few hours. I was glad I wasn’t the only one who had suffered.
“Crow, how?”
Looking me in the eyes, he smiled. Crow actually smiled, dimples and all.
“Never mind that, right now, Worthy. Let’s get you out of there and get those cuffs off. We need to take care of these idiots in the other room and get you somewhere safe.”
While Crow was unlocking the cuffs and helping me step stiffly out of the tub, I realized the room was completely silent now. Walking with Crow’s help into the other room, I saw both of my kidnappers, mymost recentkidnappers, hands tied together, back to back and gagged, naked on the bed. Not the sight I wanted to see. Crow looked down at them and sneered.
“Os, what do you think we should do with these idiots? They ignored the notice I sent out. Just for that, they deserve to die.”
The man he was talking to, the big redhead with the beard who was presumably Osprey, didn’t answer. He just stared at us as Crow got me settled into a small club chair near the dresser. The guys on the bed started to rock back and forth on the bed, yelling through the gags, but not making any sense. I was going to have to say something since they couldn’t speak for themselves.
“Crow, they’re not professionals. They’re doing this because the blond one, Paulie, gambles too much and lost to the wrong people. If they got me and delivered me in one piece, the debt would be paid.”
Crow and Osprey shared a look, and then both turned back to the naked dudes on the bed. Osprey approached them, took Paulie’s gag out, then explained their situation.
“You have one shot here, hoss, to save your ass and your friend’s ass, too. Tell us what we want to know and don’t piss us off by trying to lie. Is what Worthy says true?”
Paulie wasn’t shy. Once he opened his mouth, he wouldn’t shut up.
“He’s right. I got into Diego Ramirez for over one hundred G’s. He was running an underground poker game, and I was convinced I could take ‘em all and make bank. I’m just a truck driver, man. My boyfriend here is a car salesman. We’re not pros, man. Ramirez said either I pay off what I owe, or I’d have to work it off. If I took this job, he’d wipe the slate clean. No muss, no fuss. Get the guy, take him to an address in San Diego, and I was free and clear. That’s it, man. I don’t know nothin’ about a no-touch order. All I know is that if I didn’t do this, I was dead and if I did, I’d be free.”
No one said a word when he finally shut the hell up. The silence went on so long it was almost deafening. I thought I knew the issue, but eventually, I needed to say something to end the oppressive silence.
“You can’t do it, Crow. It goes against your code.”
Osprey pulled out one of the cheap chairs around the small round table in front of the window and flopped down into it. He set both his guns on the table and settled back into the chair, legs out in front and ankles crossed. He looked like he was getting ready for the long haul.
“He’s right, Crow. I would never have the nerve to tell you to your face, but since Worthy already did, I’m gonna agree with him. The guilt would eat you up, man, if you hurt this idiot. He’s a suck ass gambler and dumb as a box of rocks, but you can’t kill him for being stupid. His first mistake was dealing with Diego in the first place.”
“Jesus, Os, first Christos and now Diego. This is the night of your exes coming out of the woodwork. I get it, but let’s not get lost in the weeds. We all know Diego is bad news, and you havereallybad taste in guys.”
“Shut the fuck up, Crow. I can be bitter if I want to be. And this is your deal that’s bringing all of these guys out of the shadows, not mine, just remember that.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll let it go. Can we just get back to the issues at hand? Namely the two naked dudes on the bed?”
If this hadn’t been such a dire situation with two men’s lives in the balance, I would have found it funny as hell to listen to them going back and forth. As it was, there was very little funny about this whole thing, and I was reaching my last nerve.
“For fuck’s sake you two, quit your bickering. You sound like two brothers arguing over who gets to use the car on Saturday night.”
My outburst startled both of them into silence, and I was pinned by both their stares as soon as I opened my mouth. I believe my tone might have gotten their attention more than the words. I usually kept the edge out of my voice, but I was so over all of this.
