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The sound of renting cloth brought her mind back to what was going on. Tweedle Dee was using his knife to slice off her shirt, then her slacks, leaving the clothes in shreds beneath her on the chair.

“Such a pretty body. For now,” Tweedle Dee said leering at her. He looked up at Tweedle Dum, “go find us some rope.”

“Uh huh.” Tweedle Dum shook his head, as if the words alone weren’t enough.

“Why not?”

“Because if I leave, you’ll have all the fun with her without me. Come help me find it then we can have fun together.”

Lauren shivered. There was little doubt what they had in mind. She had no plans to go along easy. They would have to release her from the chair to move her. Maybe she’d have a chance to run. But just in case, she searched the room, looking at everything she could see as she tried to find something she could use as a weapon.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Cypher pulled his bike into the nearly empty parking lot at the marina and pulled it sideways across one parking space, not bothering with the time it took to walk it backward before he killed the engine and hopped off. He hit the dock at a run, following the directions Hex had given him.

The marina wasn’t packed. In fact, there were fewer than half of the slips filled. But knowing which one was the right boat meant he didn’t have to go one by one trying to find her.

He slowed as he approached the last boat. The one where Hex had told her they’d taken her. Where he was sure she still was. Because if anything had changed, Mud or Hex would have told him.

He heard her scream before he reached the boat. He thought she sounded terrified rather than in pain, still that didn’t keep Cypher from running faster. He could see the boat bobbing slightly in the water, as if something was moving on board. The movement was enough that he hoped the added weight and shift when he boarded wouldn’t alert whoever was holding her.

Lauren cried out again. Cypher stiffened, but followed the sound to a narrow, steep set of stairs and down it. At the base of the stairs he found himself facing two men as they struggled with a fighting Lauren. He couldn’t see her face, only that she wasn’t wearing much and it looked like the remains of her clothing was in shreds on a chair that had been kicked over in the melee.

Cypher fought to maintain control, despite seeing red. He picked up a boning knife from a countertop and went after the nearest man, stabbing him in the back, to one side and just below the ribs. The man stiffened for a moment, then dropped. Before the man hit the ground, Cypher stepped around him, reached over, and repeated the move on the second man. This time catching her assailant more in the back than the side. He didn’t drop, at least not as quickly as the first man had.

His hold loosened, Lauren screamed again this time with rage and drove her knee upward into the stranger’s balls.

“You were wrong!” she yelled. “I did have someone coming for me! And now you’ll regret having hurt me.” Her words were slightly slurred, making Cypher pause to take in her face. It was bruised, one side of her mouth swollen and one eye nearly swollen shut. He wasn’t sure, but he thought her nose might be broken. And she was naked except for her panties.

“It’s me, sweetheart, come on.” He hooked an arm around her waist and tugged her close, his eyes still on the second man. He fell backward against a cabinet then slid toward the floor. The first man was making a low gurgling sound as he breathed.

Cypher pulled Lauren away from the men, putting himself between her and them. Then he tugged his t-shirt off over his head and handed it to her.

“Here, put that on. I wish I had more, but it’s all I have right now.”

“What about you?”

“I’ve got another shirt on the bike but I’m fine.” He watched as she took the shirt and slipped it on, noticing the long, cuts along her arms and legs. It made him want to kill these men all over again.

He glanced at them. The sounds the first one had been making stopped and Cypher suspected it was because he’d stopped breathing. He didn’t care. “Come on, sweetheart, up the stairs. Some of the others will be here soon, we’ll get you, and them, taken care of.”

He ushered her up the stairs and onto the deck. She stood for a moment, blinking in the bright sunlight.

“How bad are you hurt?” he asked once he joined her and she no longer had to look at what he’d done to the men.

“Not bad, I don’t think. They hit me in the face and cut me some, but I don’t think anything is deep. They wanted to hurt me, to scare me, but they said they had orders not to leave permanent marks.”

“Good.” He looked down and realized she was barefoot. “Want to walk to the parking lot or want me to carry you?”

Lauren looked down at her feet then around at the water and the docks.

“Where are we?”

“Biloxi,” he said, not pushing her. He wanted them off the boat, so no one would see them there and put it together with the two bodies, or soon to be bodies, below, but she needed a little time to orient herself.

“I’ll walk, at least for now.” She went to the gangplank and eased her way down. Cypher followed, then walked beside her. They’d almost reached the parking lot when three motorcycles pulled into the parking lot, stopping next to his bike and killed the engines. He didn’t stop moving.

“That will be the ones I told you about. I think you’ve met them all but tell me if you haven’t.”