Page 46 of Malice

Malice scanned the area. It was like much of the area around Gillette. Mostly flat plains like land. Malice had wondered why so much of the area around the main house on Tuck’s ranch had trees, and he’d asked. Tuck said his great grandparents, who had started the ranch, had missed the trees from where they’d come from, somewhere back east, he wasn’t sure exactly where, so they’d started planting trees. They’d made it part of the family’s traditions that for each holiday, wedding, birth, even birthday, they’d plant a tree. For the ones in the winter when it wouldn’t survive, they saved them up and planted them in the spring. It had been something he’d grown up with and still planned to continue, as it made for a nice green space, helped with the heat in the summer and the trees helped slow the blowing snow in the winter. Not to mention the privacy aspect when you had ranch hands, or an entire MC living on the ranch. That last had been said with a grin that Malice had returned at the time, but couldn’t force now. Now that he remembered it, he wished that whoever owned this place had done something similar. It would at least have given them cover as they approached the house.

“You have your phones?” Malice asked.

Steel and Talon both nodded.

“Put them on vibrate. We’re going to separate and get closer. We need to find out if she’s here, and if not, where she might be. Separate, if one is spotted, maybe the others can get closer while whoever is inside is distracted.”

“And let’s just hope they don’t shoot first and ask questions later,” Talon said.

“Or that they’re a crappy shot,” Steele contributed.

Malice ignored them both and continued. “Use texts to let the rest of us know if you find anything.” He looked back and forth between the two of them until they both nodded their understanding. “Talon, you take the barn. Steele you’ve got the house. I need to go check out that vehicle and make sure it’s the same one that took her. From there I’ll try to see if there are any tracks. Maybe there will be something there that will tell me if she’s here and where he might have stashed her.”

“Can you track?” Steele asked.

Malice shook his head. “No, but it doesn’t take a lot of tracking to tell if there’s one set of prints or two, not when there’s loose dust like this.” He kicked one foot in the dust beside the road.

Steele looked like he wanted to say more but Malice cut him off before he had a chance. “We’re wasting time. He could be hurting her even as we talk about stupid shit. Let’s get moving.” Malice didn’t wait to see if they moved, but started moving himself, hiking in a large circle so he could get to an angle where he could see the vehicle his prospective brother had told him about.

Every step seemed to take ten times longer than Malice knew it did. Sweat dripped down his back and he kept going, not caring. All that mattered was finding out if Bonnie was there and getting her out. He hoped she was safe, but every horror he’d ever seen or heard of happening to a woman was running on repeat through his mind as he spotted the vehicle.

“Son of a fucking bitch,” he muttered the words to himself as the car came into view. He couldn’t be certain, but he thought it was the car that fucker had taken her in. Malice closed the distance to the car, watching to see if anyone was around, and trying not to be seen.

34

Bonniehadnowayof knowing how long she’d been sitting alone in the dark, twisting and moving as much as the tape that had been wrapped around her torso would allow, as she tried to get free. She tried to lift her arms, she tried jerking her still bound hands up and away from her body in hopes of tearing the tape. She tried everything she could think of, but so far, nothing seemed to be working. She didn’t think she’d even manage to stretch the bindings and work more slack into it.

She wasn’t giving up, but was wondering how long she could keep this up and what else she could do that might work better when she heard footsteps above her. She tilted her head upwards, as if looking toward the sound, and felt the fabric of whatever kind of bag was still over her head slide against her cheek.

Bonnie stilled as the door above her opened. The light came on, making her blink away the sting of the sudden brightness, even through the cloth over her face.

Footsteps descended the stairs, coming closer. She couldn’t tell anything about who it might be from just the sounds, and the not knowing sent her heart racing. A knot formed in her throat making it hard to breathe. She forced herself to close her eyes and focus on breathing. Nothing good would happen if she panicked, forgot how to breathe, and passed out.

She didn’t think anything good would happen either way but at least as long as she was awake, she knew what was happening and didn’t have to wonder and worry what had happened to her while she’d been unconscious.

Whoever had come down the stairs reached the bottom. The room went nearly silent, but she could hear whoever was there breathing. They must be standing still, or she would hear their feet scuffing against the ground. The brush of fingers against her arm made her jump. The touch hadn’t hurt, in fact it had been gentle, barely a brush of skin against hers, but she hadn’t been expecting it. Something about the touch was familiar. She couldn’t say exactly what, but it made her want to move away. To keep whoever it was from touching her again.

The hood over her head was lifted off. She blinked several times against the bright light, then shook her head to get her hair out of her face where it had fallen after moving with the fabric.

Only after she’d managed to get her eyes to stop watering did she see who stood in front of her. If she’d thought her heart was racing before, now it seemed to kick into double time.

“Phillip.” She didn’t know what else to say. He stared back at her, his expression filled with rage. Should she ask him what was going on? Maybe why he was doing this to her? She didn’t know what to do or say to keep him from hurting her. What could she say to defuse the situation? Was it even possible?

“You ruined everything,” Phillip snarled before she could think of what to say. “We could have had everything together, but you had to go and ruin it. Then to make things worse you went and hooked up with that biker.” That last word was filled with so much disgust, she could tell it was the worst thing he could think of to call Corey.

“What’s wrong with being a biker?” She didn’t know what else to say. She wasn’t going to apologize for leaving him. But maybe she could distract him. Maybe she could get him talking and keep him from doing anything too stupid.

Phillip’s eyes went wide. “What’s wrong with being a biker?” he repeated, but louder, at almost a yell. “They’re dirty, rough, lewd, criminal, brutish lay about leaches on society. I don’t know why anyone would want to be one much less why a smart, beautiful woman like you would want to even look at on much less let one touch you.”

Bonnie fought to keep her surprise from showing on her face, but she didn’t know how successful she might have been. She had no clue Phillip was so closed minded and judgmental. Well, she’d had some clue, and it had been part of why she’d decided to end things with him, but she hadn’t known it was this bad. What he was practically screaming at her was almost completely opposite in every way from what she’d experienced with Corey and the rest of the men around the ranch. Well, all but the rough part. But of all the things he’d claimed, it was also the least off putting. And that was before she even considered comparing his list to the things Phillip had done to her.

“I’m sorry.” Bonnie didn’t know what else to say. And it wasn’t a lie. She was sorry, but she carefully didn’t say what she was sorry for. She could only hope he didn’t ask.

“Oh, you’re going to be sorry. That’s for sure.” He gave her a grin that made her blood seem to turn to ice in her veins. “We could have been happy. You would have been my everything and I would have treated you like a queen.” He kept talking, but Bonnie had stopped listening. The way Phillip paced back and forth while talking about what he was going to do with her and how it was her fault, reminded her of the scene in that Disney movie with the super family, where the bad guy gave a long monologue on how amazing he was and how he’d killed all these supers in the past building up to why it was the father’s fault and how he would make him watch while the bad guy killed his family.

She let him talk because the longer he talked, the longer he wasn’t hurting her. And while she wouldn’t beg him not to, she wasn’t in a hurry for him to get started. She could only hope that sooner rather than later, Corey would realize she was late and start looking for her. She had no clue how much time had passed since she’d been taken, but she had no doubt Corey would look for her. She just had to hold on until he found her.

“You’re not even listening to me.” Phillip had stopped pacing and stood in front of her, hands on his hips as he glared down at her. “What are you thinking about that’s so much more important than why I’m going to make you suffer?”

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