Page 97 of Rook

I reached for the zip ties first, opening the package, then taking each of them out, linking them together and tightening them all the way, creating a long, useless chain.

I tossed that to the floor and went for the duct tape next, not sure if it could be any use to me for escape. So I just unraveled it inch by inch, rolling it into a ball until I reached the hard cardboard center.

Sure, Randy could just send one of the guys out to town to buy more. But it would delay things.

And maybe by then, Rook would be searching for me. Maybe seeing strange men in town buying duct tape and zip ties would raise a red flag. Especially if they were dumb enough to go around town sporting their cuts with the New Mexico rocker on the backs.

I didn’t tell Rook a whole lot about that old life. But I did tell him I was from New Mexico. And knowing him like I did, he would remember that.

If all I could do was bide time until rescue, then so be it.

But I wasn’t giving up on escape.

This was clearly a home that had been abandoned suddenly. Someone skipping town. Someone dying with no heirs.

It was a time capsule full of everything the previous tenants owned.

While I didn’t give Randy a lot of credit, I was sure he would have removed any guns or knives if he’d found them. But that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be items around that I could use to defend myself.

In all the time I’d known Randy, I’d never known him to go without a weapon at all times. A gun at his waist, a knife in his boot, something.

So if I could just… incapacitate him when we were alone, I could find the weapon and use it against the other bikers.

The me who’d crept across the clubhouse floor while the men slept, body shaking so hard I swore my bones clanked together, would never have considered violence against the men who’d enabled their president to keep her captive.

This new me?

I would rip their throats out with my teeth if I needed to.

I was not going back.

I’d rather die.

If that was my fate, at least I’d known a few months of freedom, a few weeks of affection toward and from a good man.

But I was going to fight like hell to get back to him. And if that happened, I was going to finally drop my walls. I was going to tell him all about my years under Randy’s thumb, how he’d broken my spirit, how he’d left me no choice but to run away and live in my car in hopes of a new life.

And when I was done with that story, I was going to tell him what I’d barely been able to admit to myself in those quiet moments before sleep when I was wrapped up in Rook’s arms and satisfied from lovemaking.

That I was pretty sure I was in love with him. That I didn’t want our marriage to be of convenience anymore.

I wanted a life and a future with him.

With those thoughts chasing away some of the terror in my mind and body, I reached for the top drawer of the dresser, pulled it open, and searched inside.

Maybe I’d been giving Randy a little too much credit.

Because I found my road to freedom right there in the goddamn top drawer.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Rook

I heard the rumble of bikes as they rode all around Shady Valley, looking for a sign of Tessa. Or someone who may have seen her.

“Hey, okay,” Coach said, grabbing my shoulder to stop my pacing beside Tessa’s abandoned car. “That shit ain’t helping anything. Calm down and focus.”

“I can’t.”

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