Tag: suspense

He wasn’t coming.

The thought sunk into Natasha’s brain slowly as she was driven further and further away from the bar.

Tony wasn’t going to be riding in on his white horse to save her.

He’d only been using her. Wanting an in to her brother and she’d done what he wanted. While she had no idea if it had worked, if he’d managed to make contact with Brandon after she’d been kidnapped, in the end it didn’t matter. Brandon had her and he wouldn’t be letting her go, she was of no further use to Tony.

What was going to happen to her now?

Brandon ran underground prostitution ring, is that … what he intended to do with her? Make her work for him?

Her own brother wouldn’t do that to her. Would he?

The churning in her stomach and icy cold fear ravaging her body gave her her answer.

He would.

And he wouldn’t lose a second’s sleep over it.

As badly as she wanted to escape she already knew the doors were locked. She’d found that out when she planned to fling herself out of the moving vehicle. And the man in the back with her had a taser as well as a weapon. She knew that because she still remembered the burning shock of electricity flowing through her.

She was trapped.

With no way out.

Finally, what felt like hours later, they pulled up outside a remote farmhouse set on what appeared to be a large plot of land.

When the car came to a stop, the man in the back moved and opened the now unlocked door, gesturing for her to go out first.

She did because what other choice did she have?

“Come with me, I have something to show you,” he sneered, a wicked smile on his face.

Again with no other choice but to comply, Natasha followed him across the porch, through a hall and then a large kitchen, and down a flight of stairs to a basement. Inside the basement were a row of six cages, like the kind of crates people put their dogs in. Four of them were occupied by women, barely more than young girls.

The man gestured an empty one at the end of the line. “Home sweet home.”

“Who are you and what are you doing out here?”

Tony tore his gaze away from where the limousine had peeled out of the parking lot to see Brandon Jenkins glowering at him.

For the first time in a long time he was torn.

His job was Brandon. Gathering enough proof to have the man arrested and his operation shut down. It was all he’d dreamed of since his little sister had been taken. Although they’d been lucky enough to get her back what she’d been through was too much for her to deal with and in the end she’d taken her own life.

There should be no choice on where his priorities lay, yet …

Natasha was only in this mess because of him. Because he’d decided to use her to get to her brother. Now she’d been taken and he had zero doubts about where that limo was heading. Natasha needed to figure out how to get away. She couldn’t wait for him if she wanted to live.

As much as he wanted to grab the other man and beat answers out of him more lives were at stake here than just Natasha’s. Not that he planned on throwing her to the wolves. As soon as he made a connection with Brandon he’d go after her.

It would all work out.

Tony had to believe that, because if Natasha was hurt because of his choices he’d never forgive himself.

Images of his little sister ran through his mind but he shoved them away.

It wasn’t the same.

Natasha had agreed to this. She’d understand why he couldn’t drop everything to follow her. He’d come for her. It would all work out.

It would.

“Hey, man, someone’s shooting in there,” he said, pressing a hand to his chest.

Brandon rolled his eyes. “It’s a show, no one is shooting, we run the sound and light show once a week.”

He already knew that, but Brandon didn’t need to know that Tony had studied every single aspect of his life, searching for enough proof to destroy him.

Instead he faked a relieved sigh. “Oh, didn’t know that. Sorry, man, I panicked. Ran for the nearest exit.”

Rolling his eyes again, Brandon moved to head past him, back inside.

Shifting slightly to block his path, Tony painted his face with interest and asked, “Who was the woman? She was pretty, and she looked … young.” As much as he wanted to play this hard he had to go slow, make baby steps.

Brandon stopped, turned to give him his full attention. The man’s gaze raked over him as though sizing him up, trying to get inside and figure out if he was being sincere.

“You like em young?” Brandon eventually asked.

“Young as I can get away with,” Tony returned with a wide grin.

“Interesting. It might just be your lucky day, my friend. Your stupidity might have worked in your favour.”

No, no, no, no, no!

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

It wasn’t supposed to happen!

Where was Tony?

He was supposed to be there.

He’d promised he would be there.

He’d told her she didn’t have to worry. That all she had to do was go into the bar, talk to her brother, make introductions between the two of them and that was it, he’d do the rest.

Only now Natasha was in a limo being driven away from the bar and her brother had told the man sitting in the back with her holding a huge gun to take care of her.

Not that she knew exactly what that meant.

Get rid of her permanently? As in like … kill her? Or get rid of her as in like … sell her? Everything Tony had told her about her brother swirled through her mind with sickening clarity.

Nothing had gone right and now she was trapped here, at her brother’s mercy, only she wasn’t sure he possessed any.

Huh, well that went well, Natasha thought, now how to get out of this?

Could she get out of it?

What did she know about dealing with people like this? She worked in an office all day, dealt with clients, dealt with employees, worked hard to be able to take over the business one day. This was so far out of her comfort zone she’d left the galaxy.

She had no idea how long they drove but when they pulled up outside a large industrial looking building Natasha knew however this ended it wasn’t good for her.

This wasn’t the plan.

Why was Natasha going anywhere with her brother? She was supposed to wait for him to come up to the bar, strike up a conversation with her, give him an opportunity to make a connection with her brother.

So why were they leaving the bar?

Was he wrong about her?

Was she in on her brother’s ventures?

Was he walking into a trap?

Picking up the pace, Tony followed the two as they into a corridor. When he got a glimpse of Natasha’s face, at the raw fear on it he knew this wasn’t a set up on her part. It was clear she was petrified of her brother.

As she should be.

Before he could reach them the lights went out, shots began to fire throughout the bar and everything turned into chaos.

Glancing from the bar to the corridor Natasha and Brandon had gone down, Tony was torn. He wanted to see what was going on, do whatever he could to put an end to it, but his job was Brandon Jenkins.

Following after them he saw the door leading out into the alley swinging closed. As soon as he went out there he’d be exposed. He could cover, especially with everything going on in the bar, but it was a risk.

A risk he had to take.

Rushing forward he made it through the door and out into the dark night in time to hear that her brother spoke with someone and said take her. Then Natasha was shoved into the back of a black limousine which took off out of the parking lot.

Come on, Tony, please hurry, Natasha silently begged. 

Talking to her brother was terrifying. Now that she knew the truth about him he was so much more than just her jerk of a brother who got kicked out as a teenager. There was eight years between them, they’d never been close and he was gone before she hit double digits. 

It was like he vanished and she’d had no idea he’d gone from drugs to running a prostitution ring with underage girls. 

This was all so crazy that if she hadn’t seen the suspicion in her brother’s eyes when she showed up here she might not have believed it. 

“Why are you really here, Tasha?” Brandon demanded. 

“Umm … I told you,” she whispered, completely intimidated by him and wishing Tony would hurry up and get here. “Someone trashed my house.”

“So you came here?”

“Told you, I didn’t want to worry Grandfather, and I had no one else to turn to.”

“No boyfriend?” he sneered. 

“Uh, I don’t have time to date.” That at least was completely true. Taking over the business was a lot of work, and besides she was always so awkward with guys she just met. 

“No friends?”

“Friends are friends, but you’re my only family.”

Brandon scoffed, anger flashing in his eyes, then they lit up in a way she didn’t like one little bit. “Sure, family. Lot of good that ever did me.”

“I was just a child back then,” she reminded her brother. She got he hated their parents, and even their grandparents. But their mom and dad were dead, as was their grandmother, and their grandfather’s health was shaky. But she hadn’t done anything wrong. 

Not that she’d ever reached out to him either. 

There would have been plenty of opportunities over the years, but she’d always been too busy pursuing other things to bother. 

“Lets talk where we can get a little ore privacy,” Brandon suggested but the spark in his eyes set her on edge. 

Still she couldn’t refuse because Tony wasn’t here yet. 

“Umm, sure,” she agreed shakily. 

Rounding the bar, her brother gripped her bicep in a grip tight enough to cause bruises and even though terror pulsed inside her, Natasha forced herself not to fight back, followed Brandon even though she had a really bad feeling about this. Then, as if on cue the bar went dark and chaos erupts.