Blackmailed (21 page)

“She practically accosted Bri at the restaurant.”

“What the hell was she doing there?”

Ty shrugged. “Don’t know, but she came out of the bathroom just as I

was going in, hissing and spitting like the she-bitch she is, and I find Bri

in there sagging against the counter like someone had just killed her

puppy.”

“Did Caroline touch her?” Cole’s breath hitched in his chest as he

voiced his question with deadly menace.

“Not that I could see. All Bri would tell me is Caroline said she had

information about her mother.”

“Damn. How could she? You couldn’t even get
your
hands on that.”

“I don’t know but—”

“Stop him. Thief.” The small saleswoman shouted and pointed as she

ran toward the front of the store. A man dressed in black pushed

through the door and was gone before Cole or Tyler could focus their

attention on what was happening, but both took off to stop Belle from

pursuing the robber.

Brianna smoothed the sheer, silky fabric of the floaty skirt down her

thighs, reveling in the feel against her legs. The dress made her look like

an angel. She bent to put on the strappy sandals the saleswoman had

just delivered. The door clicked behind her and she wondered for which

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one of her men she was putting on a show of her naked ass. The dress

wasn’t long enough to cover her when she was bent in half the way she

was. The breeze along the slit of her globes could attest to that.

“I wish I had time to fuck that pretty cunt of yours, bitch.”

Her heart stopped. A scream welled up in her, but the gruff hand

seizing her throat prevented any noise from escaping. Red spots danced

in her vision as her airway was blocked, her lungs seized.

The big man forcibly hauled her to a standing position. With his hand

wrapped tight around her neck, he slammed the side of her face into the

mirrored wall. The exact wall where Tyler had just made love to her. The

jarring impact of her forehead cracked the glass in twenty different

directions, giving her twenty different views of her attacker.

“Where’s your money?” he grunted.

His breath was foul, like onions and cigars. She gasped, unable to

comprehend what he wanted. He held her cheek smashed against the

mirror, his fingers squeezing painfully. She couldn’t have answered him

if she’d wanted to. A dark blob grew before her eyes and her chest

tightened in attack mode. If he held her much longer, she’d pass out.

What would happen then? Would he rape her? Would Tyler hear him,

come looking for her? God, she didn’t want him to see her like this. She

wouldn’t be able to face either one of them ever again. She would fight

with everything in her before letting this man have her.

Except he had her pinned to the mirror, her arms squished harshly

between her body and the glass. In the broken shards, she saw his eyes,

light brown against the black facemask that covered everything else. He

shifted behind her, allowing the tiniest bit of freedom for her arms, and

she was able to twist one out of its confinement. It gave her strength over

the unconscious state looming in the very near future. She wanted to

speak, to tell him there was no money, but instead she croaked. Her

throat was too jammed to allow her voice box to work.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch.”

The gleaming edge of a knife glittered in the broken mirror as he

brought it to her face and caressed her cheek with it. No! She would not

die this way.

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Deep inside, she found the strength to strike back. How she did it she

would never know, but somehow she caught him off guard and smashed

back at him with her freed fist. The shallow blow glanced off his nose,

but it was all she needed. He loosed his hold on her neck to grab his face

where blood was trickling out of one nostril. The other still held the knife

but in an instant she was able to both swing around to face him and

scream with everything she had.

His eyes went wide beneath the mask, and he lashed out at her with

the knife. Brianna dove to the side, throwing her arms out as she tried to

deflect the blade, but it caught her anyway. The cold steel bit through

the silk material like it was melted butter and into her skin along her

ribs with the same efficiency.

She fell to her knees and grasped the cut with the palm of her hand,

immediately feeling the stickiness oozing through her fingers.

“Tyler,” she screamed again and again, not sure if she was really

making any noise at all, her throat hurt so much.

“You fucking bitch.” The man above her looked around wildly before

plunging back out the door and disappearing.

The scream pierced the soft music and attempted robbery confusion

filling the store. Cole’s heart stopped beating and his stomach dropped. A

glance at Tyler told him his best friend was having the same reaction.

They knew that scream, though they’d never heard it laced with the

fear it now was.

Cole and Tyler were running before her heart-wrenching scream

ceased. The urgency of Bri’s cry made Cole’s gut twist and fear for her

safety poured through him.

Tyler turned the corner one step ahead of him and slammed into a

human wall, causing Cole to barrel into his back. They fell forward in a

heap of arms and legs. As they went down, Cole glanced up, in what

seemed like slow motion, to see a man, his stunned eyes glowing beneath

a black mask. The man’s arms windmilled as he tried to keep his feet,

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but with one step, he backed away and out of the reach of Tyler’s

outstretched arms. Then he shot off toward the back entrance.

Cursing, Cole rolled off Tyler and sprang to his feet. “You take him.”

He may as well have spoken to the air because Tyler was already up and

sprinting after the man, his gun drawn, precious seconds separating

them.

His heart pounding, Cole pushed open the first door he came to.

Empty. A door slammed at the rear of the store.

There was a soft whimper to his left and through the crack of the

next door, he saw an unmoving pool of white. He had to swallow back the

panic threatening to claw its way up his throat.

“Cole?” Her voice was shaky, but she was alive, thank God.

The white mass of silk turned a crimson red the further he opened

the door.

“Son of a bitch.” He knelt beside Bri, who was also kneeling, and took

in the pallor of her skin, the dilation of her pupils and the wheezing of

her breath. “Where’s your inhaler?” It was all he could do not to shout.

His panicked fear had just taken a turn to fucking outrage.

“He cut me, Cole.”

Her pained words cut him to the core. “Yeah, baby.”
But where?
He’d

kill the man if Tyler didn’t first. There was the skirt she’d worn. He dug

into the pocket and pulled out the inhaler, giving her a puff while he

fumbled with his phone and called 911, quietly asking for paramedics.

“He said he wanted money.”

I’ll just fucking bet he did.
“Shh, don’t talk.” She was shocked enough

as it was, he didn’t want to add to her problems.
He laid the phone down

next to them, open so dispatch could still hear him.

Belle tripped into the doorway. “Oh my God, is she okay?”

“No,” he barked, forgetting his mission to be calm. Bri jumped

beneath him, and he rubbed a hand down his face. “Go and wait for the

police.”

“Yes, sir.”

Cole reached for Bri’s hand hovering protectively over the left side of

her rib cage.

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“Don’t yell at her, Cole.”

“Don’t scare me to death then. Let me see how bad it is.” He pried her

hand away. “Easy, baby,” he cooed when she hissed.

“Hurts.”

“I know.” He turned and yelled out the door. “Get me some towels.”

“You were scared?”

His fingers stilled and his gaze flew to hers. “Hell yeah. How could

you ask that?”

She shrugged and winced as the action pulled at her wound. “It’s just

that…” She paused and closed her eyes.

“Hey.”

Her eyes flew open. “What.”

“You look like you’re about to pass out on me.” He ripped the dress

off her shoulder, exposing her breast and the cut just to the left of it.

“Damn. You’re bleeding pretty good here.” There was about a three-inchlong gash running along her ribs, a flesh wound, and not a puncture. At

least the bastard had only been able to slice her, not stab her.

He hated the thought of having to hurt her anymore, but he was

going to have to put pressure on the cut to try and stop the bleeding. He

tore at his dress shirt, popping buttons off and yanking the tails out of

his waistband. After wadding it up, he pressed it against her side.

Cole tried to ignore her groan of pain, but damn it, it made him hurt

too. “Keep talking to me, baby. Why wouldn’t I be scared?”

“Because…you…I thought maybe…I was just another conquest for

you guys.”

He stared hard at her, his body tense. “I love you.” He relaxed a

fraction when a ghost of a smile touched her lips.

“Tyler said the same thing.”

“Then believe it, neither of us has ever said that to a woman before. If

I have to spend the rest of my life proving it to you, I will. We will.”

“It hasn’t even been four days.”

“So what.”

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The door behind him smashed against the wall. Cole guessed it

wasn’t open enough for Ty to get in, although it had been almost all the

way open.

“Fucking bastard got away.” Tyler was out of breath. “Ambulance just

pulled up.” He dropped to his knees and twisted his fingers with Bri’s

bloody ones. “How bad is it?”

“He sliced her. One more inch and he would have punctured a lung.”

“Son of a bitch. He had to have been waiting for me to leave the room.

He was good, I never saw anyone following us.”

“He was after money,” Brianna said.

“Get everyone you can on this,” Cole growled, ignoring Bri’s attempt

to justify the situation.

“Already one step ahead of you.” Tyler placed his hand on top of

Cole’s, adding his strength for pressure.

“It was a robbery,” Brianna whispered.

“Did you get a description?” Cole said, overlooking Bri’s soft

interjection yet again.

Tyler nodded. “Sure. Caucasian, about five-ten, black mask, black

clothes, and fast as hell.”

“Not much to go on.”

Bri coughed beneath them. “He wanted my money, guys.”

“No, but I’d bet anything Caroline might know something. Like I said,

she wasn’t too happy to see me at Tonio’s today.”

“I can’t see her doing something like this.” Cole saw Tyler nod, but

knew his friend wasn’t convinced of his answer.

Blood was still oozing from beneath the shirt both of them held and

Bri grimaced when they increased the pressure. “Sorry, baby,” Cole

soothed as she shook her head like she was shaking off the pain.

“Caroline? Guys,” she shouted.

Both of them looked down into her face.

“The jelly here is trying to tell you this was a robbery.”

“What have we got here?”

Two EMT’s and a policeman were standing in the doorway.

“Knife wound along her ribs. A few inches long,” Tyler answered.

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“He said he w-wanted money.” Bri was getting paler.

“You’re going to have to clear the room so we can get to her.” One of

the medics leaned in and laid a hand on Tyler’s shoulder. Cole stared at

Ty.

“Fine, I’ll go. You’re gonna be okay, little one. I’ll be right outside the

door.”

“Good.” She nodded. “Great. Give me your shirt first.”

“What?”

“Your shirt, Ty, I’m just a teeny bit exposed here, thanks to Cole, in

case you hadn’t noticed.

Tyler growled. “I wouldn’t be a man if I hadn’t noticed. I wouldn’t be a

gentleman if I’d done something about it.”

She snorted and his eyebrows shot up. “There’s nothing gentgentleman about you, Ty.”

He conceded defeat and stripped out of the T-shirt, then covered her

exposed breast with it. “She’s got asthma, keep an eye on it,” he warned

before stepping out of the room.

Cole heard Tyler’s discussion with the police in the periphery of his

brain.

“Cole.” Sweat had broken out on her upper lip as the EMT’s looked at

her wound. “It wasn’t her, Cole. It was a robbery.”

“Maybe.” Ty had him thinking now though. “This
is
too much of a

coincidence, Bri. The same day she threatens you, you get attacked?”

He’d talk to Caroline later and find out more.

“We’re ready to transport. We’ll start an IV in the ambulance.”

Cole nodded. “I’m going with you.”

“Sorry, you’ll have to follow.”

“Like hell, I will.” Apparently they’d heard him outside because an

officer peeked his head in.

“This is Cole Masters. I think you can make an exception for him.”

“I’m sorry. It’ll be a tight fit, but somehow we’ll squeeze you in.”

Normally, Cole hated throwing his name around, but this was one

instance where he had no qualms using it.

“Cole, just follow. I’ll be fine.”

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