Lang, Chloe - Wilde Love [The Brothers of Wilde, Nevada 6] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) (10 page)

Austin nodded and lowered her feet to the floor. “I’m not trying to be an asshole, sweetheart.”

“Maybe not, but we’re right back where we started.” Her heart felt so heavy as she realized what decision she must make. She wouldn’t come between these men. Couldn’t. “Jackson, could you hand me my clothes, please?” Her heart would survive what she had to do next.

“Sure thing, darlin’.” He stood up and brought her clothes to her.

She looked at each of the five brothers and saw the gloom on their faces. The dream she and four of them held was no more. Even Austin’s demeanor had a dark sadness.

No one spoke again until they were all dressed.

Denver was the first to break the silence. “So I guess that’s that, Austin. Us or you? That’s her choice.”

“Yep.”

“You’re being an asshole.” Dallas stood up but this time didn’t start pacing. “How can you ask that of her? You saw how she responded to us.”

“I did. But Jackson asked me three times to go easy on her. I saw how each of you reacted to what I did. Even you, Denver.”

“Give us time, bro. Jackson’s really new to the scene.” Denver looked at her then back at Austin. “Besides, is pushing her to choose between us something she really needs?”

Jessie had finally had enough. “I’m so sick of this talk. I’m right here, guys. I have a brain. I can make my own decisions.”

Phoenix grabbed her hand. “Jessie, we’re asking too much of you.”

“You can say that again.” She braced herself for what she had to say. “I’m not going to choose. Think how I would feel breaking you brothers up.”

“You’re not, sweetheart. He is.” Dallas pointed at Austin.

“Whatever. If I choose Austin, I lose four men I love. If I choose you guys, I lose one man I love. What kind of future would that be for me? I’m not willing to find out. If I’m going to grieve, so be it. But I will not choose.”

Austin gazed at her, likely in an attempt to try to mesmerize her again. “Pet—”

“I want to go to the ladies’ room.” Jessie walked to the door. What she really needed was to crawl into a hole and forget. She touched the handle, and realized it was still locked. The handle had a double lock that required a key on both sides.

Austin pulled the key out of his pocket. “Here it is, but I’m going with you.”

But before Jessie could argue she wanted to be alone for at least five minutes to try to sort things out, she felt the handle turn.

The door swung open, revealing Samantha holding a pistol that was aimed right between Jessie’s eyes.

She’s the real killer. Oh my God!

“One move, boys, and your pretty little Jessie’s brains will be splattered all over the wall.”

Jessie’s heart pounded hard in her chest. “Samantha, don’t be foolish.”

She ignored her but turned to Austin. “And I know about the gun in your desk drawer. Don’t even think about it.”

Jessie couldn’t stop looking at the barrel of Samantha’s gun. Was this the same gun she’d killed Paul King and his wife with?

“What do you want, Sam?” Jackson asked.

“The key to this door.” Samantha turned to Austin. “You’ve already got it in your hand.”

The stethoscope around the woman’s neck revealed how she’d known that. Jessie wondered how long she’d been listening at the door.

“Toss it over, Mr. Wilde. Gently.”

Austin glared at the crazy girl but still lobbed the key over.

Without a word, Samantha jerked Jessie through the door into the hallway and shut it.

In a flash, she locked the door’s deadbolt with Austin’s key. “Move a muscle, and you’re dead.”

Jessie heard her men on the other side of the oak door. Clearly, they were trying to break it down.

Samantha seemed unfazed by the commotion on the other side of the door. The woman opened her satchel and tossed the two keys inside. “Only two keys to that door, and I’ve got both of them. Pretty smart, don’t you think?”

What to do? I can’t run with her having the gun.
“I suppose.”

“Just shut up, Jessie.”

Samantha meticulously placed the stethoscope in the bag. In a flash, the crazy girl pointed the gun between Jessie’s eyes.

Every bit of moisture in Jessie’s body seemed to dry up like the desert.

“Turn around.”

This is it. I’m going to die.

“I said turn around, Jessie.”

She obeyed.

“Good.”

Jessie felt the barrel of the gun hit between her shoulder blades.

“Move.”

“Okay.” Jessie began to walk.

As they made their way down the hall, Jessie prayed for one of the club’s bouncers to appear, but none did. How the hell had Samantha gotten through all the security. Sure, the Wilde brothers’ cousins were still on their way, but the club was closed, and there were a few guys that had volunteered for guard duty.

“Turn right.”

Samantha was guiding her through a hallway that was meant for deliveries, not members. When Jessie spotted Tank on the floor, she began to understand how the woman had gotten to her. Jessie didn’t spot any blood around Tank, but he still didn’t look alive. His chest didn’t rise or fall.

“Keep moving. There’s no helping him now.”

Jessie kept pushing forward, hoping her guys would bust down the door and come to her rescue. Until then, she would try to find a way to escape this psychotic bitch who’d been gunning for her from the very first day she’d come to Wilde.

Chapter Eight

Finally, Austin felt the door splinter as he and his brothers crashed into it one last time.

Rage and fear for the woman he loved exploded inside him. He was responsible for another fuckup, and Jessie would be dead because of it.

As they bolted down the hallway and found the body of Tank, his guilt rose. Why the hell had he dismissed Samantha as the killer? But he had. And they’d all overestimated the defenses they’d put in place at The Masters’ Chambers for Jessie.

None of them stopped to check on Tank, recognizing it was too late. Austin’s youngest brother dialed the sheriff as they all ran to the parking lot. Jackson’s cool head impressed him.

“Sheriff, Jackson Wilde here. Samantha’s behind everything. She just took Jessie at gunpoint from The Masters’ Chambers. We’re heading to our trucks to pursue her. She can’t have gotten far.”

Denver was the first out the exit door. “I think we should all split up.”

“Agreed.” Austin sensed that his brothers were all feeling the same heavy guilt he was.

“Fuck!” Denver yelled and stopped in his tracks.

As Austin stepped up beside him, he knew why Denver had yelled. Samantha had slashed every tire of every vehicle in the parking lot. “Fuck it. Let’s drive on the rims,” Austin said, even though he knew it to be hopeless.

“Right.” Denver nodded.

“I’ve got Tobias on the phone,” Dallas announced with his ear to his cell. “They’re almost here.”

“How many trucks are they in?” Phoenix asked.

Austin listened as Dallas spoke into his phone. After a short pause, Dallas answered. “Three.”

Austin took control. “Tell them to cover Silver Highway, County 22, and Double M. You and Phoenix head up Silver and meet in the middle. Jackson and Denver, you take Twenty-two. I’ll take Double M.”

Denver ran to his truck and shouted back, “If we’re lucky, we can catch Samantha.”

Austin watched as his brothers jumped into the other two trucks. “Fuck luck. Let’s catch the fucking bitch that took Jessie.”

His hope evaporated as sheets of rain began to fall from the sky. Even with his windshield wipers on high, the water on the glass nearly blinded him. There were too many dirt roads off of every asphalt road and highway in the county, and Samantha knew them all. With no rain and his and his brothers’ skill of noticing tracks, they still had a chance. With the rain, he had better odds of drawing a royal flush at Sneaky Pete’s on a first deal.

Austin started his engine, put the truck in gear, and hit the gas pedal to the floor. Blind or not, he would find Samantha. If the bitch even left a scratch on his Jessie, he would kill her.

* * * *

Jessie clawed her way out of sleep, though it seemed to be a struggle. Somewhere in her mind the reason why was known to her, but in her current state she couldn’t find the clarity to reach the answer.

“Well, Jessie. You’re finally waking up.” Samantha’s voice sounded sickly sweet.

Did I fall asleep sitting up?
Jessie realized she was in a chair.

“I…think…so…but…” Still feeling fuzzy-headed, Jessie rolled questions over and over in her mind.
What has happened to me?

“Take your time. I’m busy getting everything set up anyway.”

“Okay.” As she began to become more aware of her body, she knew that her hands were restrained behind her back and her ankles were attached to chair legs. She wondered if this was Austin’s dungeon.

But Samantha is here? I’m with her. Why?

A flood of memories jolted her to full awareness. She recalled what had happened at The Masters’ Chambers and in its parking lot.

Oh God!
Jessie kept her eyes closed, hoping to get more of her bearings. Clearly, Samantha was the one behind everything. The girl wanted her dead.

Jessie remembered Samantha locking Austin’s door, the gun the woman carried, walking over Tank’s body on the floor…

The last memory hurt deeply. Grouchy or not, Tank was a good man.

Samantha laughed. “That roofie did quite a job on you, Ms. Greene, just like I knew it would.”

Jessie opened her eyes. Samantha sat about three feet from her, twisting wires together. “You drugged me, Sam. I remember. You made me get in the back of the car and drink from that water bottle. It tasted awful. Then you handcuffed me, tied my legs together, and put a blindfold on me.”

“That I did,” the lunatic said with a tone of pride.

By the surroundings of rock and dust, Jessie believed they were deep in the Old Wilde Mine, the same place that had exploded only weeks ago. The bombs had been meant for her, and they would’ve gotten her, too, had it not been for the stubborn Pappy Jack.

The Wilde brothers’ grandfather had recovered from the explosion that night, but there would be no surviving the amount of dynamite Sam was hooking up to Jessie’s chair and everywhere else.

Jessie struggled to think clearly. “Your car couldn’t have made it here.”

“Right again. Keeping you on my horse was quite the task, but I managed.”

“I don’t remember the horse ride.”

“I bet not. There’s an abandoned cabin about five miles to the west of here. I’d taken my horse there a couple of days ago to be our transport here. That’s where I left my car. I’m thankful for the rain we had. It hid our tracks, but there were times I wasn’t sure I was going to make it down the muddy trail to the cabin. It’s really meant for horses or ATVs, not cars.”