Monroe, Marla - Brandy's Bikers [The Dirty Dozen 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (13 page)

Brandy looked around and realized she was out in the middle of nowhere. There were sparse trees, but mostly scrub. She could follow the road out, but risked Jim driving up. The tears began anew as she contemplated what to do.

I refuse to die out here or let Jim use me. I’ll get out of here one way or another.

With those thoughts, she scrambled out the door and off the porch. The dry grass reached nearly to her waist as she began to run along the road. She would hide in the grass when she heard a car coming. The road was gravel, and she should hear it before she saw it.

Long minutes later, she had to slow down. She was getting tired, and she was thirsty. Her throat felt parched. She would never make it if she ran like that. She kept her pace even as she walked down one side of the gravel road. Her feet and ankles were hurting from walking on the rocks. There was nothing she could do about it except move over into the grass. She didn’t want to leave a trail, though, and trampled grass would be a sure sign she had been through there.

After nearly an hour, her head hurt, her feet hurt, and her hands were beginning to throb. They’d finally stopped bleeding, though she felt light headed. That could be from either the sun, or loss of blood, or both.

A noise ahead alerted her to a car coming up the gravel road. She carefully slipped into the tall grass and hunched down until she was hopeful she couldn’t be seen. A brown truck drove down the road and passed by her without slowing up. She couldn’t tell if it were Jim or not from her position in the grass. Now what was she going to do? He would soon be looking for her.

She had to keep moving, so she waited a good minute, then began slowly and carefully moving through the grass parallel to the road but a good five yards off from it. After about fifteen minutes, she heard the truck tear out down the road, heading her way. She stopped moving and crouched down in hopes he wouldn’t see her. If he continued to drive like a bat out of hell, he would be going by too fast anyway.

Brandy waited as the truck drew nearer then passed by at a high rate of speed. He was pissed and maybe scared if he wasn’t working alone. Someone else might be angry with him for losing her. Good.

As soon as he passed, she began slipping through the grass once again. She was so intent on not leaving a trail, she almost slipped up on the truck where it had stopped in the middle of the road. She sank back into the grass and tried to figure out what the driver was doing, and if it were Jim or not.

The man stood up from where he’d been crouched looking at something. It was Jim all right. He looked fit to be tied. But what was he doing? She edged closer and heard him mumbling to himself.

“Damn bitch. Where in the hell has she gotten to? She couldn’t have gone far on foot. I promised to keep her hidden until the end of the week, and now she’s gone missing.” He climbed back in the truck and took off once again.

She heaved out a sigh of relief. She had only gone about fifty yards or so when the truck came back up the road, going much slower now. She was scared he might have seen her when he stopped directly across from her and began walking around the edge of the road again. He stopped several times and peered out through the grass.

“She’s somewhere out there, but how far has she gotten?’ Jim climbed back into the truck and drove a little farther down the road before getting out and searching the area again.

She remained still until he moved around a bend in the road. Then she slid through the grass, begging God to let her make it home.

Chapter Ten

“Hell, if I could just remember where I’ve heard that voice before,” West complained. “We might be able to find her sooner that way.”

He refused to believe they wouldn’t find her. He was just worried about what shape she’d be in when they did. That worried him—a lot. It wouldn’t matter, they’d still love her, but it did matter that she would be hurt.

“Stop worrying about how she’ll be, and let’s concentrate on finding her. We’ll deal with the rest later.” Kyle knew West was a worrier.

“Either it’s someone from the construction site, or someone from the diner.” West rubbed his face with both hands. He hadn’t slept much, worrying about Brandy.

“Well, the sheriff said he’s doing a check on the crew and would let us know if anything popped.” Kyle poured another cup of coffee. It would be his third for the day.

“Damn it, I can’t stand to think of her out there scared and not knowing if anyone is looking for her or not.”

“She knows we are, West. We told her we loved her. She has to know we’re coming for her.”

West gave up trying to think of where he’d heard that voice before and decided to go by the sheriff’s office to see what he’d dug up so far.

“Come on, Kyle. Let’s go. I’m not sticking around here like this, or I’m going to go stark raving mad.”

“Where are we going?” Kyle followed him outside and put on his helmet.

“To check in with the sheriff. Maybe he knows something by now.”

West took off toward the sheriff’s office knowing Kyle would follow him. He needed something to do. Harassing the sheriff was all he could think of at that minute.

They pulled into the parking lot about the same time the sheriff walked outside.

“What are you boys doing here?” he asked.

“Came to see what you’ve found out.” West pulled off his helmet.

“I’m still doing background checks. You’ll be pleased to know that all of your gang checks out.”

“You’ve wasted time checking my friends? You stupid idiot. I know they are okay.”

“Calm down, West.” Kyle put his hand on West’s shoulder. “He has to rule everyone out before he can find the man we’re looking for. You know that.”

“Fuck. There has to be something we can do to find her.”

“We’re doing all we can, son. Leave this to us and let us do our jobs.” The sheriff climbed into his SUV and pulled out of the parking lot.

“That was a waste of time,” West fumed.

“Let’s go by the diner and see if anyone there has any ideas,” Kyle suggested.

“Better than sitting here.” West put on his helmet and started the bike.

They rode toward the diner and pulled into the parking lot to find that there were very few people there. West climbed off the bike and waited for Kyle to do the same, and then they walked into the building and headed straight for the counter. The waitress backed up a step. Hell, they probably had scowls on their faces. They were scaring the poor thing. He made an effort to tone it down some.

“Is the manager here?” West asked.

“Um, yeah. Just a minute.” She disappeared in the back then reappeared with a man wiping his hands on his apron.

“Yeah, I’m the manager. What can I do for you?”

“We’re friends of Brandy. We’re trying to find her and wondered if you knew of anyone hanging around the diner that wasn’t normally here other than us.” West looked the man in the eyes.

“Can’t say as I had. No one around here would hurt Brandy for anything. She’s a good girl and treats everyone like kinfolk. I can’t imagine who would kidnap her.” The manager shook his head as he continued to wipe his hands on the apron.

“Anything at all unusual happen lately?” Kyle asked.

“Well, if you don’t count the fact that Jim didn’t show up for work today, then nothing,” the man said.

“Well, thanks for the help,” Kyle told him and gave West a nudge toward the door.

West let his friend urge him outside and on the bike. He stopped by the bikes and shook his head. He was missing something. Somewhere in his head was the answer but he couldn’t quite get to it. He cursed and grabbed the helmet and slipped it on.

“Let’s go back to the house and fix something to eat. We need to be ready when we have a name or a place to go.” Kyle pulled out and West followed him.

On the way back, he worried about Brandy and how she was feeling right now. Was she scared, hungry, in pain? He ground his teeth in exasperation. There was nothing he could do to help her, and it angered him. Hell, it hurt him not to be there for her.

Once back at the house, they pulled together sandwiches and ate in silence. After cleaning up, Kyle turned on the TV and watched the news and weather. West couldn’t be still. He paced for a while, then finally sat on the couch, remembering working Brandy up into a frenzy there.

He thought back to when they’d first met her and how they’d first gotten to touch her when that guy had attacked her…

“Fuck! That’s where I’ve heard his voice before.” West jumped up.

“What? Who is it?” Kyle demanded as he too got up.

“Jim. That son of a bitch. He has her.”

“We need to contact the sheriff and find out where the bastard lives.” Kyle pulled out his phone and began dialing the sheriff’s office.

“I’ll kill that bastard if he’s hurt her.” West listened as Kyle relayed to the sheriff about Jim.

“He says they are on their way over there now. He wouldn’t give me the address, but I figure we can follow the sirens.” Kyle walked to the door and opened it.

West nearly knocked Kyle down getting to his bike. He wanted to get his hands on that bastard. If the sheriff didn’t have him in custody when he got there, all bets were off.

They raced toward the sirens and pulled up outside a dilapidated old house at the end of a street. The sheriff’s SUV and a deputy car were pulled into the drive, and they were knocking on the door.

When they pulled up behind the other vehicles, the sheriff frowned.

“What in the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.

“We’re going to be here for Brandy. I don’t want strangers scaring her.” West waited for what they would do next.

“He’s not answering, and his truck isn’t at home. He drives a brown Chevrolet.”

“Where would he be if not here?” Kyle asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to do some checking to see if he has property anywhere else.” The sheriff walked over to his truck and got on his radio.

“What if she’s in there and he’d just not home right now?” West asked. He badly wanted in that house.

“We can’t go in without a warrant. I’m working on getting that right now as well.”

“Sheriff. We’ve got that warrant. Todd’s on his way over with it now,” one of the deputies called out.

“Good. We’ll be in there in just a minute, guys. Just hold on.”

West paced on the front porch tempted to just break in the door himself. About that time, a car came screeching up the drive, and someone jumped out with a piece of paper and ran it up to the sheriff.

He looked up and smiled. “Okay guys, we can go in now.”

* * * *

Brandy was hot, thirsty, and very tired. Her hands throbbed and her legs ached from the constant crouching she was doing to stay out of Jim’s sight. He was riding up and down the road, stopping every once in a while to check the grass around it. She made very little progress with him hovering around as if he knew she was there somewhere.

She was scared to death he’d hear her heartbeat as it pounded in her chest. Maybe he would hear her raspy breathing that sounded so loud in her ears. She cringed each time he got close to her hiding place. So far, he’d missed her.

When he got back in his truck and drove off again, she eased through the grass as fast as she dared before dropping to a crouch at the sound of his truck pulling back in her direction. She couldn’t do this all day and not eventually get caught.