Rise and Shine (Shine On Series, Book 2) (32 page)

“Shut up,” the man said as he tried to pull himself off her. Her eyes came into focus and she saw the man that had clothes-lined her. Her pulse sped up as she realized it was him. The same dark curly haired waiter. It was Smith boy who’d delivered her to the police in Louisville. Oh, this was not good. Without another thought Emmie brought up a knee, causing him to roll off her, tucked into the fetal position. She stumbled, holding her side. There was a stabbing pain in her right abdomen with each breath she took.

She tried to take off toward town again. But she was slower this time. That fall had taken something out of her, maybe broken a rib. Emmie could hear the men closing on her but that didn’t stop her from trying to get away. She felt the ground again before she knew what had happened. This time she planted face first.

“Go get the car,” Steven yelled, on top of her. She heard the other man run in the opposite direction.

Steven spit next to her. “Damn it, girl. You coulda just made this easy.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asked when she found her breath.

“It’s not about you, sweetheart.” He pulled her to her feet, holding her arms tightly behind her body.

“People keep saying that but it sure as hell feels like it,” she said, fighting against his arms.

Emmie knew if she got in that car she was as good as dead. She made one last attempt to stomp the man’s feet but her bare feet did nothing to his thick boots. “Stop fighting me, girl. I don’t wanna hurt you but I will.”

Steven threw her in the back where Smith was waiting for her… with rope.

“No, please. No,” she screamed and moved as far away from him as she could.

Steven took off down the main road. “Shit. Car’s coming. Get her down.”

Smith grabbed her wrists and made an attempt to loop them through the rope. She did her best to fight him. Her fingernails dug into the flesh of his arms.

“GET HER DOWN,” Steven screamed. “It’s them.”

She instinctively knew who them was. “Silas!” she screamed. She should have known he would have come to pick her up at her house. He was nervous to let her go alone. The timing would be right. Smith backhanded her and she fell down on the tiny floorboard.

“SILAS!” She knew there was no way he could hear her but it didn’t stop her from trying. She put her arms up on the back of the driver’s seat and attempted to pull up. The back of the seat was the last thing she saw. Emmie felt her like her skull split in two as everything that was light faded to black.

Chapter Forty-six

I
f Silas had driven the car any faster the wheels might have rolled right off their axles. Trick’s fingers dug into his seat but he didn’t say a word. As he made his way down the main road he saw nothing that surrounded him. He drove right past the car that held what he so badly wanted, without even noticing the familiar face behind the wheel. He pulled into her drive and let out a sigh of relief when he saw Spotty lying at the foot of the stairs. There was no car in her drive and no sign of anyone else.

“Gabe stay out here and look around.”

He took the stairs two at a time, bounding up the porch. He pulled out his gun. “Emmie?” He kicked the door open cautiously. His heart sank as he noticed her suitcase sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

“Emma,” he shouted again.

The silence was deafening. He turned to look for the phone and saw the line had been cut. He searched the house but could find no sign of a struggle.

“Silas,” Trick called. “Get out here.”

Silas ran outside his gun still in his hands. Gabe and Trick looked up at him with a panicked expression. “Her dog.”

Silas jumped down from the porch and landed at Spotty’s side. “Damn it. You think he’s dead?”

“He isn’t good… I don’t know. I can’t see where he’s hurt but I also can’t see that he’s breathing. Poisoned maybe?” Gabe asked.

“Brother, this is bad,” Trick said.

Silas screamed a string of swears and kicked the railing of the stairs. It fell over and broke into pieces. He paced, rubbing his face as he thought. “Thomas and Steven have done this. I know it.”

“If they’ve taken her to the store or anywhere near Vince will find her,” Gabe said.

Silas shook his head. “He’d expect us to look there.” He walked back toward the car. “He doesn’t know that we know Steven’s involved. We start at the Johnson’s.” Silas’s voice was cool and level.

Trick scratched the dog’s ear and patted his side before he met the others at the car. He walked to the car slowly, his mind racing. His brother was panicked. Trick didn’t doubt that Thomas and Steven could be in on this, but what made Silas so sure it had nothing to do with the raids?

“Si. I agree that Steven and Thomas aren’t all clear in this. But I’m just wondering why you don’t think it could be connected to the raids?” Trick asked.

“What would the revenuer want her? What’s she done, make a few jars of shine? That’s not enough to get him the kind of covering and newspaper headlines he’s after.” Silas worried the skin on his jaw as he pulled onto the main road. “If he was here, he’d have gone after Johnson or the speaks. They’d get him more money… more press.”

“Well, that’s probably true.” Trick nodded. He knew his brother was missing a big piece to this and he had to find a way to make him think of it.

“And what would he want with her if she couldn’t offer him either of those things?” Silas continued to question himself.

“What if he isn’t after just the press or money this time? What if he’s after you?”

“Then why the hell would he take her?” Silas shouted. But as soon as the words left his mouth he knew his brother was right. Emmie was his weakness. The man knew that she was the most effective way to get Silas… To hurt him. How had he missed that? All Silas could do was nod in agreement. Trick was right. He shifted gears and sped down the open road. She couldn’t have been gone that long. She had to be close.

“Okay, so if it’s the revenuer from the pictures that tried to bust up all the competition and sell us moonshine… what would that have to do with Thomas and Johnson?” Gabe asked from the back seat.

That’s what Silas was working over in his mind. The pieces were starting to fall together. He remembered what Emmie had told him last night. The same thing she had told Bo. Will Thomas was in those pictures too. He’d joined the police in Louisville and now traveled with this revenuer busting up stills and smiling for photos.

“I should have listened to her,” Silas said aloud. “I was so pissed off about her going to meet him dressed like that. I underestimated what she had to tell me. I should have listened.”

“What?” Gabe asked from the back.

“Will Thomas has been working with the revenuer. Of course he had motive to work against us and a fair piece of information too, with all of those pictures he and his brother had taken.” Silas’s brain clicked every piece together. “He had motivation too. I left his brother broken but instead of coming after me directly, he worked with the revenuer. This was always their plan. All of those other counties they busted, they were just playing with us. It was always going to end up here. It was always going to end with them taking Emmie from me. Because isn’t that what Thomas wanted more than anything else? I left him broken and took his girl.” He turned into the Johnson’s drive.

“How deep are the Johnsons in this? Is it Steven or all of them?” Trick asked.

“I guess we’re about to find out,” Silas said, stepping out of the car.

**********

Emmie felt cool water across her forehead. She couldn’t see anything but she could hear and feel. Her side hurt with each breath she took. Again, a cloth with cold water ran down her hairline. It was so gentle, for a brief moment she wondered if it might be Silas.

She heard the person move away. “You weren’t supposed to hurt her.” She heard the man shout. His voice was high and cracked. The voice caused her stomach to roll. She kept her eyes closed tight. She didn’t want to see him. She didn’t want him to know she was conscious.

There was no rag this time. It was just his cold clammy fingers running down the length of her chin. “She was not supposed to be broken,” he shouted.

“I’m sorry. She’s a fighter. We saw Silas and I panicked,” Smith said. “Besides Will didn’t say nothing about not hurting her.”

His fingers trailed the length of her face again, and then went down her neck. “You look like an angel lying there, my sweet Emma. But your clothes.” He ran his hands down the beaded flapper dress. “Oh, that devil has tried to turn you into one of them. Dressing you up like a whore. Forcing himself on you. Making you go to those clubs.” His hand made its way to her thigh and pushed up the hem with his clammy hands. “But you are beautiful even in the devil’s clothes.”

Without a second thought Emmie’s hand reached out and grabbed his. She opened her eyes and her vision swam into focus. “Don’t touch me,” she said through gritted teeth.

Mr. Thomas brought his hands together at his mouth as if in prayer. “Oh, my Emma, you’re awake.” He leaned down and attempted to kiss her forehead. It took all her energy to turn away from him.

“Oh, sweetheart, I know you’re scared. I won’t let them hurt you again.” He pulled her face back to his.

“Stay. Away. From. Me.” She turned her head and faced a log wall.

“You don’t mean it.” He stood to his full height. “That devil has poisoned you against me.”

“I do mean it. When he finds you—” She cut off short as she noticed he was standing over her, towering over, holding on to nothing.

“I thought you were in a wheelchair.”

“Oh, I might not have been quite as hurt as I made out.” He grinned. “Better for the devil to think I was out of commission.”

“Stop calling him the devil.”

“My poor angel you cannot see him for what he is. That’s why I had to rescue you. I knew when Smith came back from Louisville and said that you’d been drinking with him in that hotel… and the way he’d seen him touch you… I knew you’d been bewitched by him.” Mr. Thomas’s voice was cold and slow.

He moved to the sink and she noticed he did have a slight limp that wasn’t there before but nothing that require him to be confined to a wheelchair. But the limp wasn’t the most surprising thing she noticed. For the first time she took in her surroundings. She knew exactly where she was. The cabin. They had brought her to Johnson’s cabin. They were idiots. She knew exactly how to get home, if she could just find a way to get some distance from these men. Steven knew she had been here but she wasn’t sure the others knew how familiar she was with this place. Emmie wanted to keep their focus on other issues, knowing she wasn’t strong or fast enough to get away from them right now. She’d have to rely on her brain.

Emmie turned to Smith. “So all along at that party, you knew who I was.”

Smith grinned but didn’t answer.

“How’d you even get in there?”

“Scout for the revenuers, friends on the police force, it doesn’t take a lot of brains and connections to pose as a server, girl.”

“Why’d you have us arrested?”

“So many questions girl. I’d think your head would be pounding too hard to think.”

“Here drink this,” Mr. Thomas said, bringing her a glass of water and some pain relief powders.

“You poisoned my dog, forgive me if I don’t drink the first thing you bring me.” Her heart sank deep at the words. She felt tears prick at the back of her eyes but she couldn’t lose it now.

“Poisoned your dog?” Mr. Thomas asked, turning to look at Steven Johnson who was keeping to the corner.

“Well, I couldn’t take no chances with getting bit or having him follow us. You know how them dogs are, he might have led McDowell’s boy’s here,” Steven said.

“I’m sorry about that, Emmie. I’ll get you another dog when we leave here and get settled,” Mr. Thomas said.

Leave here? She was not leaving here with them. She wanted to ask a million questions about where they planned to take her but she chose to leave those unsaid. They didn’t need to know she was thinking of getting away. She moved her wrists and ankles and tried to pull herself into a sitting position. Mr. Thomas scurried over to her.

“Take it easy, Emma. You’re hurt a little. But I suppose it’s only right you should feel some of the pain that’s been bestowed upon me the past few weeks.”

She cringed. He was the craziest man she’d ever met. He sat on the cot next to her, making her skin crawl where he touched her. She wanted to scoot away from him but forced herself to stay. As horrible as it sounded, she felt if anyone would keep her safe in this cabin, he would protect her with his misguided affections. Emmie attempted to give him a smile but came up short. She reached out a shaking hand and took the glass of water and aspirin from him.

“Thank you. Mr. Thomas.” She prayed she wasn’t being poisoned as she swallowed the liquid.

“Emma, please. I’ve told you, call me Paul.” He pushed the hair out of her eyes.

Chapter Forty-seven