Heart Lies & Alibis (25 page)

I glared at him refusing to engage in this conversation. Listening to him talk, I realized he sounded impressed by my alleged crime and the thought made me more than queasy.

He looked me up and down, his eyes making me feel dirty and way too vulnerable. "I must say though, those pictures on the news did not do you justice. Damn girl, you grew into a fine looking woman. Don't you agree Rose?" I had been watching Linc so closely I hadn't felt Rose slide up right next to me.

Rose ran his hand along my arm and it was all I could do not to pull away in revulsion. I was afraid to make any sudden moves though. I remembered his temper all too well. And Rose looked even scarier up close than in my memories. "That is a fact for sure, baby brother. A damn fine woman." I tried to edge away from him but he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me hard against him.

His vileness had an odor all to itself. Greasy. Tacky. It stuck in your nose and on your clothes like tree sap, and now that it was on me it was all I could do not to gag. His breath smelled like cigarettes, cheap beer and sweat. I felt my stomach convulse but pushed the nausea back down.

"Let me go Roosevelt." I hissed. Rose rubbed my ass before stepping back and away from me. I scrambled to the edge of the room by the corner of my kitchen table, still caught between the brothers but far enough away they couldn't touch me. "What the hell do you two want from me anyway?"

They exchanged looks that made my skin crawl. How was this happening to me?

Linc started toward me and I again moved around my kitchen table as fast as I could trying to keep at least something between us. He looked so much meaner now than when I last saw him and he scared me nearly as much as Rose did.

"Have a seat Bobbi Jo. Wait maybe I should call you Reagan so you feel more comfortable." He looked at me as I sat. He pulled a chair out flipping it around so he could straddle it. Rose leaned against the island right behind him. "Nah, you'll always be Bobbi Jo to me." He winked and I just glared at him.

He licked his lips again and I had to force myself not to look away in disgust.

He leaned forward, his arms across the back of the seat, still watching me with that same leering expression he had since popping back into my life. "You asked why were are here, Bobbi Jo. Well, let's see if I can clear that up for you. Besides getting reacquainted with you," he paused, his eyes raking over me and stopping on my breasts "we thought maybe we could do some business with some friends of yours and make a little cash on the side. Oh, the friends I'm talking about are The Lazcano Cartel. Does that name ring a bell for you?"

I felt all the color drain from my face.

He grinned coldly. "Yep, I see from your reaction you know exactly who I'm talking about. Well, after seeing your story on the news and hearing them talk about those Lazcano fellas and how you worked for them, Rose and I did a little checkin' on a few things." I exhaled in frustration and fear. The news had run a far more in-depth story on me a few days before, repeating their earlier insinuations about my supposed ties to the drug cartel but with more details and accusations so I knew the information wasn't hard to find. I could only begin to imagine how these two yokels thought they could use that information, though.

And then suddenly I was tired of being a victim of these assholes. I wasn't that same 16 year-old girl they had terrified so many years before. So I drew on all the best lawyer confidence I could muster, squared my shoulders and glared back at them. Crossing my arms I asked, my voice stern and far calmer than I felt. "What business is it do you think the two of you would have with the cartel, Lincoln?" I didn't deny or acknowledge a connection to the Lazcanos nor did I show his implied comment about getting more physical with me had had any effect. Inside I was freaking out but I refused to let them see it.

Linc smiled, a smile that never quite reached his eyes and one which made my skin crawl. He looked deep into my eyes before he spoke. It was hard to remember there was ever a time I had looked into those eyes and thought I found my first love. In a controlled sneer he replied, "Why darlin', we are going to arrange to give them you. For a price, of course. What else would we need you for?"

It was like the air had been sucked from the room. I sat back hard against the chair staring at them, my eyes wide with new terror. What the hell did he mean he was going to give me to the Cartel? Had he gone mad?

Rose cackled behind him. "Look at that face Linc. Last time I saw her that scared was the night we got busted for robbing Yancy." That was the old man who Rose had shot on that fateful night so long ago. I swiveled my head at him and though his face was grinning his eyes were dark and menacing. I knew he wouldn't care how I was delivered to the Lazcanos.

Linc smiled again, another dead grin that twisted his face into a grimace. "Yeah, you're right, Rose. She looks ready to faint or something. It's kinda sexy though. I always did like that look on her." He licked his lips again and my heart thudded harder.

Finally gathering enough of myself back together to speak I simply asked them "Why?"

Linc shrugged. "It's pretty simple, Bobbi Jo." I hated that he kept using that name. Every moment with him reminded me I was not that girl anymore. "We learned through some contacts that the Cartel has offered a little bounty for your head. Something about a deal you had with them that went bad and cost them some money."

There it was again, the hand of someone trying to set me up, trap me, blame me for killing Thad, and feed me to some cartel thugs. The trail of breadcrumbs they had put out into the world had been picked up first by the police, then by the criminal underground, and now by these idiots. I had to get out ahead of this madness if I hoped to save myself but for now all my focus was on how to survive and escape the Dixon brothers, who, like always, refused to shut up.

"Not really sure about all the specifics of the deal yet. Don't really matter none. The rumor is they are offering a cool half million for you alive, slightly less if you aren't so fresh." Oh my god. The room was spinning again. This was not really happening. They were going to sell me, dead or alive to a Mexican Drug Cartel. What the hell was I going to do? Shit, this day just kept getting worse.

Rose walked to my fridge retrieving one of the beers inside. He twisted the cap, tossing it on the counter before taking a long draw on the bottle. He pulled it away, dragging his hand across his mouth. He sneered at me. "Yeah, we also figure you kind of owe us Bobbi Jo. You know for driving like a crazy bitch that night and getting us busted. You disappeared back then before we could get you to pay your debt." His eyes, pools of black evil, glared back at me as he finished his beer in another long pull. He slammed it on the counter before getting another one. A sober Rose was scary but a drunk Rose was downright terrifying. I had to get myself out of this situation and fast.

My mind scrambled for a plan or solution for my current predicament but as fast as my brain was working it drew a blank. How does one really think of a plan to escape two hillbilly psychos at a moment's notice? Maybe if I tried to reason with them, I could talk my way out of this. An idea popped into my mind. It was worth a try, I reasoned, because I didn't really have much to lose.

I forced a coy smile onto my face, an attempt to appeal to their maleness. "Hey, you know, I have some money. About as much as the Lazcanos are offering I bet." I saw I had their attention now. I leaned forward, touching Linc's hand across the table. I felt him stiffen and for the first time something real appeared in his eyes. Maybe this would work. "I could give you guys my money and we could forget all of this other stuff. You could go back to Winchester and have a pretty good life, and we could let the past go." I licked my lips, forcing my sexy come on to seem more real than it was.

Although I felt like I was going to vomit at any moment from the act I was performing, I kept rubbing Linc's arm suggestively and batting my eyes as much as I could. I had Linc's interest, I knew from past experience, but I needed to get them to go along with my proposal if I had any chance of surviving. Suddenly he grabbed my hand, holding my wrist so hard I almost cried out. And I knew I had failed.

He took my other wrist, forcing me to look in his eyes, which had turned lifeless again but I also detected a smoldering rage burning just below the surface. He really hated me for something and he was going to make me pay, one way or another. "You know its funny, Bobbi Jo, after all these years I still remember one thing about you. When you are scared and trying desperately to get out of something you don't want to do, especially something that involves a man, you turn up the heat the only way you know how." His eyes stared back at me and I knew he was onto my plan. "In fact I remember on many occasions where you used that hot ass and willing pussy of yours to convince me to do just about anything you asked. And I did, without a second thought. Damn if it didn't almost work this time, too."

I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat. This moment felt as bad as the day Thad attacked me in his office. Only it was also so much worse because I was so aware of just how dangerous the Dixon brothers could be from firsthand experience. I was in trouble and for the first time in my life, I wasn't sure I would come out on the other side of this problem okay.

Another cackle from Rose drew my attention. I ripped my eyes from Linc to look at Rose. His face was a canvas of pure evil. I was more scared than I had been in so long and I hated them for being the cause of it.

Linc dug his fingers more deeply into my wrists. I clamped my mouth closed, swallowing down the scream threatening to escape. I couldn't let them see me fall apart because I knew it would only push them to hurt me more. "So thanks for the offer, sweetheart, but I think we will take our chances with the Cartel instead. Like Rose told you, you owe us, so seeing you pay with whatever way the Cartel wants to do to you wouldn't be such a bad thing." He blew me a kiss and my heart dropped.

All I could hold onto was the idea that Declan was coming and that together we would get out of this shitstorm okay. I burned that hope into fact in my mind and then started making plans around it, all the while my brain kept repeating the words, "Declan come home. I need you. I need you now."

Chapter 15

The Dixon brothers made it clear after my failed attempt to seduce Lincoln they would be in my house until all the details with the Cartel had been ironed out and they could make the exchange. I was somewhat relieved because staying in my house meant I had a better chance of escape. At least that was how I consoled myself when I was starting to freak out.

Rose and Linc conferred and decided it would be best to tie me to one of my kitchen chairs while they figured out their next move. Most of my hope for escape dimmed at this turn of events.

As Rose rubbed disgustingly against my breasts as he secured the rope they found in my garage around my chest, my arms and the chair. He was enjoying this more than I wanted to know. Then he secured each of my legs to one of the chair legs. In doing so, he discovered my ankle monitor and the brothers had a good laugh over it.

Then Rose finished tying me up and ensured the ropes were painfully tight, he leaned in close to my ear. When he spoke his words were slightly slurred from the beers he had been downing over the course of our short time together.

"I always knew you were bad news but my little brother was so taken with that magical pussy of yours he wouldn't hear reason. I tried to warn him back in Winchester you would be nothing but trouble." He licked my ear and I jerked away. "The fact is he still has a thing for you, truth be told, but I think I've convinced him there isn't any magic between those legs after all." He leered at me again, his eyes falling to my breasts before he continued. "Although I wouldn't mind finding out for myself. I always wondered what you'd be like in bed. Maybe now I'll get the chance to find out."

I wanted to spit in his face but I knew the consequences of such an action would be grave so I swallowed back the rising bile and turned away without responding

. Linc walked back in the room then, stopping Rose from doing or saying anything else. I sighed in relief for the momentary reprieve. The brothers exchanged heated looks. It appeared Rose was challenging Linc to question him about his treatment of me. Linc's face was solid stone, his stance making it clear he wasn't backing down and he did not approve of the moment. Rose stomped away from me in the end, throwing his hands up slightly in retreat. It was clear in that moment the power structure in the Dixon family had shifted over the years and Linc was now the one calling the shots. I wondered if this change would play in my favor or not?

Linc looked at me and for a moment I saw a fleeting resemblance of the young man he had once been but his attention toward me was short and he looked away a moment later. He looked upset about something else besides his brother's piggish behavior to me. He gestured to Rose and they walked out of the room. I struggled against the ropes but Rose had made sure they were secure. Just as I stopped fighting I heard Declan's motorcycle pull in the driveway. My moment of elation deflated quickly when I realized the Dixon Brothers had heard it too.

Rose rushed in from the kitchen to stand by my chair while Linc glanced surreptitiously out the window.

Linc came back into the living room when I heard Declan reach the porch and knock on the door.

"Who the fuck is that?" Rose whispered, his face was enraged.