ABANDON ALL HOPE: The Hope Brother Series (Book Two) (20 page)

He towered over me, his gun dugging painfully into my ribs as he pushed me out of the elevator.  The hallway was empty.  

When we reached the door of his suite, he dug in his pocket for his wallet, and fished the key out of it.  I waited silently, watching for some chance to escape, some opportunity for a miracle that would get me out of this mess and let me get back to my father.

The thought of him lying there bleeding and alone was killing me.  If anything happened to him, I didn’t know what I would do.

Lincoln’s hands were shaking, and he dropped the card key as he tried to insert it into the door lock.  He reached down to get it, and just as I was on the verge of  taking a chance and kneeing him in the face, a door opened down the hall.

I turned and saw a man and a woman emerge from the room.  When they turned towards us, our eyes met.  Lee Haggard and Eva Montgomery looked like a couple of deer caught in headlights as they gazed down the hallway at me.   I had never been so happy to see either of them in my life.

Lincoln glanced at them quickly, put the key in the slot, and pushed me into his room, locking the door behind us before I could say anything.

As I looked around the hotel suite, littered with empty bottles of booze, what looked like the remnants of lines of cocaine on the glass coffee table, and several guns and boxes of ammunition stacked neatly in the corner, I knew the only thing that would save me was indeed a miracle.

And now, it appeared the only chance I had at that miracle would come in the form of a womanizing hell-raiser with the most scandalous reputation in all of Sugar Hill.

Save me, Lee, I prayed silently.  

If he didn’t act soon, I was dead.

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 The cops wouldn’t let me inside Ruby’s house, so we met back up at the Haggard’s house.  I called Georgia, Seth and Jesse and had them meet me there.

“We’ve got to spread out and search this entire town!” I roared.  My heart was throbbing, adrenaline soared through my veins, and I was on the verge of losing it completely, but I forced myself into organizing everyone else so we could find Ruby as fast as possible.

I’d die if anything happened to her.  This was all my fault.  If only I had kept my cool around LaCroix, none of this would have happened.  If only I had kept Ruby close to me, none of this would have happened.  It was a horrible chain of events and I blamed nobody but myself.

“Call everyone you know,” I barked to the crowd standing in the Haggard’s living room.  Hank had gathered all the farm hands from both of our farms, and his entire extended family.  “Get your friends and family to help you.  They can’t have gone far.  Someone has to have seen something.  Ruby needs us, we can’t let her down.”

Georgia’s eyes met mine, and my heart broke as I saw the tears falling down my little sister’s face.

“We’re going to find her, y’all. We have to. And Mr. Rust is going to be okay, too. They took him to the best hospital in Houston. We just have to focus. Call me if you see or hear anything at all, right away!  Go, go!” I demanded.

The crowd broke up, as my family surrounded me.  Beau put his arms around Georgia, and I watched as she cried in his arms.  I turned away quickly.  As far as I was concerned, there wasn’t time for tears.

“I gotta go,” I said, heading for the door.

“Where are you going to search?” Beau asked.

“I have no idea,” I said.  “Everywhere.”

“Let us come with you,” Georgia said.  “Please, Crit?”

“Sure, George,” I replied. “Why don’t you two search the area around Sugar Hill lake?” I said to Seth and Jesse.

“Will do,” Seth replied, as they turned away.

Georgia, Beau and I walked out of the house together, and headed to my truck.  We passed Hank, as he stood on the porch.

“We’re gonna find her, son,” he said, putting his arm on my shoulder.  “Don’t you worry.  I’m putting out feelers everywhere.  Somebody will spot them.  I’m going to call Lee and get him searching, too.”

“I sure hope you’re right, sir,” I replied.  There was nothing that was going to keep me from finding Ruby.  
If only I knew where to start
, I thought.

We turned to walk away as Hank began dialing. When I heard his voice after Lee answered, I stopped in my tracks.

“Lee! Slow down! Where are you?”  

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

 “Was that Ruby Rae?” Eva asked.

“I think it was,” I replied, heading down the hallway before Eva put an arm on my hand.

“Stop, Lee,” she whispered.

“Why? Something’s not right, and for fuck’s sake, she looked like she was covered in blood!”

“I agree.  Which is why I told you to stop! We should call the police.”

“The police?  Who? Your husband?”  I asked.

“Oh,” she said, the color draining from her face.  “Fuck.”

“Right.”

“Well, you can’t just bust in there, what if she’s in danger?”

“That’s the very reason I should bust in there, Eva!”

“No, Lee! What if he has a gun?”

“What do you suggest I do then? Other than call the Houston police, who will surely call the Sugar Hill police in turn.”

“I don’t know,” she said, her worried gaze traveling down the hallway. My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I sighed with relief when I saw it was my father.  He would know what to do.

“Dad,” I answered.  “I need your help.”

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

 “Sit down,” Lincoln snarled, finally lowering the gun and ending the stabbing pain in what I was sure were my now bruised ribs.

I sat on the couch, watching him as he ran around the suite drawing the drapes closed and turning off the lights, leaving us in a dimly lit darkness that turned his features into a creepy shadow.

Why did I ever agree to go out with this man? How could I have not felt how dangerous he was?  Was I really that naive?  I was sick with worry about my father, and the fear hit me with overwhelming force.

Tears began streaming down my face, and I began shaking all over, the cold grip of shock taking over my body.

“Shut up!” Lincoln barked.  I hadn’t realized I was making any noises at all, but his voice jarred me out of my trance.  “I can’t fucking think!”

“Let me help you,” I whispered, trying a gentle approach.  “What’s going on, Lincoln? There’s got to be a different solution than this.”

He looked over at me, his eyes flashing with anger.

“You wouldn’t even understand.  What do you know about insider trading?” he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.  “That’s what I thought.”

“So, you’re in trouble? Is that it? You did something illegal?”

“Woman, my whole life is illegal, okay?  Now you’re smack dab in the middle of it.”

“Tell me more.  I don’t understand, but explain it to me.  Maybe we can think of something together.”  I tried to keep the desperation out of my voice.  It was obvious he was on the verge of a break down, and since I had a strong urge to stay alive, I didn’t want to do anything to add to his agitation.

“Tell you more?” he asked.  “Do you think you can psychoanalyze me, Ruby?”

“No, Lincoln, that’s not it.  I just want to help you out of this.  What’s going on?”

“The feds are coming for me, that’s what’s going on.  As soon as they trace my credit card and see that I’m in this hotel, they’ll be coming here for me.”

“Okay, so maybe we should go somewhere else where they can’t find you, then?”  
What the hell was I saying?

“That’s just it.  There’s no time.  I have no money to escape, they’ve frozen all of my assets.  And they did it before I could get to any of it.  I had no idea this was coming.  They blindsided me, got my assistant to turn against me, all behind my back.”  He stood up and began pacing the room angrily, his gun waving in the air, striking fear in my heart with every haphazard gesture.  “You see, Ruby, here’s the thing.  It all comes down to loyalty.  Nobody is loyal to anyone else anymore.  Everyone’s just looking out for themselves.  I thought my assistant was my partner, that she would be with me for the long haul, that she would have my back when the shit hit the fan.  I was wrong,” he said.  His eyes were distant and dark.  “I was dead wrong.”

My heart filled with dread at his words.

“So what is your plan?” I asked, terrified of what I knew the answer would be.

“My plan is to wait.  When they come for me, I’ll use you, and your life, as leverage to get what I want.”

“And what is it that you want, Lincoln?”

“It’s simple.  Freedom.”

“And what if they won’t give you that?” I asked.

“Then we’ll both die,” he replied, with an easy shrug.